So we're going to be in James I, I made it through six more
verses. So you know, well, we will get
through it before Christmas and we'll do a Christmas study, the
Christmas Eve study. I encourage everybody to come.
The reason I encourage everybody to come where Christmas falls on
a midweek this year. So we won't see each other
Christmas Sunday because I mean, we'll be here Sunday, but it'll
be three days after Christmas. So it was a little different.
So everybody come on Christmas Eve and we'll get you out of
here. You know, we'll start at 4:00.
We'll be, we'll be done, done by 5:30, but hopefully before that.
And so come and just have that fellowship and sing some songs
together and laugh with a fun, fun drama.
There was some improvisation. So you know, we get with Aunt
Sherry and have that it's I'm looking forward to it.
Looking forward to just the fun and the fellowship of it.
So well, like I said, we're going to be in in James 5 again
and starting verse 7. Be patient, therefore, brothers,
until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the
precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it
receives the early and the late rains.
You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the
coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one
another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.
Behold, the judge is standing at the door as an example of
suffering and patience. Brothers, take the prophets who
spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those
blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard this of the
steadfastness of Job. You have seen the purpose of the
Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
But above all, my brothers, do not swear either by heaven or by
earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no
be known, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
And Lord, I just lift up. I lift up just today, Lord, that
you would speak, that you would fill this room with your
presence. Lord, I thank you for everybody
that's been able to make it. And Lord, that you would just
keep everybody safe through this season of slick roads and
driving distances and stuff. Lord, and I thank you for just
that we're here and we're not driving back and forth.
And I thank you that you, the weather held off until we're
we're here, Lord. And or that you would just speak
to hearts today? Or do you speak to mind that you
would let us see what you have planned for us.
And I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
So my, my funny title today is, and you guys are going to get a
kick out of it. And then I'm going to have to
explain it. Patience, 18 inch bubble head.
So in, in my in my, in my life, there's a story in Uganda.
I was, I was riding my motorcycle and I had my
headphones in and I was listening to podcast or
something and you like the little bubble head.
And they were talking about Seattle was very proud of
themselves. They had they had they had
outlawed plastic straws. They were going to save the
turtles. I just saved the turtles.
No more plastic straws. Turtles are safe and I got to
listen to a lady talk about that for about 5 minutes about how
good they did because they outlawed plastic straws.
I'm in Uganda and I'm following a bus and we call them land
trains. They they they boogie right
along. But as I'm following this bus,
about every kilometer, maybe 2A bottle flies out the window in
Uganda. They don't really understand.
And I mean, and it, it is, it is really they just don't, they
don't understand that that bottles go on in the ditch.
The ditch goes to the Creek, the Creek goes to the river, the
river goes to the ocean or the Mediterranean.
The Mediterranean goes to the ocean.
And that plastic mat in the middle of the Pacific is from
that bottle they threw out the window.
They don't understand that right?
It's not not something that they and that Lady in Seattle, the 18
inches around her head, she was making a difference.
She's making a difference because she was.
So all the straws in Seattle, you guys didn't know in
garbages, they go to landfills. That's just that's just what
happens to them. They don't end up in the Pacific
Ocean. So now the bottle that's flying
out the window in Uganda and Kenya and Egypt and pick the
country, it is probably ending up in the ocean, right?
So when we worry about the 18 inches around our own head, it's
when we're focusing on the things that I see, right?
This is look, I can fix it. So that's the when I say 18 inch
bubble head, that's what it is. And that's all.
And I mean, as much as I'm going to pick on that girl for the
whole conversation about straws that I thought was epically
stupid and I hate paper straws, but I understand her.
I do understand where she was coming from because that's what
we do. We worry about the 18 inches
around her own head, right? How is this going to affect me?
And, or how is this going to affect my, my family, or how is
this going to affect our church or how is this going to affect
our city or how there's going to affect our state?
And we, we don't, we don't look at the big picture, right?
And James starts off with be patient.
Therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord, right?
And in the Christian life, it's about perspective.
