Today on Moody Presents with Mark Jobe. How to live in anticipation of Jesus return.

Today on Moody Presents with Mark Jobe. How to live in anticipation of Jesus return.

Let's be ready for the coming of Jesus. Let's clean our slates. Let's have those conversations. Let's ask for forgiveness. So if they don't forgive you, that's alright. You've asked and you've cleaned your heart. They may want to hold on to the grudge and you have no power over that. But you release the grudge in your heart.

Let's be ready for the coming of Jesus. Let's clean our slates. Let's have those conversations. Let's ask for forgiveness. So if they don't forgive you, that's alright. You've asked and you've cleaned your heart. They may want to hold on to the grudge and you have no power over that. But you release the grudge in your heart.

So glad you've connected today with Moody Presents. Platforming the teaching of Mark Jobe, president of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. I'm John Jaeger, and as we move forward in our series defiance, turn your relationship upside Down, we're going to be talking about relationships. No surprise there. And without question, the most important relationship you and I can ever have is with Jesus. But while we're waiting for his return, there are things that we should be doing to hasten that day. Our message is called keeping your relationship on course for his coming. And if you've missed the first part of this or any of the messages in this series so far, you can catch up online anytime at Moody presents.org. Moody presents dot. But right now, let's find out how we can seek peace and encourage those around us. Here's Mark Jobe.

So glad you've connected today with Moody Presents. Platforming the teaching of Mark Jobe, president of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. I'm John Jaeger, and as we move forward in our series defiance, turn your relationship upside Down, we're going to be talking about relationships. No surprise there. And without question, the most important relationship you and I can ever have is with Jesus. But while we're waiting for his return, there are things that we should be doing to hasten that day. Our message is called keeping your relationship on course for his coming. And if you've missed the first part of this or any of the messages in this series so far, you can catch up online anytime at Moody presents.org. Moody presents dot. But right now, let's find out how we can seek peace and encourage those around us. Here's Mark Jobe.

The leaders among you. They keep watch over you as men who must give account. Account for what? Account for how they've led. Account for the lives that they oversee. We recently had to stop a pastor down. But you see, the pastor, it's different. It's not just about what you do. And he was still preaching and still ministering and doing a great job, even though it was really difficult. But here's the thing about a pastor. You lead out of integrity and you have to lead out of example. And if your marriage falls apart and you're you're on the way to divorce court, You cannot continue to be a model of what it means to be a healthy marriage. If your own household is falling apart. It matters to God and it should matter to the church. So pray for the pastors. Pray for spiritual leaders because I believe that they get hit sometimes at the front more than anybody else gets hit. And it says. Hebrews 13 says, obey them so their work will be a joy, not a burden for that, for that would be no advantage to you. And here's what I always say. And the Bible never calls for blind obedience to leaders. Never. And the church should never feel like some sort of sanctified little dictatorship. It should never work that way. If the church is just like a husband, you may be called to lead your household. But if you're leading your household right, you're not thumping your chest, calling yourself the head and barking out orders for everybody to submit. That's a household out of control. If you have to as the as the leader of the household, if you have to bang your chest and say, I'm the head, I'm the head, I'm the head. Everybody submit. Then there's something wrong there already. Good leaders are servant leaders. They don't have to thump their chest and say obey, but they lead with integrity and love. So you want to follow them because you say, I know they love me, and I know that they want the best for me. And so I want to follow after this man's leader. Every wife wants a man like that. Amen. Wives. Amen. Amen. And spiritual leadership is the same. And I always tell people. Listen, if you lose confidence in the in the leadership of the church that you're at and you can't follow and believe that there's integrity there, and you drag your feet and want to oppose everything that's there, and you say, I can't trust them, then it's time for you to leave that church. Because if there's no belief in integrity, what you don't want is people to have to drag you all that. No one wants to have to drag people behind them all the time. And so Paul's talking to this congregation about being ready for the coming of Christ, and he's talking to them about the relationship with the leaders that they have and their spiritual covering. And then he goes on and the second thing that he tells him is this live ready? So make peace with one another. Verse 13. Live in peace with one another. How many of you know to live in peace is