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well we'll release the upper and lower elementary you guys can follow them out you have not signed out sign in your child go ahead and do that parents can follow them out say if you're here and you're a believer i don't do this every time but if you're here and you're a believer you've never been baptized i want to encourage you to be baptized right the scripture commands it so if you've never been water baptized uh get baptized contact the office we'll set it up for you and get baptized all right everybody doing okay this morning hopefully you're staying cool i hope you got good air conditioner glory to god i hope you got good air conditioner and i hope that your provider is not pso i'm just gonna throw that out there i'm just joking well kind of third sunday of the month third sunday in august time just scooting on by the reason i'm bringing that up is uh typically over the last oh man elisha and i moved here in 2013 it was happening before then on the third sunday of month we would come together for something we called the gathering it was a night at the church facility typically and have a night of praise and worship and just ministry it was an opportunity for us to bring uh both congregations from claremont together and uh we felt like in 2026 we wanted to be intentional towards uh that of really utilizing that third sunday maybe do it in in some different ways and so three times this year we're gathering for a meal in people's homes and host homes uh two times this year uh on third sunday night we're doing uh house church which is exactly like it sounds and then two times we're gathering in the facility so this month august uh is house church we got a map here uh i texted in between the services and said to the staff hey let's put um let's put our campuses uh on the um on the map here and we got the casino so we probably should put our campuses on here uh as well i'm just throwing that out there so anyway uh fine here's the host homes there's about seven i think on there split up between claremont and owasso uh find a place to to go tonight we we when we were talking about this in the elders we were like let let's bring intentionality toward we want it to be organic in the sense that it's spread out and go wherever you want to there's host homes but we wanted to be intentional in the sense to say this is what we as destiny life are doing on this third sunday night you know so i want to really encourage you in these times this month is house church next month will be a we'll be here for um a gathering in the church facility uh but i want to encourage you find a spot to go last probably an hour hour and a half but just a time of really ministering uh in the book of acts they gathered corporately which is really valuable we should do that and yet they also gathered house to house and we wanted to bring some intention towards uh doing that and i'll just say to you if your only participation as destiny life is to just come on a sunday morning but that's where you are in your walk with the lord that's okay you're going to be here for a we're not high pressure but that's just a part right of being a part of a community of believers and so we want to encourage you to to maybe move beyond that so it'd be an opportunity for you to uh to do that you can go to dlc.tv slash third sunday i think there's a seat flyer there you can scan the qr code take you right there give you the phone number house literal address all the information that you could have uh for that uh to participate so we are uh ending next week be the last week uh of our steadfast series which is going to bring us to the conclusion of preaching through uh the book of second corinthians and then lord willing in a few weeks uh we will start in the book of philippians and preach through that there's about 10 messages on the book of philippians which will take us all the way to advent uh and then we'll have four sundays advent that'll be christmas and then 2026 will be over where did the time go it happens fast the older you get the and uh that first message by the way next week uh we will put up a graphic with a with a qr code uh we are just asking ourselves we don't ever try to like make things happen but we're asking ourselves lord is it should we be looking at deacons in in the body new true new testament deacons and so the first uh couple of verses of philippians uh paul greets the saints he greets three groups of people the saints the overseers or the bishops or the elders same thing there and the deacons and we want to take that opportunity when we're preaching on that that sunday to highlight new testament deacon what is the new testament deacon and talk a little about that and then say lord is there you know are there other deacons that we should ordain all of us do deacon ministry i'm not taking time to preach that now but it's a social welfare welfare of the church all of us do deacon ministry but there are ordained two offices in the new testament elder deacon there are uh ordained deacons and i we don't know what people think sometimes when we say deacon and so next week we're going to put up a qr code that'll take you to a playlist on youtube of two messages that glenn preached back in 2017 when we ordained the first deacons that we had at our wasso campus and he preached for two weeks on what is a new testament deacon and then we gave an opportunity to pass out some slips of paper for to ask the body who are you seeing as deacons among us you know that are not already ordained so we'll do that next week and then we'll see how that goes after that but i just wanted to kind of give you a heads up all right but for right now we're going to be in second corinthians 13 second corinthians 13 seems like it went fast preaching through second corinthians didn't it here's kind of the big idea i'm moving the first 10 verses next week we'll cover the last four verses of the of the letter but here's kind of the big idea if you will the the title of message today is being steadfast in faith or steadfast in the faith uh that will make a difference but when we're talking about being firm in the faith it's it's not revealed by our ability to really prove ourselves right who likes to be right in here who's always right in here don't raise your hand that was that's a trick question right so it's not our ability to prove ourselves right