Safe at Home - Simple Sins

Rick: Hey, folks.
Welcome to Safe at Home.
Rick Arndt here.
"Dad" in my family.
Philip is alongside handling the camera duties.
We're out for a drive again.
If you've watched Safe at Home,
you know that every once in a while,
we pack up the cameras and take to the road.
And this is one of those kind of raw,
wintry days that doesn't feature any snow,
but it just gives you that feeling of
wanting to be by a warm fire,
that cozy sense of intimacy that you
sometimes associate with the holidays,
which have just passed.
But God wants us to have that all the time.
And as you know from past discussions that we've had,
we really try in our family --
and we try it within our marriage,
and I try it as an individual --
to stay fresh with God, remain close, keep that --
just continue to be open.
Ask and we shall receive.
To just be open to His constant influence,
His Spirit just melting our hearts,
and changing us, and shaping us,
and molding us, and filling us,
and comforting us, and being the Comforter.
And seeking that and never being satisfied.
You know, it's an interesting balance.
How much of it is my role, and how much of it is His?
Because there is the danger of
swinging over into your own strength,
your own human flesh,
your own sincere efforts to do what's right.
And yet there's also the other danger,
the opposite danger of being passive
and waiting for God to do everything.
And you have to kind of know what the season is.
And I don't think it's a formula.
You can't figure it out.
There are times when the best way that you can love God
is to be active and to just act on the
little spark of faith that you have.
There are things that I can point to in our past that,
if I hadn't jumped at that time --
there never was a better time.
You know, they often --
astronomers say that at certain times of the year,
our planet is as close, let's say,
to the moon as it ever is.
And then you have to wait a whole year
for it to come around again.
And in our lives, sometimes there's an opportunity,
an opening, an open Heaven, a moment.
And not to be discouraged if we miss it,
because I think God sends out His angels
and tries a Plan B and a Plan C,
because He works with our human messiness,
our fumbling around.
By the way, it's really foggy today.
I'm looking up at the bluffs here.
These bluffs -- they line the Mississippi River.
We're right now, oh, maybe five, six miles
on the east side of the Mississippi River.
If you know geography --
the geography of the Midwest --
our state, Illinois, adjoins Missouri
at the Mississippi River.
And there's a quarry.
I'm trying to think which way to go here.
There are a couple of ways to go with this.
I think I'll go left.
I think I'll take the interstate here.
I was thinking of going over to St. Louis,
but I think we might have to save that for another show,
because St. Louis is that-a-way about 10 or 15 minutes,
and the YMCA center is that way about 10 or 15 minutes.
And Philip is with me, and we have our YMCA clothes,
and we're going to work out on this foggy,
chilly Saturday afternoon.
Really, a lot of the success of following the Spirit
and being filled with the Spirit is to kind of --
to literally have His Spirit leading --
to literally kind of have the sentiments of God
and the feeling of God.
That's why we can grieve the Holy Spirit so easily,
because the Spirit is a person.
And have you ever found that if you get upset about something,
or something just isn't right between you and another person,
that the peace lifts real quickly?
I think that's because that's one of the --
I mean, I know it.
I mean, it's one of the worst things you can do --
is to become upset with somebody or resentful,
or to be cold or unrepentant.
These invisible sins are the real deadly ones.
Of course we shouldn't have drunkenness,
or premarital sex,
or theft, or any of these things,
but the worst thing is to violate the law of love.
And you know, really, one of the biggest ways
to violate the law of love is through indifference.
As it's been said, the opposite of love isn't hate
as much as it's indifference.
And we see the indifference toward the
plight of the unborn in our country --
not that we all can go out and change
laws that make abortion okay,
not that we all can just somehow force our
government to have pro-life laws.
And even then, you still have to change --
it has to be on every level.
You have to also change hearts.
It has to be both.
But at least we should be passionate about these things.
We should care.
We shouldn't become deadened, or lukewarm,
or all caught up in things that are temporary.
Now, the other extreme would be to be so caught up
in the spiritual that we're not doing any earthly good.
And we don't want that either.
But the Spirit balances us.
Because I've found in my own experience,
and with people who are really alive in the Spirit,
that as people become more filled with the Spirit,
they become more fruitful and more balanced
in every part of their beings,
more healed, more --
they tend have more youthfulness,
and they rise up with eagles' wings.
