Focusing On Zechariah Chapter Five

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Well, hey, Lifehouse family. Welcome back to our time of reflection with Pastor Mark. Maybe you're listening on Monday, Tuesday, whenever you're listening, but uh just every week it's a joy to have you journey with us as we just continue to go deeper. We get a great 30, 35 minutes on Sunday, but we, man, God's word speaks so much. And I think this week really a great passage, even had to call an audible, right? You know, five and six. Oh man, this is too much.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Yeah, the initial plan was to do both chapters five and six, but yeah, in in conjunction with celebrating our 14th anniversary and feeling like we need to acknowledge that, you know, and celebrate that for a moment to try to fit that into it was just too much. And so still a lot with just chapter five. But yeah, so uh part two will be this coming Sunday.

The Flying Scroll: Judgment Explained

The Basket And Wickedness Revealed

The Seriousness Of Sin Today

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Give a reason to come back, right? But I think chapter five gives us a whole lot. We can two visions as we continue through. We can read them here. Yeah. Starting in verse one, Zechariah says, Again I lifted my eyes and saw and behold a flying scroll. And he, you know, the angel of the Lord is uh showing him these things, and he said to me, What do you see? And I answered, I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits. Then he said to me, This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land, for everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and every one who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. I will send it out, declares the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name, and it shall remain in his house and consume it, both timbers and stones. Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, Lift your eyes and see what this is that is going out. And I said, What is it? He said, This is the basket that is going out, and he said, This is their iniquity in all the land. And behold, the leaden cover was lifted, and there was a woman sitting in the basket. And he said, This is wickedness, and he thrust her back into the basket, and thrust down the leaden weight on its opening. Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, two women coming forward. The wind was in their wings, they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven. Then I said to the angel who talked with me, Where are they taking the basket? He said to me, To the land of Shinar, to build a house for it. And when this is prepared, they will set the basket down there on its base. So a whole lot to dig into that gives us a whole lot. I know you talking about the seriousness of sin this week, that too often we lose track. We were kind of talking before we jumped on officially, we can get either passive or tolerant. There's a lot of different words we could use where we don't casually.

Tolerance, Culture, And Drift

SPEAKER_01 3:06

And it's hard because we live, like we are surrounded by sin and sinfulness. I mean, the world that we live in, and this is what was going on, you know, in Zechariah's day, the people of God are meant to be called to be set apart, sanctified, consecrated as unto the Lord. There should not be blurry lines, you know, or crossing lines, you know. Um and so we can relate to them in many ways in our culture, because, you know, now they had returned to uh their homeland, to Jerusalem, but they brought the influences of Babylon with them. Many of them had been born in Babylon. Babylon was all they knew, and in many ways, I think about our own culture, and it really is. I mean, uh, it's everywhere. It is pervasive. And I think that even as believers, we are so tempted to just treat sin casually. We become too comfortable with some of these issues. Like God hates sin. I mean, there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Scripture makes that clear. And ultimately, I mean he loves us, and and that's why he hates sin because of the consequences. That that, I mean, the wages of sin is death, and he's not okay with that for his people, the people that he loves. Sin separates us from him, and so it it hinders our relationship with him, our worship of him, and so he hates it. And and we should hate it too. I I think a lot of times, you know, we just are so casual, and just if we really assess our mindsets on certain things, on certain topics, um, you know, sexual immorality being one of them, I mean, we we say, well, I don't engage in sexual immorality, but yet we, you know, expose ourselves with the the the media that we watch, the social media. I mean, the the it's everywhere, you know, and yet we really should not even like expose ourselves or allow our children to expose themselves to these things, you know, because it really does numb. Like we just we the more we spend time exposing, the more we tell, you know, we just get too comfortable. And I think even one, I didn't mention it yesterday, but we were talking about earlier. When I think about the seven churches in Revelation that were addressed, you know, one of the things that the church of Thyatira was rebuked for was the fact that they tolerated, right? The woman Jezebel. We shouldn't tolerate sin. Like we should not tolerate, we should not be comfortable with, casual with, we should not tolerate sin at all. As the Lord does not tolerate sin. Like he is holy, holy, holy, and he does not compromise at all in regards to sin. And he, that's really the point I think that that the people of God were to be encouraged by was that the Lord, God Almighty, who is holy, will surely deal with sin. I mean, right during that time, and I think in often in our day, we wonder, like, God, why aren't you dealing with that? You know, like how can you allow that? Well, he's not allowing it. Like one day, sin will be dealt with once and for all. It will not be a part of the picture. And so it he was encouraging his people with these two crazy visions, right? They're meant to inspire and to motivate. One of them is of this flying scroll, which represents the word of God going forth, you know, and it will deal with sin. Like it will, there's a day of reckoning coming, and curses will are going out with the word of God. God gives commands, instructions in his word. And when people don't heed those commands or receive them and instead reject them, like it will not go well for them, and it will consume the promises in this vision, you know, the house, not just of the person committing the sin, but but everything, like the their whole house, their timber and stones. And I would just, you know, even say that it, you know, how sin affects not just the person sinning, but everyone like who lives in the house too, you know. Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