but a willingness to really receive truth all right receive truth examine ourselves honestly in that truth and then respond to christ in obedience that's really being firm in the faith and we want to move from examining everybody else and everything else and really around us and really allow the truth of christ to examine us right that's kind of the context of the scripture there not to produce insecurity in us i grew in a move grew up in a movement that we were just nervous about staying saved i'm not not to not to produce insecurity in us but to recognize uh when the holy spirit of christ is in us and that's the way we're going to be and that's the way we're going to be and that's the way we're going to be and that's the way we're going to be and that's the way we're going to be and confidence in christ so paul kind of closes this letter with a real serious uh appeal as you know if you know we've said multiple times here paul is addressing these so-called super apostles or people that evidently came in to corinth and begin to say don't listen to paul this guy is a hot mess he you know he's afflicted and he doesn't have any authority and he's weak and he's all these things and they've been really indicting paul in this and so they basically are saying to him now paul we want we demand proof that christ is really speaking through you because you do appear to us to be uh weak and this is something of course has kind of been in the whole letter and so they're basically saying to paul we want you to prove yourself and then paul essentially responds to them before you put my apostleship on trial so to speak i want you to put your own faith on trial i want you to examine yourselves and i want you to really look at it because they had become experts in in judging paul right his preaching his personality his suffering his strength his weakness you know his authority they had become experts on all this and paul basically asked the question well but what about you you know how about you uh they were the epitome of um armchair quarterback any anybody ever heard of an armchair quarterback anybody ever been an armchair quarterback right i have never been an armchair i'm just kidding i've been an armchair quarterback a whole bunch if you like any sort of athletics then you probably at some point have been an armchair quarterback you know those moments when you're watching tv and this professional athlete makes a mistake and you with your face full of cheetos and iced tea starts talking about what trash that this professional athlete is and why can't he he or she do this particular thing you are stuffing your face with cheetos that's an arm chair quarter back right you got all the answers you could do it the reality is you wouldn't even be on the same court as them i remember when i went to i went to the university of south carolina for a semester and they had a big like student activity center and you could go there and i remember the basketball court one on the basketball when you went into that facility and there were guys in there they would just run that court i mean they just i mean it's like okay you can't even get on that court because these guys are just going to dominate and then every now and then these guys that played on the actual collegiate team at the university of south carolina they never saw the floor they never saw the floor in an actual college basketball game they would come into this rec league and and the guys that normally dominated in that rec league they just got brutalized by these bench warmers who never saw the floor and what it showed you is the difference in level between these guys who were great rec players but they could not play at this level and if they'd have been talking trash to these guys sitting on the bench they would have been real armchair quarterbacks because they're saying something that they themselves could never do and this is a picture of the corinthians they're indicting paul indicting his authority indicting who he is his leadership his preaching they're the epitome of armchair quarterbacks because paul the apostle here's what's interesting now they wouldn't have had this benefit they wouldn't have had this benefit they wouldn't have had this benefit they wouldn't have had this benefit here we are two thousand years later reading the words of paul we don't even know the names of these other super apostles we don't know who they are so obviously paul has stood the test of time i don't know if you've ever thought about this but paul when it comes the actual number and i used to know this number i can't remember what it is now but the actual number of words that he wrote is not a ton in the scheme of history and yet there might not be another person who's going to be that has affected the world in such a profound way through their writing particularly for such a small portion of writing as paul the apostle and here's these corinthians saying paul we want you to prove to us that we should believe you and paul turns it back on them and says i want you to examine your own faith because he's not talking to new believers necessarily he's talking to professing believers that have tolerated sin they've resisted correction they've demanded proof from everyone except themselves and his ultimate purpose was not to reject them his ultimate purpose was for them to repent to be restored and then really come to maturity glenn priest a great message last week on maturity go and watch that if you were not able to be here paul was not trying to win an argument he wanted to see christ formed in these believers to become to really walk in maturity so let's read these first 10 verses second corinthians 13 he says this will be my third visit to you every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses i already gave you a warning when i was with you the second time now repeat it while i absent now this is pretty strong word right here on my return i will not spare those who sinned earlier or any of the others since you are demanding proof that christ is speaking through me he is not weak in dealing with you but powerful among you for to be sure he was crucified in weakness yet lives by you and i will not spare those who sinned earlier or any of the others by god's power likewise we are weak in him yet by god's power we will live in him in our dealing with you and this is a verse kind of key verse today examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith test yourselves do you not realize that christ jesus is in you unless of course you failed the test and i trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test now we pray to god that you will not do anything wrong not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you will do what is right even though we may have seen to have failed but we cannot do anything against the truth but only for the truth we're glad whenever we are weak but you are strong and our prayer is that you would may be fully restored this is why i write these things when i'm absent that when i come i may not have to be harsh in my use of authority the authority the lord gave me for building you up not tearing you apart down three points today about being steadfast in the faith here's the first one when we're steadfast in the faith we are correctable that means we can receive correction now it's so nice when glenn makes this comment glenn says correction just means to be made correct and we all want to be made correct everybody wants to be correct right so why is it not easy to receive correction because it sounds very easy to be made correct glenn says that and we all say amen and then an opportunity to be made correct comes and it's not quite as easy to receive that as it was to hear that on a sunday morning anybody ever been there right to be made correct so he says when we're steadfast in the faith we're correctable why what does in the faith mean here's what it means it means really belonging to jesus right really trusting in the gospel really living under his lordship really experiencing his transforming power or presence in our life paul doesn't say i want you to be full of faith now here's the difference it's intentional in his wording he's not talking about the quantity of our faith like i need more faith he's not saying that he's saying i want you to be steadfast and firm in the faith i want you to be faith jude says it like this in jude 3 he says contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to god's holy people he's talking about standing in the saving faith of christ not the amount of intensity intensity that i have in believing but am i really standing in the faith am i really submitting to the truth of the gospel and one of the evidences evidently uh that we in the faith is that we are able to be corrected by the truth i don't know why but when i was a kid i got a sister i have two sisters one of them is 16 months younger than me the other one is 10 months younger than me sorry 10 years younger than me and i don't know why it was so difficult for me as a young boy to say i was sorry it was like the hardest thing in the i got spankings because i would not say i was sorry it was so simple to just say i'm sorry jennifer for whatever it is and i could not say it why because i did not like being made correct because i already know i'm right now it's one thing to be made correct when you're wrong it's another thing to be quiet when you know you're right whoo been a journey for i'm still on that journey glory to god see when the word of god confronts us what do we do i'm going to ask a lot of questions today and i want as i ask those questions i want you to really consider them i don't want you to just hear them i want you to really let the holy spirit question you you know as you're asking that question let the holy spirit really search you here would be one when god's word confronts us do we humble ourselves or do we defend ourselves you guys have heard me tell a story on myself about me and jerry 25 years ago now sitting at breakfast in argentina and jerry says to me now both of us are really unhealed and jerry says to me you know john uh there's times when i'm hesitant i have to i feel like i'm kind of walking on eggshells to confront you about anything or bring anything to you because you know you you you're kind of defensive and i said i'm not defensive and so we argued there for probably 20 minutes i mean i'm embarrassed to say years later before it really dawned on me the irony of the situation of me being defensive to tell somebody i was not defensive right but that's how blinded i was so i'm not defensive what do we do when we're confronted with truth you might remember the the story uh in second samuel 12 of the prophet nathan confronting david the greatest king in israel david is sinned with besheba and nathan approaches david and he i you know i don't know if they had gotcha back then but it would have been a gotcha moment because nathan approaches david and he tells him this story he says there was this rich man with a lot of lambs and there was this poor man with only one lamb and this poor man nurtured that lamb he's a part of the family took care of him and this rich man came in and took that poor man's lamb and david said well that guy has to pay for that and nathan said that guy is you now to david's credit he humbled himself and he repented before god and he tore his clothes and he was in mourning and you can go read that story in second samuel 12 he says i've sinned against the lord you can kind of compare that with saul who was david's predecessor when god tells saul i want you to count conquer the amalekites and i want you to kill everybody and everything so then they go in and saul allows the people first off he takes the king he doesn't kill the king he takes the king and then he allows the people to take the best uh spoils of the land the best animals and all samuel comes and confronts saul and said why did you not obey the lord and saul gives samuel he he he he was the spin doctor and he said what do you mean i obeyed the lord samuel and samuel said well i i'm hearing all these sheep why am i hearing sheep because they should all be dead and samuel said oh well we we preserved the best for the lord right we we we reserved the best so we can sacrifice to the lord no samuel says to him no what you did is you disobeyed the lord you ever tried to do that you ever tried to dress up your disobedience as godly and righteous and look good anybody ever done that and samuel says no you disobeyed the lord so he kills the king they kill all the finally saul repents but initially he deflects when we're confronted with truth what do we do do we deflect do we defend or do we repent it's a good question i like what glenn has said before this is a very practical question tool i think it's