Off-dive!
It's great to see everybody here.
If we can go ahead and find our seats,
we will get started with our first song.
And once we've all found a seat, let's grab a hymnal,
and we'll go to song number 335.
Song number 335.
If Jesus goes with me.
Grace singing everybody. Let's open up the service now with a word of prayer.
Lord we love you so much and we just thank you so much for this church. Thank you so much for
everything you do for us and through us and with us. We just ask now that you bless the service
and fill everybody here with your spirit so we can sing out unto you and it's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. All right for our next song let's go to song number 238.
Christ, Liveth, and me.
Song number 238.
Thanks for coming to Cephas Baptist Church, and if you need a bulletin, you can slip to your hand nice and high and
We'll get you a bulletin. We're pretty close on completing our Bible and repassage Jude one if you can quote the entire passage
You can get a special prize. Who's already quoted Jude one. I'm just kind of curious
All right, who is who's still working on it and they're gonna get it. All right, so we've got several there
All right, keep on working on that. We've got a few weeks left
of course our kids that can quote that verse of the week and get a special prize in the inside
as their service in soul winning times please make sure you're updating our chat groups on
just the soul winning information and emails if you do get emails please make sure you put like
if it's a spanish only specifically so we put it on the right lists
Um, and in addition, also, whenever you're putting in your numbers and stuff, if you
have a partner and their name Jared, we need the last name is we've got, we've got Jared's
for days, you know what I mean?
So, uh, or any other name just so that way you can make sure we identify people correctly.
There are cur cards again out in our four year at a welcome table.
If you'd like to be an encouragement or blessing to sister Lola row or to brother Paul Weathers,
Also, we have our expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for them
upcoming
Well before I just as a quick recap again our Mexico missions trip they had over 300 salvations
I was about 302 and we got some testimonies this morning
And it was a lot of hard work a lot of people went out there and really preached
you know with their hearts out and
You know anytime you go to a foreign country
Honestly, there's gonna be you know surprising people that are there that are receptive
Not everywhere is gonna be the most receptive place it did
differs for people, but if you speak Spanish,
Mexico by and large is more receptive than America.
Obviously, you could always go to the wrong spot
or whatever, but for the most part,
I've been to Mexico probably over 10 times
and every time I've gone as a gringo
and I can barely speak Spanish,
people are willing to listen
and I'm able to get people saved
and I feel like it's a better experience
than soul winning in America.
The food is good.
But it is only Mexican food. Okay, so they have no other options. It's you know
It's like it's not like there's an Italian place down the street or you know bakery or something
It is tacos or tacos. All right, I'm just kidding
But I love tacos so I can eat tacos for days
So that's great actually in fact some of my most famous favorite restaurants in the world are in Mexico because I love la canzara
Yeah, and la fogada are both excellent restaurants, and I highly recommend them
So I'm sure there's some cool places in Mexico City as well
We had at least 60 extra salvations for Brother Kevin Rowe and honor and memorial of him.
But keep up the great work on soul winning and, you know, he's cheering us on from heaven,
so we'll continue to do the labor and the work that's necessary.
We'll work till Jesus comes, right?
If you'd like to participate in a close soul-winning marathon, Tyler, Texas, September 27th,
we'll meet for breakfast, go out for lunch, and we'll have another soul-winning marathon
that will be a great opportunity.
Upcoming events, there's also a soul-winning seminar October 4th.
Brother Marcel is going to be leading for us, so we're looking forward to that.
And then there's going to be soul-winning right after, so it's just going to be kind of like a little instruction time
and then some soul-winning right after, so if you'd like to participate.
It looks like what we have signed up is pretty close to the size group we had last time that we
went a couple years ago. If you did send us your email itinerary, I sent out or our staff sent out
an email this last week just letting people know. So if you did not get an email from us or something,
you might check with us or double check because we did send out an email last week.
But just double check and we're going to be sending out some updates as we get closer.
Some people asked about a schedule.
