Words of Jesus Podcast - The Path to Success

Episode Date: May 27, 2022

Do the right thing for the right reason every time in every area of life. It makes a difference. We must be better than our enemies. There are consequences for being irresponsible. There are rewards for righteousness. We think: "[We are] rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; [Jesus says,] ...knowest not that thou are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." Rev. 3***Chapter 19: The Sermon on the MountThink not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle will in no wise pass from the law, till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore will break one of these least commandments, and will teach men so, he will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whoever will do and teach them, the same will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, Except your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to them of old time, You will not kill; and whoever will kill will be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you That whoever is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgment: whoever will say to his brother, Raca, will be in danger of the council: but whoever will say, You fool, will be in danger of hell fire. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you, Leave there your gift before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison. Verily I say unto you, You will by no means come out of there, till you have paid the last penny. You have heard that it was said to them of old time, You will not commit adultery: But I say unto you, that whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if your right eye offend you, pluck it out, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell. And if your right hand offend you, cut it off, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell. It has been said, Whoever will put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce: But I say unto you that whoever will put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery: and whoever will marry her that is divorced commits adultery. Again, you have heard that it was said to them of old time, You will not perjure yourself, but will perform unto the Lord your oaths: But I say unto you, swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither will you swear by your head, because you can not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these comes from evil. You have heard that it has been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That you repay not evil: but whoever will smite you on your right cheek, turn to him and offer the other also. And if any man will sue you at the law, and take...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello my friend and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris. Glad to have you. Hope you've enjoyed what we've been talking about, the Sermon on the Mount. There's so much in the Sermon on the Mount, and I'm afraid that if we just read through it and move on and give you a tidbit here and a tidbit there,

we will have finished the Sermon on the Mount, but I'm afraid that we're going to miss out on a lot of things if we don't take these things slow and we don't take time along the way to define the words the way the Scriptures define them. What did Jesus mean when he said that? I think that's very important, whatever it was that he said. I think he chose certain words, he said certain words understand I'm being translated transliterated and perhaps in

some cases even wildly changed over the years but I do happen to believe that his message is still very very clear and if if we do understand the the definitions of the times the definitions of the times, the definitions of what Jesus meant when He said this, I think that it's going to help us. One of the things we talked about last time was the difference between righteousness, the sinfulness, holiness, all these kinds of words that we use and we kind of throw them all into the same bucket thinking that they all mean the same thing. And they just simply don't mean the same thing.

We learn that sin, there's such a thing as a sin against God. There's such a thing as a sin against ourselves. Sins against our neighbor. Sins against good common sense. I guess you can sin against inanimate objects as well. But I think that if we don't put these things in the proper category and understand that, you know, whatever it is I'm engaged in, this is not necessarily a sin against God, but it is stupid behavior. It's not good behavior. It's not, you know, sensical behavior. And Paul says, you know, just because you do something in the flesh does not necessarily mean that what you've done is a sin, but it

certainly does lead to it. You know, Jesus talked about overeating and put it in the same category as over drinking. There are people that wouldn't tolerate no, not for a second would they tolerate somebody that would sit and drink whiskey. Well, Jesus put, he didn't say anything about drinking whiskey, he was talking about the only thing that he has trouble with is intoxication. And if you can have yourself a drink of whiskey and not be intoxicated, well, good for you.

But the truth is that he put abuse of alcohol and overeating into the same verse of Scripture. Now, I doubt, I bet you could probably get 98% of the body of Christ out there, if you want to call them that, to tell you that drinking alcohol is a sin. I mean, unequivocal. Nobody's even going to argue this point. But I think you would have extreme difficulty,

perhaps reciprocal percentiles, of people who believe that overeating is a sin. Yet Jesus mentioned both of them in the same verse, saying that you don't want to get yourself involved in either one of these things. Now, if a person drinks alcohol, is he sinning? No, there's no commandment that says don't drink. If a person involves themselves in overeating, are they sinning? No, there's no commandment that says don't overeat. These are not sins against God. They are stupid behavior. And if you keep messing with them,

they will lead you toward sin not toward righteousness not toward holiness not toward you know a good life but toward a bad life toward destruction that's where those kind of things go um jesus taught that uh you know the reason that uh the the end of this world the second coming of christ the appearance of of the Antichrist, and all these things are going to be unnoticed by the church? Well, because they didn't read Tim LaHaye's book, or because they don't have the Left Behind series on their bookshelf, because they don't go to the Seventh-day Adventist Church's prophecy conferences. That's why they're going to miss the Antichrist?