very good so when someone brings you true when they bring something or even if it's an accusation bring something on you it's good for you to ask the holy spirit is there any truth in this might only be five percent ninety-five percent of it might be total garbage but if i'm mature i'm gonna grab the five percent that's not garbage and i'm gonna allow the holy spirit to work it in me and i can let the other 95 fall off of me that's a good practical thing what do we do when we are presented with the truth do we embrace it or do we just shuck it off and let it go by us see both of them sinned saul and david sinned the difference was in what happened after the confrontation and paul is saying the same thing to the corinthians said when i come are you going to receive the truth he said i've been patient this is the third time that i've been there but can i tell you that patience doesn't mean that rebellion can just continue indefinitely and i say to you that uh at times i think we mistake god's patience for his permission because he's so i think we've misunderstood his opinion but i think as a whole we've misunderstood love and grace because we we have devoided is that a word we've devoided we've we felt like that there's grace with no accountability we've chucked accountability out of the window while you have juices that have happened particularly in in religious context and people have something happen in the next week they're in the pulpit preaching again and we sweep it under the rug you have people saying like get the plank out of your own eye before you get this quit judging that's not judgment i know that's heavy but we don't understand we've taken the grace of god that i can just as permission we've taken his patience as his permission now there's not one of us that is beyond sin not one of us but we've taken the grace of god as his permission and we've taken his patience as his permission that's not walking in the flesh in some regard. But what I'm saying is when there's things that happen, we just move by it. And it's not even a forgiveness issue. There's nothing you can do for the rest of your life that's not already been forgiven, but there's trust. I mean, there's a whole bunch of stuff there. It'd take a long time to unpack that. I like Romans 2, it says it's kindness. It's the kindness of the Lord that leads us to repentance. So here's the question for us today. Today, what do I do with correction? What do I do? When the truth of the word of God confronts me, what do I do with it?
Because it doesn't just reveal what I did, although it does that, it also reveals what's really ruling in my heart. I remember telling somebody one time, we hate this word, by the way, we hate this word submission in any context. We just don't like it. And I remember saying to somebody one time, said, you know, submission is really only, only tested when you disagree. Because if you agree, that's not submission, that's agreement. Submission is only ever tested in whatever relationship. It's only ever tested when you disagree with something. What do we do with that? Because it reveals like in our very core, even our individual lives before God, it really reveals this. Who's the king of my life? Jesus or Jonathan? It's awful quiet up in here this morning. I mean, it challenges us, doesn't it? And I don't know about you, but for myself, it's like, you know, I would say that my heart is for God, you know, but then there's times when I notice like, are there like parts of my heart or like little issues there that I want to reserve for myself? Like, Lord, I'm not going to let you into that or I'm going to isolate myself in that.
And let me just talk to the men for a second because I, you know, I'm a dude. Let me talk to the guys for a second. Ladies, I don't, I would assume this is probably for you to some degree because we're human beings. But guys, we could be in a room full of people, just like this and be totally alone, totally isolated in our heart. Men have an amazing ability to do this, to be totally isolated in our own heart because we put walls up around our heart. And I say to you, if that's you this morning, man, you're in a dangerous spot. You're easy pickings for the enemy, easy pickings for the enemy. All right, Jonathan, that's me. I don't know what to do. Well, here's the first step. The first step is to say, God, I do not want this. I don't want to be that. Here's the second step. Get up. 101 just started. Go to 101. Jonathan, I've done that before. Well, you must not have got it because you're still isolated. Go again. I'm just straight to it. I'm sorry. Find some brothers, find some sisters that you can live life with that really know you, right? That really know you. It's huge. See, maturity is not demonstrated by never needing correction. I think we subconsciously think we get to this place where like, I don't need to be corrected anymore. That's not true. All of it to the day. We step from this life into the next. We're going to need correction, right?
Hopefully it's less and less, but still, I mean, hopefully we learn along the way, but we never get to some, you know, place where like we just are beyond all that. So maturity is not ever, is not never needing correction. Maturity is demonstrated by how we respond when the corruption, when the correction comes. Now, hopefully we'll be good repenters. This amazing scripture. Look at this scripture right here. Psalm 141. This, I mean, let the righteous man strike me. That is a kindness. Wow. Let him rebuke me. That is oil on my head. When's the last time you just read your Bible, got overjoyed over that? Yes. We don't love it, right? But this is a mature and correctable heart, right? People who know that they're in Christ, you don't have to defend yourself from everything that confronts you. Again, this is one of the biggest areas of my life. The Lord's still working in me, but I think I've overcome a few hurdles in it. But I got to be honest, when you preach things like this, if you've ever been somebody that preached or shared a devotion, or you know that God works that message into you either before you speak it or after you speak it. So when I preach things like this, I preach with fear and trepidation because I know, okay, I'm probably going to have some opportunities to run up on some correction. And how am I going to respond to that? Lord, help me prep my heart, my mind in correction.