sometimes hard, because people around you have their war paint on. You show up at work and there's some people that just want to fight you. There's people in your household. Sometimes they just want to fight you. But but Jesus, through Paul and the Holy Spirit says, live at peace with one another. Romans 1419 says, says, let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification. You can't control people's attitudes towards you, but you can make right whatever you need to make right towards them. You can't make them try to love you, but you can sure clean out your heart towards any bitterness, resentment, or anger you have towards them. You cannot control other people, but you can control your response that you have towards other people. And what it tells us is live at peace with people. Do everything in your power to make peace. And that's why Romans 14 says, let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace. What leads to peace. Honest conversations. What leads to peace? Hey, I'm sorry if I've offended you or hurt you. Can we talk about it? What leads to peace? Let me show grace to them. Even though they're not showing grace back. What leads to peace? Hey, can we just sit down and chat? Maybe we got off to a wrong start. What leads to peace? Hey, let me speak favorably towards you. The Bible says that when you do good to those that are against you, you heap ashes on their head. Have you ever done that? Done something good for someone that's really out to get you? And they're like, well, what? What do you want? What's the trick? What are you luring me into? There's something about being gracious to people that aren't gracious to you. It's the attitude of Jesus. And listen, there may be some people in this congregation, even here today that you say, I don't like that person. So that's why I sit on that side over there, because they sit on that side and I know where they sit. And I'm going to tell you something about that. Listen, I'm not afraid of conflicts in relationships, because every relationship, close relationship that I know will have conflict. I'm not afraid that you have conflict in your marriage if you're married and you have if you're dating and you haven't had a conflict yet, well, just get ready because it's going to come. You're not really close enough to people yet if you haven't had some disagreement, because the closer you get to people, you'll have some disagreement. So I'm not afraid of conflict. It's the resolution of the conflict that becomes the issue, not the conflict itself. Christians need to be great at resolving conflicts. Why? Because Jesus has called us to peace as much as possible. So we need to be the most honest people around, the people that talk about things, the people that deal with things, the people that ask for forgiveness, the people that if there's issues bottling up, we don't hold them. We're willing to do what we can to make sure that we have peace. Why? Because Paul says, when Jesus comes again, do you want to say, God? I wish you would wait a few minutes because I have about 20 people that I have issues with, and I haven't talked to them about it. You know how many funerals I've done On where people have gone up to bodies crying, weeping, broken because they died and they were relatives, but they had unsettled issues. And there's something deeply perturbing about conversations you should have had, but you never did. There's something very distressful about knowing that. You should have said, I'm sorry and made things right, but you never did. And I want to say, you may not have tomorrow to do it. So let's do it quick. Let's be ready for the coming of Jesus. Let's clean our slates. Let's have those conversations. Let's ask for forgiveness. So if they don't forgive you, that's alright. You've asked and you've cleaned your heart. They may want to hold on to the grudge and you have no power over that. But you release the grudge in your heart. Hebrews 1214 says, pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord. Romans 1218 says, if it is possible as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. If it's possible, Jesus is the Prince of Peace. So therefore, where Jesus is, the attitude of peace should prevail. And then he goes on. And lastly, live. Ready? So challenge one another to be prepared. Now he talks about our relationship to those people that are struggling. Listen, do be at least about 1500 people that will walk through these doors this morning in one of our services. And I can guarantee you, out of those 1500 people that come through these doors, that there's probably a couple hundred that are pretty seriously discouraged about something in life their marriage, their kids, their spiritual walk. Some temptation. I mean, there's always something around us. And you don't know who walks in these doors. That is on the brink. Of suicide, of a breakdown. Walking through these doors. Having just maybe lost a loved one. Heard really bad news. Been fighting with an issue in their life that they hope is going to turn around. And they're just walking in these doors. You don't know how many people may be struggling. And that's why part of the atmosphere culture of the people of God needs to be a culture of hope and encouragement. And so Paul says in verse 14 through 15. Notice what he says. He says, we urge you, brethren, to admonish the unruly. The word admonish Is the idea of exhorting. It's a it's a warm