Right in Our Own Eyes

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Shalom, Grace and peace. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

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My name is Daniel Miller and this is the notes I leave podcast.

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Dear Lord, Father in heaven, let us gather today in the midst of this episode and truly understand

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the lie of sin, understand its tempting nature.

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And let us be encouraged not to dabble in even the smallest amount of sin, that it be a snare

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that would trap us and something that we have the strength, strength to avoid.

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Please continue to work on our hearts to mold us and shape us for your glory.

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To seek purity in our lives, to seek you in our lives. Lord, we are aliens.

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Please help us see that we are such.

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Please help us desire less the ways of this world and desire you more with every breath, breath we take.

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In your Son Jesus name, in the Holy Spirit we pray. Amen.

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Thank you for joining me today.

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It feels so fitting to open in prayer.

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Regretfully, I haven't always been doing that, but I am thankful for the opportunity to change that going forward.

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What a wonderful week this has been.

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It has been a busy week.

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This week is week one of sort of a new four month schedule for me.

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Teaching during the day at the high school and teaching at night at the college.

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Normally I teach five days a week at the high school and two days a week at the college.

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For the next four months it'll be five days a week at the high school, in four, four nights

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a week at the college.

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So any prayers you feel called to make would be appreciated.

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It will be a tough journey, but one that will be worth it and one that not only helps out us

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here, my family and this business, but it is something that helps the need of the two organizations

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that I work for and the demand that they have for teachers.

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And I thank the Lord that I'm blessed to be able to teach.

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It's funny, a little earlier today we ordered some pizza and I've used that analogy quite often,

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that there are many people that are struggling to survive off of a single income household,

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which is what we do.

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And to be able to provide the mother of the family, to be able to stay home with the children, especially small children.

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There's a lot of fathers out there that are delivering pizzas at night to make ends meet.

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And the Lord has blessed me with the ability to teach and people that need good teachers and

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I'm thankful to be able to have opportunities to teach.

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I use this podcast as a teaching platform certainly, but I use it as something to leave notes,

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the notes that I leave as the years go by so that I can reflect back on them in the future and

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my children can view them in time and my students can view them.

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So whether you're joining us for the first time or you've been joining us since the very beginning

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when the podcast was a different name, we thank you for being here and look forward to speaking

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on a somber subject, but an important subject today.

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And so I've titled this episode this week with the title Right in Our Own Eyes.

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And that comes from this 21st chapter of judges.

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I rely on the Lord to guide me in what I should be teaching this week.

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Sometimes it comes a week in advance, sometimes it comes a couple days in advance.

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Today it came this morning.

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And in my Bible study reading Judges 19, I had to stop before going to the next chapter.

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And I said to my wife, I don't know how anybody could read Judges 19 and not be changed.

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I encourage you to read Judges 19, but be prepared for what you're going to read.

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It is a very dark chapter.

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It is a very troublesome chapter of a period of time when Israel didn't have a king, nor did

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they have any, any rulers.

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Everybody did as they so fit, which is unfortunately fitting, because in these days things are

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quite similar, especially those of us that recall the last few years leading up into the pandemic

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and those sorts of things.

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We'll tie in all those loose ends.

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But the point of today is that when we look right in our own eyes, we are fitting to the world,

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not fitting to the Lord.

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We should seek to be right in his eyes, not our eyes.

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And if you're fitting to the world, you will find out, and maybe you have already figured out,

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that the world is never satisfied.

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The world is concerned with sin and starting you with small sins and letting those sins become

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bigger until they entangle your life.

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The problem is once your life is entangled, it's still not satisfying enough for the world that

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it will continue to grow.

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Sin, that is, it will continue to infect other people.

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You know, there's a psychological saying out there that hurt people hurt people. And it's true.

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That's part of sin, though.

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That's part of the devil's goal, is to hurt people through sin.

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And one person is never enough, and so we must hurt someone else.

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We can probably all reflect back on trauma in our lives and realize that that trauma probably

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came from someone who was traumatized themselves.