Maybe. That makes sense to me. They're not schooled enough. They're not learned enough. They don't have enough books. What is it? How is it that they're going to be taken unaware? Jesus said,

surfeiting and drunkenness. You ever think about that? Those Doritos probably aren't necessarily, your biggest problem is not that they're adding dress sizes, but that they're making you a dull thinker. They're making you dull in your head. You can't even understand the things of God. You can't even read the scriptures and apply them in your life.

You're not going to see the Antichrist. You're not going to see those things. They're not going to occur to you because you're too thick in the head. You're thick in the head because you've been overeating. And that's essentially just like over drinking. What are we talking about here? Are we talking about sin? Well, no, not yet. We're talking about stupid behavior. You know what we're talking about? Unrighteousness. It's living in a state that is just not right. This is not the right thing to do. You know, if you stepped in between your two neighbors arguing, and you stepped in as an arbiter between those two, and you didn't deal with that situation justly and correctly,

you're involved in unrighteousness. Did you know that? Do you know if you borrow something from somebody and you turn it back to them, and it's in worse condition than it was when you borrowed it, you're involved in unrighteousness. That's an unrighteousness. That's an unrighteous thing to do. Borrow money and not pay it back?

That's not a sin against God. But it is unrighteous behavior. It's not right. We have to live in a way of... So how do you know what's right? You know what's right. You know what's right. You know, oh man, what is good, the Bible says. You love mercy. You do justly. Walk humbly with your God. You know these things.

You don't have to be told these things. You know that it's not the right thing to do, to say one thing and do another. And have you sinned against God? No, you haven't. But you are involved in unrighteous behavior. And these kind of things are just so incredibly dangerous. It's a dangerous place to live. People can't believe anything you say. And what, you're going to tell them the gospel? They can't believe anything that you have to say, and you're going to tell them about a man that rose from the dead? They're going to believe it? Listen, there's an evangelist that goes around telling a story about a man that was raised from the dead on his platform where he was having a healing meeting. I don't believe it at all. I believe Jesus came back from the dead.

I don't believe that anybody was brought back from the dead by this reverend hairdo. I don't believe it. Sorry. Well, why don't you believe it? Because he lies about everything else in his life. He's unrighteous. He doesn't keep the commandments of God. He doesn't teach the commandments of God. What do I have?

What is even presenting itself as this being a good idea to believe what he says? There's no reason to believe it. Now, friend, you have to understand that when you live in a state of unrighteousness where people don't believe anything you say, if you say, I'll be there at 8, they know you're not going to be there at 8. You might be there at 9 or 10, or you might not show up. And you're not going to call. You know why? You're living in unrighteousness, my friend. You're living in unrighteousness. You're not being fair. You're not being just.

You're not being honest. And people know that. They know that. They know who they can trust. You ever wonder why your friend doesn't call you when they need help? They don't trust you. They don't trust you at all. And you're a Christian, and you're going to tell them about Jesus. Listen, there's more damage done by mouthy Christians that live an unjust lifestyle. They don't make their bed. They don't wash their socks. They don't take care of their car or their yard or their kids. They don't do what's expected of people to do. If they fall behind

they expect other people to make up the difference, make up the gaps. They don't mind borrowing money when they're a little short. Because their lives are just one unrighteous act after another unrighteous act. And they live from an emergency to crisis to a horrible inconvenience to, oh, it's just very unlucky. And there's all these things that are always happening to them, and they just can't seem to get ahead.