So lots of unpack, and especially the idea of tolerating sin. Yeah. I remember a quote I'd heard, you know, what one generation tolerates, the next generation will accept. It will become normal, you know, in some ways. And so we shouldn't tolerate it because we're like, well, we'll tolerate it a little bit. Well, then, like you say, it becomes pervasive, we become kind of immune to it, and then it just then goes to the next degree. So the concept of transgression, you know, like, well, we'll just and we look around, like you said, in our society of all these things, well, they didn't just happen, you know, overnight, you know, like a lot of what we're seeing with slow fade, right? Gay marriage and things can trace back to no fault divorce and cheapening marriage in little ways, and then that becoming like, well, marriage isn't a big deal, so why not let gay people get married? You know, these are things that I think Or why even get married, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:50

You know, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

We can just be as happy without the marriage. So I think that just being an example as we tolerate things that become accepted and then they keep going.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Well, I can definitely, when I think about so we celebrated 14 years. So 2012, we launched our church. And when I think about the state of our culture, you know, and the things that we tolerate and accept and even celebrate now, like how like that's changed from just 14 years ago. I mean, the conversations that we're having, the things that we're celebrating, uh, the things that you know we're even have having conversations about like wouldn't have been tolerated 14 years ago. And so it's just very clear to me that what you're saying is so true, the slippery slope or the the downward slope in regards to our tolerance of sin. And I wonder, like, you know, what the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, you think about him during his earthly ministry and kind of what you know he didn't tolerate then, but then you think about like, what if he were to be here? And he is, you know, he's with us always, but just in a tangible way, if it's, you know, in the flesh, with us incarnate, like what he would be shocked by. Like, like, would we be comfortable like watching the things that we watch if Jesus was literally sitting right beside us in the room and he's with us? That's the thing that we should be sobered by, that reality. Like, we're a temple of the Holy Spirit, and this is what Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians, I think it is. Um, yeah, like we're to be set apart in all ways and at all times, and not compartmentalize our faith and think, well, you know, Sunday's gonna be my day to spend with the Lord, but you know, every day, all day. Right. And so, yeah, uh, we should not tolerate sin. Sin will be dealt with. And I think that there's kind of two angles that you can consider this, like the sins, like we are sinned against, and so, in essence, justice will be served. I think about Romans 12, where Paul says, the Lord says, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord, and he will deal with sin. And so we don't need to, as his children, worry about taking matters into our own hands and trying to inflict that reckoning or vengeance. We can trust the Lord to work that out. That gives encouragement and peace to us, but also it's motivating for us. Yeah, we don't want to be those who sin against other people. Like we don't want to be sin to be a part of our testimony because sin will be dealt with. We need to repent of sin. Jesus says, if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out, tear it out. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Like, and he didn't literally mean I want you to cut off your hands and pluck out your eye. What he meant is I don't want you to be casual with sin. Like I want you to get rid of it, like delete it, burn it, get rid of it. Uh be crazy, you know, when it comes to and zealous in regards to removing and and dealing with your own sin, because one day the wrath of God would be poured out on sin and sinfulness. And you don't want that to be anywhere associated with you.

