1 00:00:03,520 --> 00:00:11,880 My mother in law's coming, so I'd like you to all come to the 2 00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:16,120 prayer meeting on Tuesday, please, because she's coming for 3 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:21,160 a really long time, which worries me endlessly. 4 00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:24,400 So please, if you could pray for me. 5 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:27,200 She's coming for weeks at a time. 6 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:31,800 They they say when an in law comes to visit you, you should 7 00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:35,920 buy a fish and you put it on the mantelpiece. 8 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:41,000 And when the fish starts to smell, it's time for your 9 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:44,680 mother-in-law to leave. But I think I'm going to have to 10 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:47,240 buy a fridge because she's coming for a long time. 11 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:55,040 But this book of Titus is in Titus there were households that 12 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:58,880 had at least three generations and sometimes 4 generations 13 00:00:59,880 --> 00:01:03,640 living in the same household. And so when the scripture is 14 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:07,560 written, you know the tensions of Christmas, don't you? 15 00:01:08,320 --> 00:01:11,440 Grandkids are really awesome until they draw on your new 16 00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:14,640 wallpaper. It's a, it's a, it's not easy 17 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:17,920 for two generations to live together, then three 18 00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:20,160 generations. And in the book of Titus, they 19 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:23,880 say up to four generations living together in the same 20 00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:26,760 household. And so the book is written for 21 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:31,000 that. The book is written to Pretoria 22 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:33,760 East. And this is how it works in the 23 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:37,000 Bible. As much as you'd like to think 24 00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:40,200 your heritage is Afrikaans, it's not. 25 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:49,560 The Bible says in Acts 17 we all came from one man, every one of 26 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:53,920 us came from one man. So our heritage is here. 27 00:01:55,360 --> 00:02:00,600 And then God sends us into different places like this. 28 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:10,280 Only we should put the English the only we should put at the 29 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:25,010 top. Oh, you flip you Indian, Indian 30 00:02:25,010 --> 00:02:27,730 at the top. Let's put the Afrikaners here. 31 00:02:31,370 --> 00:02:32,890 Let's put the English socks here. 32 00:02:35,330 --> 00:02:41,560 Let's put the Zulus here. And now God says the difficulty 33 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:46,600 with culture is that this thing is unbelievably powerful and 34 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:51,400 unbelievably amazing, but inside of every culture is sin as well. 35 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:53,160 Amen. Yes, it's true. 36 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:56,640 The way we treat each other, the way we speak about each other, 37 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:00,520 some of the things that we do, they're culturally acceptable, 38 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:02,200 but biblically they're not right? 39 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:06,600 Amen. And so we inherit these things 40 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:08,640 and then we come into the life of the church. 41 00:03:08,920 --> 00:03:13,280 And not only do we have two generations, but you saw in the 42 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:17,600 baptism of Paul, you saw an Afrikaans man and his wife at 72 43 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:20,080 getting baptized. Then you saw a 12 year old 44 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:21,920 getting baptized. Then you saw a black girl 45 00:03:21,920 --> 00:03:24,520 getting baptized. And it's one baptism, eh? 46 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:29,480 It's A1 baptism, but you've got to know just to look at that 47 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:33,120 picture, there's a whole lot of cultural stuff that's actually 48 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:39,920 taking place here. So what the Bible says is that 49 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:43,920 in Ephesians chapter 2, it says I've taken these people who are 50 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:47,600 far away and those who are near the Israelites. 51 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:51,560 I've taken them and I've made them into one person. 52 00:03:52,400 --> 00:04:00,960 I've made them into one new man. Yeah. 53 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:07,000 And so the beauty of Christianity is not that 54 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,360 Afrikaans guys hang around together and eat together. 55 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:15,400 The beauty of Christianity is that God takes this diversity 56 00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:20,279 and he makes it one. But in order for that to happen, 57 00:04:20,519 --> 00:04:24,360 you and I need some stuff to happen in our lives because that 58 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:30,440 is my preference. Does that make sense, friends? 59 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:34,000 And so the Book of Titans is written and saying, hey guys, if 60 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:37,000 you're going to make this thing work together in Pretoria, 61 00:04:38,280 --> 00:04:40,760 you're going to have to invite some other people to your house. 