Follow them around for 24 hours. You'll figure out exactly why they're not getting ahead. They're living a life of unrighteousness. Look, this is not even a Christian secret. You don't even have to be a Christian for this to work. I mean, you don't have to be a believer in Jesus Christ for an organized, righteous, right-living, orderly life to pay off for you. So it's worthwhile. It's worthwhile for us, well, to make up your bed, to do the right thing

for the right reason every time, to treat people good good to them do your duty wash your car polish your shoes come on you know you didn't buy those shoes looking like that polish them don't you dare look at my shoes and these are things that we have to preach this stuff to ourselves all the time why Why? Because we live in these horrible, lazy, fleshly bodies, and they really have a propensity for unrighteousness. Oh my goodness, don't they ever. Well, we're not talking about sinning against God here, but I'm telling you that this lifestyle will bring you to the point where you're constantly making decisions as to whether or not to sin against God. I tell people all the time, if you're always at a

crossroads wondering, you know, should I do this or should I do that? And one of these is a sin against God. Man, you're so far from where you should be. This is terrible that you're even there making that decision. You're supposed to have been, you missed the turn way, way to hang back there, and you shouldn't even be here. You know, does Jesus want me to drink whiskey, or does he want me to do crack cocaine? I just can't remember. You know, what would Jesus do? Do you really think Jesus would ever have to make this decision? Do you think that you would have to make this decision had you not made a bad decision last time and the one before that was a bad decision?

The one before that, oh my goodness, that was a terrible decision. The one before that, remember you went back and forth for two or three weeks and you finally just decided to give in? Yeah, that was a bad turn. The turn before that was a bad one. And now you're down here making these kind of decisions, praying about it, asking Jesus to help you make these decisions. Man, you should have done that way back there. You know what you're doing? You're involved in

unrighteous living. You're going against your own conscience. You're going against what you know is right. No wonder your life stinks. You think that the devil is chasing you around and causing all these problems? Oh, the devil really, he really worked me over today. No, the devil, as far as you're concerned, he's on vacation. There ain't nothing he, what's he going to do to make your life worse? You're doing a fine job of that. If his idea is to make you miserable, man, you got the job. You can probably do it better than he can. You see, our problem is not, you know, a red-tailed being in a suit, a red suit with horns. It's not, you know, some horrible spiritual wickedness in high places.

It's the guy wearing your shirt right now. He keeps making stupid decisions. He keeps going against his conscience and doing the wrong thing. He gets into a situation. He doesn't speak up like a man. He cowers and he runs, pulls his dress tail up and runs as fast as he can and uh he tries to

find other ways out of it he tries to buy his way out of it he tries to throw money at situations he buys insurance policies and later you know he doesn't even pay those premiums and uh and he's always trying to fix his life fix this and fix this and fix this never moving ahead because he's always trying to fix his life, fix this and fix this and fix this, never moving ahead because he's always fixing things. Everything's broken. Everywhere you look in his life, everything's broken. You know, knobs are missing off of the TV. Where's the knob? Well, I think it's right up there.

I just never bent over and put it back on. Why? Why? And you look around and you realize, well, shoot, he hasn't even dusted. Why? Why do you want to live like this? Truth is, you don't. I'm telling you, this is the flesh just eating you alive. And as long as the flesh is eating you alive, you're not getting anywhere close to righteousness. You thought righteousness was just sinlessness? Righteousness is one of the toughest things we have to do in our life. Being sinless, that's a breeze. I don't have to kill anybody today. I don't think. I mean, the day's still young. But I'm saying, I don't have to kill anybody. I don't have to steal anything

from anybody. That's a breeze. Living without sin, that's a breeze. Now, righteous living, that's something else. But so what, so what does all this come to? You need to quit coming before the Lord feeling like that you've sinned against him. And if he does you anything, does you any kind of favor, if he's your benefactor at all, it's simply because he's forgiven you or he's overlooked something or you got some deal with the man upstairs or I don't know, whatever your theology is giving you to make you feel better. But you know what usually happens is when people's lives get in this mess

and things start falling down around them. I can give you personal testimony, but it just sounds like, well, it sounds like I'm bragging. And I'm not bragging. I'm just saying, you know what? If you'll quit sinning against God, understand what sin is and realize that in a lot of cases,