But see, receiving correction, it requires something that's more, more deep than that. We can't really respond to that correction honestly if we're unwilling to look at ourselves honestly. Now, if we won't really examine ourselves, and Paul says, let the examination, let it start with you, right? We're steadfast in the truth when we're honest in self-examination. They're demanding proof that Christ is speaking through Paul. And Paul turns to the Lord and said, I want you to examine yourself. That word examine carries this idea of like, really inspecting something carefully, right? Test means to prove or determine whether something is genuine. And Paul calls the Corinthians to compare their lives to the truth of the gospel. Are you really genuine in your faith? Are you really passing the test or are you failing the test? Are you able to really stand and be proven faithful? I keep buying these headlamps because I keep losing them. And I've noticed when I'm working on something, I need a little extra light. Sometimes I got to put the glasses on. I do that because I want to really look at it and inspect it. I want it to be illuminated. And Paul is saying, I want you to allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate in you what he needs to illuminate so that you can really inspect it really well. And the issue is not the appearance of it, I want the reality of it. Is your faith really genuine? Not what you can say.
Every one of us know people that can talk a good game. In fact, it's always a red flag for me when people are telling me what great Christians they are. It's like a, it's just, it makes me nervous. I don't know why, but it's like a red flag automatically. It's not a call to sinless perfection. None of us could stand in that, but really it's the question of this. Is my life marked by genuine faith in Christ? Am I a good repenter? This is hard. I don't know how many years ago it was, probably 10 years or more. Glenn was preaching over in Owasso and he made this statement. He's talking about Adam and Eve and he's talking to husbands. And he said, he said, Adam was responsible. Sin entered the world when Adam took of the fruit. Why? Because Adam is responsible. He said, husbands, you're responsible. That means when you go to argue with your wife, you lead the way in repentance, be a good repenter. And I was aggravated because a week before that, Alicia and I got into a discussion, hallelujah.
And I made this statement to her. I'm tired of being the, I'm the one to always come back first. I'm sick of being the one to come and say, I'm sorry first. Any men in here with guts enough to raise your hand and say, no, don't do that. Don't do that, okay? I just said that. And I was like, Glenn, be quiet. Stop that. What was that? Truth, being illuminated, being responsible. Men, are we good repenters to our wife? Now, ladies, that doesn't let you totally off the hook. It's okay if you want to go first sometimes, lady. I'll just, lady, I'm gonna throw that. I'm gonna help my brothers. I'm gonna throw that out. I'm gonna throw that out. We've laughed about that. We've had a lot of good discussions around that, but there is something about being a good repenter. Husbands, there is something about leading the way in that. What does self-examination look like? What does healthy self-examination look like? Let me throw some questions out there. I want you to really consider these. Here's the first one. Am I really trusting in Christ alone or am I trusting in my religious efforts? Here's a good one. Is Christ's word the final authority in my life or do I find myself making statements like this? I know the Bible says X, Y, Z, but do I find myself saying that? When I sin, do I defend it or do I repent of it?
Is there evidence that Christ is changing my character? Would people around me say that? Am I growing? Do I love Christ? Now, most of us would say that, but here's a big one. Do I love his people? People make the craziest comments. They'll say things like this. I love Jesus, but I just hate the church. I'm saying, that would be like you walking up to somebody and saying, man, I love your head. Your face, beautiful, but your body, ooh. That would be like walking up to a man and saying, you know, bro, I love you, but dude, you got to do something about your wife. That's ridiculous. So when you make a statement like, I love Jesus, but I hate the church, that's what you're saying. Face looks awesome, but the rest of your body is like, oh, crazy. Do I love his truth? Am I? Am I persevering in faith even through weakness and difficulty? See, we're not talking about earning salvation. I'm not talking about that. We're talking about evidence that that salvation has happened, that saving faith is alive and well in my life.
When you're in the faith, you don't need to be afraid of honest examination because God's not trying to kick you out of the house. I think I had this idea that God was always trying to kick me out of the house. He's not trying to kick you out of the house. In fact, one of the huge perspective shifts in my life, personally, when I came to Destiny Life, this is a huge perspective shift. When the Holy Spirit would bring something up, how many of you ever had the Holy Spirit reveal something in your heart that was really ugly? Like, ooh, that is ugly, and I did not want to see that. Anybody heard that happen? Our tendency is to try to push that down because it's ugly and we don't want to see it. I think my perspective shifted when I came to Destiny Life and I heard the teaching about the Holy Spirit is bringing, He's revealing that so He can, deal with it.