62 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:43,680 I've seen you all standing outside there in our socio 63 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:46,760 economic groups with our people that we like. 64 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:49,280 But that is not the beauty of Christianity. 65 00:04:49,280 --> 00:04:52,040 The beauty of Christianity is not suit, suit, suit. 66 00:04:52,240 --> 00:04:55,800 The beauty of Christianity is suit, suit, suit. 67 00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:01,160 The beauty of Christianity is that we find the common ground 68 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:05,760 in Christ at the expense of my say, Rory, are you preaching 69 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:07,600 against culture? I'm not preaching against 70 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:09,800 culture at all. But I want to tell you that the 71 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:12,360 culture that God is building is a Kingdom culture. 72 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:15,240 And that will violate the culture that you grew up in. 73 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:18,200 And if you say to me, but you don't understand where I come 74 00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:19,920 from and say you don't come from there. 75 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:21,520 You come from. Yeah, you're beautiful. 76 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:27,000 And So what God does by the gospel is that he takes many 77 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:30,320 bypasses that process and he says now I'm putting it into a 78 00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:36,040 family, but there are some household rules. 79 00:05:36,280 --> 00:05:37,560 He said, well, it's all by grace. 80 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:40,440 Yes, it is all by grace, but there are some household rules 81 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:44,440 that you've got to live by. So you imagine 4 generations 82 00:05:44,440 --> 00:05:47,080 living in a house as my mother in law's living in a house and, 83 00:05:47,360 --> 00:05:50,200 and we'll have to adjust our eating time to her because she 84 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:56,480 likes to eat earlier and, and we've got stairs in our house, 85 00:05:56,480 --> 00:05:59,040 but she's got a sore back. And so we have to rearrange our 86 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:02,320 house so that she can sleep downstairs and we sleep upstairs 87 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:05,480 because actually we need to honor all the people and we need 88 00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:08,280 to learn how to treat them. And so we change our household 89 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:11,080 in order to make sure that my mother-in-law somehow is 90 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:14,120 comfortable in our household. Amen. 91 00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:17,720 And there's certain foods that she doesn't like. 92 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:20,600 And, and So what we do with each other is we actually learn how 93 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:25,640 to prefer one another. And women are really worried 94 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:28,840 about this thing of submission because Titus talks about it. 95 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:32,520 But submission, friends, was never, ever God taking his 96 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:37,720 daughter and subjecting her to some form of male chauvinistic 97 00:06:37,840 --> 00:06:41,000 power. Submission in the Bible is 98 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:44,880 before you even get there. It says #1 you must be filled 99 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:49,520 with the Spirit. Secondly, you must have a gospel 100 00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:52,520 understanding deep with inside of your heart. 101 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:55,600 Then it says submit to one another. 102 00:06:56,200 --> 00:06:59,960 I would never tell a woman to submit to a man who doesn't have 103 00:06:59,960 --> 00:07:03,200 an understanding of the gospel or have an understanding of the 104 00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:05,200 Holy Spirit. You'd be setting yourself up for 105 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:08,560 disaster. And then God says, now what 106 00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:11,360 you're going to do is you're going to form a partnership, and 107 00:07:11,360 --> 00:07:14,160 it's going to be a partnership of mutual submission. 108 00:07:14,360 --> 00:07:16,680 You're going to be the captain. God says that you think, well, 109 00:07:16,680 --> 00:07:19,920 we don't like that. Well, ask Francois Pinoch. 110 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:21,960 Could he kick a drop goal? No, he couldn't. 111 00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:25,600 That was left to Joel Stransky. There was a captain, but there 112 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:27,520 was a hero, too. His name was Stransky, and he 113 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:29,840 wasn't. The captain was the guy who 114 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:33,120 could kick the goal. And so God says, I want you to 115 00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:35,160 be captain, but this is how you're going to captain the 116 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:36,920 team. You're going to lay down your 117 00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:39,560 life for her and then what does she do? 118 00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:41,240 She's going to submit. And then what are you going to 119 00:07:41,240 --> 00:07:42,480 do? You're going to lay down your 120 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:43,520 life. Then what is she going to do? 121 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:45,160 She's going to submit. Then what you're going to do, 122 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:46,280 you're going to lay down your life. 123 00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:48,400 And then So what you're going to do is you're going to spend the 124 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:52,160 next 50 years trying to out serve each other in death and 125 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:56,480 submission. And you're going to create a 126 00:07:56,480 --> 00:08:00,400 gospel reorientation that when people look and think, how does 127 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:02,800 Jesus and the church work? He said, well, just look at Rory 128 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:04,680 and Mel. It works like that. 129 00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:09,960 Amen. And the beautiful thing in 130 00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:12,960 Titus, it doesn't say the elders must teach the young woman. 