0:07 Yeah, I wanted to wanted to continue in what the theme is with being grounded deeply rooted. One of the things that's kind of funny about a month ago this came on my heart about a month ago. I was I was cleaning up some documents at work 0:26 and I normally don't print anything out. And I was going through it and all of a sudden I found this piece of paper. And it was these deep truths from brother Zach. I had no idea what it was doing in and all these documents. And 0:40 something really stood out for me when I saw this. So I wanted to talk to you about it today. Now, I have a question for you if you think about this. Why we came to the conference to begin with. There's something that I always 0:52 think about when there's a conference or really anytime we hear a message. If you turn to Matthew chapter 7 You know, this is the end of the the 1:14 Sermon on the Mount and the best possible words that people could have listened to in that day was what Jesus had to say. And at the very end of it in in verse 26 You know, there's a there's a kid song 1:31 right about the rains coming down and the floods coming up. And if you build your house on the rock, you're fine. If you build your house on the sand, it's Well, read what it says here in verse 26. It says, "Everyone who hears these 1:43 words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house and it fell. And great was its fall." 1:56 I find that um I've even come to the place in my own life when I I've I've said to God, I said, "Lord, I if I hear a sermon, I just I can't hear another sermon without doing something with what I hear." I certainly hope that's the intent of 2:11 everyone when you're listening to these sermons, when you come to this conference. It'd be a shame to come here and to listen to all these things that are going to be said and to not act on them, to not do something. Um 2:24 uh So, what I want to talk to you about this morning is something that stands out in 2 Timothy chapter 3. If I were to ask you, "What is scripture good for? If you're going to make profit off of the scripture, and I'm not talking about 2:40 money off of obviously, but if you're going to profit off of the scripture, what is something that you could profit from?" It says in 2 Timothy 3:16, it says, "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for proof, for 2:54 correction, for training in righteousness." And why is that? Verse 17, "So that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work." And I want to focus on one word here. What I really want to talk about this morning 3:08 um and this relates to that piece of paper that I found um and it's this word correction. I will tell you that this is something we will all face. I'm just calling it right now. If you haven't faced it yet, you'll face it. Um 3:24 someone is going to correct us. And uh it's very critical how we respond to correction. When I think of something that has to be deeply rooted inside of us, it is this matter of correction because it's going to happen. You're going to say 3:40 something, you're going to do something. It might be foolish, someone might call you out on it. Um and it depending on how you react to it, the Bible has a lot to say about that. And I really felt that this is something 3:53 that I really wanted to talk to you to you all about this morning. I know when I was very young, especially in my college years, maybe right after that, uh there was a time, I'll I'll tell you that it just seems like I kept getting 4:08 corrected like every day multiple times. And I just I I got weary from uh being corrected, which is not the right response, but I thought, "When are these corrections going to stop? I'm just so tired of being corrected." 4:20 Um but I was foolish whether in my speech or in my actions. And um I want to look at I want to look at some of these some of these verses that um that the Bible deals with with correction. I remember hearing this a long time ago when Brother Zach said, 4:39 "Why could Jesus use Peter much?" It's because he could correct him much. And why couldn't he use Judas much? It's because he couldn't really correct him, right? I mean, that we have the this one example um with with with Judas in John chapter 12 4:55 when, you know, he was complaining about the money that could have been spent on the poor, but instead this woman used it for the oil. Um And he couldn't even receive just a simple little correction, but then on the other hand, Peter 5:09 um from the beginning is constantly getting corrected, right? All throughout uh his ministry. And um and even afterwards, right? Uh in Galatians, I think it's Galatians chapter 2 when we see uh Paul correcting Peter for how Peter 5:26 was behaving, how how he was uh acting among the Gentiles and the and the Jews there. Um so I find I find a lot of comfort in in thinking about the life of Peter that the Lord took someone like that and uh was able to correct him and how Peter 5:42 kept responding to it. Um I'm not going to get into all the things with Peter, but you know, we we know even one example when he said, "Get behind me, Satan." Now, that's that's an incredibly harsh correction. I don't think anyone has ever said that to me, 5:56 called me Satan. Uh and here Jesus called one of his