you're not even sinning. If you do find yourself sinning, stop it. Just stop it. And live according to those Ten Commandments. Just do that. That's where we start. That's the first step. If we would do that, and we'd start hacking away just chipping away at all those

stuff in our life that just ought not be you know your girl she's in college now and her tricycle still buried in the mud in your back in your backyard back there all rusted up? Really? Really? Can't you go out there and dig that thing up? You know, you should have and could have given that to somebody who didn't have one. But it just sat there and rotted and melted away, melting into the earth. Nobody's got what it takes to go back there and pick that up. Old dog food cans laying in your backyard, cardboard boxes blowing around. You can't even walk through your garage now i'm just saying that if you start seeing these things for what they really are and you start actively involving

yourself into actually changing these things you're going to find out that your life starts to flourish and like i say i can give you personal examples of horrible tragedies in my life and not once did it ever just pass through my mind or not even a billboard flash passing on the highway of me saying oh God what did I do to deserve this

how would you like to live like that how would you like to live like that? How would you like to be looking at the smoking ruins of your house and not wondering if God's mad at you? Do you know you can live that way? People who sit around and say, why me? And they cry and they bawl and they squall. Why did God do this? Or even Satan.

Why did Satan do this? Why did God allow Satan god do this or or even satan you know why did satan do this why did god allow satan to do this or whatever your theology whatever picture your theology paints of what's going on you know what it'll quit involving you and you'll stop thinking that you did something wrong look good bad good good and bad things happen to good bad bad people. That's all there is to it. But you can, if you'll change, he says, except you repent, you're going to perish by these things. These things are going to kill you. You're going to lay on your deathbed and wonder why God gave you such a raw deal.

There are people that aren't Christian today because God let their 87-year-old grandmother die. I'm thinking, what? How old do you want her to be when she dies? There are people that, you know, God let their puppy dog die. Let their puppy dog get run over in the street. They don't want nothing to do with God anymore. Why do people think like this? Totally unorganized thinking,

totally illogical thinking. There's no theology, there's no doctrine, there's no order, there's no righteousness in their life. And if we can get these things straight, man, you can just skip to the lo, right through the ashes of the old house, and say, well, we'll build her better the next time. It doesn't have to take your joy. You don't have to perish by these things. But you're going to have to live a life of righteousness. And that is what? Doing the right thing every time.

You know you could do that? You know what's right. Do justly. Be humble. Love mercy. You know, treat others the way you want to be treated. Can you do that? Well, sure you can.

And if you do, you're going to find that your life really perks up. And it's going to be just like magic. You may even call it magic for a while until you learn better. But there is a better life for us out there. There's a much better life. I heard somebody say the other day that talking to a young girl, girl you know what can i do to make sure that you know i don't turn out homeless and living on the street and he said don't have a baby out of wedlock and finish high school those are the kind of people that do that what irresponsible living really is that what happens is that is that's where all this comes from yes irresponsible living well i tried and it's still no no no see i i'll be glad to talk with you about it but

i'm sure you i assure you there's irresponsibility somewhere you didn't do what you ought to have done i'm sorry i wish you you know i could blame somebody else i wish I could blame somebody else. I wish I could blame some political party for you. But the truth is that we are not who we should be so that we can become who God wants us to be. But one, you can't step over one to get to the other. Jesus, when he came to the earth, he tried to get across to us that I know you're trying, but I'm afraid you're doing these things wrong. I know you'd like it if,

I know you're reading the Bible an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And so you're thinking it gives you license to go down and take that tooth out of the guy that that made yours loose or whatever it is justifying your behavior but jesus says these things have to stop they have to quit we have to become better people we have to become better than our enemies and man and man is that ever correct? Is that ever true? We're going to have to do that. You're going to have to do this.

There'll become a time when you will invent good things to do for people. You'll invent them. They'll come to your head. They'll come to your mind and you're going to be compelled to do that. You know what's happening there? Righteousness is starting to take hold to your head. They'll come to your mind. And you're going to be compelled to do that. You know what's happening there? Righteousness is starting to take hold in your life. You're starting to live the way God expects you to live.

