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Speaker 4: Hi. This is Joel and Victoria.
Speaker 5: Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting
Speaker 5: the ministry. If you enjoy today's message, why don't you
Speaker 5: be a blessing and share it with a friend. We
Speaker 5: appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life. Well,
Speaker 5: God bless you always a joy to come into your homes.
Speaker 5: We love you, We know that God has good things
Speaker 5: in store for you, and if you're ever in our area,
Speaker 5: I hope you'll stop by and be a part of
Speaker 5: one of our services.
Speaker 4: I promise you will make you feel right at home.
Speaker 5: I say it often, but these are the finest people
Speaker 5: in all of Houston right here, so we'd love to
Speaker 5: have you be apart.
Speaker 4: Come out and join us sometime.
Speaker 5: Thanks for tuning in today, and you know, I'd like
Speaker 5: to get started with something funny each week. And of
Speaker 5: course most of these jokes are not doctrinally correct, and
Speaker 5: especially today.
Speaker 4: It's just a joke just to make you laugh.
Speaker 5: But anyway, a woman died and found herself standing at
Speaker 5: the pearly gates. Peter said, you can't go in unless
Speaker 5: you correctly spell a word.
Speaker 4: What word? She asked? Any word, Peter replied.
Speaker 5: So she spelled the word love l ovee, and Peter
Speaker 5: welcomed her to heaven. He then asked her to take
Speaker 5: his position. He instructed her to follow the same procedure
Speaker 5: should anyone arrive. A few minutes later, the woman sees
Speaker 5: her ex husband coming up. What are you doing here?
Speaker 5: He said, I just had a heart attack. Did I'll
Speaker 5: really make it to heaven?
Speaker 4: Not yet?
Speaker 5: She said, You've got to correctly spell a word. What
Speaker 5: word do you ask? After a long pause, she replied Czechoslovakia.
Speaker 4: All right, hold up your Bible. Say it like you
Speaker 4: mean it. Are you ready?
Speaker 5: This is my Bible. I am what it says I am.
Speaker 5: I have what it says I have. I can do
Speaker 5: what it says I can do. Today I will be
Speaker 5: taught the word of God. I boldly confessed. My mind
Speaker 5: is alert, my heart is receptive. I will never be
Speaker 5: the same. In Jesus' name, God bless you. I want
Speaker 5: to talk to you today about developing a tender conscience.
Speaker 5: The conscience is just like an alarm when you're about
Speaker 5: to do something that's not beneficial or something.
Speaker 4: That's going to get you into trouble.
Speaker 5: All of a sudden, you're going to feel uncomfortable right
Speaker 5: down in here. There's going to be an unrest and uneasiness.
Speaker 5: That's God trying to warn you. Don't ignore that, don't
Speaker 5: override that uneasiness. See, the conscience is like an inward monitor.
Speaker 5: It's called the comp us of our souls. It helps
Speaker 5: us to know what is right and what is wrong.
Speaker 5: And one of the best friends you can ever have
Speaker 5: is your own conscience. I like what Abraham Lincoln said.
Speaker 5: He said, when my presidency is over, I may not
Speaker 5: have one other friend on earth, but I will have
Speaker 5: at least one friend, and that friend is on the
Speaker 5: inside of me. He was saying, I'm going to listen
Speaker 5: to my conscience. I'm going to heed what it's saying
Speaker 5: to me. And really, there's no telling how much trouble
Speaker 5: that we could avoid, how much heartache we could avoid,
Speaker 5: if we'd simply pay more attention to what we're feeling.
Speaker 4: Right down in here.
Speaker 5: I hear people say all the time, I know I
Speaker 5: shouldn't do this, but I know I shouldn't say this,
Speaker 5: but I know I shouldn't buy this. But see they
Speaker 5: know what they should do. The alarm is going off.