exhortation. It's the unruly means people whose lives are out of order. Notice it doesn't say chastise them. It says admonish the unruly. It's the kind of the arm around the shoulder. Hey, bro, what's going on with your life, man? Have you ever been admonished by someone that loves you? And none of us like to have things told to us that are hard. But it has. Has someone ever admonished you that you respected and that did it in love? And you don't like to hear it, but you know it's right. How many of you know what I'm talking about? I mean, I've had people that I knew loved me and put their arm around me and said, hey, what about this? And I think we need to be that kind of people. We need to be the kind of people that put our arm around people and say, hey, you know, I just want to talk to you about this. I've noticed that, you know, I see you kind of slipping in this area, and I'm just kind of wondering, do you need help? I need to pray for you. Hey, man, how you doing? Because I ran into some old friends and they said, you know, they were like you were back at the old bar, like one of the boys. I thought you left that behind. I thought, man, I thought the drunken, carousing ways of the past, they were gone. That's not who you are. You're becoming a man of God. Rise up. There needs to be arms. Put around some men that says, hey, man, I. I don't want to say anything, but I. I heard how you were talking to your wife, bro. You may have difficulties, but, man, she's the woman that God has given to you. Clean it up. You need to talk to her as the queen of the house. Not the she devil. I mean, we need exhortation that warm encouragement, but the truth. Ephesians says, speak the truth in love. Man, we need truth. We don't need it whitewashed. We need the truth, but we need it in love. The truth needs to be presented with the strong bridge of love. And the stronger the love, the greater the tank that can cover that bridge. The artillery. We all need people in our life that are not going to whitewash the message. They're going to speak to us straight, but they're going to do it in love. And when we know they love us, it has a powerful effect on our life. As a pastor, I've had to do a lot of rebuking over the years. I've had to be the one sometimes that goes in. And I've had people get mad at me. I have people. But I've never regretted speaking the truth. If I speak it in love. And I've had people get mad at me and storm out and then come back and say thank you, pastor, because no one else was willing to tell me. I used to avoid confrontation because no one likes to confront unless you have issues. And there's therapy classes for that. But most of us don't like to confront. But I believe there's a place for godly, healthy, good confrontation in the body of Christ where we challenge people to move forward in a good way in their walk with God.

The leaders among you. They keep watch over you as men who must give account. Account for what? Account for how they've led. Account for the lives that they oversee. We recently had to stop a pastor down. But you see, the pastor, it's different. It's not just about what you do. And he was still preaching and still ministering and doing a great job, even though it was really difficult. But here's the thing about a pastor. You lead out of integrity and you have to lead out of example. And if your marriage falls apart and you're you're on the way to divorce court, You cannot continue to be a model of what it means to be a healthy marriage. If your own household is falling apart. It matters to God and it should matter to the church. So pray for the pastors. Pray for spiritual leaders because I believe that they get hit sometimes at the front more than anybody else gets hit. And it says. Hebrews 13 says, obey them so their work will be a joy, not a burden for that, for that would be no advantage to you. And here's what I always say. And the Bible never calls for blind obedience to leaders. Never. And the church should never feel like some sort of sanctified little dictatorship. It should never work that way. If the church is just like a husband, you may be called to lead your household. But if you're leading your household right, you're not thumping your chest, calling yourself the head and barking out orders for everybody to submit. That's a household out of control. If you have to as the as the leader of the household, if you have to bang your chest and say, I'm the head, I'm the head, I'm the head. Everybody submit. Then there's something wrong there already. Good leaders are servant leaders. They don't have to thump their chest and say obey, but they lead with integrity and love. So you want to follow them because you say, I know they love me, and I know that they want the best for me. And so I want to follow after this man's leader. Every wife wants a man like that. Amen. Wives. Amen. Amen. And spiritual leadership is the same. And I always tell people. Listen, if you lose confidence in the in the leadership of the church that you're at and you can't follow and believe that there's integrity there, and you drag your feet and want to oppose everything that's there, and you say, I can't trust them, then it's time for you to leave that church. Because if there's no belief in integrity, what you don't want is people to have to drag you all that. No one wants to have to drag people behind them all the time. And so Paul's talking to this congregation about being