131 00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:14,840 It says the mothers must teach them. 132 00:08:15,280 --> 00:08:17,800 Thank God I don't have to teach some of you young girls this 133 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:23,000 stuff because you will shoot me and said that's so outdated. 134 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:25,080 Friends, the Bible is not outdated. 135 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:28,240 You've got to ask if God is saying it, why? 136 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:33,039 And as we do this thing the the I said to you when we start the 137 00:08:33,039 --> 00:08:35,960 Titus, I am your servant, but you're not my boss. 138 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:39,760 My job is to serve and then you serve and then I serve and you 139 00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:43,039 serve and the Bible says in Titus and then we make the 140 00:08:43,039 --> 00:08:46,080 teaching about God our Savior attractive. 141 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:52,560 You see, while we fight for this, while we fight for that, 142 00:08:53,680 --> 00:08:58,640 while we fight for this, the teaching of our Savior is not 143 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:02,840 attractive because it's easy just to worship in an English 144 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:06,360 church. And I'm so humbled that many of 145 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:08,760 you Afrikaans people come here and worship. 146 00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:13,000 It's it completely humbles me because every week I think I 147 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:18,320 listen to that flipping English guy again, but it is a 148 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:23,640 demonstration of humility so that we can make the preaching 149 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:26,920 of Christ attractive and somehow to the world. 150 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:29,560 Amen. That's the book of Titus. 151 00:09:30,680 --> 00:09:36,080 So let's have a look. For times sake, we're going to 152 00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:42,000 go to verse 11 for the grace of God. 153 00:09:42,040 --> 00:09:44,320 You can put my book of Titus up there please. 154 00:09:44,680 --> 00:09:51,320 My Bible. So that's what my Bible looks 155 00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:55,480 like. So Saviour appears 6 times, good 156 00:09:55,480 --> 00:09:59,280 appears 7 times, and grace appears four times. 157 00:09:59,560 --> 00:10:01,760 You'll see on the left hand side it says grace. 158 00:10:01,760 --> 00:10:07,280 On the next page you'll see the book ends with grace. 159 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:17,600 So let's just keep it up. So it starts with grace and it 160 00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:23,840 ends with grace. But here for the grace of God 161 00:10:23,840 --> 00:10:28,160 that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 162 00:10:30,360 --> 00:10:37,160 The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all 163 00:10:37,160 --> 00:10:49,020 men. It teaches us to say no, say no, 164 00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:52,600 no. We have been doing it for years 165 00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:54,960 now, friends. The grace of God saves me. 166 00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:57,680 The grace converts me. I don't live with a list. 167 00:10:57,680 --> 00:11:00,960 I don't live with the law. I am not a Pharisee. 168 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:04,760 But God says if you want all these thousands of people to 169 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:06,800 live together, you're going to have to learn how to say no to 170 00:11:06,800 --> 00:11:11,280 some things. And I want to ask you this 171 00:11:11,280 --> 00:11:19,080 question, not legalistically, but when lost did you walk out 172 00:11:19,080 --> 00:11:22,600 of a movie? You say, ah, Rory, don't put 173 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:25,240 that stuff on us now. I'm not putting it on you, But I 174 00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:28,600 want to ask you this question. When lost, did you walk out of a 175 00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:32,600 movie? When lost, did you move out of a 176 00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:38,880 conversation that was not godly? Or have we been so infiltrated 177 00:11:38,880 --> 00:11:43,480 by the system of the world and we tried to make Jesus so trendy 178 00:11:43,680 --> 00:11:46,360 that we are not prepared to stand for what we really 179 00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:51,240 believe? Amen. 180 00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:54,200 I wrote this in my notes. I don't know where I was just 181 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:58,120 sitting at my desk and and I felt this quickly come to me. 182 00:11:58,640 --> 00:12:02,600 Our marriages are formed by Hollywood, our drinking habits 183 00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:06,240 are formed by Harlequins, and our language is formed by 184 00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:14,880 hooligans. Because 97% of every sexual 185 00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:18,400 encounter that happens in a movie is between unmarried 186 00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:24,040 people, 97%. And so I want to ask you this 187 00:12:24,040 --> 00:12:27,600 question when lost that you actually, were you so violated 188 00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:30,240 by that that you actually got up and left and say, Rory, what? 189 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:32,120 What are you saying? I'm saying no, the grace of God 190 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:34,120 has saved me. I'm not under the law. 191 00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:36,920 I will not be judged. I'm standing in righteousness. 