Speaker 5: They can feel that sense of disapproval. But the problem is,
Speaker 5: many times we don't obey our conscience. The truth is
Speaker 5: much of the trouble that we get ourselves into. If
Speaker 5: we look back, we can see how God tried to
Speaker 5: warn us again and again and again. Now, don't make
Speaker 5: the mistake of overriding your conscience. Respect it, just like
Speaker 5: you respect your boss, or you respect someone that has
Speaker 5: authority over you. You wouldn't disobey them. We'll learn to treat
Speaker 5: your conscience in the same way. That's God leading you
Speaker 5: and trying to keep you out of trouble. How many
Speaker 5: times have you been in a conversation with your spouse
Speaker 5: and things get a little heated up and you can
Speaker 5: feel yourself getting aggravated, ready to want to argue, and
Speaker 5: all of a sudden, that check goes off. Something right
Speaker 5: down in here says, let it go, drop it, bite
Speaker 5: your tongue, walk away, keep the peace. Well, that's your
Speaker 5: conscience trying to keep you out of trouble. That's God
Speaker 5: trying to warn you. But too many times we just
Speaker 5: ignore it and we do our own thing. We end
Speaker 5: up having a big argument, getting all upset, ruining the
Speaker 5: rest of the evening, And really it all could have
Speaker 5: been avoided if we just paid attention to what our
Speaker 5: conscience was trying to say to us. Friends, Learn to
Speaker 5: be He's sensitive. Stop when your conscience says stop. Quit
Speaker 5: having to have the last word, men, Quit looking at
Speaker 5: your wives.
Speaker 4: Somebody said a.
Speaker 5: Woman always has the last word in an argument. Anything
Speaker 5: after that is a brand new argument. But pay attention
Speaker 5: to what you're feeling right down in here. Don't ever
Speaker 5: override your own conscience. This will spare you so much
Speaker 5: heartache and pain. I know one time my father was
Speaker 5: driving down the feeder Road about to get on the freeway.
Speaker 5: He was in a big hurriys running late to this meeting,
Speaker 5: and he was going well over the speed limit, and
Speaker 5: just as he came up to this big curve in
Speaker 5: the road, that alarm went off right down in here.
Speaker 5: Something said to him, you better slow down. There's a
Speaker 5: policeman around the corner.
Speaker 4: And Daddy told.
Speaker 5: How it was so distinct, he felt it so strongly,
Speaker 5: but he was in that big hurry and he just
Speaker 5: ignored it, didn't pay any attention. Well, sure enough, when
Speaker 5: he got around the corner, there was a police officer
Speaker 5: standing there holding his radar gun out, and he just
Speaker 5: flagged my dad over. He came up to the window.
Speaker 5: Daddy had a big smile on his face. He said, officer,
Speaker 5: you're never gonna believe this, but God told me you
Speaker 5: were up here. That officer looked at him like he
Speaker 5: was from another planet. He took Daddy's license and went
Speaker 5: to his car, and he came back a couple of
Speaker 5: minutes later, and he's kind of.
Speaker 4: Shaking his head.
Speaker 5: He said, listen here, preacher, I'm gonna let you go.
Speaker 5: But the next time, God speaks to you. You better listen.
Speaker 5: This friend of ours was a Methodist minister for many years,
Speaker 5: and he told how one time he got pulled over
Speaker 5: by the police, and he has a real big Southern
Speaker 5: draw and he said, oh, officer, please don't give me
Speaker 5: a ticket. I'm just a poor old preacher. The officer said,
Speaker 5: I know that I heard you on television last Sunday.
Speaker 5: My boy, it is don't override your own conscious when
Speaker 5: you feel uncomfortable down in here, when you have that uneasiness,
Speaker 5: just pull back and see what God is trying to
Speaker 5: say to you. You may be in the middle of
Speaker 5: a conversation all of a sudden the alarm goes off,
Speaker 5: and you know you need to button it up, or
Speaker 5: you know you need to walk away.
Speaker 4: Don't ignore that.
Speaker 5: You may be just about to buy something, just about
Speaker 5: to eat something, just about to make some plans, and
Speaker 5: that check goes off right down in here will be sensitive.
Speaker 5: If you'll learn to listen to your conscience, God will
Speaker 5: keep you out of trouble. He'll even protect you from danger.
Speaker 5: I remember this young man that used to do some
Speaker 5: work for us. One day I saw him and it
Speaker 5: looked like he had been in some type of accident.
Speaker 5: His face was all bruised, he had these black eyes,
Speaker 5: and he had some stitches on this arm. I said, man,
Speaker 5: what in the world happened to you? Were you in
Speaker 5: a wreck or something? And he began to explain how
Speaker 5: on his way home from work he had gotten carjacked.