Not to shame me, but so He can deal with it. So when the Lord shows you something, and I know sometimes it's hard because you're embarrassed or whatever the case may be, it's hard to walk through the pain of that, but He's revealing that so that He can deal with it. James talks about, the book of James, about looking in a mirror. He talks about not being just hearers of the word, but doers of the word. He said, if you're just a hearer only, in other words, you hear it, but nothing changes. You don't do it. Looking in a mirror and walking away and forgetting what you look like. Now, nobody this morning, hopefully anyway, woke up this morning, you got dressed, you looked in the mirror, you didn't like what you saw, so you got mad at the mirror. Anybody get mad at the mirror? Be like, that dumb mirror, that thing is lying to me. I'm gonna buy another mirror. What are you gonna see? The same thing. Why? Because it's just a reflection of what's there. But when you looked in that mirror and you saw, maybe I got something all over my shirt or my hair's messed up or something. What did you do? What did you do? You go in the closet and you change your shirt because it's a revealer of what's actually there. And spiritually, when the Holy Spirit with it, it'd be like seeing something all over my shirt and saying, I'm not gonna take this shirt off and change.
I'm just gonna put a coat on. I know it's 100 feet outside, but that's all right. I like this coat. I'm gonna put this coat over my nasty shirt so nobody can see my nasty shirt rather than just going to change the shirt. What do we do with the self-examination? So we don't just examine ourselves so we can see what needs to be changed. We examine ourselves so we can submit to Christ where that change is needed. Paul says to him there in verse seven and eight, he said, I pray to God that you will not do anything wrong. We have stood the test, but so that you will do what is right. So if you're steadfast in truth, you're correctable, you examine yourself. But lastly, it means you're obedient. The goal is obedience, not just appearance. We don't wanna just talk a good game. We want to be truly transformed from the inside out. Parents, every one of us, when your kids are young, you've gotta put external guards on them, right? You've got to say, I mean, we have to use that line that I hated when I was a kid and I use as an adult because I said so, you know it. But there's times you have to say that because that child is not developmentally even to the point where they can understand it. But your hope is you put those parameters on so that internally their heart shifts so that when you're not around, and looking and those external parameters are off, there's been a transformation inside. Now they're obedient, not because they're scared to get in trouble. They're obedient because something shifted in their heart.
The purpose is the transformation of inside bleeding over in the outside of really being obedient to Christ. Paul says, I'd rather you, essentially he says, I'd rather you obey Christ than for me to have to prove my authority by disciplining you. I'd rather you just obey Christ. And he says there, we can't do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. Why? Because truth should lead us to obedience. I can't get mad at the mirror. That dumb mirror, I don't have a spot on my shirt. That mirror's wrong. No, it leads us to obedience. We can resist the truth. We can ignore the truth. We can argue with the truth. We can try to justify ourselves against the truth. But guess what you can't do? Change the truth. The truth doesn't adjust itself. It doesn't adjust itself to accommodate us as much as we would love for that to happen. As much as we live in a society in 2026 that is trying to adjust the truth rather than adapt ourselves. We see it everywhere in everything. We see it, but the truth corrects us. It examines us and it calls us to obedience. Jesus himself said this, if you love me, keep my commandment. That means if we say we love Jesus and we don't keep his commandments, guess what? You don't love Jesus. Jonathan, you can't say that. I didn't say it. Jesus said it. If you got a problem, take it up with him. I'm not saying we don't miss the mark from time to time.
I'm talking about willful, blatant disobedience and rebellion, all right? That word translated fully restored or complete. Here's what it carries. The idea of something being put back in the proper place, restored. It's a word that they used of like mending a net that had been torn. Or resetting a bone that had gotten out of place. And I say to you in the physical, I don't know if anybody's ever had to have a bone set. I never have and I hope I never do, right? I'm sure that is a painful process, but guess what? You can either endure the momentary pain of the bone being set and then let it heal properly or you can not set it and it will heal improperly and now it's gonna be there improperly and it's healing and messed up for the rest of your life rather than the momentary pain that it took to be adjusted. Biblical correction, this is what it does. It identifies places where we're out of alignment so the grace of God can restore that part and bring it into alignment and bring wholeness and healing to us. That's biblical correction. I have to know that God is for me. That's why when we say, God is for me, we say, God is for me. When we have an encounter, the first session is about the Father's love. Why do we do it that way? Because Saturday morning, when you talk about sin and you talk about sexual wholeness and you talk about all the other areas where we've missed it, I need to know that there's a loving Father not out to get me, but calling me to come home and to come out of disobedience and destruction so that I can come into the house of restoration. That is Christianity. So let me finish with this.