And they don't just go around quoting Scripture,
or they don't just go by some grid.
I mean, people can quote Scripture --
the enemy --
we see in the Book of James the warning that,
"Hey, the enemy can quote Scripture."
So let's just make sure we're actually
loving God and doing it,
because we can wind up looking upon it as a handbook,
and kind of fool ourselves into thinking,
"Well, because I have this handbook
"and I go to these services where
"we talk about the handbook and we analyze it --
"that therefore, I'm close to God."
It would be better to God if you just obeyed it
and allowed His Spirit to come in,
and you knew in your heart that you're trying to be
as pure as the wind-driven snow.
You have no pockets of disobedience,
or known sin, or rebelliousness,
or even dragging of the feet.
And that's what we want to accomplish here --
and I'm going long --
is that we don't want any of us ever to have
anything known that's blocking God's will.
Because grace is there.
Why blow it by resisting it?
Why blow it by foiling His best plan?
Tell you what --
we'll go to a break, and we'll be right back.
Rick: Hey, we're back, folks.
And we were talking before the break about making sure --
and that's so important --
to make that you're not doing anything on your end
that is causing you to have less than the hundredfold
that Jesus talks about in the Gospels.
And it's there, available.
Why would one person produce one hundredfold,
and another person only 60, or 30, or nothing,
or have negative fruit, or miss out on Heaven?
Well, it's not that God loves one person more than another.
And it's not that some people are born to better advantage,
because we know that God is no respecter of persons,
so we all get an equal crack at it.
And it's a powerful concept, to think that --
that's why we never should blame
another person for our situation.
I mean, God offers you as much as He offers that person,
as long as you're willing to take
what He wants for your life.
Some of you who are older,
look back to your high school days.
Did you ever have the experience where
certain people seemed cool, and you just --
it seemed so big --
who was the football quarterback,
or who was going with who.
Did you ever have that experience?
Or any time in life --
a certain business environment, or a certain community.
"This is the buzz.
"This is it."
And did you ever look back upon that,
and it's just all irrelevant now?
You might run into someone at a class reunion,
and it's just so irrelevant who was cool then or who was cool --
and it just doesn't matter.
It was a little bit of a mirage for a brief time.
And I think that's how it is on the earth here,
that people tune in accidentally to things
that are going to pass anyway,
and they hesitate to anchor into the things
that are going to remain.
And that's why we see in the Book of Colossians
that we're supposed to be intent on things above,
rather than on things of earth.
But again, one of the things we've always tried
to do on this show is to emphasize that
that doesn't mean floating up above everybody,
and just detaching.
Because that can become an excuse
for detachment or indifference.
"I'm so spiritual.
"I can't get involved in this.
"It's too mundane."
So we have to be careful.
I don't know what side of the line you fall on,
but we've got to constantly watch
the temptation to be superspiritual,
and kind of above it all, or even judgmental,
or being so human and kind of --
"Ah, it's impossible.
"I'm just going to live my --
"give in to my human things.
"I'm just so human."
And just sort of --
in a way, making an excuse for being mediocre.
Because why in the world would Jesus
talk about abundant life?
Why in the world would He talk about joy unspeakable,
and all of these things --
peace, abundant life, and a hundredfold --
unless He really could deliver on it?
Has He ever lied?
So any underachieving or lack of experiencing
what we see in the Scriptures is not His fault.
It's on our side of the equation.
And it's not even our --
I mean, it's not even our --
no one really intends --
a lot of people don't intend to underachieve.
They just don't see it happening.
And since being baptized in the Spirit 39 years ago,
I've really tried, with all my heart, to --
I mean, I've really wanted --
I'm not saying I succeeded.
But God -- He never lets me get unrestless.
I'm always restless for more, in a good way.
And I've really tried to never get satisfied.
And anytime I have, He's already --
He's put a little bit of a thorn to --
"Don't get satisfied.
"There's more.
"You're better than this.
"My plan for you is better than this."
And so many --
I see young girls, for example,
who in this day and age,
don't respect themselves, just thinking,
"Well, my biological clock might run out,
"or I might not get many more chances,
"so I'm going to give in.
"Or this guy --
"in order to have a relationship,
"I'm going to have to give in to the common
"expectations in this culture.