absolute closest followers, he called him Satan. Um so, let's let's look at this. What What I actually wrote down, what I found on this piece of paper, turn to Hebrews 6:10 chapter 12. What I found on this piece of paper, what it said um was to love correction. And that is what got me was the uh the loving correction part. Now, the Bible talks a little bit about that here in 6:28 Hebrews chapter 12. So, we don't have to be uh we'll read a verse here. We don't have to be hyper spiritual and say in in that moment um you absolutely love it, but but there's something you'll you'll see if you have an understanding of what's 6:42 happening when we are corrected. So, uh let's start in verse 7. It says, "It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline." So, I know as a father, I I 6:55 couldn't I couldn't imagine not disciplining my children. And obviously, it you know, God is comparing it with the with an earthly father here. Verse verse 8, "But if you are without discipline of which all have become partakers, then 7:08 you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them, shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a 7:21 short time as seemed best to them." Um but he disciplines us for our good so that we may share his holiness. Remember that's similar to what we just read in 2 Timothy chapter 3. "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful." So, that's what I was 7:36 referring to. At the moment, it doesn't seem to be joyful, but sorrowful. Um uh yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. So, um it's a very difficult thing. I I don't 7:54 I mean, if you love being corrected in that moment, I guess you're more spiritual than me. But, it's a very difficult thing to to when someone corrects you, to be joyful, because there's a sorrow there because you've been called out or you've been 8:06 exposed, whatever the case may be. Um but again, I think it's this matter of how we respond to it. It's not just the matter that you are being corrected, but it's the matter of how we respond. Uh let's turn to Proverbs, cuz I I find 8:20 this interesting in Proverbs, there's so many I don't remember how many Proverbs there are. I think there's over 800 Proverbs in the book of Proverbs, but turn to Proverbs chapter 1. I don't know if you've ever thought about this. 8:34 The first six verses aren't really Proverbs. It's It's the reason for the book of Proverbs, the first six verses. Um what Solomon is saying, this is why I'm giving you Proverbs. And then the very first proverb, the very first one, 8:53 is verse seven. When he says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." And ultimately, I'll tell you this right right now that the fear of the Lord is what's going to help you in how you respond to correction. 9:07 Or in this case, what it how he says at the end of this verse, he says, "Fools despise wisdom and instruction." So, the very first proverb, again, I don't know if you've ever thought about that, it starts with saying, "Fools despise 9:19 wisdom and instruction." Now, I'm I'm saying correction, but I'm kind of using them uh kind of hand-in-hand here, wisdom and instruction. Um it's a serious thing and and I can't remember how many times Proverbs deals with fools. I think it's over 60 9:32 times that it keeps giving us uh an idea of what a fool is going to do, how a fool is going to respond. Um fools are wise in their own eyes, right? They're scorners. I mean, there's so many things that it says about being 9:46 foolish, and it starts with a It starts with a despising of wisdom and instruction. And a lot of that does come through correction. Um and what will a fool do when they're being corrected by I say a godly person, right? I don't want to talk about maybe 10:02 someone else who's foolish correcting a fool. Talking about a wise person correcting a fool. Um a foolish person will get offended and say, "Well, that's, you know, that's not for me." Or, you know, "I think I'm right. They're wrong." 10:15 Whatever whatever their um excuse in their mind is going to be. Uh I'm going to hang out in Proverbs here a little bit. We'll look at a few different verses. Go over to chapter 3. He says, "My son, do not reject the discipline of 10:33 the Lord, or loathe his reproof. Uh for whom the Lord loves he reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights." Um multiple times he says, "Do not reject the discipline of the Lord. Do not reject the discipline of the Lord." 10:53 Um and he's constantly equating the fool to someone who's rejecting discipline or correction, instruction, all of that. Uh let's continue on Proverbs chapter 5. And we could look at verse 12. And we'll 11:13 look at a few verses here in Proverbs chapter 5. Um this is talking a little bit about the the end of someone who does not receive instruction. Uh verse 12 he says, "And you say, 'How I have hated instruction, and my heart spurned reproof. I have not 11:31 listened to the voice of my teachers nor inclined my ear to my instructors. And I think if we were um think about like when you get a job and it's your first day on the job and someone is trying to instruct you and you've never done the job before. You 11:46 don't even have prior experience. And you said, "No, I don't need to listen uh to who whoever is teaching me." I actually saw something like this one time in one of my jobs. I was in training. And this guy he kept on saying 12:00 repeatedly, he must have said it 15 20 times in the training class. He said, "No, no, I'm good. I'm good. I don't need to listen." He He kept saying that. He said, "I I don't" He said, "I don't need to listen. I've got this down 12:11 already. Um this isn't for me. This is for everybody else." Well, uh he got fired later that day. That really is what happened. He got fired um But I mean, you know, we think about that like okay, kind of makes sense there. But why would we come to church? 