Radical Repentance And Removal

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Right. I'm thinking too, like, take captive every thought. You know, it's like those are something I was just reading this morning. It's like there's a shock value initially about sin, but then if we kind of let it hang around and we kind of tolerate just even hearing, then it eventually starts to, in our mind, like, well, maybe that's not so bad, rather than like, no, we need the no, that is wrong and don't want anything to do with that. So and then we wonder then why our walk gets hindered and you know, those kind of things, which I think is something else you were talking about that we see right here in chapter five, is it remains in the house. You know, I think this is a popular misconception, a lie that we should push back against. We are in a free society, we value our freedom, but it has created this. Well, anybody should be able to do anything they want as long as it doesn't harm other people. Yeah. And the Bible says that's not true because sin is going to create relationships, it's in the house and consumes the house. So if you think you can contain your sin to just yourself, that's a lie. It's going to affect your relationship with others, it's going to affect your relationship with Christ, you know, not in a salvation sense, but that peaceful walk, you know, sin's going to hinder. The Bible says it'll hinder your prayers when you're not in right relationships. Absolutely. Well, I mean, I see that layout or how you've seen that play out.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

If I if I look about, look back on my own life and my sin struggles, you know, one of the things that the Lord graciously revealed to me, I was, and really it was kind of the most motivating thing for me to overcome my sin struggles, right? To to deal with them in the way that God wants us to deal with them, when I was realizing that my sins were not just affecting me, like the consequences were also spilling up and out on my wife and my kids who I was living with my wife. And, you know, it just it played out that way. And I saw that, and that was like, okay, that's it. Like I'm done with this because I I don't want my innocent wife and my innocent children to be negatively affected in any way. I don't want curses for them. I want blessings for them. And so I want to lead in righteousness and holiness. I want to lead them away from sin, right? You know, um, I don't want to lead my kids astray, right? You know, our kids are watching what we're doing, how we're living, and picking up what we're laying down. And, you know, are we exposing them to it? Are we leading them, in essence, astray instead of in the way by doing these things? I don't, I don't, Jesus also talks about, like, you know, anyone who causes one of the least of these to stumble, it would be better that a millstone be tied around his neck and be thrown into the depth of the sea. Again, another very dramatic statement. So we need to be zealous in that regard as husbands, as fathers, as leaders, as pastors, as church leaders, like to lead people away from sin rather than astray in sin and have nothing to do with it. Do not crack the door to sin in your life, to your house. Like, don't yeah, and especially where I feel, you know, where this might really have relevant application primarily is in regards to media. Like what we expose ourselves to, who we listen to, what we watch, you know, that plays out, right? Junk in, junk out, you know, and and we might think, oh, we're okay, we're mature enough, like I can see this and not feel tempted, you know. But no, what we talked about earlier, it's a slow fade. And you you don't want to be comfortable with those things, and you really want to draw hard lines. I really believe Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, and our holy righteous God has drawn a hard line in the sand, and we should have that same mentality, you know, and follow his example.