192 00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:42,680 But God says, listen, I want you to present something at three CI 193 00:12:42,680 --> 00:12:46,560 as we did last 210 years of marriage between this elders of 194 00:12:46,560 --> 00:12:48,080 teen friends who are not perfect. 195 00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:50,840 But are you learning your sexuality from Hollywood? 196 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:53,360 Are you learning your sexuality from the leaders that God has 197 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:59,120 given to you? Because I've been married for 31 198 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:00,960 years. I've not been unfaithful and nor 199 00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:04,600 has my wife and I stand up there every single Sunday bleeding 200 00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:09,000 from the bottom of my heart to say hey guys, there is another 201 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:13,720 way then just meeting the girl in the bar and jumping into bed 202 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:21,120 with her. The Holocoons is the rugby club. 203 00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:26,040 It's the first H that came to my mind and I want to ask you this 204 00:13:26,040 --> 00:13:29,000 question. As December comes and party 205 00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:33,280 after party after party happens. Do you have the grace of God 206 00:13:33,280 --> 00:13:35,760 inside of your life that can teach you to say no? 207 00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:41,160 Because I think we've lost it. I think we've lost the grace to 208 00:13:41,160 --> 00:13:44,960 say no. Not the law, not the letter, not 209 00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:47,640 the list, just the grace of God to say no. 210 00:13:47,880 --> 00:13:49,960 And I'm appealing to you as your pastor. 211 00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:59,480 I'm appealing to you. Say no, say no is a man sitting 212 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:03,680 in this auditorium today he's sitting here today he was 213 00:14:03,680 --> 00:14:07,320 sitting next to me at a function that had got nothing to do with 214 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:10,080 the church. And he got up and he raced out 215 00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:11,520 of there. He said sorry, I'm leaving. 216 00:14:11,520 --> 00:14:14,000 I said it doesn't bother me. It's not my function, it's not a 217 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:16,400 church function. It doesn't really matter. 218 00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:20,440 But the conviction of God came upon him and I met him outside. 219 00:14:20,440 --> 00:14:23,840 He has parked his car outside the the front gate at 10:00 in 220 00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:26,320 the morning when he should have been in his business, tears 221 00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:30,520 pouring down his cheeks and he that I have become an alcoholic. 222 00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:36,680 I said the safest place for you to run is into a community of 223 00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:41,680 grace. Amen. 224 00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:46,280 I'm telling you, friends, some of you are functional 225 00:14:46,280 --> 00:14:50,240 Alcoholics. You're functional Alcoholics, 226 00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:53,200 and there's got to be somebody brave enough to stand up to you 227 00:14:53,200 --> 00:14:56,840 without you feeling any form of legalistic righteousness, 228 00:14:56,960 --> 00:15:02,040 without you feeling any form of judgement or condemnation to say 229 00:15:02,040 --> 00:15:04,360 enough is enough. Stop. 230 00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:16,000 The grace of God teaches me to say no to ungodliness and 231 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:22,480 worldly passions and to live a self controlled, upright and 232 00:15:22,480 --> 00:15:28,720 godly life in this present age. Say this present age, the only 233 00:15:28,720 --> 00:15:31,120 thing I could tell you, so you've got ungodliness and 234 00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:33,600 godliness. The only thing I could say to 235 00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:35,920 you is this is the woman that I'm married to. 236 00:15:37,240 --> 00:15:41,720 I am in covenant with her. I wrote down in my Bible, there 237 00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:46,320 is no word like this, Unmelaniness and melaniness. 238 00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:50,760 I'm married to her however I behave. 239 00:15:52,160 --> 00:15:56,520 But what will affect it, what will affect the intimacy is how 240 00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:59,720 I treat her. And so there are some things 241 00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:03,120 that I've realized in my marriage that are unmelanliness. 242 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:07,120 They don't bless her. And there are things in my 243 00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:13,640 marriage that are melanly. And it says you've got a choice 244 00:16:13,640 --> 00:16:18,360 by the grace of God, ungodliness or godliness. 245 00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:27,240 You see, when when David sinned, no one can take away my 246 00:16:27,240 --> 00:16:29,360 salvation. No one can take away your 247 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:31,720 salvation. Don't worry about that. 248 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:34,720 I'm not talking about salvation. I'm saved. 249 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:38,040 People ask me this question, can you lose your salvation? 