12:29 Why would we meet together and then someone is trying to give you instruction. I mean, I I I think about this with my own children when I have to talk to them sometimes and I say, "Listen, what do you guys think I'm doing here? 12:41 Do you think I'm trying to torture you with uh instructing you how to uh whatever it is, you know, pull pull weeds by the roots or something instead of pulling them by the top, pull them by the roots. Um so we understand that concept in the 12:56 workplace, but in the local body here, do we really understand that when we have teachers that are trying to instruct us? Okay, so here's the guy who says, "I'm not going to incline my ear to to my instructors." Now, go down to um 13:11 go down to verse 22. Look at 22 and 23 here. His own iniquities will capture the wicked and he will be held with the cords of his sin. And this is really the end of someone who just will not receive instruction. He says he will die for lack of 13:24 instruction and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray. Um, it's really a sad thing to see uh, believers because I think sometimes we could read this and say, "Oh, well, this is the the unbeliever. This is the guy who's not really born again. This 13:40 guy's not saved or this girl, whatever." But really it could it could happen to any one of us. Um, the and and it says the greatness of his folly. He doesn't even realize how foolish um, how foolish it is to not receive 13:58 instruction. Uh, let's continue on. He says here, uh, look Look at another one in Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 15. This is similar to what we just read. 14:16 Verse 10, it says, "Grievous punishment is for him who forsakes the way. He who hates reproof will die." Uh, it's a pretty it's a pretty serious thing and to say You know, well, I mean the way that I understand this too is that um, what 14:35 does it say there in uh, uh, in 1 John about to um, to obey God and his commands are not grievous. And I think that it's the fool that looks at the correction and says and and and and I'm saying this from personal experience because 14:51 how many times I was corrected when I was younger. And I realized having that that grievous, this is so hard. This is, you know, the attitude. This is so difficult. Uh, that they take it as well, it's just it's just too hard. I 15:07 can't handle this and you're always correcting me Says, "He who hates reproof will die." I mean, that's that's the I believe the spiritual death that will come when we do not receive correction. If If just going to get offended 15:22 it it'll be grievous, as as the verse says here. Um you know, consider consider the history of Israel, right? And let's look in Jeremiah. This is just over one matter in Jeremiah 17, if you turn there. And you think of you think of Jeremiah's 15:46 ministry and the people just didn't want to listen. And this is just one area that he says um look at verse 22 here. The Lord is He says, "Thus says the Lord here, you shall not bring a load out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do 16:04 any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy as I commanded your forefathers." So, it's just one thing, right? Um I mean, there's a lot of things that they needed correction on. It's just one thing, just uh keep the Sabbath day holy, right? And 16:17 what does it say in verse 23? It says, "Yet they did not listen or incline their ears, but stiffen their necks in order not to listen or take correction." This was just in one small matter. Oh, I don't want to say it was small. It 16:30 was keeping the Sabbath was important, but um but let's let's look even before this. I think it's Jeremiah chapter 7. I think Jeremiah is just one of the one of the saddest books in the scripture when you think about 16:48 uh the Lord is just pleading with Israel, with Judah, to return. And um well, I'll just read a few verses here that just shows how incredibly uh resistant they were to receiving any sort of instruction, any any sort of correction. 17:07 Verse 23 in in Jeremiah chapter 7, it says, "But this is what I commanded them saying, 'Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. And you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may not that it may be well with 17:23 you. Yet, they did not obey or incline thine ear. But walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart and went backward and not forward. All right, so that's already the first time there. Verse 25, since the day that your 17:37 fathers came out of the land of Egypt into this day, I've sent you all my servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them. Now, here's the second time. Yet, they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. 