If we rest in the fact that God is in complete control, then the
world can do nothing to me. I don't have to worry about how
it affects me because I know God has it in his charge.
He is, he is in control of it. When you think about children,
when I was when I was a young man, I did not worry about
whether or not when I hit the light switch, it was going to
come on. Never crossed my mind that the
lights wouldn't come on. It didn't cross my mind that
when I turned the faucet on there would be water.
It, it never crossed my mind. Now there was a my mom.
I had a single mom and I'm sure in, in my younger years, there
were large chunks of time that she spent a lot of time worrying
about that. But I don't worry about that
because there was always, there was always electricity, there
was always water, there was always food in the fridge.
She worried about it, I didn't. So we serve the God of the
universe. What does he not have the
ability to give us if we need it?
And when we have that perspective and we're waiting on
the coming of the Lord and that waiting on the coming of the
Lord. And I like that he says, see how
the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth,
being patient about it until until it receives the early and
the late rains. And for you guys, I would say,
Are you ready? So how do you prepare for winter
in Sandpoint? Do you prepare for winter like
they prepare for winter in Hawaii?
I don't think in Hawaii they have snow blowers and snow
shovels. So I'm going to use my Uncle Pat
for an example. So he's got a loader, He's got a
loader. He's got a tractor with a snow
blower on it. They used to have a plow truck
and coming into the fall, you see the chains go on the loader.
You see the the snow blower get mounted on the tractor, right?
He's preparing and it's, and, and when he's preparing, there's
sun in the sky. It's 60°, it's a nice day, but
he's preparing because what's coming and he knows it's coming.
It isn't, you know, do you know the snow is coming, right?
That's, that's the, that's the know we have that the Lord is
coming, right? And farmers in Uganda, they
prepare for rain, right? So they prepare for rain.
But it's all trusting the Lord in that because there is the
first rain and then the next. So the first rain, they go out
and they can plow their fields, they can break it up and then
and then the next they can plant it and then they're waiting for
the rain that's going to grow the field, right.
And so it's, it's always that understanding that you're in his
control. I mean, that's The thing is when
I they're, you know, they're the when we were worried and we, we,
we think about that 18 inches around our own head.
There's nothing I can do about that 18 inches around my own
head, right? I, I can't worry anything into,
into a better situation. I there we, when we, when we
worry about things, we, we lose sight of the Lord.
We're, we're not being that patient.
But then you go on to verse 8 and it says you also be patient
and establish which is just set or fix your heart for the coming
of the Lord is at hand. And do we believe that?
Do we believe that before this service is over, Jesus could be
here, we could be there, right? And that is that is the the time
and time we live in. And guess what?
James lived in that time and Paul lived in that time.
Peter lived in that time. There are many prophecies about
Jesus and, and what it takes for him to come back.
But what it takes is for the father to say go.
That's what it takes. And Mark 13 verses 3 through 10
says, and he set on the Mount of Mount of Olives opposite the
temple. Peter and James and John and
Andrew asked him privately tell us when will all these things
be? And what will be the sign when
all these things are coming are about to be accomplished?
And Jesus began to say to them, see that no one mislead, no one
leads you astray. Many will come in my name and I
am and say I am he and they will lead many astray.
So before we go on, there's a side note that I it's one of
those ones that I look at and go God is just good.
Does anybody know the two largest what what the two
largest Christian cults in the world?
Does anybody know what they are and Mormons.
So Jehovah's Witness in Mormons. OK, so if you go to Matthew
2426, it says therefore, if if they say to you, look, he's in
the desert, do not go out there or look, he's in an inner rooms.
Do not, do not believe it. So Joseph Smith found tablets in
a desert and was guided through what they said in the desert.
Jehovah's Witnesses, Jesus appeared to them in an inner
room. So I just love the fact that he
actually just calls them out like Nope, Nope, right.
And so, and that's completely a side note to what I'm talking
about. But it is many will come in my
name saying I am he right. But Matthew, that's Matthew 2426
where where he calls out those two going on in verse 7.