"It seems too far away, too pie-in-the-sky
"to kind of hold out and be -- really obey God,
"so I'm going to give in."
Or people living together,
or people falling in all these areas.
As if just by sheer numbers,
we could change what God wants.
It doesn't matter if every person on earth
would disobey God or vote Him down and say,
"Well, that's that old Bible stuff.
"That's all -- that's impossible to live up to."
Well, God would not have said it if He
didn't think we could live up to it with His grace,
with His strength.
So we've got to really expand our expectations.
I mean, really, just let His Spirit convict you of --
this is where you are now,
and this is what He wants you to be.
And just let it rip.
Let go, and just quit underachieving.
Quit living a mediocre life,
and let His love and His forgiveness come over you,
and just surrender.
That's what I have to constantly tell myself,
is that He's my source.
Nobody can stop me from tapping into Him.
There have been people who totally are alive in Him
who are on death row,
or who have been martyrs over the years,
so I don't have any excuse.
You can't blame your lack of joy and peace on people,
because we've seen the record over the decades,
over the centuries.
We've seen people love God under terrible conditions.
And we've seen Jesus under those conditions say,
"Father, forgive them.
"They don't know what they're doing."
So we can't blame other people.
No traffic out here, Philip.
It's quiet.
Tell you what -- we can't really --
let me wrap this thought up as I turn left.
Then we'll go to a break.
We can't blame other people for our underachieving.
I mean, that is a trick,
either from our own minds, or from the enemy,
or just human weakness.
That will keep you so bound,
if you constantly think,
"I'm unhappy because of" -- fill in the blank.
"If this would happen,
"or if this person wouldn't do this,
"or if this person would do that,
"or if only I had this,
"or if only I reached that goal."
Do you realize that often we seek a goal so that we
can have a certain feeling or a certain sense?
What if God could just give us that feeling directly?
You know what I mean?
Because in the Book of James, we see him saying,
"Hey, the reason you're having all these
"problems and all these squabbles is
"because you're trying to get these things.
"You're trying to" --
he's basically saying that "your motives aren't right."
But if you go straight to God
and just tell Him what you need and say --
and admit, "I have this need,"
He can just say, "Well, sure.
"I'm glad you came to Me.
"Let's bypass.
"I've got a shortcut.
"I'll give you the peace directly.
"I'll give you the sense of self-esteem."
For example, we talked a minute ago about --
oh, it's getting near a break.
I should be honest here and go to a break.
Don't let me forget this one, folks,
because I want to pick up where we left off.
Let's go to a break, Philip.
Rick: Hey, folks.
I'm back.
And I just want to jump right into this before I forget.
You know, I've seen this happen with myself and other people.
And let's say that we all have a need to be loved,
and secure, and wanted, and valued.
Well, so many times, we try to compromise
what is right in order to get that.
And that's really what Adam and Eve did.
They tried to take charge in the Garden of Eden.
They tried to kind of author their own happiness.
They wrote the prescription.
They decided, "This is what I'm going to do.
"This is the way I'm going to do it."
And that doesn't seem like heavy rebellion,
but we see in the Book of Isaiah that
"each has gone his own way."
That is a definition of sin.
That's why Jesus had to suffer --
not because most of us have committed huge murders,
but because we're born --
or huge crimes, like murder or theft,
or all these things --
but because we're born in the separated state,
because we all have that written into us now,
that sin, that mark of tending to want to do it our way.
And that in itself is enough to keep us from doing His way.
And so some people --
sometimes we excuse ourselves by saying,
"Well, my sins --
"I don't do that, at least.
"Or I don't do that."
And we hear what Jesus said
about people who think that way --
the guy who was proudly saying,
"Well, I'm not like that guy,"
and then the guy who was humble, saying,
"Oh, man. I can't even look up to You, God.
"I'm such a sinner."
And Jesus said, "Hey, which one do you think was forgiven?"
Well, anyway, you ready for another break?
We'll be right back.
And we'll give Philip's arms a rest.
That camera gets heavy.
Rick: Hey, friends.
It's getting a tad darker here.
Philip and I are working our way over to the YMCA center.
We're about to work out and meet some of the other guys there.
I think John and Jude are going there.
And I can turn these windshield wipers down.
I've been enjoying this discussion.