ready for the coming of Christ, and he's talking to them about the relationship with the leaders that they have and their spiritual covering. And then he goes on and the second thing that he tells him is this live ready? So make peace with one another. Verse 13. Live in peace with one another. How many of you know to live in peace is sometimes hard, because people around you have their war paint on. You show up at work and there's some people that just want to fight you. There's people in your household. Sometimes they just want to fight you. But but Jesus, through Paul and the Holy Spirit says, live at peace with one another. Romans 1419 says, says, let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification. You can't control people's attitudes towards you, but you can make right whatever you need to make right towards them. You can't make them try to love you, but you can sure clean out your heart towards any bitterness, resentment, or anger you have towards them. You cannot control other people, but you can control your response that you have towards other people. And what it tells us is live at peace with people. Do everything in your power to make peace. And that's why Romans 14 says, let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace. What leads to peace. Honest conversations. What leads to peace? Hey, I'm sorry if I've offended you or hurt you. Can we talk about it? What leads to peace? Let me show grace to them. Even though they're not showing grace back. What leads to peace? Hey, can we just sit down and chat? Maybe we got off to a wrong start. What leads to peace? Hey, let me speak favorably towards you. The Bible says that when you do good to those that are against you, you heap ashes on their head. Have you ever done that? Done something good for someone that's really out to get you? And they're like, well, what? What do you want? What's the trick? What are you luring me into? There's something about being gracious to people that aren't gracious to you. It's the attitude of Jesus. And listen, there may be some people in this congregation, even here today that you say, I don't like that person. So that's why I sit on that side over there, because they sit on that side and I know where they sit. And I'm going to tell you something about that. Listen, I'm not afraid of conflicts in relationships, because every relationship, close relationship that I know will have conflict. I'm not afraid that you have conflict in your marriage if you're married and you have if you're dating and you haven't had a conflict yet, well, just get ready because it's going to come. You're not really close enough to people yet if you haven't had some disagreement, because the closer you get to people, you'll have some disagreement. So I'm not afraid of conflict. It's the resolution of the conflict that becomes the issue, not the conflict itself. Christians need to be great at resolving conflicts. Why? Because Jesus has called us to peace as much as possible. So we need to be the most honest people around, the people that talk about things, the people that deal with things, the people that ask for forgiveness, the people that if there's issues bottling up, we don't hold them. We're willing to do what we can to make sure that we have peace. Why? Because Paul says, when Jesus comes again, do you want to say, God? I wish you would wait a few minutes because I have about 20 people that I have issues with, and I haven't talked to them about it. You know how many funerals I've done On where people have gone up to bodies crying, weeping, broken because they died and they were relatives, but they had unsettled issues. And there's something deeply perturbing about conversations you should have had, but you never did. There's something very distressful about knowing that. You should have said, I'm sorry and made things right, but you never did. And I want to say, you may not have tomorrow to do it. So let's do it quick. Let's be ready for the coming of Jesus. Let's clean our slates. Let's have those conversations. Let's ask for forgiveness. So if they don't forgive you, that's alright. You've asked and you've cleaned your heart. They may want to hold on to the grudge and you have no power over that. But you release the grudge in your heart. Hebrews 1214 says, pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord. Romans 1218 says, if it is possible as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. If it's possible, Jesus is the Prince of Peace. So therefore, where Jesus is, the attitude of peace should prevail. And then he goes on. And lastly, live. Ready? So challenge one another to be prepared. Now he talks about our relationship to those people that are struggling. Listen, do be at least about 1500 people that will walk through these doors this morning in one of our services. And I can guarantee you, out of those 1500 people that come through these doors, that there's probably a couple hundred that are pretty seriously discouraged about something in life their marriage, their kids, their spiritual walk. Some temptation. I mean, there's always something around us. And you don't know who walks in these doors. That is on the brink. Of suicide, of a breakdown. Walking through these doors. Having just maybe lost a loved one. Heard really bad news. Been fighting with an issue in their life that they hope is going to turn around. And they're just walking in these doors. You don't know