And when you read about Jesus, it says, now look, you know, I know the Bible says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I'm telling you, that's not the way I expect you to live. You're not going to listen to that and say, oh my goodness, if I turn them the other cheek, they're going to hit me on the other cheek. You're not going to listen to that and say, oh my goodness, if I turn them the other cheek, they're going to hit me on the other cheek. You're not going to feel that way at all. You're going to understand,

because you're thinking red ink now. You're thinking red ink. And when he says, turn them also, turn them the other cheek also, you're thinking, by golly, that is the right thing to do, isn't it? I need to quit, I need to quit avenging myself. I need to quit defending myself.

I need to, what was it Paul says? He says, what is this I hear about you? I love the Apostle Paul. He says, what is this I hear about you? That you're suing one another in court? Brother against brother? Suing one another in court. And he he says why are you going to court don't you know that we're all going to judge angels one day and you don't think that you're qualified to to settle a dispute between two men in the smallest of matters you know these

are good questions and then he asked a question that can only come from the Spirit of God. It can only come from having a relationship and knowing the Lord Jesus. And then he says, why don't you suffer wrong? Why don't you let yourselves be defrauded? You know, these are good questions. Why is it that we're determined that we're never going to lose? We're never going to let our enemies get over on us does these things make sense to you or do they kind of inflame you because what

what that reaction to this kind of this kind of talk this has given you clues to where you are in christ if that makes perfect sense to you you you're probably where you belong. But if you're thinking, well, there's extenuating circumstances, there are things you don't understand, and if you'd have been there, you would have, and if I'd have been there, then I would have, and, okay, all right. You want to go on your way, or you want to make this thing work? Because it can work. You don't have to be the horrible, miserable failure that most Christians are today,

where their Christianity means nothing to them, where their biggest fear is dying when they're not in church. When they're in church, that's their greatest hope. That's their most wonderful thing in the world. Jesus saved me. I'm going to heaven when i die they step out of the church the doctor says six weeks you got six weeks oh no lord why me and the tears start flowing and then in the middle of the night they they stare at the ceiling and wonder you know where am I going to be seven weeks from today?

What happened to your faith? Where'd all that go? This is the Lord bringing things into your life to show you the miserable condition that you're in. I know you thought you were prosperous and happy and full, but you're poor, you're miserable, you're blind and you're naked. That's the Revelation speaking speaking by the way. Most Christians feel like that they have everything they need.

But he says if you could see things from my perspective you'd understand that you're poor, you're miserable, you're blind and you're naked. The quicker you can realize that that part of this of what's being said is true the quicker you're going that that part of this, of what's being said is true, the quicker you're going to get out of this. You know, I advise everybody, you feel something in you now? As we were speaking, do you feel something that just isn't right? Man, this is a wonderful time to go before the Lord and let him show this to you.

Because, man, he can fix it this afternoon. This afternoon, my friend, you can be different than you are today that's that's a wonderful deal but you know what that is that's christianity under a loving lord shout out the lord of all the earth do right sure he's gonna do right now shout out the lord of all the earth make you comfortable and happy and make you smile at every situation and never have troubles again? No. No, sorry.

You're not going to get that from him. He's a perfect father. And his main goal in life is to make you who you ought to be. And that's liable to hurt. Chances are it's going to hurt. But we need to dig these things out and we need to become the person that he wantsable to hurt. Chances are it's going to hurt. But we need to dig these things out and we need to become the person

that He wants us to be. He had great, great ideas for you and I'm afraid that our flesh and our resolution to living a life of unrighteousness, that's okay with me. You know, as long as I don't go to hell

or whatever other silly ideas we have, they're costing us, and they're costing us dearly. Look at your little grandchildren. Look at your children in the room with you. They're looking at you. They hear you say you're a Christian. Let's see how they do in college when their college professor tells them

that there's no such thing as God. Okay, time's up. We've got to go. Write to me, don at thinkredink.com. We'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning in. Bye-bye. You've been listening to Don C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredink.com. That's thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com.

Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you