What does it look like to be steadfast in the truth? It looks like we're correctable, right? We allow the truth to confront us. It looks like we're honest in self-examination. We allow the truth to search us. It looks like we're obedient. We allow the truth to change us. The guys are going to adjust here and get communion. Guys, go ahead and start passing that out, would you? It's not just the correction. I think it's the next slide. Would you go to that next slide for me? Correction is not the destination. It's not just looking in the mirror. By the way, let me pause and say, we have open communion at Destiny Life. And what I mean by that is you don't have to be a member of Destiny Life. You don't have to be a member of Destiny Life. You don't have to be a member of the church. You're a part of the family of God today. You're a believer. Feel free to partake with us. Just hold the elements. We'll pray over those at the end. Correction is not the destination. It's the correction that comes, the truth that was revealed to me. Examine my heart. I walk in obedience. Restoration comes. Out of that comes what? Maturity.
This is a life process that never, ever ends. Jonathan, I don't like correction. I'm sorry. It's going to continue. And the more that you do, dislike it, the more that you need it. And the more that it's going to come. It's going to be an opportunity for the Lord to work in our lives. So here's the question for us today. You ready? How about it here? I know this is distracting. All you ADHD folks, people walking around, it's, I know, hard and distracting. Here's the question for us today. And this is what I want you to really consider. And you might even need to close your eyes in it. I want you to really consider this. Is Christ actually, ruling in us? Is Christ actually ruling in us? Paul is confronting the Corinthian church. They're indicting him saying, prove it, Paul. And Paul is saying, before you put me on trial, because remember, it's not about him, his own personal defense. It's the gospel. We've preached that in the last few messages. So it's not about Paul, but he's saying, I want you to examine yourself. Are you genuinely walking in the faith? Are you genuinely, really repentant in your heart? Is his word really governing my life? When he confronts me, am I correctable? Right? When he searches me, am I honest?
When he speaks to him, am I really willing to obey him? Why don't you stand with me? I think it's a beautiful point. Can I grab one of the guys? Thank you, Ed. I think it's a good time to go into communion because communion allows us the opportunity to really reflect. He talks about, the Bible talks about doing this in remembrance of Christ. I think we're going to have a, a message later in the year towards the end of the year where we talk about, we're going to preach a message on communion and gather around the family table. It's going to be a fun, fun time. It's an opportunity for us to really examine ourselves. It's really an opportunity for us to ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, what are you doing in me? What do you desire to do in me? Are there things in me that you need to show me? For some of us this morning, there were some areas that are just obvious to you. You know that God's been dealing with you about it. You know it. We used to say to our girls when they were little, slow obedience is no obedience. Why? Because of slow obedience. Slow obedience.
There's something that the Lord is dealing with us about that we need to say, Lord, I submit to that. Surrender to that. Thank you. Maybe this time there's something the Lord shows you that you haven't even thought of. Examine yourself. I'm going to pray over these elements and I want to ask as I do that for you to just right there, I'm praying over us, but you, you and the Holy Spirit right there. Holy Spirit, would you show us today? Show us areas maybe in our own heart that we've compromised or we've shielded from you. Would you show us? We take this bread together, this representation of your body broken for us. We eat this together. We thank you for showing us. Father, we take this juice together. Would you show us this juice representing your covenant of your blood? This is why we can stand before you with the forgiveness of sins. Lord, you don't just cover our sins and covering them up. You cleanse our sins. I pray that you would help us today. Let's take the juice and drink together. Ladies, would y'all just sing over us for a moment? I just want to take a moment of worship here. They sing and just allow the Holy Spirit really to examine us. Thank you, Lord. Just invite you right where you are. Why don't you just close your eyes and just bow your head there right where you are. Just let the Holy Spirit really speak to you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you that you've already made a way. You've already made a way. Lord, you don't leave us. You don't leave us how you found us. Thank you that we don't have to walk in condemnation and shame this morning because you don't leave us like you found us. Sing that. Let's sing that. Makes us white as snow. No. Thank you, Lord. Nothing but your blood. Come on, let's sing that again. Sing that again. Church, let's just lift that up to the Lord today. Just sing that today. It's precious. Makes us white as snow. Nothing, nothing but your blood.