17:49 They did more evil than their fathers. You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to that's the third time. And you shall call to them, but they will not answer you the fourth time. You shall say to them, this is the 18:01 nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or accept correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. And see, there's it says right there they didn't accept correction. I think that's five times, 18:14 five or six times if you count them, that it says in just those few verses. Um you know, you think you think of the whole history, right, of Israel, and God keeps on sending prophet after prophet after prophet. Um and there were some, right, that had 18:28 responded uh even in Jeremiah's time, King Josiah, right? He had he had responded, the nation had responded, but for the most part, they kept rejecting all these words. And uh again, read verse 28 there. This is the nation, Judah, Israel, that did not obey 18:48 the voice of the Lord their God or accept correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. Why? It's because they didn't accept correction when it came. So, I thought there was an interesting I'm going to go back to the book of Proverbs 19:03 cuz I thought this was interesting about in in Proverbs, this illustration that is used. If you turn to Proverbs chapter 24. I like this illustration that we find 19:20 here in Proverbs about um Oh, well, let's just read this verse verse 30. Uh it says, "I passed by the field of the sluggard and by the vineyard of the man lacking sense, and behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles. Its 19:36 surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. When I saw, I reflected upon it. I looked and received instruction." It's really interesting what he says there. It wasn't even his own field, right? It 19:50 was somebody else's, and he says, "I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, then your poverty will come as a robber, and your want like an armed man." Um 20:04 It is interest- interesting here because because of others and how they were acting, he looks on it, and he says, he's reflecting on it. Now, I have a little garden back there, so I can kind of relate to what it's saying here about being overgrown with 20:20 thistles. Um we're constantly going out there, and we're just looking for a little bit of corn and a little bit of tomatoes over there. And the the weeds are coming up, and we constantly have to go over there. But this guy says, 20:32 says, "You know, let me just sleep. I'm just going to rest." Um and he says it just he was lacking sense. Uh it was completely overgrown with thistles, and it's like, "Well, what kind of a vineyard is this?" And because of others, he saw his own 20:48 desperate need uh for instruction, and he says, "I'm going to receive instruction because of others." Um and so I I see the Lord has placed circumstances, has placed um just things in our life where we can look at it, and we we can say, "Okay, 21:07 I don't have to make this mistake." Now, you might make the mistake, and again, you might be corrected, but even before you get to that, we can learn from mistakes of others that have gone before us, and see our own desperate need, like 21:19 this guy. He's reflecting on it. He's saying, "Something's not right here with this vineyard. Something's not right with how this guy has set up his his garden." And you might say the same thing about my garden if you took a look over there, 21:32 but uh but you have to be diligent to to work on it. And that's something that this guy realized uh when he saw that. He was learning from mistakes of others. Now, I'll say this, too. Um let's go back to Proverbs 19 in this matter of receiving 21:51 um uh receiving instruction. It says in Proverbs 19:27, he says, "Cease listening, my son, to discipline, and you will stray from the words of knowledge." You know, there's this uh there's this example I was thinking about 22:11 in 1 Kings 13. We could just look at this briefly. I'm not going to dive too deep into this story uh with with Jeroboam. If I don't know if you're familiar with this story of the young prophet and the old prophet. The young prophet in 1 Kings 13, you can 22:26 look at it if you want as I'm talking about it. Um the young prophet was sent to give a message, and um uh the king says to him, "Come home with me." Verse 7, "Refresh yourself. I will give you a reward." Verse 8, the man of God says to the 22:42 king, "If you were to give me half your house, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place. For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, 'You shall not uh you shall eat no bread, nor drink 22:53 water, nor return by the way which you came.'" Uh so, he went another way and did not return by the way which he came to Bethel. So, these first 10 verses of this man of God he received instruction from the Lord and he followed it. He gave the word. 23:09 And this is the thing to beware of now. This uh there was this old prophet um that uh tricked him and out outright lied to him and he and he said, "Hey, listen. Come here with me