how many people may be struggling. And that's why part of the atmosphere culture of the people of God needs to be a culture of hope and encouragement. And so Paul says in verse 14 through 15. Notice what he says. He says, we urge you, brethren, to admonish the unruly. The word admonish Is the idea of exhorting. It's a it's a warm exhortation. It's the unruly means people whose lives are out of order. Notice it doesn't say chastise them. It says admonish the unruly. It's the kind of the arm around the shoulder. Hey, bro, what's going on with your life, man? Have you ever been admonished by someone that loves you? And none of us like to have things told to us that are hard. But it has. Has someone ever admonished you that you respected and that did it in love? And you don't like to hear it, but you know it's right. How many of you know what I'm talking about? I mean, I've had people that I knew loved me and put their arm around me and said, hey, what about this? And I think we need to be that kind of people. We need to be the kind of people that put our arm around people and say, hey, you know, I just want to talk to you about this. I've noticed that, you know, I see you kind of slipping in this area, and I'm just kind of wondering, do you need help? I need to pray for you. Hey, man, how you doing? Because I ran into some old friends and they said, you know, they were like you were back at the old bar, like one of the boys. I thought you left that behind. I thought, man, I thought the drunken, carousing ways of the past, they were gone. That's not who you are. You're becoming a man of God. Rise up. There needs to be arms. Put around some men that says, hey, man, I. I don't want to say anything, but I. I heard how you were talking to your wife, bro. You may have difficulties, but, man, she's the woman that God has given to you. Clean it up. You need to talk to her as the queen of the house. Not the she devil. I mean, we need exhortation that warm encouragement, but the truth. Ephesians says, speak the truth in love. Man, we need truth. We don't need it whitewashed. We need the truth, but we need it in love. The truth needs to be presented with the strong bridge of love. And the stronger the love, the greater the tank that can cover that bridge. The artillery. We all need people in our life that are not going to whitewash the message. They're going to speak to us straight, but they're going to do it in love. And when we know they love us, it has a powerful effect on our life. As a pastor, I've had to do a lot of rebuking over the years. I've had to be the one sometimes that goes in. And I've had people get mad at me. I have people. But I've never regretted speaking the truth. If I speak it in love. And I've had people get mad at me and storm out and then come back and say thank you, pastor, because no one else was willing to tell me. I used to avoid confrontation because no one likes to confront unless you have issues. And there's therapy classes for that. But most of us don't like to confront. But I believe there's a place for godly, healthy, good confrontation in the body of Christ where we challenge people to move forward in a good way in their walk with God.

Learning how to move forward with our eyes focused on Christ's return. You're listening to the Bible teaching of Mark job, and this is Moody Presents. You know, the title of our program pretty well tells you that we really do want to present Moody to you. Did you know, for example, that for more than 125 years we've had an undergraduate school training men and women to share the gospel? We also have a graduate school and a missionary flight school. Why not check out all the ways that you can take your next step with Jesus by visiting us at Moody Presents. Moody presents. You know, each week we hear from listeners all over the world whose lives are being changed by what they're hearing on this program. And we thought you'd be blessed to hear from this listener who says, Mark's messages just pierce my soul as a word from God that I need to hear. Thank you Mark, and please keep preaching. Jesus. The whole world needs him and only him. You know, we'd love to hear from you too. You can connect with us online at Moody Presents. At Moody Presents. And now let's jump back into today's message. Once again, here's Mark Jobe.

Learning how to move forward with our eyes focused on Christ's return. You're listening to the Bible teaching of Mark job, and this is Moody Presents. You know, the title of our program pretty well tells you that we really do want to present Moody to you. Did you know, for example, that for more than 125 years we've had an undergraduate school training men and women to share the gospel? We also have a graduate school and a missionary flight school. Why not check out all the ways that you can take your next step with Jesus by visiting us at Moody Presents. Moody presents. You know, each week we hear from listeners all over the world whose lives are being changed by what they're hearing on this program. And we thought you'd be blessed to hear from this listener who says, Mark's messages just pierce my soul as a word from God that I need to hear. Thank you Mark, and please keep preaching. Jesus. The whole world needs him and only him. You know, we'd love to hear from you too. You can connect with us online at Moody Presents. At Moody Presents. And now let's jump back into today's message. Once again, here's Mark Jobe.