And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be
alarmed. This must take place.
But the end is not yet for nation will rise against nation
and Kingdom against Kingdom. There will be earthquakes in
various places. There will be famines There are,
but these are but the beginning of birth pain.
So Jesus says no one knows the day or the hour he goes on in
here and he'll say that but like the farmer waiting for the rain,
we need to stay awake. We need to be ready right.
We, we don't, we don't put our I had a had a Kia Soul for many
years and it had when we bought it, it was fancy little car.
It had 18, it had eighteens and they were like, I think they
were 70 series tires. So they were, I don't remember
the series, but they were not, they weren't 70.
They were, they look like rubber bands, right?
They were there was and that car couldn't get out of a parking
lot with those tires on it in a snowstorm like it.
I mean it come up against a come up against a ramp out and it's
stuck right there. So it in the sun in the as soon
as it turned probably I think we by November, I had said with
snow tires on it, different rims, different tires right.
And I live in the tri-cities. It very well might not snow, but
but we would not have got out of the parking lot had I not put
the tires on right. Being prepared, not being caught
unprepared. Back in Mark in 13 Jesus goes on
and says, but concerning that day or that hour, no one knows,
not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father, but
only the Father be on guard, keep awake, for you do not know
when the time will come. Is like a man going on a journey
when he leaves home and puts his servant in charge, each with his
work and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake.
So Jesus, it's really simple to serve Jesus.
He just wants 100% of your attention.
He wants 100% of your life, not not Jesus.
When you gave your life to Jesus you, you agreed He gets it all,
not he, he didn't. It's not like I have, I have my
family box. I have my work box, I have my
sports box, and I have a Jesus box.
When you gave your life to Jesus, He became your box.
You are now, you are now in his box, right?
You're now He wants 100% of your life.
And coasting through life is not part of the deal, right?
We're supposed to be patient and established in our heart.
We're supposed to be fixed and set in the direction that we go.
Paul in First Thessalonians 5 gets into it and this is I've
used this in the past, but is it really one of my favorite
conversations about the second coming, but about how we are
supposed to be ready and it says now concerning the times and the
season. Brothers, you have no need to
have anything written to you, for you yourselves are fully
aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the
night, while people are saying there is peace and security.
Then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains
come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to to
surprise you like you are not in sorry.
But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to
surprise you like a thief, for you are all children of light,
children of the day. We are not of the night or of
the darkness. So then let not, let us not
sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
For those who sleep, sleep at night, or those who get drunk,
get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day,
let us be sober, having put on the breath breastplate of faith
and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
For God has not disdained us for wrath or destined to us for
wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And as believers, we're supposed to be in the light, right?
We're supposed to be not hidden under a bushel, right?
We are. We're supposed to be salt in the
world, which means we're supposed to be out in the world
sharing what we know and and caring for people we are.
We are to be at work for him and his work is easy, easy for me to
stand up here and say, but it is to rest in his grace and do the
work he has made us for. And and that will take the rest
of your life to get it right, right.
But that is that rest and it's Romans 12/1.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God
to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to
God, which is our reasonable service, not our not our extreme
service to sacrifice my life for the God of the universe isn't
extreme. It's reasonable because of what
he's done for us and Colossians 323 is do everything as under
the Lord and not the men. And if I'm doing that, then then
I'm given that 100% and I'm doing I'm doing all that can be
done. And that isn't a works mentality
of I have to do these things in order to have a relationship or
in order to be saved. It is, Lord, you've done so much
for me. You've done so much for me.
I want to help you. I want to do what you want me to
do it. I think of my grandfather and my
grandfather is somebody that I just wanted to make happy.
I wanted him to be I if there is anybody that has ever walked the
earth that I just wanted to say well done, it would it would
have been him, right is that I was doing it right and not
because he would love me any less.
There was a whole lot of times that he loved me.
He loved me a lot and I was a complete moron.
And that's why we serve the Lord.
That's why we give him 100%. Not because there is a work
mentality that says if I don't do this, I'm not saved.