Achan’s Sin And Urgent Purging

SPEAKER_00 14:52

That's a great point, too, even as you mentioned from your experience. Parents, you know, you should take a whole lot here. Your kids are washing, and again, with the concept of sin in the house, it's your kids, you know, and that's generational sin. Is that generational sin going to stop with you, or are you gonna keep passing it down? You know, we see that so frequently, you know, Abraham told some lies, and then Isaac picked that up, and then Jacob was an outright liar. You know, we see you know, David had, you know, adultery and all, and then we see that play out in his house and his kids, and then Solomon is ultimately as his downfall is you know, sexual immorality. So, you know, especially an encouragement for parents, you know, what are you going to tolerate? And we have to be careful not in a legalistic sense, but in a this is a faithfulness, you know, this is how we want to live, you know, so that we have good relationships. We're not teaching you do this for your salvation or anything, but like this is what God's designed, this is what living out our faith is all about, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Yeah. And I and I think about like and so it's easy to kind of understand and comprehend this when we think about sins of co-mission. But I also think of s of sins of omission, right, right? Not doing what we should be doing. And I have seen this play out. I think about 14 years of ministry, and you know, in the very beginning, like being with ministering to and interacting with families who weren't necessarily as faithful. And I'm not saying this in a condemning, judging way, but just I was concerned and burdened for them and for their small children. And then fast forward 10 years, you know, we've had enough time to kind of observe what plays out over time. And those parents are wondering why their children maybe aren't interested in attending or being a part of the body of Christ. Well, they didn't lead in such a way that it was a non-negotiable, you know. And really, I believe that that's how we should lead our families. It's it's non-negotiable. This is who we are, this is what we do. We're not going to neglect or forsake the assembling, right? That's a very specific, explicit command in scripture for believers. No, we're gonna gather, we're gonna assemble, because that's what we as believers do. And we're gonna read the word of God, and we're gonna pray, and we're gonna serve and live and give and love in the spirit, like we can't do it on our own. But again, really, and it's not that God's expecting or that we should expect to live perfect lives. The exhortation or the understanding is that we should live sincere, authentic, humble lives before a holy, righteous God, and and in hopes that that's what will impact our children to want what we want in regards to honoring the Lord.

Crucify The Flesh, Not Manage It

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: The gospel is appealing. You know, I mean the truth is appealing. It always will be the love of God, but that comes with a faithfulness that comes with when we know who God is, when we know we it comes with recognizing our sin and giving that to Him and not being a slave to sin, but a slave to Christ and living that freedom out and in a holy way, you know. And I've always, it's like the more we learn about God's design, it's better, you know, when you don't fall into these things. Like they're not going to take you anywhere good. It's uh I I was in the South for a long time, so it was kind of like Southern Sin, but sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay, always. You know, so like why would you want that? You know, so like you know, we struggle with the freedom aspect, but really, like, why do you even want that in your life?

Grace Without Condoning Sin

SPEAKER_01 18:20

Yeah, right. So yeah, why do you want death? The wages of sin is death. I mean, that's a a simple statement, and it is true. It is the word of God. And I think there's that saying that says, with familiarity breeds contempt, and we just hear that phrase, that truth so often. I think that it the weight of it uh can be lost on us at times because we're so familiar. Uh, but it it that's the promise. That is the truth. And so we should be really concerned. You know, we don't want those kind of wages. We want life, right? We want uh peace, hope, joy, faithfulness, you know, we want the things that the Lord is giving through the Spirit and bearing fruit through the Spirit, not what the flesh and what the enemy, you know, will bring towards us.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

So that continues, obviously, in the second point where we're kind of headed, like there needs to be a removal of sin, like recognizing the seriousness, recognizing the severity, not taking that for granted. And then, you know, we see the woman in the basket, like get it away. You know, God can remove, he removes our sins, but we gotta let him. You know, I think the way I've kind of thought of it too is again, we if we put it on the table, God can heal it, God can forgive it, he can help us. But too often, you know, we want to feel guilty, we want to hold it inside, we don't want to admit it, so we won't put it out there and be honest about things. Well, then we're continuing, even if we're like trying to get through it, it's hard to really fully heal from it. And we won't give it to the Lord and let him remove it from us so that we truly can walk.