Speaker 4: He'd stopped at this light and these.
Speaker 5: Guys came and pulled him out of his car, and
Speaker 5: he didn't have a wallet, and so they just ended
Speaker 5: up beating him up and leaving him there.
Speaker 4: Then he said something so interesting.
Speaker 5: He said, you know, Joel, the funny thing was on
Speaker 5: my way home that night, something told me to not
Speaker 5: go that way. Right down in here, as this distinct
Speaker 5: as it could be, he said, something said you better
Speaker 5: go another way. And it was so strong that he
Speaker 5: even debated it in his mind. He thought, I always
Speaker 5: go this way. This is the quickest way. Why should
Speaker 5: I go another way? And understand, this young man was
Speaker 5: not what you'd consider to be a religious type person,
Speaker 5: but he said, I know that was God trying to
Speaker 5: warn me. I know that was God trying to protect me.
Speaker 5: These were his exact words, he said, Joel, if I
Speaker 5: had only just listened, and really, that's what I'm saying
Speaker 5: to all of us today, before you get into trouble,
Speaker 5: before you make a poor decision, God is always going
Speaker 5: to warn you that alarm is going to go off
Speaker 5: right down in here. It may not be something as
Speaker 5: dramatic as this young man.
Speaker 4: It may just be an alarm.
Speaker 5: To keep your mouth closed in order to avoid an argument.
Speaker 5: It may be an alarmed to turn off the TV to
Speaker 5: keep your mind pure, or an alarm to just change
Speaker 5: your attitude. But whatever it is, if you'll be sensitive
Speaker 5: and pay attention to it, then God will lead you.
Speaker 5: Don't be like this young man and try to figure
Speaker 5: it all out. Well, why can't I go that way?
Speaker 5: Or why can't I say this? She started it. It's
Speaker 5: her fault. Now you've got to get out of your
Speaker 5: head and start listening to your heart. If you will
Speaker 5: obey what you're feeling down in here, if you'll obey
Speaker 5: your conscience, God will help you to.
Speaker 4: Make good decisions.
Speaker 5: He'll help you live his abundant life and understand just
Speaker 5: because somebody else is doing something doesn't mean it's.
Speaker 4: Okay for you to do it.
Speaker 5: Well, Joel, all my friends are going to see this movie,
Speaker 5: and they're good people.
Speaker 4: They love God.
Speaker 5: I don't know why I shouldn't go No, don't compare
Speaker 5: yourself to anybody else, and don't try to have to
Speaker 5: justify your actions. You've got to learn to listen to
Speaker 5: your own heart. If you have that uneasiness down in here,
Speaker 5: if your conscience is not clear, it doesn't matter what
Speaker 5: everybody else is doing. Follow how God is leading you.
Speaker 5: Every person is at different stages. You're not always going
Speaker 5: to understand why you can or can't do certain things,
Speaker 5: but you've got to go deeper than that and be
Speaker 5: obedient anyway. I know some pastor friends that do certain
Speaker 5: things that I don't feel comfortable with.
Speaker 4: It's not a sin, but it's just.
Speaker 5: Something that personally, right down in here I don't feel
Speaker 5: good about. Doesn't mean they're bad people. I don't judge
Speaker 5: them and condemn them, but I know just because they
Speaker 5: do it.
Speaker 4: Doesn't mean that it's right for me. I've learned I've
Speaker 4: got to keep my own conscience clear.
Speaker 5: And in the same way, ladies, you may have some
Speaker 5: friends at work that dress.
Speaker 4: A little more revealing than you do.
Speaker 5: Maybe they're even in a position of leadership, and you
Speaker 5: kind of think, well, I guess that's okay for me.
Speaker 5: Now you've got to check with your own heart. God
Speaker 5: deals with us individually. You don't know all the details
Speaker 5: in that person's life.
Speaker 4: Who knows.
Speaker 5: Maybe God is speaking to them but they're not listening,
Speaker 5: or maybe they've come a long way. They're making progress.
Speaker 5: God is pleased, but you're just at a different stage.
Speaker 5: If you make the mistake of comparing, and you have
Speaker 5: to justify your actions, before long, you'll be going against
Speaker 5: your content and that will always keep you from God's best.