and let's eat and drink." And the man says, "No, no, I I 23:23 can't do that." Um what is it? Verse uh verse 16, "I cannot return with you nor go with you nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place because the Lord commanded it." Um and then uh the old prophet said to him, "I'm 23:38 also a prophet though." And so, you're going to you're going to and my point in this here, I think is that you're going to run into this in your possibly the church you go back to and they're going to say, "Well, I'm also a Christian. So, let me instruct 23:50 you." Even though you have clear direction from the Lord. You have to be careful with some instruction. He says uh "I'm also a prophet like you and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord saying, 'Bring him back with 24:04 you to your house that he may eat bread and drink water.'" But he lied to him. So, what did the young prophet do? He went back with him and he ate bread in his house and drank water. Now, the the end result was that that young prophet 24:14 had died. A lion came and killed him. And um and and that was the end because he had disobeyed the Lord. And he listened to the wrong instruction. This is something that we really have to be uh careful of and I would say 24:29 the wrong instruction, what I've seen primarily comes from those who don't fear God. If someone fears God, has the fear of the Lord, uh that instruction is safe compared to the person who does not fear God. And I find that often in churches that um 24:46 uh young people maybe in their own group will say, "Oh, yeah, that makes sense." From another young person that might be foolish. So, we have to be very very very careful because I I often hear people say something like, "Well, I 24:58 the Lord spoke to me and the Lord said this and I think with some people I say, "Man, the Lord is really speaking to you a lot. Like, I would love to hear from the Lord like you." I mean, it's remarkable how much the Lord is speaking to you, like, "You 25:11 know, God told me." Like, really? God told you? And it's like you've got God on speed dial or something and you could just Uh but, you know, that's kind of what I I think the way that um I see young believers, how they respond to 25:26 instruction from each other. "Oh, God told you. God told me." Okay, great. Um Now, let's I'm going to go back to Proverbs again now and go back to Proverbs chapter 7. I'll tell you that this this one um 25:44 this one hits home to me when I think back in my life when I was younger uh especially in my young single days. Um Uh let's read let's read verse 7 in chapter 7. And I saw among the naive 26:02 I discerned and discerned among the youths a young man lacking sense. Uh I think in the King James it says a a man void of understanding. Um This is a uh this is kind of a scary place to be because you you read about uh well, you can read the rest of the 26:21 chapter and where it leads the person void of understanding. Um what what's really scary about this to me when I when I think back what the Lord has saved me from is having such uh an ignorance, if you want to call it that that someone is trying 26:37 to correct you and you don't even you're not even paying attention to the fact that they're trying to correct you. You're void of so much understanding. Someone's trying to tell you, give you instruction, and you're not paying 26:46 attention. It's like you're you're like wandering off or your mind is wandering somewhere else. Um this it's just a it's a terrifying place to be, but there's hope though for this person. Um now we we know you know I think I 27:00 read before the about the fear of the Lord. We know it's the beginning of knowledge, wisdom, right? Uh James chapter 1, you probably maybe all know this verse in James chapter 1. Here's the good news though, if you're just 27:13 completely lacking understanding and you lack sense as it says. Um what do we do? Maybe someone can tell me if any of us lack wisdom, what should we do according to James? Someone say it. Ask God. Ask God. Exactly. 27:32 Um verse 5, but if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. It's a wonderful promise right there. Excellent promise, especially um for some of us that who may lack a lot 27:48 of wisdom, we can go directly to God and he can give us wisdom so that when instruction, when correction, when reproof when it does come, we can receive it. Let's keep going on. I want to I want to look here um at a great example in the Bible of 28:07 receiving correction. Uh turn to uh we can start with 2 Samuel chapter 12. And we'll see this twice. Now this is uh about David. If you remember, he's a man after God's own heart. 