Accountability And Loving Correction

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Yeah, I just think really being zealous, like in regards to when we repent, like you know, I think about just certain situations with people, you know, like for instance, if there's a relationship with someone that is sinful, you know, maybe a couple engages in like uh immoral sexual activity and they break off that relationship and they've agreed, like we're gonna stop doing that, you know, but yet the person leaves that person's phone number in their cell phone. You know, I mean, no, you gotta delete that number, you know, or just whatever it is. Like if you still have access, like, okay, I'm not gonna watch that show anymore, or that, but yet you still, like every time you flick-click through it, like you see that show come up, like you need to really do your best to remove the opportunity for you to even cross that line again from the equation. Um, what we see, yeah, take place in that second vision, and even there's aggression, like even with this woman in the basket, like when first she's revealed, it says that the angel thrust her back into the basket and then thrust the lid back on top of the basket. And so there's that aggression there, that zeal there. Like, we're not, no, you're not getting out of the basket. Like, we're taking you and we're removing you from away. The land of Shannar is also Babylon. That's where they took that, that's so just the epicenter that symbolized wickedness and unrighteousness. Like, we're taking this out of our house, of our land, of our territory. Like, we don't want this to influence us at all. And so we're taking it out. And so there's this complete removal, absolute removal. Like, don't, you know, I think about just the concept of maybe, you know, okay, I'm I'm done with this, I'm gonna put it in a drawer and be done with it. No, throw it away. Right? Throw it away, delete it, burn it if you need to. And I thought, and I know of situations where people have symbolically burned, you know, things, maybe DVDs or or things that have, and it's really symbolic, like to just have that mentality like this is done. Like this will not have access to me. Me anymore. Like I'm going to fully, wholeheartedly repent in this way. Putting it in a drawer, so to speak, is not true repentance, I don't believe. Because it's really foolish, I believe, to think that you can just put it in the drawer because you know it's there. And when you're vulnerable again, and Satan knows what he's doing, right? The flesh wants to sin. Satan is the thief who has come to ski, steal, kill, and destroy. And when we're weak or vulnerable, we find ourselves in this place, you know, like it could we could easily fall into temptation again and fall right back into old sinful patterns and habits. And so we we just want to remove it so that it cannot have that opportunity any longer to influence our lives.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

And I think you share going back to Joshua and Achan, like they ran, like you know, they're like, ah, we'll get around to no, like we gotta deal with this. So when you're recognized, when you're convicted, and the need to confess it too, you know, like Achan holding it and not telling, and it affected the whole nation.

Hope Of Final Justice And Renewal

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Yeah, so that testimony is powerful in Joshua 6 and 7. How this one man, I mean, there's this whole army, and they had this incredible victory with Jericho. I mean, God miraculously worked, clearly, his hand was upon them. No way could they have taken down Jericho in and of their own strength, but God's hand was on them, he was with them, and so he gave them the victory in an incredible way. And so, yeah, Achan sins, he takes some of the things, the spoils of war that were to be devoted unto the Lord, and he hides them under his tent. Oh, God won't miss this, like this one little thing. Like, I'm just gonna hide it in here. Like, like, you know, I fought hard, like I deserve this. Well, then they go to the next battle, the battle of Ai against AI.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Much inferior opponent, smaller city, should have been no sweat.

Ministry Opportunities And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Yeah, absolutely. But 36 men died, and they ran, like they cowardly ran away because they were clearly being defeated. God's hand had been removed from them, and he wasn't giving them the victory. And so they're wondering, like, what's going on? So this one man, sin was in the camp. This one man sinned, and it affected God. The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, like as a whole, because of this one man. God is holy, and he's not okay with just even a little sin. And so, yeah, when when that was all revealed, as you pointed out, when Joshua, the leader of the people, found out like the response was to run to his tent, and they dealt immediately with the sin, and it was horrible. I mean, Aiken, everything he owned, his sheep, his cattle, his oxen, his sons and his daughters, like his family, everyone, everything, like was completely burned with fire and condemned. And and really, that is a picture of how we should aggressively deal with sin. Like, thrust it in the basket, put the lid on the basket and take it away. Take it to the dump, you know, get it out, you know, of our lives, in our homes, like get it out.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