I'm really probably not gonna be able to give people a schedule until like last minute
It's gonna be just a few days before maybe even days of just because on these kind of trips things
You kind of have to play them by ear a little bit
We are trying our best to get into some schools and preach in those areas and some other opportunities
But some of those may take oh, you know some more time for us to figure out exactly what opportunities are available to us each day
But we're gonna just be basically meeting
We'll probably be meeting in the mornings,
where most of us are staying,
and then getting a schedule that day and going out.
So we'll have a plan each day.
But we're really looking forward to the trip.
I think, again, we have about almost 50, 60 people
signed up for this year's trip.
And so I think it's gonna be a really big success.
Brother Kintin said he's gonna get me on the radio,
so hopefully I'll get to stay in the country after that.
Now, it'll be a lot of fun and we're really excited.
Pastor Rusmi has come in to preach for us October 19th,
and then we have a chilly cookoff October 31st.
On the back is our prayer list.
We also had an insert for the baby announcement.
Congratulations to Devon DeHass on the birth
of their son James Donald.
He was born on the 12th, nine pounds, 21 inches long.
Congratulations to them.
And again, that's pretty much all I have.
Again, if you have those cards or anything,
people ask and just leave it on the table
and we'll collect it this evening after the service.
But thank you so much for,
thank you for being such a great church.
Honestly, we have such a great church
and you guys really care about our members.
You care about soul winning.
And you know, it's a lot of fun to be the pastor
of this church.
So thank you guys for being here.
Let's go to our third song, Psalm 149.
We're gonna sing it out nice and loud
All right, that was Psalm 149
everybody now as offering plates are being passed around. Go ahead and open your
Bibles to the book of Proverbs chapter 15. That's Proverbs chapter 15.
Proverbs chapter 15 the Bible says a soft answer turneth away wrath
But grievous words stir up anger the tongue of the wise uses knowledge a right
But the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness
The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good a wholesome tongue is a tree of life
But perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit
A fool despiseth his father's instruction, but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.
In the house of the righteous is much treasure, but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble.
The lips of the wise disperse knowledge, but the heart of the foolish doeth not so.
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord.
But the prayer of the upright is his delight the way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord
But he loveth him that followeth after righteousness
Correction is grievous unto him that forsake it the way and he that hadith reproof shall die
Hell and destruction are before the Lord how much more than the hearts of the children of men
A scorn or loveth not one that reproveeth him, neither will he go unto the wise.
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is
broken.
The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge, but the mouth of fools feedeth
on foolishness.
All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.
Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith.
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.
A wrathful man stirs up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.
The way of the slothful man is an hedge of thorns, but the way of the righteous is made plain.
A wise son makeeth a glad father, but a foolish man despiseeth his mother.
Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom, but a man of understanding walketh uprightly.
Without counsel purposes are disappointed, but in the multitude of counselors they are
established.
A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word spoken in due season, how good
The way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath
The Lord will destroy the house of the proud, but he will establish the border of the widow
The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord, but the words of the pure are pleasant words
He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house, but he that hadith gifts shall live
The heart of the righteous studyeth to answer, but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil
things.
The Lord is far from the wicked, but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.
The light of the eyes rejoiceeth the heart, and a good report maketh the bones fat.
The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise.
But he that heareth reproof giddeth understanding the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honor is humility
Let us pray dear heavenly father. Thank you for the word of God. I thank you for steadfast Baptist Church. Please
Let our church be an encouragement to brother weathers and to miss Lola
And I pray that you would please help us to understand your word now
Bless Pastor Shelley as he preaches what you've laid on his heart in Jesus name. Amen. Amen
Verse 5 says this,
a fool despises his father's instruction,
but he that regarded reproof is prudent.
And I think a really good word here is regarded reproof.
When I think about regarding,
it's taking consideration of reproof, which is correction.
And unfortunately, we live in a society today
that struggles to receive correction.
We live in a culture that struggles to receive correction.
Most people struggle with receiving correction.