250 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:40,280 I say I can't. I don't know about you, but I 251 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:44,120 can't. You cannot lose your salvation, 252 00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:54,120 but you can lose intimacy. You can lose intimacy by God's 253 00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:56,640 grace. I've got other problems, but 254 00:16:56,640 --> 00:16:59,040 pornography is not one of them by God's grace. 255 00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:02,160 So when I say this, I'm not a porn addict, I've not watched 256 00:17:02,160 --> 00:17:08,720 pornography, but I know this, that this woman is a pure woman. 257 00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:12,880 She has got a pure conscience. She's got a clean conscience. 258 00:17:12,880 --> 00:17:14,520 She's got a beautiful conscience. 259 00:17:15,599 --> 00:17:19,599 If I have a choice of being intimate my with my wife or 260 00:17:19,599 --> 00:17:25,160 pornography, I've got to say God, I will choose Melanie 261 00:17:25,160 --> 00:17:28,520 versus unmelanly every day of the week. 262 00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:33,120 So the problem friends, is the Bible says be careful of your 263 00:17:33,120 --> 00:17:35,920 worldly passions, your worldly desires. 264 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:40,280 The devil didn't give it to us, God gave it to us. 265 00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:45,480 Our sexual desire is given to us by God, is not given to us by 266 00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:49,000 the devil. But what he does is he creates a 267 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:52,200 counterfeit. For everything that God declared 268 00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:57,760 pure, he creates a counterfeit. And so money, we need money, we 269 00:17:57,760 --> 00:18:00,560 need businesses, we need to make money so that we can pay for our 270 00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:03,160 kids education. But the devil creates a 271 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:06,120 counterfeit called greed and the love of money. 272 00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:09,080 And So what we do is we work really hard and we start ducking 273 00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:12,040 and diving. We take backhanders because that 274 00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:14,120 which was real becomes counterfeit. 275 00:18:14,320 --> 00:18:17,320 And God is saying no. The grace of God says no to the 276 00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:23,880 counterfeit and yes to the real. Are you with me, friends? 277 00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:28,160 I know it's a tough word, but I think it's a good word. 278 00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:34,080 As we go into December, it says so that you can live. 279 00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:39,360 So we say no to a whole lot of stuff and then we say yes to a 280 00:18:39,360 --> 00:18:41,880 whole lot of stuff. Say yes to self-control. 281 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:44,280 The Bible actually says sober mindedness. 282 00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:48,320 Say yes to sober mindedness. Just stand and think. 283 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:51,440 What is a good decision? Now? 284 00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:55,600 What is a good decision? Say yes to sober mindedness. 285 00:18:58,040 --> 00:19:02,840 Don't let Harlequins or whoever your rugby club or your drinking 286 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:05,960 mates are, don't let them determine how many drinks you 287 00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:09,000 have. Let the soberness of your power 288 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:11,920 under the grace of God, let that determine it. 289 00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:18,680 Inside of there is the ability, inside here is the ability for 290 00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:20,440 me to make good decisions in God. 291 00:19:23,120 --> 00:19:27,040 The Puritans say this. The best way to describe this is 292 00:19:27,040 --> 00:19:31,000 if you look at an oak tree in winter, there's some leaves that 293 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:32,960 keep sticking. You see that you know that you 294 00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:35,240 drive past and you see those dead leaves sticking. 295 00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:39,120 It says our job is not to go and pull the leaves off the tree so 296 00:19:39,120 --> 00:19:42,000 that the tree is bare. Our job is to preach in such a 297 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:45,360 way that when the new life starts to rise inside of me, the 298 00:19:45,360 --> 00:19:49,360 new leaf will push the old one off and the new one will come. 299 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:52,520 Does that make sense to you, friends? 300 00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:55,600 So this is not some law of picking dead leaves. 301 00:19:55,720 --> 00:19:59,320 This is the law of releasing the grace of God deep inside of me 302 00:19:59,520 --> 00:20:01,720 so that the new leaves would push out the old. 303 00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:09,200 You think, wow, the next verse says so. 304 00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:12,560 So say no to ungodliness. Say yes to soberness and to 305 00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:18,600 uprightness. Uprightness. 306 00:20:20,680 --> 00:20:25,200 Is the word justice how all of us love justice, all of us love 307 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:27,440 righteousness where we get the word righteousness from? 308 00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:31,560 I had my my favorite meeting is I had many wonderful meetings 309 00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:34,600 this week. I actually opened a new pizza 310 00:20:34,600 --> 00:20:38,600 shop as well. Besides pastoring and preaching 311 00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:43,560 and pizza shops, but my favorite meeting, I went into the 312 00:20:43,560 --> 00:20:48,000 chambers of a few advocates who in the life of this church, I 313 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:50,200 had a meeting with them. I was sitting at, at the desk 314 00:20:50,560 --> 00:20:52,640 and it's a desk. They're working on one case, The 315 00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:55,600 three lawyers, 3 advocates working on one case. 316 00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:59,520 And they've got all these files and, and they've got all this 317 00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:03,200 the, the law books are open and the computer's open and, and 318 00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:05,480 we're having coffin. You could hardly find a place 319 00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:07,800 for coffee because there's so many books. 