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It's like an infectious disease that spreads through the world.

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And we use the term as trauma, but really the term is sick sin.

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And sin is what leads us to create trauma for other individuals.

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So let us not participate in the ways of those of the world, and let us participate in the ways

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of the kingdom of God, recognizing ourselves as aliens in this foreign world, ready for Jesus

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to come and Jesus to save us.

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Jesus to start his millennial kingdom and demolish this world so the world is never satisfied.

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And I'll take you to that verse in Judges, not any specific verse in judges 19, but again, I

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encourage you to read that.

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Being prepared for what you're going to read.

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I encourage you to read Judges 19 in its entirety.

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And if you're in Judges 19, continue on to Judges 20 and 21, where we find our verse here.

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It's the very last verse of the Book of Judges.

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It's the 21st. 21st. 21st.

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Go ahead and try and find that. The 21st verse.

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Let me know if you can find it.

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I'm interested to know where that is.

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The 25th verse of the 21st chapter of Judges.

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So we have one verse today, and I'm going to read it for you now.

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States in those days there was no king in Israel.

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Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

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It's a scary place to be for Israel.

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It's a scary place to be for us.

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Now we have countries that still subscribe to having kings.

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We have a lot of countries that subscribe to heaven presidents.

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Jesus is the only true king. We know that.

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And we know that despite there being kings and presidents, that there's still division amongst all of those countries.

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Here in the United States, we have a president, and many people are against that president.

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In fact, it might be as we speak, but sometime this weekend, there's supposed to be a no Kings

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rally here in the local area,

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making the same mistakes that the Israelites made many thousands of years ago, that we don't

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want anybody to tell us what to do.

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We don't want any responsibility.

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We don't want a king.

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Whether you want a king or not, you have one.

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And his name is Jesus Christ.

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Whether you agree with him or follow him, you're going to have that opportunity to be there

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at Judgment Day, either with him on your side in front of God the Father, or him not.

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For those of us that have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, he will be there as

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our advocate on that judgment day.

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He preaches peace. He also preaches division when necessary.

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In a world full of sin and chaos, we must divide against that. We must hate sin.

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We must want nothing to do with it.

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And that is accomplished by Following Jesus Christ by reading His Word and by dedicating our

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lives to him and by he indwelling his spirit within us and changing our heart. These things are possible.

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Nothing we do is of our works.

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It is through him that we accomplish.

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It is through him that we recognize a need for a King.

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We recognize our deficiencies as people.

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We recognize our need for a Savior.

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We are humbled by his sacrifice.

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And speaking personally, I will do anything I can for the rest of my days and into eternity

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to show him how much I love him and how thankful I am for his sacrifice.

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I could go on and on about our routes and our decisions.

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But to be clear, we have a decision.

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We can either choose to follow the King of Kings, Jesus Christ, or choose not to.

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He gives us that choice.

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He could easily come down and force us, force every knee to bow and every tongue to confess

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which one day will happen.

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But in the interim, he is giving us the choice.

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We do not know when the day will come. Neither does He. Only the Father does.

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But when that day comes, we need to have our oil lamps full.

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We need to be ready for what is to come.

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And so I implore you to deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ and whatever that may.

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Look whether you've been a believer as long as you can remember or you converted a few moments

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ago, deepen your relationship with Christ.

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And if you don't know Christ, know Him.

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I had a post on YouTube this week from a video that I posted. It said, how?

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How do we know Him?

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I would suggest that you read His Word, that you pray and that you seek wise counsel.

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That word should be read and read aloud. Should be read often.

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If you haven't heard God speak, simply read His Word aloud. You'll hear him pray.

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Pray fervently, without fear of how to pray.

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But certainly if you read through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Jesus teaches us directly how to pray.

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Follow that, follow his teachings in all ways and for wise counsel.

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If you're not a part of a men's group or a woman's group, I suggest you be.

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I suggest that you find a Bible believing church and involve yourself with that church.