28:26 And you probably all know the story of David and he has um he's going to have a child with Bathsheba. He has Uriah killed in battle. And Nathan comes to him and he gives him this example. And David says, "Okay, this guy needs to 28:45 pay." This guy that you know that the example with the with the sheep. Says this guy needs to pay and then Nathan Nathan says, "Well, you're that man, you know." Uh If you're not familiar with the story, you can read it in the in the first 28:59 uh in the early part of the chapter. And he says here in verse um verse We can look at verse 11. "Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household. I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your 29:15 companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. Indeed, you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and under the sun." And this is David's response to Nathan. Okay, this is what I really 29:28 want you to understand when when you are being corrected. Instead of getting offended, and David I think David could have used a lot of excuses here. I really do. I think he could have come up with a lot. Um I maybe he could have said, "Well, 29:40 I'm king, aren't I?" Or he could have said, "Well, Bathsheba shouldn't have been there." Whatever. I don't know. He maybe could have come up with a lot of excuses. But he says in verse 13, and this is so important. I really hope that you 29:52 understand this point here. Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." That's it. That's it. I've sinned against the Lord. There was no excuse. There was no yeah, but or what if I sinned. That's it. 30:12 Nathan said to David, This is the response. Now, this is the great I mean, this as good as it is that we saw David's response, I love Nathan's response. He He says, "The Lord also has taken away your sin. You shall not die." 30:24 Excellent. Excellent. That is so critical learning from this example of what happens. Um I have seen over the years, and I'm guessing maybe even everyone in this room has seen someone who you've fellowshiped with, and they got offended 30:44 over this matter of being corrected. And I I don't know, you know, we could hypothesize with what would happen, come up with some hypotheticals with what would have happened if David would have made an excuse, but we don't 30:57 have that. This says I've sinned against the Lord. This happens again. Um verse or uh turn to 2 Samuel 24 at 2 Samuel 24 Um this is when you know, Satan had uh 31:16 Satan had provoked David to number the people and the Lord was angry and it says here verse 1, the Lord burned against Israel and incited David uh against them to say, "Go number Israel and Judah." David was being listening to to Satan here. Satan was 31:34 influencing. We read that in in Chronicles. And this uh again another prophet, remember where you read in Jeremiah, I've sent you all these prophets. And thankfully David is a is is a life and an example of someone uh someone who 31:50 did listen to the prophet. It says in verse 10, "Now David's heart troubled him after he had numbered the people." It's a good thing that he was convicted, right? Um that he had felt that conviction. So, David says to the Lord, 32:08 here you go again. What does he say? He says, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done." Uh that's it, right? I mean, he says more, but he but there's no excuses. He says, "This is a great sin what I've done." I I'm telling you this is really 32:25 critical in how we respond to correction. This is very important. "But now, oh Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly. He just acknowledges it. He there's not a single bit of excuse in his heart 32:43 there. Please take away the iniquity of your servant, the sin. For I've acted very foolishly. That's the response. That's it. I'm telling you guys this is going to happen. Someone is going to correct you. It's going to happen. I don't know if 32:58 it's 5 years from now, 5 minutes from now, whatever, 5 hours. It's going to happen. Someone's going to correct you. And especially when it's a matter of of sin, maybe not even something fool, maybe it's a a matter of of sin, it's 33:11 extra critical in how you respond to that. And I'll tell you this that even if you even if you think you're correct, be humble. Don't be proud. Um even if you say, "Well, you know, this is just a misunderstanding. This isn't 33:30 really what happened." Uh be humble when you when you when you receive correction, it's it's not worth it. You know, I I I think of the life of Jesus. I mean, this is uh Jesus was absolutely perfect, right? I mean, it 33:49 if I if I would have cried if if I was living back then and I was an older person, whatever, and I would have corrected Jesus, I would have been wrong. But yet Jesus humbled himself quite a bit. I mean, I mean, a lot. He He was I mean, 34:05 You think about that even as when he was older, as he was growing up. Jesus was never wrong. He had never never sinned. Like, why would you correct someone like that? And I could just picture I could just picture older adults, um 34:20 or whatever the case may be, I could just picture them saying, "Okay, you need to You need to submit, Jesus, or you need to you know, if there if there was a conflict, whatever, Jesus just was so humble. Maybe there was a misunderstanding, 34:35 right? And someone misunderstood Jesus. Uh maybe when he was working, maybe when he was playing, I don't whatever it was, maybe someone misunderstood him. But yet Jesus had the humility to receive instruction, to listen from others. 34:50 Um and I and I think when I when I think of us, right? I mean, we're none of us are are uh can say that we have been sinless. And yet Jesus submitted to uh the instruction of his of his earthly parents. Now, he still submitted to God, right? 