Speaker 5: And don't make excuses. Well, everybody speeds out there on
Speaker 5: the highway, Joel. I saw him going seventy five miles
Speaker 5: an hour, and he's even on staff at Lakewood. Now,
Speaker 5: just because you saw my brother Paul speeding, just because
Speaker 5: somebody else is doing it doesn't mean that it's okay
Speaker 5: for you. Keep your own conscience clear. And there may
Speaker 5: even be things that your husband or wife or your
Speaker 5: good friend does and it doesn't bother them a bit,
Speaker 5: but when you go to do it, it just doesn't
Speaker 5: feel right. You have that check or what I'm saying
Speaker 5: is only do what is right for you. And something
Speaker 5: else that's important to understand. Don't judge that other person
Speaker 5: don't condemn them. Let God deal with them. Well, I
Speaker 5: can't believe you went to see that movie. I can't
Speaker 5: believe you don't get up and pray every morning like
Speaker 5: I do. No, maybe they're not at that level, and
Speaker 5: God didn't call us to be somebody else's conscience. Quit
Speaker 5: judging and just focus on keeping your own conscience clear.
Speaker 5: Telling how much God would bless us, no telling how
Speaker 5: happy and fulfilled our lives would be if we simply
Speaker 5: learn to maintain a clear conscience, if we just learn
Speaker 5: to not move forward when we feel that sense of
Speaker 5: disapproval down in here. And it may not be something big,
Speaker 5: it may just be something small. But if we can't
Speaker 5: be faithful in the little things, how can God trust
Speaker 5: us in the big things. If we can't keep our
Speaker 5: mouth closed to avoid an argument, or if we can't
Speaker 5: slow down on the freeway when our conscience is convicting us,
Speaker 5: then those seemingly small things will keep us from rising higher.
Speaker 5: And what's interesting is, most of the time, deep down
Speaker 5: in here, we know what we should do, but too
Speaker 5: often we just make the mistake of not doing it.
Speaker 5: And what's happening is we're overriding our consciences. And understand.
Speaker 5: Every time you ignore your conscience, every time you push
Speaker 5: it down, you don't pay any attention. The next time
Speaker 5: that voice will speak a little softer, then the next
Speaker 5: time a little softer, next time even more softly, And unfortunately,
Speaker 5: you can get to the place where you have totally
Speaker 5: drowned out the voice of your conscience.
Speaker 4: For instance, maybe.
Speaker 5: You're about to say something rude to someone and all
Speaker 5: of a sudden, that check goes off right down in here.
Speaker 5: You feel that uneasiness and something tells you bite your tongue,
Speaker 5: don't do it. But if you just ignore that, you
Speaker 5: override it and do it anyway.
Speaker 4: Number One, you're gonna feel guilty.
Speaker 5: And if you don't go back and make things right
Speaker 5: and apologize, then the next time you're in that situation,
Speaker 5: the alarm won't be quite as loud, the voice won't
Speaker 5: be quite so strong, And you can get to the
Speaker 5: place where you've done it so long you become desensitized
Speaker 5: to it. You can come to the point where you're
Speaker 5: acting a certain way or treating the people a certain way,
Speaker 5: and even though it's not right, you don't even realize
Speaker 5: that you're doing it. And you may be here today
Speaker 5: and you're kind of hard and rude with people, and
Speaker 5: you've been that way so long. You're so set in
Speaker 5: your ways you don't really hear the alarm anymore. Or
Speaker 5: maybe you've been watching questionable things so long that it
Speaker 5: doesn't bother you much anymore. And that's why we need
Speaker 5: to pray every single day. God, help me to develop
Speaker 5: a tender conscience. God, help me to be sensitive to
Speaker 5: your voice. I don't know about you, but I don't
Speaker 5: want to have areas in my life where I'm stuck
Speaker 5: in mediocrity all because I'm not obeying my conscience. The
Speaker 5: Bible talks about in One Timothy chapter four, how a
Speaker 5: conscience can become seared. That simply means that it becomes
Speaker 5: numb in that area. We don't have any feeling in it.
Speaker 5: Say you're at home watching TV one night, and you know,
Speaker 5: it kind of gets a little bit vulgar, kind of
Speaker 5: gets a little off color, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 5: that alarm goes off. Something says, get up, turn it off.