If I don't do this, I don't get this.
That isn't it. We're we're 100% awake and we're
100% focused on his work because we love him that much.
And our perspective is he is living and is coming back to
judge those who won't turn. So we should be out about his
business telling as many people as can be told that that there's
a God that loves them so much that he wants that relationship
with him. In verse 9, it goes on and says
do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you
may not be judged. And behold, the judge is
standing at the door. James is just reminding us to
lead with love and not grumbling, you know, and Paul
Philippians says do not sorry Philippians 214 and 15 do all
things without complaining and disputing.
That you may become blameless and harmless children of God
without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,
among whom you shine as lights in the world.
Jesus in John 1334 and 35 says this.
A new commandment I give you, that you love one another just
as I have loved you. You also are to love one another
by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you
have love for one another. So how important it is, how
important is it that we in the in the body of Christ love one
another, right. I mean, Jesus did not say if you
feel like it. He said a new commandment I give
you to love one another and if our eyes and heart stay focused
on Christ and I don't get into my fields, you know, and and
start thinking that a brother or sister is in sin and I don't
like them because they're in sin and I get mad at them.
Do you understand when somebody's in sin, especially in
the body. If you if you see somebody that
that is is backslidden, falling away, doing something that is
leading them away from the Lord, your job is to confront them,
but not confront them in a I'm right, you're wrong, you
stinking rotten Sinner. It is to confront them hat in
hand, like Jesus going after the lost sheep.
All right, you know, we've talked about Matthew 18 before
that that that isn't that that church discipline is not a I'm
going to beat you over the head with the Bible.
It's it's dude or or friend, you're you're going the wrong
way, you're off, you're off track.
And and I see this in your life and and this is not a
conversation to have. Hey, I saw so and so and they're
doing this wrong. No, this is a conversation
between you and them, right? And and having that having
enough love to confront right? Do you love your children that
much? I would tell you, I would say
good parents love their children that much, right.
When you see your children doing things that they shouldn't be
doing, you know, and, and it's not out of you.
You don't hate your children when they're doing it wrong.
You want to correct them. You, you stay up night worried
about them. Do we have that heart for the
for this body, but also for other, for other congregations
Guys, this is this is a body, right?
This is the body of Christ in British Sandpoint.
But all over, all over Sandpoint, North Idaho, America
and the world, there is a body of Christ.
And do we love them enough to to lovingly confront when needed,
but love them and not and not get stuck on our way of
thinking, but but being the word, you know, that's, that's
that that story about my pastors in Uganda and us all getting
together and, and really hashing out what the, you know,
everybody has a bent. Whether we like it or not, we
all are bent because we have the way when I'm reading, when I'm
reading the word, what I see, but that doesn't mean that I am
why it's really important. You guys are taking the, the
word of God that's being taught, not Nick's words, right?
You want you want to, you want to be brilliant and digging into
it and seeing what it says, right?
You want to, you want to be about his word and we can always
agree on his word if we're honest about it, right?
We can come to an agreement and then you go on in in Philippians
and it says or actually you go back.
That's verses one and three one through 3.
Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any
comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any
affection and mercy fulfill my joy by being like minded, having
the same love being of 1 accord and of one mind.
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition, conceit, but
in loneliness of mind. Let each esteem others better
than themselves. So that is the epitome of
getting outside the 18 inch bubble around your head, right?
Seeing things from other people's point of view.
You know what Pastor Steven in the tri-cities talks about
someone getting their feelings hurt by somebody else and now
they have a big rift. Well, this you, you have those
conversations and, and the guy that got his feelings hurt, the
guy who hurt his feelings didn't even know that he did anything
right. He was he, he didn't hear him.
He had, you know, he had an upset stomach, something he was
in a bad mood. And now there's a rift because
they're not willing to talk to, you know, the, the guy with a
hurt feeling isn't talking to him.
And those are that's, that's the 18 inches around her own head,
right? How does it affect me?
