0:10 All right, so let me continue this theme of riddles since uh I got a couple more riddles for you. It's the day of riddles. Uh what is the most used application on your laptop? That's one riddle. Second riddle is what's the most used device in your 0:29 home? Think about that. Now, there may be many answers. I don't I'm not sure this is the right answer. This is what I was thinking about. It's not what we think it is. The most used application on my laptop, I think, is my virus scan. I don't even 0:43 know it's running, but it's just constantly running. I don't actively load it, but it's just running in the background. Or security system. In my home, it's probably the smoke detector or the monoxide detector. Even if the internet 0:55 is off, that thing's always checking the air to see if smoke is coming in or monoxide is coming in. And it alerts me uh I mean, we had this happen in Salt Lake City a couple days ago. It just I annoying sound went off, but it is a 1:09 beautiful sound because it's going to save me from my house burning down. And so uh I want to share a little bit on what might be an invisible, but perhaps overlooked ministry in the church, but especially in our homes. And that's the ministry of the 1:25 watchman. And this isn't just a ministry for the elders. It is, of course, a ministry for the elders in the church, but it's a ministry for us as fathers, as mothers, as husbands, as wives. All of us can have this ministry of being 1:40 watchmen. And uh what does it mean to be a watchman? It means that we're alert for compromise creeping into our own life like the smoke uh that that can alert the uh monoxide the smoke detector. But sometimes it's going to be invisible 1:58 things like monoxide is invisible. It could be unkind words that creep in or a casual disobedience or words of disrespect, words of condescending on siblings, words of um just rude words, casual disrespect, disobedience, 2:16 uh tones of accusation or blame or attitudes of self-pity. These are all things that can creep in that for which the virus scan must alert or the detector must go off. And we need to be on watch out for this. But, as I was thinking about this, I I 2:31 was looking through the scriptures and what what God talks about us being watchmen. And it's different being a being a watchman in a spiritual sense is very different from a physical night watchman. What What do you think the 2:43 What do you think the primary senses of the five senses are that a watchman uses? We would say that in in the world here, it's your eyes. You've got to be You've got to look out first, right? But, the Bible says something different, 2:56 and I want to read this. We know this famous verse. You may have heard this famous verse which says the righteous shall live by faith. Anybody know where that is? Which book that's in? It's in the rare book of Habakkuk. 3:08 Uh Habakkuk chapter 2, but it's interesting to see the context in which it it says this, "The righteous shall live by faith." How What does it mean What does it mean for the righteous to live by faith? Habakkuk chapter 2 3:19 verses 1 through 4. And this is the first sense that a watchman uses, a spiritual watchman uses. Uh Habakkuk says here, "I will stand on my guard post." Picture this as you on behalf of your family, on behalf of your spouse, on behalf of 3:38 a brother, a sister a sister that God has given you a burden of. "I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart, and I'll keep watch to hear what he will speak to me and how I may reply when I'm reproved, to listen to 3:50 what he will speak to me." And this is not listening to the sound of uh someone who's come to burgle my home or listening to that compromise that's coming into my home. It's listening to the Lord first, to listening to the 4:04 Lord, to what he has to speak to me, how he has to reprove me for things that I may not even be conscious of that are creeping in. And it says in the next verse, "The Lord answered me and said, 'Record the vision, inscribe it on the tablets that 4:16 the one who reads it, not me, but my children or my spouse, the one who reads what the Lord is speaking may run. May run this race.'" And it says, "For the vision is yet for the appointed time and hastens to its scale. It will not fail. 4:30 Though it tarries, wait for it." And may we wait for the wait for the Lord to speak to us on our guard post on those things that he would like to speak to us that we need to be on watch out for in our homes. And then it says in verse four, 4:47 "As for the proud one, his soul is not right with him, but the righteous will live by faith. The righteous watchman shall live by faith because he's humble and needy and and listening to what the Lord has to say." The second sense that a good watchman 5:03 uses is not again not his eyes, but it's his mouth. It's his tongue. And that's uh I want to read this verse from Isaiah chapter 62. Isaiah chapter 62 verses uh six and seven. And it says here, "On your walls, O 5:25 Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen. All day and all night." What does it say? Do they do they stay on lookout all day all night? This is a strange responsibility for a watchman. All day and all night they will never keep silent. They're not on 5:41 the lookout. They will never keep silent. What are they doing? What are they they out? They are reminding the Lord, they are taking no rest for themselves. They give him no rest until he establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise 5:53 in the earth. And that's like that um like the parable of the man in Luke 11 who's knocking on the door at midnight for his friend. That's the attitude that I want to have as a watchman for my family, for my spouse, to all day and all night 6:10 not give the Lord and it's not that I'm actually crying out to the Lord all night, but it's the spirit of crying out to the Lord and reminding the Lord, taking no rest. Lord, I will not rest until you establish my family, me and my 6:22 family and those you put in my sphere of responsibility as a praise in the earth. The first verse in the same chapter says, Isaiah 62:1, it says, "For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent and for Jerusalem's sake, I will not keep quiet 6:39 until her righteousness goes forth like brightness and her salvation like a torch that is burning." And I'd like you to consider replacing this word Zion and Jerusalem with your spouse's name or your children's name. And read it like this. 6:54 For me it could be something like, "For Zachary's sake or for Canaan's sake, Leanna's sake, Micah's sake, I will not keep quiet. I will not keep quiet until their righteousness goes forth like brightness. Like until their righteousness, like 7:07 that verse in Proverbs 4 says, their righteousness increases until it's like the noonday sun. And their salvation is like a like a torch that is burning." And this is what I believe being a watchman is, is listening to the Lord 7:20 first and starting with a perseverance and not being silent on behalf of uh my family and be willing to knock at midnight for the word that the Lord would have to speak to me in in in things that might be creeping in that I 7:35 need to be alert uh to. And so in contrast to this, let's look at what the opposite of being a a good watchman is. Uh Jesus tells a parable in Matthew chapter 13 uh of the of the tares and the wheat. 7:52 Uh Matthew 13 verse uh 24 to 27. Jesus was telling a parable to them and he says, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the 8:06 meat and went among the wheat and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore again, then the tares became evident, too. And the slaves of the landowner, we can picture the the man here as God and us as the slaves who are working for the 8:19 Lord. Uh as working for the landowner, came and said to him, "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then are there tares?" And that can be our response to the Lord saying, "How does this Lord I You gave me these children. You gave me 8:33 this family. How are these tares coming up in their life?" And the reason is that in verse 25, we were asleep. We were asleep on the job. God God did sow a good seed, but we were asleep and not paying attention to the tares, to the silent 8:51 monoxide that was creeping into our home, these tares that were creeping in unnoticed, invisibly. And yet, this can happen to us if we're not careful. And we might question the Lord what what as our children are growing 9:05 up, as things creep into our home and into our own lives as well. And the Lord as we heard that, you know, we we sang about being prepared for the coming of the Lord. The Lord has called us to be especially alert in these last 9:17 days as his coming is drawing near. And I was reminded of the um uh couple of parables on the the wedding feast and being prepared for the Lord's coming. Uh if you think about the parable of the 10 virgins, which is in Matthew 25, we 9:30 don't need to turn there. But we always look at those five virgins who were foolish, who didn't uh who didn't bring enough oil. And we look at the five less foolish virgins, I'll call them the wiser virgins who brought oil 9:45 to their to to to the to the to the bridegroom's arrival. But I want you to consider, were they truly the wisest people in preparation for the bridegroom's coming? And it says about these wise virgins in Matthew 25:5 that when the bridegroom was delaying 10:03 that all of them, all 10 of them grew drowsy and fell asleep. And I want to contend that there's an even better example for us than even the five virgins. And that's in Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. Which is a similar story 10:24 about the bridegroom's coming, about the master coming back. Luke chapter 12 verses 35 to 35 to 37. I'll read a couple verses from there. And it says "Be dressed in readiness and keep your lamps lit." It also says about these 10:38 wise virgins that when the bridegroom came, then they trimmed their lamps and they got them ready. Whereas I believe there's a greater calling for us than even that, which is to be dressed in readiness right now. To be dressed in alert right now, to keep 10:51 our lamps lit right now. Be like verse 36. Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns for the wedding feast, not ones who are drowsy and falling asleep. So that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. 11:05 And blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will gird himself to serve and have them recline at the table and he will come up and wait on them. And then in verse 42 it says 11:18 the Lord said, "Who then is this faithful and sensible steward whom his master will put in charge of his servants to give them their rations at the proper time. Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing." And I'm encouraged to see that the Lord 11:32 is looking not just for ones who are wise enough to have oil for themselves, but for ones who are faithful and sensible. And may we be faithful and sensible to be able to provide the rations to our family, to be able to 11:45 provide the oil to the one who is lacking right now in preparation and in readiness for the for the Lord's coming. And there are good tests for us to see right now. How we How do we test whether we are getting spiritually drowsy in 11:58 this role of being a watchman for our families in particular. There's There's things we can think about. One Something that the Lord is convicting me of. If I enjoy coming to the church meetings and fellowshipping with the brothers and 12:13 sisters more than I enjoy the fellowship with my wife and my children, that's a crack. That's a sign that I might be alert in the church, but perhaps a little drowsy at home. You know, we've heard this analogy of the first floor, second floor, and third 12:26 floor. The foundation of the that second floor must be far more important to me than the foundation of the third floor. I must be so I must enjoy that investment in my children, in my spouse far more than even I enjoy the the the 12:41 fellowship with the brothers and sisters. If an academic GPA for my children means more to me than their spiritual GPA. If it On the flip side, if I rejoice when they do well in the test or on the opposite side, if they fail at something, does 12:57 that disturb me than when I see an unkind word in the home or a casual disobedience creep in. Am I more thrilled to root Think about this. When we when they score a goal in a soccer match, does that make me cheer really loudly? Do I have a louder 13:12 cheer when I see them immediately obeying or being kind to their siblings or submitting them to themselves to the Lord. These are all tests of where where my priorities are. Will I pride myself in their nice-sounding prayers, 13:28 but yet not pay attention to their unkind words or the fact that they're not pursuing those prayers to be answered, but are just praying perhaps to impress me, and then I'm taking comfort in that. Finally, I share um two verses to end. Who gets this best? 13:44 We talked about the monoxide detector, the security system, the virus scan. Who gets the best security system that is available? And we actually Santo shared the answer earlier today at the beginning. Uh Psalms 107, verses 41 and 42. 14:02 It says, "He sets the needy securely high away from affliction or invasion and makes his families like a flock." And that's the one who is the most secure, the one who has the best uh detection system, so to speak, will be 14:22 the one who is the most needy. The one who's most needy will be securely the one who's who's crying out to the Lord the Lord the most, who is not silent, like we read that verse in Isaiah 62. He's the one whose families will be like 14:36 a flock. As it says in verse 41, "The upright will see it. Other families will see it. Other uh Christian families will see it and be glad and will want to imitate that, and unrighteousness will have its mouth shut in such a family." Verse 41. 14:52 And then finally, the last verse, Psalm 127, verse 1. We know this verse well. It says, "Unless the Lord builds a house." Maybe you realize, despite all of our looking out, despite all of our being on watch, despite all of our 15:04 crying out on the Lord, there's no credits. Like a baby crying out, it's like that man crying out for at midnight. He's not producing the bread. It's the It's the homeowner who's going to give him the bread. "Unless the Lord builds the house, they 15:19 labor in vain to build it." All of my excellent parenting, homeschooling, uh avoiding these things, you know, getting rid of TV in the house or putting these parental controls, all of those are meaning those are labors that are in vain if I'm not needy 15:33 and crying out to the Lord and saying, "The Lord must build this house." Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. And so we may may maybe not uh maybe not be watchmen who are laboring in vain, who 15:47 are staying awake in vain, but really realize that God is going to fill us according fill our cup according to our need like we sang earlier today. And that he is the one who wants to build a home. And may we yield to him, but yet 16:02 remember the the order of those sentences that we are on our guard first listening to him to what he has to say first. And then secondly, not being silent for him until we see the light of our family, of our spouses, of us personally, our wife, our children 16:18 going out and becoming brighter and brighter like the new Nissan. Amen. I thought to build on that what we just heard about being needy. Um and also connect to something I shared yesterday at Santosh's celebration about 16:37 running the race. Uh I think this fellowship maybe rivaling with the Austin CFC uh takes the prize for the most active athletic uh church. I think you're going to have a competition one day between the two churches as to who has more soccer 16:52 players and who can run faster and all that. Um but here's something that's special about the spiritual race. Um we uh I don't I think you'll beat us all in San Jose. And FC CF, even though we have maybe more adults, your uh your children are 17:09 amazing. Um the amazing thing about the spiritual race, which we read in 1 Corinthians 9:24, is a a picture of how Jesus looks at running the race. Because you read 1 Corinthians 9 and you think it's all about what the world talks about as 17:23 athleticism. How