320 00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:12,320 And I thought, these three men are applying all of their 321 00:21:12,320 --> 00:21:18,200 training so that in one case of one person in this country, 322 00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:20,800 righteousness and justice might come. 323 00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:25,640 It's a set. That was incredible. 324 00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:29,240 I said, can I pray for you guys? And then we started to pray. 325 00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:30,760 And I actually realized, you know what? 326 00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:33,040 These are the best advocates in the country, but there's a 327 00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:37,960 better advocate. His name is Jesus and He goes to 328 00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:47,240 court for us and He helps us to live upright righteous lives and 329 00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:54,080 godliness. You with me in this present age. 330 00:21:55,640 --> 00:22:00,560 We can do it in this world while we wait for the blessed hope, 331 00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:06,840 the glorious appearing of our great God, say great God and 332 00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:12,280 Savior Jesus Christ. So, so Rory, how, how do we pull 333 00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:15,320 this off? I mean, Christmas is party time, 334 00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:19,000 Christmas is tequila time. Christmas says, how do we pull 335 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:20,440 it off? He says this is one of the ways 336 00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:22,680 you pull it off. You got to think about the 337 00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:28,240 second coming. Now the people that you think 338 00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:30,760 about the second coming are those guys who stand on the 339 00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:34,920 street where they say repent for the Kingdom of heaven is near. 340 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:38,680 They don't brush their teeth or shave because they think Jesus 341 00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:41,720 coming that afternoon. They've been thinking that for 342 00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:44,160 years. And so they're very scraggly. 343 00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:47,160 Repent for the Kingdom is near. But God says, I tell you what, 344 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:49,400 if you want to work this out, you've got to think about the 345 00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:52,880 second coming, I think. But geez, Lord, how does that 346 00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:56,320 work? It's not very probable. 347 00:22:56,320 --> 00:22:57,640 Do you think God, I've been serving God. 348 00:22:57,640 --> 00:22:59,000 I've, I've been in the church for long. 349 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:01,960 And Matthew 24 says this, the angels don't know when he's 350 00:23:01,960 --> 00:23:03,880 coming back. He doesn't even know. 351 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:07,680 Only the Father knows. But 300 times in the New 352 00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:10,000 Testament, God speaks about the second coming. 353 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:14,240 Every 13 verses in the New Testament, God speaks about the 354 00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:17,080 second coming and he says, I want to tell you what Gods get 355 00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:19,120 your lives in order because I'm coming back again. 356 00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:23,160 So make sure you're unmailing. This is go and you're mailing. 357 00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:27,080 This is come. So when I come back, son, you're 358 00:23:27,080 --> 00:23:33,640 treating her properly. You think, but Lord God, it's 359 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:35,840 not very probable you're going to come in my time. 360 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:37,320 He says that, but still think about it. 361 00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:41,080 I said it's not very practical because if it was practical, I 362 00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:44,560 wouldn't pay my car insurance because Jesus coming back, you 363 00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:46,840 stop paying your car insurance, write your car off and you see 364 00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:49,360 what happens. So saying, well, it's not 365 00:23:49,360 --> 00:23:52,040 practical and not problem. And So what do you think then 366 00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:54,640 what talk about this thing because the Bible says you must 367 00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:57,640 think about the second coming. Yes, and this is going to happen 368 00:23:57,640 --> 00:23:59,960 in the twinkle of an eye. There's going to be a trumpet 369 00:23:59,960 --> 00:24:01,600 sound. Then he's going to come back and 370 00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:03,760 you know, the Bible says it's going to be lost and it's going 371 00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:06,000 to be reward. It says if you have built 372 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:09,120 according to the world, wood, hay and stubble, you won't lose 373 00:24:09,120 --> 00:24:11,080 your salvation. You will go to heaven, but 374 00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:13,760 everything has to be done, be burnt up with fire and thrown 375 00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:15,400 away. But if you've built according to 376 00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:18,360 the ways of God, gold, silver and precious stones, it will 377 00:24:18,360 --> 00:24:22,800 stand. So what's God saying? 