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Likely, that church will have men's groups and women's groups that you can attend.

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Make that a priority in your life.

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Make all things you do in Life in that 1, 2, 3 process to read His Word, to pray and to seek wise counsel.

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And there you will find the roots in which you will build a relationship with Him.

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I can speak from experience and I can even tell you that what I've learned in that comes from

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his word, from prayer, and from wise counsel

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the Lord has really placed on my heart over the last few years specifically for this podcast

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episode to stand up as men and protect our families.

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Again, if you read Judges 19, there is a horrific instance where a husband not only doesn't

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protect his wife, but he gives his wife up to absolute savages.

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By every definition of the word.

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We as men need to protect our wives, we need to protect our families, and we need to be obedient to the world.

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Now, apart from my number of mispronunciations and apparently invention of new words today,

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my heart is steadfast and clear on the message and it is that we need not be right in our own eyes.

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We need to be right in his eyes and obedient to him in everything that we do.

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As we approach this 15 minute mark and we begin to transition to members, I want to apologize.

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Last week I transition to the members only and then realized that I hadn't read the quote from last week.

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So I was a little bit out of order last week.

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I don't edit these podcasts.

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Apart from trimming the very beginning in the very end and then putting a divider to separate

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the public feed versus the members feed, if I make a mistake, If I say 21st instead of 25th, it remains.

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If I make up a new version of obedient as I can't even recall what I did just a minute ago, I leave it.

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Maybe I'll even go back and poke fun at it later.

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But that's to show you the raw, unfiltered side of what God has put on my heart.

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And entering in prayer and being focused on what to deliver each week allows me to speak in

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the best way possible, the best way that I am capable of.

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Hopefully I actually have nothing to do with it and it's he who speaks through me.

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But as I continue to go forward, I will make mistakes and so I apologize about last week's mistake

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and let me get back on track with how I intend to to structure the public feed, which is including

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a quote and a question and a call to action.

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As we conclude and transition to the members only section.

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Today's quote on the subject matter of sin is from AW Tozer and it reads the world is not content

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with a little of your heart.

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Once it tastes your affection, it demands your soul.

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Nothing short of all of you will ever satisfy its hunger.

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And I would take that a step further and say when it's done with you, it's on to another over

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and over and over again.

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But what a beautiful quote that illustrates my point so accurately that we can't even mess around

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with the slightest sin because it will grow and it will consume us.

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So my question is, have we really considered the implications of negotiating with sin?

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How often in our lives do we say, well, just a little bit won't hurt?

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In fact, in the midst of a dream last night in relation to sin, I was reflecting back on my

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previous life and thinking, just a little bit won't hurt, and waking up and fervently shaking

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my head back and forth and what is this nonsense? What is this attack? That's garbage.

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I will not voluntarily accept any sin.

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I will still find myself stumbling upon it.

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I will still find myself committing it.

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But the difference is that I recognize it.

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At some point, hopefully right thereafter, repent of it and move forward as all of us need to.

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Please do not negotiate with sin.

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There is no negotiation to be had.

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It will consume you as it's done me in the past, and as it's done essentially every person I know.

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But with Jesus Christ on our side, we can defend against that and we can be given a new heart,

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as is written in the book of Ezekiel, and we can head down a path that would not be possible without him.

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Call to action is the same as it always is.

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We would appreciate your support and in exchange for your support, consider it a donation to

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what we're doing at Biblical Anatomy Academy.

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We would provide you a link to have access to the second half of each of these podcasts, the members only section.

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To sign up for that, Please go to biblicalanatomyacademy.com, click on Podcasts and click on

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the picture that says support the podcast and it'll take you right to the membership option

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that we have at this time.

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I'm going to transition into that segment, that members only segment. God bless.

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Thank you so much for your time.

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I love you and we'll talk soon.

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Until next time. May the peace of Christ dwell richly in you.

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And may I also express maranantha, which is an Aramaic word translating to come, Lord Jesus.