Speaker 5: Don't put that trash in your mind. But if you
Speaker 5: just sit there time after time and ignore it, month
Speaker 5: after month before long, that won't bother you anymore. You
Speaker 5: become numb to that. It's like, it's no big deal.
Speaker 5: You know, what's it gonna hurt to watch this stuff.
Speaker 5: I know people today that are involved in a relationship
Speaker 5: out side of their marriage. They're not being faithful and
Speaker 5: it really doesn't even bother them too much. And I
Speaker 5: can assure you when they first started to give into
Speaker 5: that temptation, the alarm went off, I can guarantee you
Speaker 5: at first they felt uncomfortable down in here. They were uneasy,
Speaker 5: they knew it wasn't right. But month after month, as
Speaker 5: they turned the alarm off, now.
Speaker 4: It's no big deal.
Speaker 5: They've sort of justified it in their mind. Everybody's doing it. See,
Speaker 5: they've totally drowned out the voice of their conscience. They
Speaker 5: pushed it down so much they don't feel the uneasiness anymore.
Speaker 5: And that's why I encourages so strongly to be quick
Speaker 5: to obey, don't be hard headed, don't be stubborn and
Speaker 5: have to do it your own way. That will only
Speaker 5: lead to heartache and pain. I met a man a
Speaker 5: few weeks ago. His family lives in another country and
Speaker 5: he's been here in the States for several years working
Speaker 5: with his company, and he began to tell how he
Speaker 5: was involved with this other woman and they had been
Speaker 5: in this relationship for a couple of years, but he
Speaker 5: felt so badly about it.
Speaker 4: He said, Joel, I just feel terrible. I know that
Speaker 4: it's not right.
Speaker 5: I can hardly sleep at night, and I really want
Speaker 5: to change, but I just can't seem to do it.
Speaker 5: And I told him, you're in a very interesting situation.
Speaker 5: You are the exception to the rule, because most people
Speaker 5: that have been overriding their consciences that long don't care
Speaker 5: anything about it. They don't feel anything, they're not concerned.
Speaker 5: And I said, you should thank God that you still
Speaker 5: have a tender conscience.
Speaker 4: You should be grateful that you still have that concern.
Speaker 4: And I challenged him.
Speaker 5: To do his best to make the necessary changes before
Speaker 5: that uneasiness war off. And really, that's the danger, that's
Speaker 5: what should concern us more than anything, that we're doing
Speaker 5: something wrong for so long that we don't even realize
Speaker 5: that we're doing it. We become numb in that area.
Speaker 5: And again, I think that's why we need to pray
Speaker 5: every day. God help me to stay sensitive to your voice. God,
Speaker 5: don't let me to get hard and cold and numb.
Speaker 5: In any area of my life, in my attitude and
Speaker 5: how I treat people, and what I say and what
Speaker 5: I do and what I watch. God help me to
Speaker 5: have a tender conscience. Friends, God rewards obedience. If you
Speaker 5: have things in your life, big or small, that you
Speaker 5: know in here are not right, I believe God is
Speaker 5: saying today is the time to make changes. Get into
Speaker 5: God's best path. Don't keep overriding your conscience. Some of
Speaker 5: you have been pushing that alarm down for a long time.
Speaker 5: When you have ten or fifteen years of doing something
Speaker 5: a certain way, it's very easy to just want to
Speaker 5: stay right where you are. If you will be open
Speaker 5: and honest with yourself, and when you feel God convicting
Speaker 5: you in here, if you have the desire to change,
Speaker 5: God will help you to change. And it is better
Speaker 5: to go through a little pain of change than it
Speaker 5: is to go twenty or thirty years stuck in mediocrity.
Speaker 5: And I found the more obedient we are, the easier
Speaker 5: it will be to obey. Obedience breeds obedience. Just the
Speaker 5: opposite is true. Disobedience breeds more obedience. And you can
Speaker 5: increase the sensitivity of your conscience, or you can decrease it.
Speaker 5: Every time you obey, your conscience is getting a little
Speaker 5: more sensitive.
Speaker 4: It's just like a window. When you obey, you're letting
Speaker 4: a little more light in.