do you run a race that you may win? And the picture is someone who's training every day and disciplining the body. Um but the irony of it is um the way that we win this race is by weakness. Um it's not by the sort of strength of a 17:40 discus thrower or the athleticism uh of, you know, a fast athlete. It wins it's by weakness. It's almost contrary to the thing the the So, the weakest person in this church can be the winner in the race. Not the most athletic. So, if you're 17:55 feeling not necessarily because you're feeling downcast, but because we are poor in spirit. You know, one of my favorite verses Matthew 5 and 3. But before I get to that, I thought I would read this This is a great song that's always 18:08 um blessed me by Graham Kendrick called Meekness and Majesty. I'll just read the words of it. You probably sing it here. Um and this is the irony and almost the mystery of the gospel. Meekness and majesty, manhood and deity 18:22 deity, in perfect harmony the man who is God. Lord of eternity dwells in humanity, kneels in humility, and washes our feet. Oh, what a mystery. Meekness and majesty Bow down and worship, for this is your God. This is your God. 18:38 So, to me the greatest encouragement about this race is the most humble person wins at the end of it. And it's a tremendous blessing to me and to all. We can encourage our children to be the most needy, the most uh poor in spirit, to be at the back of 18:53 the line. And if anything in this world makes us feel like we get to the front of this line, whether it's our education, our bank balance, title you may have at work, anything, just think of yourself, well, all the more reason we need to get 19:07 to the back of the line. And those of you who might feel the most that you uh discouraged or you feel like I don't have much. You have the opportunity to to be to allow that neediness and to depend on the Lord for the power that 19:20 can help you win the race. So, that's the first thing that that encourages me that the race is favoring the needy as opposed to favoring the most athletic, which is counter to the the the spirit of the world. The second thing that encouraged me 19:32 about this race is what we heard last Sunday at NCCF, which is we're not running this alone. We're running this together. No race Every race is so lonely when we have to run alone. Um marathon runners have to run last few 19:45 miles to run it alone. Uh but usually the the shorter distant races, you have a pacer. You have someone who's pacing you 100 m, 200. You You're benchmarking yourself against them. Um and you know, to me that verse which 19:58 was Hebrews 3:13, uh an encouragement for us to do every day. Um we heard this very clearly last Sunday at um at at NCCF. It's a command that we're asked to do every day. Encourage one another every day. Um very few you rejoice, pray, give 20:16 thanks, you know, that RPT phrase. That's also a daily constant. In fact, that's more frequent than anything. But, this is another good and and the good news for me is, you know, I have physical brothers, I have spiritual 20:27 brothers. Hopefully, our our family, our spouse, we have to encourage them every day. We have children, if you have children, uh at some point in time, uh we'll be encouraging our parents. Whatever that cycle is, um the race is 20:40 not run alone. So, that's a tremendous encouragement to me that we run and we run with weakness. And when we run, we run together. And um you know, there's a African saying, if you want to to run fast alone, you run alone. If you want 20:54 to run far, you run together. And to me, it's not about who how we start, it's about how we finish. So, let's be encouraged by that, brothers and sisters. Um I want to be the most needy person who can receive grace to run every day 21:07 uh that I can be of a help to my um my own life first. That's the first circle the Lord asked us that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. The next circle is our marriage for those of us who are married. And the next circle is our our 21:21 physical family, our own children, which we have to give account for until at least they're 18 and then after that we pray for them. And the next circle is a spiritual family the Lord puts in our our midst. And then the next one is when 21:33 we've gotten grace to run on our own and then that circle we run together with the fellowship. So praise God for that and you know, many of us will be winners when we get to heaven if we follow that. Amen. Let's just one 21:44 word in Psalm 27 if you can turn there with me. For people in under the old covenant everything that they read in the Old Testament and knew about God was word. It hadn't become flesh. We read when Jesus came John chapter 1 22:02 the word became flesh. That same chapter we saw the glory. Jesus exemplified the glory of God in flesh. And so when you read the Old Testament even much of the Psalms it was word. It was in a sense you could say theory. 