Come on, one more time. Sing that, Jim. Go ahead and come. Sing that one more time. Sing that one more time. Come on, sing it up to the Lord. Precious. Search us. Search us, Lord. That makes me white as snow. Search us, Lord. Search us, Lord. I found her all clean by the blood of Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Jim's going to come. Would you put that last scripture, that scripture from the psalm? This is a famous psalm here, Psalm 139. I think it's a good heart posture for us to leave the day with. Search me. It's Psalm of David.
Search me, O God. God, know my heart. Test me. Know my anxious thoughts. See if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. This is a prayer, David. This might be a good prayer even for us this week and in the coming weeks to pray over our life. Lord, search me. Because there's things we can't know. We just can't know unless the Holy Spirit shows us. Search me, O God. Know my heart. We can't even know our own heart. Search my own heart. Show me. Is there anything? And that's maturity, church. That's maturity. That is really being steadfast in the faith. You can be seated, Jim.
Thank you. Wow. Thank you, Jonathan, for sharing the truth of God's Word. That truth may smack you in the face, but it's His kindness. Now, we don't interpret it right then like that, but it's His kindness. It's His kindness that leads us to repentance. Wow. Wow. Thank you. We're going to worship. Continue. We're going to worship this morning. Just in our giving this morning, if you're giving by text, the information is there on the screen. There's three ways to give. And if you're giving by text, you can just put the amount in there, whether it's tithe or you're giving offering or towards missions. And then if you're giving a check or cash, there's an envelope right there in front of you in the seat back, and you can fill that out and drop that in the bucket in the back of the auditorium as you leave. Also, if you're our guest, with us this morning, there should be a card just like this, a welcome card with information on the back. If you don't mind filling that out for us, we'd love to have a record of your visit with us and have the opportunity to get more acquainted with you, and we'd love that. So if you don't mind doing that, and then you can drop that in the offering bucket back there in the back of the auditorium as you exit this morning. Amen.
Let's pray over the offering as we prepare to give. Father, I thank you, Lord, for your goodness, your kindness. Father, you're faithful, faithful to us, Lord. And Father, we honor you, Lord, today, even in our giving. Father, we honor you with a repentant heart, but we also honor you in our giving today, Lord. And we just thank you, Father, that you're going to bless the gift and giver. We thank you, Father, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. As you give, check out the announcements that's happening around DLC. What's up, DLC fam? My name is Teddy, and we are so glad that you're here with us today. Let's take just a quick look at what we have coming up for you and your family. All right, guys, it's third Sunday, and you know what that means. It's house church night. These nights have been amazing to see a deeper relational and spiritual connection amongst everyone within the body. For a list of host homes and locations, visit dlc.tv and click the third Sunday button to see that. Or scan the QR code in your seat flyer. Amen. Don't miss our next men's breakfast that's happening August 29th at 8.30 a.m. right here on the...
For more info and to let us know that you're coming, visit dlc-signup.com. Our intro to mental and emotional health and healing class starts August 20th at 7 p.m. in the Owasso campus. This is an educational course for men and women over the age of 18. And if you wish to better understand your emotional health while also growing in spiritual maturity, then this is the class for you. Well, that's all the announcements that we got for you this week. If you have a prayer request, please let us know. We'd love to be in prayer with you. But with that being said, have a good week, DLC. Yeah. Also, I want to make mention our group's fair will be happening September the 6th, which is right after Labor Day and that Sunday. And so I just... Or before the Sunday. Yeah, before Labor Day. Yes, the 6th. I'll get it straight. And there is going... There is a sign up there on the website. And so if you would desire to be a small group leader, be sure to avail yourself of that. There are signups that are opening. There are signups that are happening for this fall semester.
So go to the church website there, DLC website, and you can sign up there. And then that will be available. And then we'll introduce the group's fair that will be happening on September 6th. Amen. If you don't mind putting the map back up there of the house church that are meeting this evening, the different places, avail yourselves of those. And we just have a great time together as the body of Christ. Go ahead and stand one more time with me as we head out. Lord, we just thank you, Father, for your faithfulness to your word. And Father, we just thank you, Lord, your Holy Spirit speaking to our hearts. And Lord, we've looked into the mirror and we've seen your truth, Lord. And I pray that, Father, that we would not walk away from the mirror of your word and forget. But Lord, we would just run to you, Lord, for what you're speaking to our hearts, Lord. And I just thank you. Father, we go in your presence. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. God bless. Love on one another as you go this morning.