378 00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:25,760 You know what, I sent my son to die. 379 00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:29,960 I read this amazing story this week in one of the commentaries 380 00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:34,520 of when El Nino passed through Southern California, there was a 381 00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:36,680 family there. And the wife said to the 382 00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:40,040 husband, I think our bank is going to go. 383 00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:42,360 And the husband said, no, our bank's all right. 384 00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:47,200 And the next split second, their bank went with a river of mud 385 00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:50,240 that went straight through their front door, straight out their 386 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:53,080 back door and straight into the river of mud. 387 00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:55,720 It went down there. And they held on for dear life. 388 00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:57,520 And they said, but what about our baby? 389 00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:01,320 And they ran into the baby's room and the mud had gone into 390 00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:05,600 the baby's room, had swirled around, taken the baby and the 391 00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:08,520 cot out the door and down the river. 392 00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:15,960 And for the whole night. The mother went searching and 393 00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:20,720 came back in the morning and showered crying at the loss of 394 00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:25,080 her child. And at midday, a man in rescue 395 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:30,760 garments came in full of mud carrying a live baby in his 396 00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:34,360 hands and said, does this child belong to you? 397 00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:37,920 What was the first thing the mother did? 398 00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:43,200 Obviously hug the child, mud and all. 399 00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:46,640 The grace of God has appeared to all men. 400 00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:51,560 And the second thing she did is she washed her child and she 401 00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:54,240 said, I don't want you to go in the mud again. 402 00:25:55,360 --> 00:25:59,680 That is the Scripture. There was a moment when the 403 00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:03,560 mudslide of Harlequins or Hollywood gripped to my 404 00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:07,040 sexuality and rushed me down the river of mud. 405 00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:10,360 And Jesus, standing at the right hand of the Father, said, Oh 406 00:26:10,360 --> 00:26:13,440 God, I cry out to you on behalf of Rory. 407 00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:17,200 And by the grace of God, somebody came and rescued me, 408 00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:21,520 picked me up, took me back to the Father and said, here's this 409 00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:25,240 dirty, rotten scoundrel. And God said he'll be saved by 410 00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:28,040 grace. I love him by grace, and now I'm 411 00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:32,480 going to clean him up as a display of my intervention in 412 00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:36,960 his life. Amen. 413 00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:41,720 If you're visiting here, it's nice to have you. 414 00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:45,440 I've been passing this church with a group of pastors for 12 415 00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:47,640 years. I've never preached on this in 416 00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:50,360 my life because I wanted you to have a foundation of grace. 417 00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:53,520 But I'm saying to you friends, if you have lost the ability to 418 00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,760 walk out of a movie that you don't agree with in today, may 419 00:26:56,760 --> 00:27:00,920 you find the courage to stand again with a no in your heart 420 00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:09,240 and a yes and a yes to godliness and to uprightness, to sober 421 00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:15,120 mindedness by thinking about the second coming of Christ. 422 00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:19,400 God, for those of you who live with bad news, I know some of 423 00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:22,600 you live with bad news. Your whole lives are bad news. 424 00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:26,760 The second coming of Christ. Instantly your bad news will 425 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:29,960 turn to good news instantly. For those of you living in 426 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:34,440 unjust situations, the moment Christ comes, instantly, for 427 00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:36,440 those of you who are misunderstood and 428 00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:40,600 misrepresented, when he comes again, instantly it will change. 429 00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:43,880 And so when we think of the second coming, we think with 430 00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:48,120 hope, we think with joy. And if you think that's not 431 00:27:48,120 --> 00:27:51,280 enough, in in 2 minutes, kind of, he says, I'll tell you what, 432 00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:57,320 while we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of 433 00:27:57,320 --> 00:27:59,560 our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. 