I think the Paul's biblical language is put it to death, you know, put it to the mortification, you know, don't crucify. Don't just like kind of you know stab it, you know, like no, you gotta put it to death, otherwise it is.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

Crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. Like crucify it. Like crucifixion we know from Jesus Christ is the most horrible death in that in that consequence. Like we are not to be casual with sin. Crucify it. Yeah, that's a good, good uh parallel and reminder.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

So something we have to, and again, just from the gospel standpoint, constantly reminding ourselves what it cost Christ for our sin. You know, that it the death he had to die, the torture he had to go through, the separation from the Father, like everything Christ endured for our sin, you know, how can we continue to live therein? That should remind us of what it cost for our sin. And so then why would we want to still be under that? And we know you're a slave to one master or the other, you know, slave to your sin or you're slave to Christ. You know, so you're following his design for your life and his purposes, or you're still a slave. Sin will literally enslave you. So you know, for freedom Christ has set us free. Why would we go back? You know, dog going back to his vomit. You know, it's graphic but true. You know, like if you, like you said, you put it in that drawer, like why give yourself that opportunity. Because you will get you and go back.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

In a week, woman would open the door again, crack the door. You know, one I think application here, like, or or or what do we do with this information? So I often pray, and I think it's probably obvious. Like, Lord, like we want to love what you love, we want to love who you love. I think it's appropriate also to pray, like, Lord, I want to hate what you hate. Sure. I don't want to be comfortable with sin. Like, I want to be zealous. And this doesn't mean that we go around judging everyone. You know, take the plank or the log out of your own eye before you start, you know, pointing at other people. Like, and again, but this is be serious. Like, don't be casual or comfortable or flippant in regards to sin and sinfulness in your own life and in the culture and community that you live in within our church. Like, we just don't want to crack the door to sin. We want to be a people set apart, consecrated. We want to provide clarity to the lost and dying world, not confusion. The world gets confused. Like they're like us, you know. So, yeah, they feel comfortable. The world, no, we don't want the world to feel comfortable. We want the world to understand and know the truth. We want to live out and in faithfulness to the Lord for the glory of God, thereby providing clarity as opposed to confusion. So pray, and I think I feel even impressed to do that because I can even, I'm convicted and honest, in all honesty, by this sermon and the text, and just as I think about and consider like the zeal that the Lord has in regards to his hatred against sin, and I feel like I have my heart has softened to just sinful ideas, and I'm not as concerned or as zealous and hateful about sin as I should be, you know. Uh Tammy and I are pretty, you know, we have guidelines when it comes to what we watch on television, but I I, you know, even with that, like I could probably step it up in regards to just I don't want to have anything to do with anything that Jesus wouldn't have anything to do with, you know. And so, Lord, give me the ability and give I want to hate what you hate. Like, so give me that in my heart. Love what you love, but hate what you hate.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