How you know know everybody in this room, guys, everybody in
this room, including Faye and I, have stuff going on in our
lives, right? And you say our lives are much
bigger than the two hours that we spend together on Sunday.
Now as a body, we can love each other, but understand that we
should be, we should be having real conversations with each
other so that we can love each other through the sucks of life,
right? So life has hard things in it.
And especially this time of year with, with the holidays, there's
family drama and there's past drama and all that stuff that
comes up around the holidays. And as a body, we should be
loving on each other and not just in my own head about my own
stuff, right? And and to remember that The
funny thing when it says the judge is standing at the door,
when I get in my fields and start thinking I got some, I got
some standing to judge somebody else.
It is. I always picture the angels and
their thoughts of us. Adam was made out of dirt.
And so we're just dirt walking around, right?
And so when I get judgey, I'm just judging dirt, but I'm dirt.
So dirt, judging dirt. It's kind of funny, right?
And but that's really, that's our standing right there.
There is one judge and he is so much bigger than me and you.
And so when we recognize that that I don't have to judge,
right? I, I don't have to be the, the
end all. I can just love people into the
Kingdom and not in a mushy way, right?
Love is love is not the the current definition of love is
just affirm everybody and tell everybody that what they're
doing is great. Well, if if my son or daughter
or best friend is in the dark and running for a Cliff that's
300 feet deep, 300 feet down, the loving thing is not to
affirm their choice. The loving thing is to tackle
them right and stop them from running that way.
That so so love is not the, the, the the mushy.
It is doing the best for the other person, right?
Not the best for me, not not what makes me happy, but doing
the best for the other person and caring for them.
So that isn't a judging thing. That is a being being a
community with each each other and and knowing the people that
you do like with and being willing to have those hard
conversations if they're necessary, but also the the
encouraging conversations when they're necessary.
Verse 10 and 11 as an example of suffering and patience.
Brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast.
You have heard of the steadfastness of Job and you
have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is
compassionate and merciful. So we'll get, we'll get to Job
here in a minute. But I'm, I'm thinking of Elijah
and how much how much he is like us.
And it's Elijah at the end of this.
I'll read a passage but it but before we get there Elijah at
this point has held back the rain been fed by Ravens, then by
a widow with a forever full jar of flour and a bottle of oil.
He then raised her son from the dead challenged aid had the king
called down fire from heaven. He then executed all the
prophets of Baal prayed for the rain to return and it did.
Then the queen threatened him. He he loses hearts and runs off
that sound like anybody you know God does amazing things, amazing
things, amazing things, amazing things.
Lord, how am I going to pay my bills?
That is that's us. But then then it goes on.
He was fed by an Angel and that food sustained him for 40 days
and nights. The journey that he took and we
catch up to him in a cave in first Kings 19 starting verse
11, it says then he said go out and stand.
This is Lord, stop talking. Go out and stand on the mountain
before the Lord. And behold the Lord passed by,
and a great and strong wind tore into the mountain, and broke the
rocks into pieces before the Lord.
But the Lord was not in the wind.
And after the wind was an earthquake, But the Lord was not
in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, the
fire a fire. But the Lord was not in the
fire. And after the fire a still small
voice. So it was when Elijah heard it
that he that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and
stood in the entrance of The Cave.
Suddenly a voice came to him and said, What are you doing here
Elijah And Elijah, why this picture you have in this
conversation? I have been very zealous for
you, Lord God of hosts, because of the children of Israel have
forsaken your covenant and tore down your altars and killed your
prophets with the sword. I alone am left and they seek to
take my life. Can you hear the, can you hear
the whining in that right now? What I love is the Lord does
not, does not respond to the complaint.
He just tells him to get up and go to work.
Then the Lord said to him, go, return on your way to the
wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive, anoint Hazel as king
over Syria. Also you shall anoint Jehu the
son of Nahum as king over Israel, and Elisha the son of
Shaphith of Abel Mahon you shall anoint as prophet in your place.
It shall be that over whoever escapes the sword of Hazel, Jehu
will kill, and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will
kill. And then verse 18 God says And
by the way, yet I have reserved 7000 in Israel, all whose knees
have not bowed to bail and every mouth that has not kissed him.