Speaker 5: The Next time, it'll be a little easier, your heart
Speaker 5: will be a little softer, and you'll do it a
Speaker 5: little quicker. You can get to the point where you're
Speaker 5: so sensitive that when you first feel that uneasiness, you
Speaker 5: first feel that slight, uncomfortable feeling down in here, that
Speaker 5: will get your attention and cause you to make changes.
Speaker 5: And really, that's the kind of people God.
Speaker 4: Wants us to be.
Speaker 5: When we hear the still small voice, when we first
Speaker 5: feel that little.
Speaker 4: Nudge, we are quick to take action.
Speaker 5: See, don't be the kind of person that has to
Speaker 5: have ten warnings and twelve sirens go off and you still.
Speaker 4: Don't get it. Be quick to obey and understand this.
Speaker 5: When you live an obedient life, you don't have to
Speaker 5: worry about being blessed.
Speaker 4: That's when God's blessings will chase you down and overtake you.
Speaker 5: When you obey, you cannot outrun the good things of God.
Speaker 5: And remember, I'm talking about obeying your own conscience, not
Speaker 5: obeying what your neighbor does or what your coworker doesn't do.
Speaker 5: They don't set the standard. Obey what God is telling
Speaker 5: you right down in here. And as I said, God
Speaker 5: takes us all in stages. You may be here today
Speaker 5: and you kind of have a problem with your attitude.
Speaker 5: You've got a problem with being negative. Well, the good
Speaker 5: news is God does not expect you to change overnight.
Speaker 5: He is not going to be disappointed with you and
Speaker 5: just write you off if you don't turn it around
Speaker 5: in one week's time. Now, God all he asks is
Speaker 5: that you keep making progress. He doesn't want you to
Speaker 5: be at this same place next.
Speaker 4: Year as you are right now. He's going to lead
Speaker 4: you in his own special way.
Speaker 5: And if you will be sensitive and just do your
Speaker 5: best to keep your own conscience clear, then God will
Speaker 5: be pleased and he'll begin to release more of his
Speaker 5: blessings in your life. And really, this is something that
Speaker 5: we all can do because God meets us at our
Speaker 5: own level. I don't have to keep up with you,
Speaker 5: and you don't have to keep up with me. I
Speaker 5: just have to be true to my own heart. I
Speaker 5: know the areas God deals with me in. I can
Speaker 5: hear that alarm going on. I always do my best
Speaker 5: to not go against my own conscience. That's what I'm
Speaker 5: challenging you to do as well. I know this young
Speaker 5: man that I went to college with, and he was
Speaker 5: very short with people. I mean, basically, he was just
Speaker 5: kind of hard and rude in a sense. He could
Speaker 5: be nice if you knew him, but if you didn't
Speaker 5: know him, he was just very matter of fact. And
Speaker 5: one day we were at this restaurant together with a
Speaker 5: group of the guys from the school, and the waiter
Speaker 5: got his order all mixed up and this young man
Speaker 5: just jumped down his throat.
Speaker 4: I mean, he let him have it.
Speaker 5: He embarrassed him in front of all of us, and
Speaker 5: it was so uncalled for. I mean, anybody can make
Speaker 5: a mistake that he just didn't show him any mercy.
Speaker 5: And anyway, we got back to the dorm later that
Speaker 5: night and he came into my room about an hour
Speaker 5: later and he asked me if he could borrow my card.
Speaker 5: I said, sure you can, but where are you going
Speaker 5: this late?
Speaker 4: He said, you know, Joel, I feel terrible.
Speaker 5: I treated that waiter so bad I can't even sleep,
Speaker 5: and I'm going to go back there and apologize to him.
Speaker 4: And do you know I saw that young man change.
Speaker 4: Over the course of that year.
Speaker 5: He went from being hard and cold and rude to
Speaker 5: being one of the kindest, most considerate people you could
Speaker 5: ever meet. My point is God will help you to
Speaker 5: change if you will simply work with him. None of
Speaker 5: us are perfect. We all make mistakes. But if we
Speaker 5: can just learn to obey our own conscience, if we
Speaker 5: can just do like that young man and be big
Speaker 5: enough to say, I'm sorry I didn't treat you right.
Speaker 4: I'll do better next time.