So, he says, admonish the unruly, unruly people whose life somewhere is out of control. It's the idea of soldiers that literally, the word used here is of soldiers who are not remaining in the ranks. The Roman army used to used to march forward together like this in ranks. And if people got discouraged or afraid, they would drop out. And basically he's saying, hey, keep in rank, stay in the place where God wants you to be. Hey, keep loving your husband, even though it may be hard. Hey, keeping the word even though it may be difficult. Keep obeying even though you're struggling. Stay in the rank. Don't get out of order. Secondly, he says, not only does he say admonish the unruly, he says, see to it that no one repays evil for evil. Admonish the unruly. See to it that no one pays evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. Make sure that you don't create a culture of vengeance or eye for eye and a tooth for tooth. Let me tell you, I want you to look up at me. This is really important, and you may not think that you live in that world, but I see a lot of people that live in that world. I've done way too many funerals of. Teenagers and young 20 year olds. Who have died in gang violence. And I look out in the crowd and when I can, I like to do those. Let me tell you why I like to do those funerals. They're heart wrenching because it's just. It's just. Ah, man, I know some of the parents. I've known some of the kids. I mean, I've known some of the kids when they were young. And to see them end up with some bullet in their head or drive by shooting to end their life, just makes my stomach turn. But I'll do the funeral because I know that a whole bunch of other people show up with vengeance in their eyes. And they have one thing in their mind. I'm going to make someone pay for the death of this one. And funerals are characterized by that where people go out and they try it. One funeral leads to another funeral and to another funeral. And we've had funerals here in this place. And sometimes we've had to ask police to show up and come. And you say, why do we do what? We do it? Because we want to try to offset violence as much as possible. But if I have a chance to speak, I'll let them know, man. This death will lead to another death unless someone stops the cycle here. And there is when you get in a conflict with an individual, you want that person to pay. And it's not always just about bullets and gang violence. Something. Sometimes it's just about your spouse that you feel has hurt you, and so you shut off emotionally and you've had that. You've had your husband for months away from you emotionally because you feel he's got to pay and he needs to feel the pain. And so you withdraw from him and you're making him pay the price of not really dealing with those things. And the Bible says, listen, do not repay evil for evil, but always seek that which is good for one another. And then he goes on and listen to what he says. He closes up this passage and he says, he reminds us that we are not to keep a record of evil. He says, urge the brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint hearted. You know what a faint hearted person is? someone who their energy has gone away and they're giving up. Help the weak. Helping the weak means that you. There's someone around you always that is weaker than you. Oh, you may feel like you're weak, but I'm going to tell you there's always someone that's a little weaker than you are. How about it? And you need to come in this church. Sometimes you may have problems, but I want to tell you there's someone's problems. Is bigger than yours or more recent than yours. And I think if you wallow in self-pity, then you go further down into the hole of self-pity. Some of us need to be asking ourselves in the middle of our issues. Is there someone that I can help? Because there's something that happens in the middle of your difficulty when you realize, I have something to give that empowers you to start getting out of your hole. So, he says, we admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak. Be patient with who? Everyone. Patient means that we give them room. Listen to me. Well. If you come here and you come straight out of the world and your life is a mess, we want to be patient with you. We really do. But I expect progress. Hello. Let me say that again. I'm most patient with you when you're straight out of don't know Jesus, the Bible, God. And you come with all of your messes. But as you start to grow, I expect you to change. Hey, you come here with all your messes. And that's okay, man. No one's going to kick you out of this church for your messes, and no one's going to shoo you at the doorway for not having your life in order. Man, you come the way you are with your baggage, your garbage, and anything that you come with. And listen. We're going to try to love you, hug you, bless you, encourage you as much as we can, But as you start to grow, I want to see progress. Amen. And hey, we have so many couples that come here that are living together. They've been shacked up together for 6 or 7 years. And they come and they they start hearing the word and and then they come to Christ, and we love them and hug them and bless on them. After they come to Jesus, hopefully someone's going to put their arm around you and say, so how about it, man? You still live with that girl. You're going to marry her or what? Oh no, no, I don't think I'm ready for that. Then I think you need to move out, bro. Hey, we're not being mean. I just. If you know Jesus, I want you to grow. And the more you're around, the higher expectation that we have. Oh, we'll give you room. We want to be patient, but the more you're around, the more expectation I have you to grow. I wouldn't be a good pastor and this wouldn't be a good church. If there's not people getting in your face a little bit and challenging you to go to the next level, I'm okay that you're in kindergarten spiritually. But you know what? When kindergarten is over, I want you to go to first grade and it's not okay that you repeat kindergarten for five years. No, it's not okay. I want you to go beyond that. I want you to grow. I mean, we're patient. So the newer people are, the younger they are, the more patient we need to be. But the longer you're in God, the higher expectation we have of your life. Because you know more, you have more power and you should be growing. And that's the atmosphere that we want to have huge patience for people. But expectation that as they grow in God, they go to the next level in God. Amen.