35:07 He he always submitted to the will of the Father, um no doubt, but but when I look at the life of Christ, I I there's really no excuse. There's absolutely no excuse um in receiving instruction. But in particular, again, what I what I 35:23 wanted to um what I what I saw in that piece of paper that has really stuck with me for this last month when I was looking at all these all these truths that that Brother Zach had said, you know, these are the critical ones. These are the These are 35:36 the ones you got to get down. And uh receiving instruction um or receiving correction, loving correction um it's not something that happens right away, right? Because in Hebrews 12:1 it says uh at the moment there's some sorrow. 35:52 And that's good, right? Because godly sorrow, we read in I think we're talking about this last night in the Q&A, 2 Corinthians 7 when it talks about uh godly sorrow works, it produces repentance. And just like what we read here with 36:05 David um what a tremendous thing when we're confronted with sin. And if And if you see it uh if you're sensitive to it, right? I mean, you you could be like we read in Jeremiah when it says they were stiff-necked 36:23 and they just they wouldn't accept it. But what a great thing when you could just accept it right away. And then immediately um immediately, you know, it it it says that uh like like with Nathan, "Okay, your sins are forgiven." It's a 36:38 great thing. Then look at this what what else he says here um in 2 Samuel 24. I think this is another important thing before we close here. I think this is a very important thing that he says um that David understands about the the punishment here that he 36:56 had to go through. Um not only did he accept the correction, he repented, but he accepted the punishment from the Lord uh with what had happened. He said verse 14, "Then David said to Gad, I'm in great distress." Now, Gad had 37:11 just told him uh this uh but we could read the verse before he says, "Shall 7 years of famine come to you and your land, or will you flee 3 months before your foes while they pursue you, or shall there be 3 days' pestilence in your 37:25 land? Now, consider and see what answer I shall return to him who sent me." Okay, and then David said to Gad, "I am in great distress." Look at his response here with the punishment. Remember that that chastisement from the Lord 37:40 is what something that David knew and and Hebrews wasn't written yet. He says, "Let us now now fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man." And um uh uh we could read down maybe a little bit 37:57 more the verse 15, "The Lord sent a pestilence." Verse 16, "When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, 'It is enough. Now, relax your hand.'" 38:11 And then we read the story about David in in the threshing floor. Um um and he and even there we see David's great humility in the in the threshing floor when he bought that, uh I think is it Is it right there? Right near the end, 38:29 verse 24, just about the last verse of the entire book. Um David says to Araunah, He's purchasing the threshing floor from him. "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God, 38:44 which cost me nothing." I think we've probably heard this verse before. Um and that's and that's how the the the book ends, and it says, "Thus the Lord was moved by prayer for the land." Um so, I see a a radical repentance in 38:58 this. After he was exposed, he receives the correction, he um he repents. I see he was he was forgiven. Um and he and he acknowledged the punishment. He said, "I really I want the punishment from the Lord. I don't want the 39:15 punishment from people." He accepted that um that chastisement from the Lord. As we read earlier, a loving father uh disciplines his son. Um and you see that in verse going back to verse 17, it says, "Behold, it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have 39:32 done wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father's house." Again, he's he's not, you know, I don't know what's what's when he numbered the people. Maybe maybe he had people 39:45 enticing him and saying, "Hey, listen, David, you need to number the people. Let's see how great of a king you are." Whatever it is. But he didn't even he didn't blame that man. He said, "It was I who have sinned. It is I who have done wrong." 39:56 So, it's a very very very important not to um when you're being corrected, don't take on these excuses and and say, "Well, it's uh these guys didn't help the situation, you know." Or um no, it's just it was me who did wrong. 40:12 You see this it just it again, study this, chapter 24, and how he um received this correction um and just receive it with humility, right? I mean that is uh such a a foundational truth that we all have to have deeply rooted in us is humility. 40:32 And that will help us receive correction uh when it comes. So, I think I'll end there, but um I certainly hope that uh maybe hopefully this spoke to someone or they're dealing with battling correction right now. I I don't know if anyone here 40:48 is battling with that, but I certainly hope that um you heed those words and you don't get offended when especially a godly brother or sister corrects you, instructs you. Uh I really hope that you take that to heart. Amen.