Speaker 5: If you will be sensitive and maintain a clear conscience,
Speaker 5: there's no limit to what God will do in your life.
Speaker 4: And you know as well as I do.
Speaker 5: When we have a guilty conscience, we don't feel good
Speaker 5: about ourselves. We can't pray with boldness, we feel condemned,
Speaker 5: we don't expect good things. We're not fulfilled. The best
Speaker 5: thing we can do is just go back and make
Speaker 5: things right. Like that young man, swallow your pride and
Speaker 5: be quick to obey. Why don't you apologize to the
Speaker 5: people you need to apologize to, don't live with a
Speaker 5: guilty conscience, Or maybe you need to say God, I'm
Speaker 5: sorry for watching all that jump, forgive me, or God,
Speaker 5: I'm sorry for having such a critical attitude toward that person. Listen,
Speaker 5: when you do that, your conscience will go back to
Speaker 5: that place of ease, That heavy burden will be lifted
Speaker 5: off of you. You'll be able to sleep well. Not
Speaker 5: only that, God will help you to do better next time.
Speaker 5: I remember years ago, one time after the service, my
Speaker 5: father came back into the television area and myself and
Speaker 5: four or five of the crew members were back there,
Speaker 5: and it just so happened when Daddy walked in. We
Speaker 5: were all laughing real big and having a good time.
Speaker 5: Something real funny had just happened. But for some reason,
Speaker 5: my father thought that we were making fun of something
Speaker 5: that had happened in the service.
Speaker 4: The truth is, it didn't have anything to do with that.
Speaker 5: And now Daddy was very kind, he was a very
Speaker 5: compassionate person, but this seemed to just set him off,
Speaker 5: and he began to chew us out and let us
Speaker 5: know that we should not be making fun of people
Speaker 5: and things, and on and on and on. I said, again, Daddy,
Speaker 5: it had nothing to do with that, It was totally unrelated. Well,
Speaker 5: he left there, and of course we felt kind of
Speaker 5: badly about it. But when I got home that night.
Speaker 5: A couple of hours later, I'll never forget, my father
Speaker 5: came into my room and he said, Joel, I got
Speaker 5: to talk to you.
Speaker 4: I blew it tonight. I know I was wrong.
Speaker 5: I know I made a mistake, and I'm asking you
Speaker 5: to forgive me.
Speaker 4: I just want to apologize.
Speaker 5: Do you know Daddy called each of those other young
Speaker 5: men that night as well and apologize to them. It
Speaker 5: must have been close to midnight, but he would not
Speaker 5: go to bed with having that heaviness on his heart.
Speaker 5: And what an impression that made upon me, What an
Speaker 5: impression it made upon those other young men. He was
Speaker 5: not too proud to apologize, He was not too proud
Speaker 5: to admit that he made a mistake. See, my father
Speaker 5: had a tender conscience. He wouldn't even go to bed
Speaker 5: with that feeling of heaviness. No wonder God blessed him.
Speaker 5: No wonder God to you to him in a great way.
Speaker 5: And if we can just learn to have that same
Speaker 5: kind of pure heart and be sensitive and whatever area
Speaker 5: it may be in, be quick to obey, be quick
Speaker 5: to forgive, be quick to apologize, be quick to change
Speaker 5: your attitude.
Speaker 4: That's what's pleasing to God.
Speaker 5: If you're here today, and you have things hanging on
Speaker 5: to your conscience.
Speaker 4: People.
Speaker 5: You need to apologize to habits, you need to break
Speaker 5: things you know you need to do.
Speaker 4: Don't live life guilty.
Speaker 5: Make the necessary changes, make those adjustments, and listen. I'm
Speaker 5: not here to condemn anybody. I'm here to help you
Speaker 5: come up higher. And I can tell you this life
Speaker 5: is too short to live it compromising with unforgiveness, with
Speaker 5: bad attitudes, going around, treating people poorly. Pay attention to
Speaker 5: what you're feeling on the inside. Live your life with
Speaker 5: a clearer conscience. Get into God's best plan. The scripture
Speaker 5: says there in Matthew six point twenty two that the
Speaker 5: lamp of the body is the eye, the spiritual eye,
Speaker 5: you might say, is our conscience. Goes on to say
Speaker 5: that if the eye is good, the whole body will
Speaker 5: be filled with light. In other words, if your conscience
Speaker 5: is clear, life is gonna be good. You're gonna be happy,
Speaker 5: You're gonna have a positive vision, and you'll be enjoying
Speaker 5: God's blessings. But the next verse describes many people today.
