Ask for advice and follow it

• Proverbs 1:7, 20-27; 15:5, 32
• “I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.” – Winston Churchill
• We have to be willing to listen to others.
• “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” – Harry Truman
• “I never learned from a man who agreed with me.” – Robert Heinlein
• “A man who asks is a fool for 5 minutes. A man who never asks, is a fool for a lifetime.” – Chinese proverb

Serve someone

• Mark 10:43-45 – Jesus came to serve!
• Philippians 2:3-4
• I Corinthians 9:19-22
• Philippians 2:5-8
• “Regard one another as more important than yourselves.”

Give a soft answer

• Proverbs 15:1; 25:15
• Romans 12:17-18
• Romans 12:10

Two deals

• $100,000 for your car right now.
• $1,000,000 for your car, but you don’t get the money until you return in seven days and you lose access to the car immediately.

Satan offers us a similar deal

• Hebrews 11:25
• Satan requires no self-discipline

God offers an eternity of bliss, but requires sacrifice, faithful service, and enduring persecution

• Romans 6:23
• I Timothy 4:8
• Mark 10:28-30
• Many people literally sell their souls.
• Hebrews 11:24-26
• Many are not willing to make the effort to serve God.
• Some fall short after deciding to service God.
• Ephesians 5:3-5

Have you accepted Satan’s offer in your life?

• It’s not too late to change!
• John 14:6

Continuous improvement

• God’s salvation is such that being a Christian is not an exercise in being perfect; rather it is an exercise in continuous improvement.
  • Saved by grace through faith
    • Ephesians 1:3-7; 2:1-10
  • What is faith?
    • Hebrews 11; James 2
      • Complete trust and reliance on God.
  • Walking in the light
    • I John 1:5-2:2

Specks and logs

• Luke 6:41-42; Galatians 6:1-5
  • Focus first and primarily on identifying and correcting my faults.
  • Then help others overcome their faults.
• Identifying and correction certain faults in myself, makes me uniquely qualified to help others who have the same, or a similar fault.

Confession

• James 5:13-16
• Confessing sins to other people brings powerful healing.
  • Exposes the problem
  • Allows others to help

Due to technical difficulties, the first six minutes of the recording were lost. My apologies. -MRW

Apply the Bible to your faults

• Matthew 7:21-27
• James 1:21-25
• Why is it hard to apply the Bible to our faults? Selfishness.
• Sometimes change is challenging.
  • Ezra 9:1-4 – The Jews had intermarried with the people around them, in violation of God’s commands.
  • Ezra 10:1-4 – The people took responsibility for their own sin and corrected it. This was extremely difficult!
  • Ezra 10:9-14 – The change would take time.
• John 3:16-21

Question your anger

• Ephesians 4:26-27
• Genesis 4:5-8 – God tried to get Cain to question his anger, but Cain refused and sinned in murdering Abel.
• Jonah 3:10
• Anger gives us an opportunity to improve the situation.
• Mark 3:1-6 – Jesus was angry at their hardness of heart.
• What are justifiable reasons to be angry?