Oh, and by the way, you are not by yourself.
I've got 7 other 7000 others you know.
And this is just the Lord going and I mean Elijah has done
amazing things and he has faith that I could I could pray for.
And then like, not unlike I get right, but I've done all this
stuff. Lord, no, you haven't.
I have right. That's the thing.
God does the work. We just we are, we are the
gloves that he fills up to do the work.
I mean, do your is your have your gloves ever bragged at you
about all the all the wood they chopped right or or the cars
they fixed? You know now that the glove is
is necessary in some cases, but without the hand in it, there is
no nothing's getting done. So Elijah's just a, a fact that,
like I said, dirt acts like dirt and has since since he made
Adam. If we go on to Job, and this is
so if you think of Job, everybody, whenever anybody
brings up Job, you, everybody gets a little nervous.
So we're going to study Job. That's nerve wracking.
But Job is God's champion, like God bet on him.
You know, Satan showed up and said, I'm, I'm walking around
seeing who I can mess with. And God says, have you
considered my servant Job because he can beat you up now,
he didn't say it that way. He's just said, can you have you
considered my servant Job? And then when we we get all
through it, you can imagine the day that Satan went down to
attack Job, all of the heavens is watching because God said Job
can win. And we've seen we've seen Satan
do all kinds of things. So we got to see how's this
going to work out. And how it worked out is after
Satan attacked him at first he said, and he said naked, I come
from the from my mother's room and naked shall I return.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord in all this Job did not sin or
charge God with any wrong and then then he gets really sick.
It's covered in tumors. After another conversation
because Satan's like, well, you cheated because you kept a hedge
around his hell. So he said, no, go do that.
And then Job's wife and everybody picks on her.
But I want you to remember that before I read this, that Job's
wife also in this lost all of her children.
You know, we, we talk about Job, but in this she lost everything.
Job. This is, you know, I mean,
there's a there's a comic comedian out there.
That's like, who would want Job's wife?
I would tell you that Job's wife is just broken and I wouldn't, I
wouldn't judge her too harshly. Then his wife said to him, do
you still hold fast to your integrity, curse God and die?
Verse 10 But he said to her, you speak as one of the foolish
women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from
God and shall we not accept adversity in all this?
Job did not sin with his lips. Now when you go through the book
of Job, if you go through it, he will get to whining.
It will happen. So I'm not holding him up there.
But this is at the end in verse 42 after after some reckoning
with the Lord and the Lord saying do you do you remember
who I am and Job like I can just imagine the being Job in that
and and hiding under a rock. But verse 42 or sorry, chapter
42, verse 10 and the Lord restored the fortune of Job and
then he had and when he had prayed for his friends and the
Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
And at the at the end, Job did get twice as much as he had at
the beginning. But I want you to understand
that in God's story, Job didn't get his kids back.
Now he may have had more kids, but he didn't get those kids.
Those kids were those kids were with God, right?
So he did suffer loss. It wasn't God didn't say, oh,
redo and and back up to the beginning and say that was just
a where we were out of time. So now we're going to go back
and you just get to live the life you had.
He lost those servants, those men and women died, right.
So that was that all really happened and it really affected
Job. And then God's plan is, is for
the best, but have confidence in his plan.
His plan is not for me to live a life of sunshine and rainbows.
His plan is, and I, I say this every week, is that as many as
can go to heaven, go to heaven and spend eternity with him.
And he will get the most out of the life that I have, right?
It is it is if I give my 100%, if I give all I've got for him,
He will get the most out of it. I won't it that that doesn't
mean that my life it. Like I said, there's a song out
there that I'm sure Brandon has nose and I can't remember all of
the verses, but it it says he works everything together for my
good. I hate that song.
Like like, like I mute the because it is it is as 18 inches
around my own head a song as you can come up with right the the
starving children in Africa. God can work everything for my
good. Can you please tell me how
that's for my good, right. Do you see how that that it's.