And of course, I'm not preaching for the world's sake,
I'm preaching for our sake.
And it's just kind of embarrassing
how most people just cannot receive instruction.
And again, you know, I praised the congregation during the announcements, not necessarily thinking
about this sermon, but, you know, I really do love you guys, I really think you guys
are awesome, but I think that most people really struggle with receiving correction.
And most people are really bad at receiving correction, and it's not just children, your
children are not good at at all, but you guys also, and people in general, struggle in receiving
correction.
Now, in some ways, y'all are great because you come into a church on a Sunday night to
to say and that's really important.
But I think that in large,
like I've been thinking about this sermon for a long time,
that I'm just like, I'm just always constantly disappointed
by people's reaction to receiving correction.
And again, like when it's in a sermon,
it's easy because you're sitting here thinking like,
man, I can't wait for my spouse to implement
that entire sermon.
You know, I can't wait for my brothers and sisters, I can't wait for this other person.
It's really easy for some people to just constantly worry about other people and think about other people
instead of receiving the correction for themselves.
But the Bible is saying that, hey, fools are despising instruction, they're despising correction,
but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.
It's important to be able to receive correction and to receive it well.
And so I hope you will pay attention.
I hope you'll receive this sermon tonight, okay?
Because we all need it.
We all need to improve in this area.
And receiving instruction and correction
is a really, really important thing to do.
And that's the title of my sermon is receiving correction.
Let's look at the more verses in this chapter
because this chapter really hammers this point.
Correction is grievous unto him that forsake it the way.
And he that hath reproof shall die.
The reason why many people are dying young or dying in silly ways is because they just
can't take a tip, they can't take correction, they can't have anybody tell them what they're
doing is wrong and so they end up just dying by making stupid foolish idiotic decisions.
You know telling people hey drinking alcohol is stupid, they can't take that advice and
that they kill themselves through alcohol, they kill themselves through just making
Silly decisions, being a bad driver, whatever decisions they are of life, just going into
dangerous situations, you know, we should take heed to instruction, in fact, we should love
correction. We should not have the attitude of despising correction or correction being
grievous unto us, but for some people, they just hate being corrected. And let me explain
this, what this person's like. Everyone feels uncomfortable telling them they did something
And you know what?
There's a lot of people like that.
And I would even say, you know, a lot of husband and wife situations, maybe a lot of wives
struggle with receiving correction from their spouse, or even vice versa.
It could be that you can't speak to your husband.
You can't ever say anything to him.
You know, Abigail talks about her husband, Nabal, how, you know, he doesn't receive
a correction.
In fact, his servants, I think, is more the one I'm thinking of.
They're saying, like, he's such a man that you can't speak to him.
It's just like the attributes of really bad people and prideful people is that you can never give them a tip
You can never correct them
You can never say that they did anything wrong and they cannot receive it
And you know what that is just a bad character attribute is something we should all be working on
Constantly and we should never have this attitude that correction is bad
We should be the type of people that receive correction
Well and the reason why people say that about you or feel uncomfortable giving you correction is because how you responded to the
Because if you respond correctly to correction, people are not afraid to correct you.
People love correcting you because they love to see your improvement, they love to see
your progress.
But when you do not receive correction well, boy, it's just annoying to be around that
kind of a person because we're all making mistakes, we all do things that are not right,
we all have imperfections, we all have blind spots, and you know what, you as a husband
You as a wife should constantly be willing to receive correction from your husband.
We need each other and we need constant correction.
People should be constantly wanting to come to church three times a week because let me
tell you something, you need correction.
I need correction.
We need to read our Bible daily because we need correction and we need to have the right
kind of attitude and not allow ourselves to get to a point and think that we've arrived
and think that we don't need correction.
When you want to be right with God,
when you want to be a good person,
you're constantly looking for ways to get better,
and so you love correction,
you don't despise correction itself.
In this chapter, look at verse 32,
he that refuses instruction despises his own soul.
But he that heareth reproof, geteth understanding.
