Judgement and Vows
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HONOR
So amazing to be back — UPDATE
Religion vs relationship // I am religious in how I love my wife
religion is just a system of beliefs and practices — Spiritual and practical
Orthodoxy and orthopraxy
Title of this talk is “Judgement and Vows”
CONTEXT FOR PHILLIPPIANS
It’s important to understand the context and the original audience of the Bible BECAUSE it can’t mean something to us that it didn’t mean to them.
The Bible was written FOR you but it wasn’t written TO you. The Bible is timely in that it is timeless. But the Bible out of context is NOT the Word of God.
This is one of Paul’s prison epistles. He wrote this letter while he was in prison.
This book is full of affection and love from the Apostle Paul to the church in Philippi. Some call it the Epistle of Joy. — Which is crazy because he’s writing this in prison.
“Phillip’s city” alexander the Great
Philippi was a Roman colony, which was a big privilege. It was one of the few places that the citizens were treated as it they actually lived in Italy. They’re citizenship was viewed as fully Roman.
A lot of commanding officers from the Roman military settled and retired there so it became a very wealthy town.
But one of Paul’s goals in writing this letter is to unify the Church.
This is why he writes early on …
2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
“Practice these things”
Humans learn mimetically — we copy behavior.
It’s how we learn.
I didn’t think I was like my dad at all … until I had kids.
Words I say — mannerisms — The way I discipline
You wanna know what you’re really like? Look at your kids
Noah constantly sighing… Dude he’s 18 months old
The apple never really falls far from the tree, does it?
This is why you can teach what you know but you can only reproduce WHO YOU ARE
This is why it is absolutely crucial that you surround yourself with the right people
Because you will imitate who you are around
16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me.
1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it
9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
What you practice is what you will become
You become what you behold
John is saying this same principle …
6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
We have fellowship with who??? ONE ANOTHER — The Church. Unity.
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
What is John saying?
“knowledge involves obedience, and union involves imitation”
The more you learn of God — the more you have to obey Him
And the more you come into unity with Christ and His Church — the more you must imitate Him
Because we all are imitating something or someone
You are the sum of your influences
None of us are born with a blank slate …
Because we all have made agreements in our hearts
Call them pre-judgements
Call them a vow
Call them a pattern
We all have a factory setting that to a certain degree was given to us.
My son, Noah, is a LeMarr — and with that comes a certain default setting that he will have to grow up with and deal with
There are things from your family of origin that you will have to deal with.
You may have a proclivity towards alcohol, an addictive personality, being passive aggressive, sexual confusion
Dad having to get a tea because he didnt want to write an email
Some of you have used it as an excuse … “You better not cross a LeMarr. We’re just angry people...”
Some of you - if you get cut off in the parking lot it ruins your entire weekend …
What is that? In a lot of cases its the apple not falling to far …
“What walks in the father runs in the children.”
Your default, factory setting is sin.. You got it from your daddy Adam.
You are not a sinner because you sin — you sin because you’re a sinner.
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
So are you a victim or are you a sinner? YES
You also have made vows on your own …
You’ve made an inner promise — A promise with yourself that you may or may not realize has placed a lid on God’s working in your life
“God you can’t touch that part”
Me wanting to be seen as a strong leader …
What did I do? I blocked off an area of my mind and heart that said “I will never let people think of me as a skinny weak kid”
fear based decision, people’s perception of me — not in Faith in what God has spoken to me
23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
There is a continual battle that we are in — We have to surrender to the cross EVERY DAY
SUMMARIZE THIS …
1 Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, saying, “This is what the Lord has commanded. 2 If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
3 “If a woman vows a vow to the Lord and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father’s house in her youth, 4 and her father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she has bound herself and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. 5 But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the Lord will forgive her, because her father opposed her.
Your dad has the authority to break any stupid thing that you say
You absolutely might have welcomed something into you mind and heart and life that shouldn’t be there.
You might have made an agreement - a vow with something that you shouldn’t have.
You might have messed with the demonic and played with ouija boards or parents were involved in free mason witchcraft …
Or maybe you’ve just made an agreement with anger and hatred towards certain types of people
Maybe bitterness
Maybe chronic depression and anxiety --- it doesn’t matter how much therapy you go to (which I believe in) if you’ve made it a part of your identity
But your heavenly father has the authority to cancel your stupid
so what do we do?
2 things:
1 — recognize the hand you’ve been dealt
2 — practice the right things
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Jonathan was killed by the people Saul was commanded to destroy
You have an opportunity to set your legacy up for success — by being obedient to God AND TO PRACTICE THE RIGHT THINGS
conviction / contrition / confession
PRAY