I think some important points I think you're bringing out to accountability. I think that's why the body of Christ matters. And like you're saying, we don't go around judging people because it's all we're judging the sin. Right. You know, and it's we speak the truth in love. Like I'm pointing out your sin because I see what it's doing to you. I see what it's doing to your family or your relationships. You know, I'm I'm exhorting you to get back, you know, in that relationship, cast that sin away so it stops impacting you. So we're doing it, we're focused on the sin. Too often people get to condemning the person or like you rather than what you're doing and the sin you're committing is hurting things. So we need to be focused really on, like you said, the log and the beam and also having people who can hold us accountable. Yeah. Because sometimes we do get soft and tolerant, and we need somebody who says, you know, and I know you know you used to struggle with that. Stop doing this, or I kind of see you heading the wrong way. Who's gonna confront you? And that's the importance of having that body of Christ community that we have together. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Yeah, and we want to do everything in love. And and we don't want to be Pharisees and Sadducees, you know. I I think about the testimony of the woman caught in the act of adultery who was thrown at the feet of Jesus by the Pharisees. They were trying to catch Jesus, they wanted him to say something so that they could stone him. But Jesus wrote something in the sand, if you remember, and he said, Let him who was without sin, referring to the Pharisees, these righteous men, be the first to cast the stone at her. And one one by one, they they walked away because they knew that they were sinners. We don't know what Jesus wrote in the sand. There's all kinds of ideas about that. But the point is, but then Jesus said, Where are your accusers to the woman? And they had all gone. And he basically Jesus said, like, I'm not gonna condemn you either, but go and sin no more. And so Jesus was not condemning her, but he also was not condoning or celebrating her sin. He communicates in that I'm not okay with your sin. Like I don't want you to do this again, engage in sexual immorality, adultery. Uh but I'm not gonna condemn you, right? Go and sin no more no more. And so I think that that's the mentality that we should have as we engage with people. Like we don't want to condemn people, we want to love them. Love means speaking the truth to them, but we don't want to do things that will confuse them by celebrating or condoning the sin that God hates. And so so don't condemn, but also don't celebrate and also don't condone sinful behavior.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

I think it was a good thing I heard. The ultimate form of hate is indifference. Yeah. So to see somebody's sin and be indifferent to it, it's really hating that person. You know, to look at the people. We don't want death for people.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

The wages of sin is death.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

If I'm in sin, I hope you tell me. I hope somebody says like, mate, you're screwing this up, you know, like you're you're in the wrong here. And if, you know, knowing my brothers and sisters in Christ, you take that correction and you're absolutely and seeking to get back into that place, you know. So especially if it's a continuous sin. I mean, we all struggle daily and you're gonna slip. You know, so like I think too, we're talking like, yeah, you have a moment, like say you're tired, you get angry, you say something, and you should repent of that. Right. But especially we want to be on the lookout for like, man, I see this all the time in you, you know, like I or it's that perpetual sin. So we still need to confess, you know, those slips and things because those will lead us. So I'm not diminishing that, but especially when you see somebody like man, you are angry all the time, or see you out at the bar all the time and you're falling off your stool or whatever, you know. Like, I know you struggled with addiction in the past and you're having a surgery, you know. Like be careful with these things. So, yeah, just calling each other to account for those are important.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

So God will sure the Lord will surely deal with sin. There will be a day of reckoning and there will be a day of removal. In closing, yeah, we we have to look forward to that day where sin will not be a pic part of the picture at all. There will be no crying, no sorrow, no weeping, no mourning, only righteousness. And the Lord Jesus Christ, high and lifted up, sitting on the throne. And we look forward to that day. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

Yes, that's our hope, right? We know God will deal with our sin. We'll be at that point where complete restoration. We don't have to even be around it. Like that's gonna be the greatest part of heaven, right? We won't see that sinful brokenness, but truly live that out in a peaceful way. So be awesome. Amen. Well, good stuff. We're looking forward to chapter six next week. So, Lifehouse Family, thanks for joining us. Uh, we do have some exciting opportunities this spring. Groups are starting. Uh, we have a new Wednesday night series. If you want to learn more about who God is, learning more about his character. You're teaching that, right? I am teaching that. So I don't know. I try not to tell them that, they might not come. But no, definitely come. Truly, as it relates to sin, the more we know who God is, then it helps us live. A high view of God will call us to living and understanding how that plays out in our relationship. So, you know, fill up with God and you'll have less of sin in your life. So looking forward to that. Uh, if you're not in a group, we encourage you, connect groups are starting to meet. You know, these are opportunities to get in relationship and walk with the Lord. So take advantage of those, reach out. You know, if you're struggling with anything, we have a Monday night ministry for anybody in that. Uh, there's lots of opportunities if you're struggling in your marriage Tuesday nights. So wherever sin is in your life, we want to come alongside you, help you get out of it, uh, help you throw that away so your home and your relationships are better. So, but thanks for joining us, and we will see you all next week.