22:19 The idea of the glory of God without the actually seeing the reality. And you read this for example in Psalm 27 verse 13. A verse we know well David says, I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the 22:39 Lord in the land of the living. I was sitting here thinking as I was listening to all that we heard today how often actually almost every single time until today I have read this verse and thought yeah Lord you're going to be good to me. 22:57 It's a verse I've spoken myself. Lord, I would have despaired unless I believed you would be good to me. And it must start there. But when the word became flesh, Jesus didn't only think, "Okay, Father, you're going to be good to me." 23:13 He said, "Lord, be good through me." And the way I see the life of Jesus under the new covenant, now I give somebody else the right to say, "Lord, I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord when I'm around a living person like 23:31 Santosh." That's how it was with Jesus. Where somebody else now has the right to say, "I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord on earth today." This is why the Lord has left a bride today. This is why the Lord came 23:47 down to this earth for somebody to be able to say, "I'll see the goodness of the Lord on earth among living people." Jesus set us an example today. So, this verse is no longer just a receiving verse, but a giving verse as well for me today 24:04 on earth. So, I can say in faith, "It is much more blessed to give than to receive." I want my wife to be able to say tomorrow, "I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord living with Santosh." I want my children to be able to say, "I 24:18 believe I will see the goodness of the Lord living with my dad." My neighbor, the the person on the street that I cross or who I cut in front of on on accident or who cuts in front of me. Our co-workers. Can they say this week, dear brothers 24:37 and sisters, "I'll see the goodness of the Lord when I'm around so-and-so who calls himself a Christian." This is the word become flesh. Earlier you read verse 8. These verses that have challenged me for many years. When you said, "Seek my face," my heart 24:53 said to you, "Your face, O Lord, I shall seek." I want to seek the face of the Lord. What do I get when I seek the face of the Lord? I get his goodness. Not just on me, but now through me to others as well. Amen. Before I close, our new book for this 25:14 month is Know Your Enemy. I hope we we had 2 months to read the previous book, which was The Full Gospel. I'll be honest, brothers and sisters, I didn't get to the end of it. I read it many years ago, but I didn't finish it 25:26 in these last 2 months, but I'm going to double time this month since we've got a short book. So, try to finish that book, and the children as well. But this book, I want to encourage especially children and young people to 25:40 read this book. I know The Full Gospel was a little bit meatier. There's more solid truth there, and maybe a little bit more difficult for our young children to understand. It's still a good book, but this one, especially, 25:53 if you're old enough to read, which maybe 8, 10 years old, you should start reading. I remember when my dad preached this. I don't know if I was actually in Clarence in the school at the time, but I may have been older, but he spoke it at my 26:05 old school that I went to, these messages, and they were converted into a book. It's a guide to overcoming Satan. That's why it's called Know Your Enemy. Do you know, think about it, children, young people, do you know the origin of Satan? What 26:19 Satan's methods are? How Satan deceives Christians? How God uses Satan to fulfill his purposes? And how you can overcome Satan all the time. That's what this book is about. And in the intro, he says, "This book contains messages 26:37 that were given to a large group of young students, and they've been retained in their spoken form." Young people are the target of Satan's attacks in these days. Do you believe it? Read the news, you'll see it. The people who are propagating evil are 26:52 younger and younger. They're the target of Satan's attacks in these days. Satan is going all out. Now, when was this written? You remember that? Yeah, 1994. So, it's almost 30 years ago. Even more true today, I believe. Young 27:09 people are the target of Satan's attacks in these days. Satan is going all out to ensure that today's young people are polluted by impurity, bitterness, jealousy, selfish ambition, and materialism. And if you are if and if not by any of 27:24 these, then at least by pride, self-righteousness, and hypocrisy. Just as evil as all those other things. We must not be ignorant of any of Satan's schemes or wiles. Satan was defeated on Calvary by our Lord Jesus Christ. Our calling now is to 27:39 register that victory over the forces of darkness everywhere we go. If you're interested in doing that, read this book. It's very short. So, I want to encourage all of us, especially young people, to read this book. If you don't 27:53 have a copy of it, just grab one today. I think it's just a dollar or two. Um if you can't afford that, come talk to me. Um but yeah, also oh, there are some books that we actually have audio books for. Uh CFC website does have audio books for 28:10 not all of them. We're hoping to get to that where all the books are available in spoken format, but this is one of them. So, if you'd like to listen to it uh while you're driving or if you prefer hearing it, we have this book in audio format. Uh 28:25 so, you can just go if you go to rlcfl.church/books, you go to the menu, you'll find the books section, and you can see our monthly plan where you see which books we're planning to read each month, and you can uh for the month of 28:36 April, we're planning to read this book. And it just directs you to the CFC website for this book, which you can read online or listen online. So, I hope we'll um excited to to move on to the next book.