Speaker 5: Says in the Amplified, if our conscience is full of darkness,
Speaker 5: then how dense will that darkness be I think about
Speaker 5: how many people are living with a heaviness. They've always
Speaker 5: got this nagging feeling, something's always bothering them.
Speaker 4: They're not happy.
Speaker 5: Well, the problem is they don't have a clear conscience.
Speaker 5: They've swept things under the rug, they've ignored the warnings.
Speaker 5: They've gotten hard and cold in certain areas. And listen,
Speaker 5: that's not gonna change until you make the adjustments. And
Speaker 5: what I'm saying today, if there are things that you
Speaker 5: are doing that you know you should not be doing.
Speaker 4: Then make some adjustments.
Speaker 5: Or if there are things that you should not be
Speaker 5: doing and you're doing them, then make those changes. And
Speaker 5: as I said, it may not be something big, you
Speaker 5: may not be in some kind of great sin, but
Speaker 5: maybe God is dealing with you just about having a
Speaker 5: better attitude, or about spending more time with your children,
Speaker 5: about eating healthier, whatever it is. Make it decision that
Speaker 5: you're going to pay more attention to your conscience, and
Speaker 5: not only that, that you're gonna be quick to obey.
Speaker 5: That's when all that heaviness is going to leave. I
Speaker 5: like what the apostle Paul said in Acts twenty three.
Speaker 5: He said, I have lived before God with a perfectly
Speaker 5: clear conscience. That should be the goal of every one
Speaker 5: of us. When our conscience is clear, condemnation won't bother us.
Speaker 5: When we have a clear conscience, we're gonna be happy.
Speaker 5: Other people may try to judge us or condemn us,
Speaker 5: but that'll just bounce right off of us.
Speaker 4: Sometimes people say.
Speaker 5: Joel, why don't you do more of this or more
Speaker 5: of that. Listen, I know I'm not perfect, but I
Speaker 5: also know this. My conscience is clear before God. I
Speaker 5: know that I'm doing my best please him. That's why
Speaker 5: I can sleep well at night. That's why I can
Speaker 5: lie down at peace. That's why I can have a
Speaker 5: smile on my face. For INDs, this is a very
Speaker 5: freeing way to live. So let me challenge you again.
Speaker 5: Pay close attention to your conscience, respect it, don't ignore
Speaker 5: those warnings, be quick to obey, and pray every day.
Speaker 5: God help me to have a tender conscience. And remember,
Speaker 5: every time you obey your conscience, your heart is getting
Speaker 5: a little bit softer and you'll do it a little
Speaker 5: quicker the next time. So make a decision with me
Speaker 5: that you're gonna do your best to maintain a clear conscience.
Speaker 5: If you do that, I know God will take you
Speaker 5: from victory to victory and you'll experience the abundant life
Speaker 5: He has in store.
Speaker 4: Amen, how many of you receive it this morning?
Speaker 5: We never like to close our broadcast without giving you
Speaker 5: an opportunity to make Jesus the lord of your life.
Speaker 4: Would you pray with me?
Speaker 5: Just say, Lord, Jesus, I repent of my sins. Come
Speaker 5: into my heart. I make you my Lord and savior. Friends,
Speaker 5: if you prayed that simple prayer, we believe you got
Speaker 5: born again. Get in a good Bible based church. Keep
Speaker 5: God first place.
Speaker 4: He's going to take your places that you've never dreamed of.
Speaker 4: Thank you for listening to the joel Ostine podcast.
Speaker 1: Help us continue to share the message of hope with
Speaker 1: those all over the world.
Speaker 4: Visit joelostin dot.
Speaker 1: Com slash give Hope to give a gift today.
Speaker 4: Thanks so much for listening to today's message.
Speaker 5: I hope you'll subscribe so you can receive the latest
Speaker 5: podcast to keep.
Speaker 4: You inspired all through the week. We're praying for you.
Speaker 4: I know God's best is still ahead. We'll see you
Speaker 4: next time.
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