434 00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:01,600 And he says, I just want to give you another reason. 435 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:04,720 It's not the second coming. Let me give you another reason. 436 00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:13,960 Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all 437 00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:20,920 wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his 438 00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:26,080 very own, eager to do what is He says that the law. 439 00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:29,000 No, that's not the law. That's a response to Christ. 440 00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:32,200 This is what it says. This is what it says. 441 00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:42,440 He gave himself for me. I was in the river, I was in the 442 00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:45,080 mud. So he dived into the mud. 443 00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:49,880 He went and swam in the mud. He pulled me out of the mud and 444 00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:53,120 he took me back into the presence of God where it says in 445 00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:58,480 Titus chapter 3 where he washed me, the message Bible says he 446 00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:03,640 gave me a bath. Don't go back and wallow in the 447 00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:13,920 mud, the second thing it says, and keep it up there to redeem 448 00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:17,320 us from all wickedness. Say redeem. 449 00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:21,640 Some of some of you will hear your Bibles will say to ransom 450 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:23,600 us. To ransom us. 451 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:27,920 There's a man in this church who runs AIT company and his 452 00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:34,320 speciality is ransomware. So the Russians and those guys 453 00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:37,680 and the Ukrainians and all those guys, they specialize in 454 00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:42,960 ransoming or or taking captive your IT department. 455 00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:46,240 It happened in my business. Some Russian guys took my whole 456 00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:49,880 business, IT department, all my finances, my accountants 457 00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:52,160 finances, they, they held them ransom. 458 00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:55,320 And then I just got this. No, dear Mr. Dyer, please pay $1 459 00:29:55,320 --> 00:30:05,400 million. The guy were telling me last 460 00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:10,240 week he's had to pay at times 40 million Rand to get that stuff 461 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:12,960 back. You see what happened, friends, 462 00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:17,680 is you and I got kidnapped. We got kidnapped by sin, we got 463 00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:21,680 kidnapped by abortion, we got kidnapped by pornography, we got 464 00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:24,520 kidnapped by we got kidnapped by the mud. 465 00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:29,880 We got kidnapped and Jesus says and I came and pay a ransom for 466 00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:32,400 you. I'm going to pay the ransom so 467 00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:34,600 that your kidnappers will let you go. 468 00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:40,720 And actually the kidnappers, you held on so tightly, the ransom 469 00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:44,800 was so powerful, the ransom was so valuable, the ransom was so 470 00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:48,440 supernatural that the kidnappers had to let go of their hands. 471 00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:59,520 And God said, now I'm taking you back to redeem us from all 472 00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:03,800 wickedness, say all wickedness. Jesus Christ is coming back for 473 00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:07,120 a pure spotless bride, all wickedness. 474 00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:13,640 The grace of God is not a license to continue to sin. 475 00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:19,640 The grace of God teaches us to say no to ungodliness, to purify 476 00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:23,800 for himself a people. He wants to clean us. 477 00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:29,720 Sometimes it takes time. He wants to clean us of some of 478 00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:36,920 this stuff, prejudice and racism and preferences, and he wants 479 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:41,360 the cleanest of some of these things to purify for himself a 480 00:31:41,360 --> 00:31:48,920 people young and old, 72 white man and a 16 year old black 481 00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:52,360 girl, 72 white man and a 12 year old white boy. 482 00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:55,960 He wants to redeem for himself. He wants to ransom, he wants to 483 00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:58,680 buy a group of people that will be clean. 484 00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:10,480 That are his very own, say very own. 485 00:32:11,360 --> 00:32:13,840 In the book of Exodus it says that are His treasured 486 00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:16,200 possession. I want to tell you 3 CR. 487 00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:19,640 You are God's treasured possession. 488 00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:27,800 You are God's treasured possession, which He bought with 489 00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:34,840 the price He wants to wash us clean and say to the world. 490 00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:42,520 Three CR makes the teaching of Jesus Christ attractive. 491 00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:44,560 Amen.