He works everything together for my good.
No, that is a selfish statement. He works everything together for
the good, for those who love him, right.
And what is the good right that he's coming back and he is going
and he is a a righteous and fair judge.
Yeah, just and last, and I like this because those are some
serious stuff that James has said.
But verse 12 says, but above all, my brothers, do not swear
either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your
yes be yes and your no no. So that you may not fall under
condemnation. And the the reason I like that
because James does put that emphasis on it, but all he's
doing is repeating words that came out of Jesus's mouth.
In Matthew 5 it says, but I say to you, do not take an oath at
all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by earth,
for it is it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the
city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your
head. For you cannot make one hair
white or black. Let what you say be simply yes
or no. Anything more than that comes
from evil couple of oaths that we should remember in the Bible
that are that are that went badly.
I'm sure Acts 2312 is the men that were going to kill Paul and
it says and when it was drought, when it was day, some of the
Jewish Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath
saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had
killed Paul. Now a couple things could have
happened. Either they starved to death or
they or actually three days, they probably ran out of water,
but they didn't kill Paul. And that was a rash oath because
Paul got taken off to jail and they couldn't get to him even if
they wanted to. But for Samuel 1424 it's Saul
and we know about him and his rash oaths and different things
he did and the men of Israel. Sorry verse 14 or chapter 14
verse 24 and the men of Israel were distressed that day for
Saul had placed the people under an oath saying cursed is the man
who eats food until evening before I have taken vengeance on
my enemy. So none of the people tasted
food. Anybody remember what happened?
Actually, because his son Jonathan didn't hear the didn't
hear the oath. So he ate honey.
So then the Lord was serious, right?
That's the part about oaths that you have to be careful with.
And I'll get into one that you guys are going to remember.
But when you when you make an oath and you stamp his name on
it, he expects you to listen. You, you said it, you're bound
by it. So you want to be careful on
what you're saying God said, right?
So Joshua 9 and this is a example of that because, oh,
back, sorry, back in the, the Saul and Jonathan.
So it, it came to a head that somebody had broke this oath and
Saul had to figure out who had done it.
And it got all the way to Jonathan and he's like, Oh no.
And then he was going to kill Jonathan.
And because he had made an oath. There's there's another one in
Judges where a dad kills his first born daughter because he
made an oath. Oaths are not things that the
Lord is a big, big fan of it. When you when you go through all
the oaths in the Bible, they're usually more of a that kind of
picture is guys saying things that you don't have control of,
right. I don't have the, I don't have
the power to make things come true.
So anyway, in Joshua 9, the con was on.
And this is Gibeon, right? You know, if you guys haven't
read Joshua and you don't know what I'm talking about, what
kind of go through really quick, but Gibeonites were very crafty.
They came up with all kinds of ways to con the Israelites.
They they made it look like they were coming from a long ways.
They didn't want to die, so they came up with a plan to make it
look like they weren't from Canaan, they were from somewhere
else, and then they were going to make.
Then Joshua would make an oath with them and they'd be safe.
Now, what was Joshua's defense about being conned?
It'd be the same one we have. He could always ask the Lord.
But we'll, we'll see how they did in 9/14.
It says. So the men took some of their
provisions. So they checked out what they
were doing. You know, their clothes are old,
their food's rotten. They must be.
But it says, but they did not ask counsel from the Lord.
So they, they then make an oath and it says 1st 15 says.
And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to
let them live. And the leaders of the
congregation swore to them and they swore in the name of the
Lord, which we'll get into, but they didn't ask the Lord first.
They didn't have, they didn't have marching orders from from
the Lord. And it goes on verse 18.
But the people of Israel did not attack them because sorry, when
they found out that they were only three days away in Canaan,
it says. But the people of Israel did not
attack them because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to
them by the Lord the God of Israel.
Then all the congregation murmured against them, against
the leaders, but the leaders said to all the congregation, we
have sworn to them by the Lord the God of Israel, and now we
may not touch them. Did you guys remember that?