I'm going to turn left here.
The Y is that way.
But you can see that so often --
and I can look back --
and this is what I was saying at the beginning of the show --
so often, one of the decisions --
some of the key junctions --
for example, I can --
I mean, I can remember one of the
family trips about 10 years ago.
I was driving the main car, the van, with --
usually -- and that's traditional in our family.
I drive the lead car,
with Cathy to my right, and the younger kids.
And Paul and I were talking through the window about,
"Well, which interstate?"
And I realized,
"Right now, we have to decide on an interstate.
"We have the -- it's going to make a difference,
"because they separate."
And one -- if we wanted to go first to states like
Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, then go north,
well, that's a big difference.
I mean, at St. Louis, both interstates touch each other,
so when you make your choice,
I mean, you're only a few yards apart.
A car choosing one and another could
see each other and wave.
But after a while, you're hundreds of miles apart.
And so it made a difference.
And we chose an interstate.
I think it was 64.
I think we chose that year to go through
Louisville, Kentucky, and do it that way.
And simple choices have consequences.
And that's an obvious one.
We all have driven, and you have to make choices.
But it matters.
And I've found I can distill my life, looking back,
to a series of key choices.
Any of you sports fans?
I mean, you can look at any major ballgame,
or any ballgame --
any baseball game, football game --
and usually it comes down to a key moment or two.
And it's the same in our lives.
If you compare two people --
we said at the beginning of the show that
each of us has the same treasures waiting for us
if we all come to Jesus.
No one is born more rich or more poor, more --
we're all the same in Jesus' eyes, in God's eyes.
I mean, we all have the same potential to receive
His forgiveness, restoration,
the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit,
the fruit of the Spirit.
Each of us -- we're all --
we could all be deluged with it,
if we would let it happen.
And you think about it --
I compare two people who
look the same and might have the same situation,
but the results are far different.
Well, it's because of choices,
little choices that added up to big consequences.
So don't laugh off the little choices
that you have each moment.
I mean, just choose --
if you've been too hard-hearted,
or you've been cold toward God, or indifferent,
or you've been compromising in any area,
don't think, "Oh, that's a little sin.
"Everybody has a little sin."
No.
Don't do that.
Don't tolerate even the slightest deviation.
That's not going to make you into some rigid Christian nut.
That will make you into a fully-free person.
Because anytime we sin, we put a chain on ourselves.
So don't fall into the trap of thinking,
"Well, if I obeyed Scripture literally --
"if I never lied,
"or if I never did this --
"messed around before marriage --
"or if I never did that,
"or never fudged on my taxes,
"or never resented --
"boy, I mean, I'd be some kind of god.
"And there's only one God.
"How can I expect to do that?
"I'll plod along.
"And I'm just human."
I mean, that's not an excuse.
Because it's more burdensome to be sinning and disobeying
than it is to be free.
I mean, just think back to any areas in which you are now free,
in which you were bound.
It's a lie to say that you can't do it.
In fact, it's more unnatural to do it the other way.
It's just that it feels normal,
because people are bound in the sin,
and we're surrounded in this world by a lot of sin,
so we think of that as normal.
But in Heaven, this is weird, this is strange.
It's odd that people wouldn't listen to God
and wouldn't do it His way.
That's strange.
That's bizarre.
That's off how it should be.
That's not based in truth.
Nobody can do it alone.
It's all a lie anyway.
The whole idea that you could
do it alone is crazy, you know?
And sin is really like delusion.
It's being stupid.
And that's why I have found that the more someone obeys God,
the smarter, wiser he becomes.
The more someone disobeys God, you become stupid.
So it only benefits us to obey.
It sharpens our minds,
of course, helps our bodies.
It helps us hear from the Spirit,
because the more truth we obey,
the more truth He'll entrust us with.
If we disobey something from Him,
why should He throw pearls to swine and give us more truth?
Why should --
so people who turn down the volume
when they don't want the truth --
when they really want the truth from Him, don't have it,
because they've already shut off that signal.
They don't want that when it's inconvenient.
But then you're kind of shutting it off when you need it.
So you have to be consistent.
Well, tell you what --
we're almost at the Y.
This is good timing.
I'll say goodbye.
Drop me an email if you want.
I appreciate those who have written.
See you next time.