So, he says, admonish the unruly, unruly people whose life somewhere is out of control. It's the idea of soldiers that literally, the word used here is of soldiers who are not remaining in the ranks. The Roman army used to used to march forward together like this in ranks. And if people got discouraged or afraid, they would drop out. And basically he's saying, hey, keep in rank, stay in the place where God wants you to be. Hey, keep loving your husband, even though it may be hard. Hey, keeping the word even though it may be difficult. Keep obeying even though you're struggling. Stay in the rank. Don't get out of order. Secondly, he says, not only does he say admonish the unruly, he says, see to it that no one repays evil for evil. Admonish the unruly. See to it that no one pays evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. Make sure that you don't create a culture of vengeance or eye for eye and a tooth for tooth. Let me tell you, I want you to look up at me. This is really important, and you may not think that you live in that world, but I see a lot of people that live in that world. I've done way too many funerals of. Teenagers and young 20 year olds. Who have died in gang violence. And I look out in the crowd and when I can, I like to do those. Let me tell you why I like to do those funerals. They're heart wrenching because it's just. It's just. Ah, man, I know some of the parents. I've known some of the kids. I mean, I've known some of the kids when they were young. And to see them end up with some bullet in their head or drive by shooting to end their life, just makes my stomach turn. But I'll do the funeral because I know that a whole bunch of other people show up with vengeance in their eyes. And they have one thing in their mind. I'm going to make someone pay for the death of this one. And funerals are characterized by that where people go out and they try it. One funeral leads to another funeral and to another funeral. And we've had funerals here in this place. And sometimes we've had to ask police to show up and come. And you say, why do we do what? We do it? Because we want to try to offset violence as much as possible. But if I have a chance to speak, I'll let them know, man. This death will lead to another death unless someone stops the cycle here. And there is when you get in a conflict with an individual, you want that person to pay. And it's not always just about bullets and gang violence. Something. Sometimes it's just about your spouse that you feel has hurt you, and so you shut off emotionally and you've had that. You've had your husband for months away from you emotionally because you feel he's got to pay and he needs to feel the pain. And so you withdraw from him and you're making him pay the price of not really dealing with those things. And the Bible says, listen, do not repay evil for evil, but always seek that which is good for one another. And then he goes on and listen to what he says. He closes up this passage and he says, he reminds us that we are not to keep a record of evil. He says, urge the brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint hearted. You know what a faint hearted person is? someone who their energy has gone away and they're giving up. Help the weak. Helping the weak means that you. There's someone around you always that is weaker than you. Oh, you may feel like you're weak, but I'm going to tell you there's always someone that's a little weaker than you are. How about it? And you need to come in this church. Sometimes you may have problems, but I want to tell you there's someone's problems. Is bigger than yours or more recent than yours. And I think if you wallow in self-pity, then you go further down into the hole of self-pity. Some of us need to be asking ourselves in the middle of our issues. Is there someone that I can help? Because there's something that happens in the middle of your difficulty when you realize, I have something to give that empowers you to start getting out of your hole. So, he says, we admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak. Be patient with who? Everyone. Patient means that we give them room. Listen to me. Well. If you come here and you come straight out of the world and your life is a mess, we want to be patient with you. We really do. But I expect progress. Hello. Let me say that again. I'm most patient with you when you're straight out of don't know Jesus, the Bible, God. And you come with all of your messes. But as you start to grow, I expect you to change. Hey, you come here with all your messes. And that's okay, man. No one's going to kick you out of this church for your messes, and no one's going to shoo you at the doorway for not having your life in order. Man, you come the way you are with your baggage, your garbage, and anything that you come with. And listen. We're going to try to love you, hug you, bless you, encourage you as much as we can, But as you start