Notice by not receiving correction, you hate yourself.
It's a bad attitude, it's a prideful attitude, and it leads to destruction, it leads to harm to oneself.
We should be the type of people that are always willing to receive correction, always willing to get a tip,
always willing to improve, always trying to figure out ways to get better.
Sometimes you may think, like, I want that,
but the way you receive correction is so poor
that it turns people off and they're unwilling
to then give you the correction.
They're unwilling to give you the tip.
So we're not only necessarily having the mindset,
we're gonna try and learn tonight
some ways to improve on how you receive correction.
Just what does it look like to receive correction
and how can we improve in this area?
You know, it says here in verse 33,
the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom
and before honor,
is humility. We all need to humble ourselves and realize, hey, we probably need more correction
than we realize, and we should probably learn more things than we realize. And if you really
want to be honored, if you really want to be someone great, you would be a type of person
that is willing to receive a lot of correction in your life. You know, teenagers, you need
a lot of instruction.
Teenagers have not arrived.
Teenagers are not smarter than their parents.
Teenagers are not better than their parents.
They need a lot of correction.
And you know what, often when we talk about teenagers that have bad attitudes,
not all of them, but the ones that do,
it's because they're very prideful,
they think they know they're better than everybody,
and they can't receive correction.
We need to be the type of people that love and receive correction.
Go to chapter 9, Proverbs 9.
I'm just looking at several Proverbs to set this up,
and then I have a few points that I want to make this evening.
I want to just show you lots of verses on Correction for a second.
Proverbs 9 verse 7 says this,
Notice a couple of things with this few passages of Scripture.
The Bible is saying inherently,
This proverb, this truth is, when you approve people that are scorners or whatever, they end up hating you, they attack you, they're vicious, they think you're being mean, they don't receive correction well at all.
So what ends up happening is you stop correcting them.
Whereas the person that's wise, he loves it, he appreciates it, he thanks you, he wants
that and then he ends up becoming what?
He increases in learning, he's successful, everything is good is happening for that type
of person.
So again, this is why it's important for you to receive correction well, because the
way people perceive you receiving correction will then cause them to either keep giving
We all need to receive, you know, help because we all have blind spots, we all have limitations,
we all have weaknesses, we all make mistakes for all of us sitting and coming short of the glory
of God and you know what, we need each other and it's a blessing when you have people correct you.
It's a blessing when people are willing to help you out and so we need to be the type of person
that's a wise man and we're willing to listen, we want to be taught, we want to increase,
Here's just a tip. It's not in my notes, but I was just thinking about this and this always frustrates me
If someone brings a topic up or a word up or a situation up or a book up or something
And they're kind of they kind of give you this litmus test
They say do you know what I'm talking about or have you heard about this or do you know what this is?
Instead of just lying and saying yes
Be honest
and just say, you know, I honestly don't know anything about that or I've never heard anything about that
and allow them to explain to you what it is that they're saying.
You know, honestly, most of the conversations, I have conversations with people all the time.
I talk to them by friend Pastor Anderson all the time
and one of the things that happens in our conversations almost every time is he's telling me about stuff I have no idea.
But he always is asking me, this is like, hey, I don't want to insult your intelligence, do you know about this?
And you know what I usually have to say, he's like, no.
or please tell me, and even things in the Bible.
I know I'm a pastor, but that doesn't mean
I've conquered the Bible or something.
I don't have one of these masters of divinity degrees
or something like that, where I've mastered the Bible
or something like that.
You know what, if someone starts talking to me
about something that I don't know about
or I'm not very familiar, I try really hard to say,
you know what, I don't know a lot about that.
Obviously, I like to bring whatever knowledge or information I have to the table too.
We can discuss things.
But don't lie about it.
Don't be dishonest.
Just say, hey, I don't know that much about it.
I haven't studied it much.
I haven't.
I don't remember that book.
Why don't you tell me what you know?
Or why don't you share with me?