They were sent to Canaan to wipe everybody out?
And then they made, then they made a covenant in the name of
the Lord that they wouldn't wipe these people out.
And now the Lord's like, well, you screwed that up because you
can't wipe them out now, because if you do, you're going against,
you're going against me. And it, you know, and, and
that's where we as people want to do this.
Well, but Lord, we didn't mean it.
But Lord, when they, when they say they, they lied, right?
So I get, I get a pass, right? So you get a pass because you're
you need to pray before, not after.
You know, some of the things that we do, you know, we say,
well, the Lord told me or the Spirit said I should do this or
the spirit said you should do this, that that's a good one,
right? I for years I've been going to
Uganda and the thing I don't do and you can it to the point of
sometimes probably fault I do. I will not put words in the
Lord's mouth that he didn't say, you know, I am completely
confident 100% that I am where I'm supposed to be doing what
I'm supposed to be doing. God called me to Sandpoint.
He called me to this church. I can say that because me and
him had lengthy conversations and, and I have the verses to
back it up. I have the notes to back it up.
Idiot. I know that I know I'm where I'm
supposed to be doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
And I can say that, but I, I have bunches of plans for
bridges. I have bunches of ideas for
outreaches and ministry. Now, I'm not saying the Lord
told me all those things. They're just ideas.
So I'm not going to put his stamp of approval on every one
of my ideas. Do we do that right?
Like that's, that's something you want to be very careful of.
When I started going to Uganda and spending time there and we
were doing 2 and we're doing about two trips a year.
And the answer when I was getting ready to, you know, we
were planning a trip was the answer was yes, unless there was
a reason for it to be no. But I didn't tell people that I
was called to go to Uganda in six months.
You know, when I came, when, when we came here, had I told
everybody in the Tri-cities and in Uganda and everything the
Lord told me that we are going to travel and do outages and we
are going to be in Uganda 3 to 6 months a year.
Now have I shared that that was my plan?
Yes. Did I ever put God's stamp that
this is what you're going to do? No.
And that's, that's that because if I had, if I had said, well,
the Lord told me that I'm going to go.
So I'm going to spend 6 months in Uganda and I'm going to work
for six months. And that's his plan for my life.
So as of today, what does that make the Lord or me?
A liar, right. And so don't, don't stamp his
name on it as, as he said, unless he said, right?
I mean, because there are times in Joshua in the story Joshua
that God absolutely said. And at those moments you want to
stand for that. Like I, I can stand up here and
tell you that I was called to stand up here.
And if I wasn't called, I wouldn't be here, right?
So I, I have that confidence. But how do we get out of the 18
inches around our own head? I mean, closing is we need to be
patient, focusing on the fact that the Lord is coming, right?
We establish our hearts in that because the Lord is at hand.
He could be here at any moment. And he's a living God who wants
to speak to us. Don't grumble against one
another. The judge is standing at the
door. So any judge, any grumbling we
have, we can talk to the Lord and he can take care of it.
We need to remain steadfast and just be fixed and settled in
that I've I've seen the purpose of the Lord and that the purpose
of the Lord we we talk about it is to shine his light into our
community. And that's just by reflecting
him. And then let your yes be yes and
your no be no. So that my funny title of
patience 18 inch bubble head. Tell yourself that patience God
is coming. Patience.
Don't worry about yourself. God is coming.
He God is the author. I am a bit player.
He has a story and I'm in it now.
His bubble is the universe and eternity.
My bubble at best is at the horizon.
And today, right now, and if I'm focused on only my bubble, I
will trip through life because I can't see what he sees.
If I lean into the hill and trust his plan and let him lead.
There is absolutely nothing this world can do to us.
Flores, thank you for everybody here.
Thank you for this time. I thank you.
I thank you that your bubble is that big, that you are the God
of everything and that you watch over each and every one of us
Lord, and that you would you would use this body in this
town, that you would use it not only in just Sam Point proper,
but in all the surrounding areas, or you would just be
speaking into people's lives. Guide and direct us Lord, and I
pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.