to grow, I want to see progress. Amen. And hey, we have so many couples that come here that are living together. They've been shacked up together for 6 or 7 years. And they come and they they start hearing the word and and then they come to Christ, and we love them and hug them and bless on them. After they come to Jesus, hopefully someone's going to put their arm around you and say, so how about it, man? You still live with that girl. You're going to marry her or what? Oh no, no, I don't think I'm ready for that. Then I think you need to move out, bro. Hey, we're not being mean. I just. If you know Jesus, I want you to grow. And the more you're around, the higher expectation that we have. Oh, we'll give you room. We want to be patient, but the more you're around, the more expectation I have you to grow. I wouldn't be a good pastor and this wouldn't be a good church. If there's not people getting in your face a little bit and challenging you to go to the next level, I'm okay that you're in kindergarten spiritually. But you know what? When kindergarten is over, I want you to go to first grade and it's not okay that you repeat kindergarten for five years. No, it's not okay. I want you to go beyond that. I want you to grow. I mean, we're patient. So the newer people are, the younger they are, the more patient we need to be. But the longer you're in God, the higher expectation we have of your life. Because you know more, you have more power and you should be growing. And that's the atmosphere that we want to have huge patience for people. But expectation that as they grow in God, they go to the next level in God. Amen.

This is Moody Presents and you're listening to the Bible teaching of pastor Mark Jobe. If you've missed any of our messages in this series so far, it's easy to catch up online at Moody Presents. Moody presents. You know, going to the next level with Jesus can be difficult, especially in seasons of uncertainty like what we've been experiencing this past year. And that's why Mark would love to recommend a book to you called Your Future Self Will. Thank you. Secrets to Self-control from the Bible and Brain Science by Drew Dick. This book is a compassionate and often humorous guide to breaking bad habits, while offering biblical strategies for growing your willpower. This book really will help you get motivated and stay on track and achieve your goals in the Christian life, and we'd love to send a copy to you today! When you give a gift to support this ministry, just go to Moody Presents Dot or speak to one of our friendly team members. When you call (800) 400-7022, that's (800) 400-7022. And if it's easier, you could just send your gift in the mail along with your request for your future self will. Thank you. You can write to Moody Presents, 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60,610. That's 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. As always, we invite you to check out our Moody Presents website. You'll find us at Moody Presents. Dot Moody presents. Well, that's all the time we have for today, but we invite you to join us again next week as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on a special Easter edition of Moody Presents. Moody presents is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.

This is Moody Presents and you're listening to the Bible teaching of pastor Mark Jobe. If you've missed any of our messages in this series so far, it's easy to catch up online at Moody Presents. Moody presents. You know, going to the next level with Jesus can be difficult, especially in seasons of uncertainty like what we've been experiencing this past year. And that's why Mark would love to recommend a book to you called Your Future Self Will. Thank you. Secrets to Self-control from the Bible and Brain Science by Drew Dick. This book is a compassionate and often humorous guide to breaking bad habits, while offering biblical strategies for growing your willpower. This book really will help you get motivated and stay on track and achieve your goals in the Christian life, and we'd love to send a copy to you today! When you give a gift to support this ministry, just go to Moody Presents Dot or speak to one of our friendly team members. When you call (800) 400-7022, that's (800) 400-7022. And if it's easier, you could just send your gift in the mail along with your request for your future self will. Thank you. You can write to Moody Presents, 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60,610. That's 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. As always, we invite you to check out our Moody Presents website. You'll find us at Moody Presents. Dot Moody presents. Well, that's all the time we have for today, but we invite you to join us again next week as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on a special Easter edition of Moody Presents. Moody presents is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.