And people love to teach other people things and to share their ideas and share the things
that they know.
And when you say, yeah, I already know about that, you're shutting down new information
that you could have actually learned.
He's shutting down the opportunity to become a better person and have a better vocabulary
and just learning in general.
We should be people that are willing to learn, not go around inflexing like I already know
everything.
You know, this is just a bad attitude.
Proverbs 13 verse 1 says this,
A wise son heareth his father's instruction, but a scorner heareth not rebuke.
Notice one is hearing his father's instruction, the other one doesn't hear anything.
He never hears.
Now again, it's not saying so much in a literal sense of like,
it's audibly going into his eardrums or not.
It's about, it's not resonating with them.
They're not capturing the information.
They're not really paying attention and thinking about it
and applying what has been instructed to them.
Whereas the wise son, he hears what his father says
and he just does it.
The foolish son, you could tell him,
doesn't do it. You spank him. He doesn't do it. You tell him again. He doesn't do it. You spank him
again. He just won't hear the instruction. He just won't hear the rebuke. He doesn't hear anything.
You know, a good son will hear. Now, again, this also proves that, hey, we have free will, doesn't it?
The wise ones hear the father's instructions, the foolish ones don't respond well to the correction.
It's not that the father wasn't trying to do the right thing, it's just every kid has free will.
You know, when you live in a family with a lot of siblings, you have to understand some of the siblings are going to be better than others.
That's just how it is, that's just reality.
And you know what, if your siblings, if your brothers and sisters don't want to serve God, don't want to listen to mom and dad, don't want to do what's right,
Because at the end of the day, you know what?
A wise son will hear his father's instruction.
He won't just go down the road with his bad siblings.
He'll be the Joseph, he won't be the 11
that sell Joseph into slavery.
And you constantly see in the Bible,
families where, you know, some kids are good,
some kids are bad, what's it based on?
Them deciding to listen to their father's instruction.
And let me say this.
We're all God's children and there's some good Christians
and there's some bad Christians.
And the good Christians are the ones
that hear their father's instruction
and the other ones, they don't even hear a rebuke.
They don't want to hear some hard preaching they don't want to preach her to get up and yell God's instruction and God's word to them
Because why because they're not a wise son a wise son loves good preaching loves hard preaching
Loves the instruction that God's giving them whereas the foolish son
He can't go to a church and hear anything negative
He has to have his ears tickled, he has to be padded on the back,
he has to get an ad-a-boy. You know what, that's a bad idea and you know those people are destroying
themselves many times because they won't hear instruction, they won't hear rebuke, they won't
hear the things that are necessary to hear. You know, you should go to a church where the pastor
will step on your toes.
As you go to a church where the sermon's about you,
and again, it's like, it's really not about you,
but it just is because the word of God is about us.
Okay, the word of God, we all need to receive it.
We all need to get better in these areas.
Proverbs 13, verse eight, the Bible's
of the ransom of a man's life or his riches,
but the poor hearth not rebuke.
It's kind of interesting how it's saying people
that are poor are the same kind of people
that just don't do something.
They don't hear a buke, right?
I mean, isn't this what it's saying?
The poor heareth not rebuke.
What did it say in verse 1?
The scorn are heareth not rebuke.
And what is the opposite?
The wise son.
So again, I'm not I'm not trying to like shame people, but isn't it almost kind of if you let's just connect a few dots
Let's play algebra for a second. It's like the wise son hears instruction the foolish son
Doesn't hear instruction the poor person doesn't hear instruction
Maybe there's a correlation to being poor and not receiving correction, not listening to things, not paying attention, not receiving any kind of wisdom or understanding.
You know, oftentimes people are poor because they're lazy.
because they're not listening to instruction,
because they're not applying themselves,
that's why they're poor, not for any other reason
other than the fact that they just won't receive instruction,
they won't receive correction.
You know, when you go to the job site,
you as a man should be willing to learn, grow,
and get better every day,
and not think that you've already arrived,
and the people that are lifelong learners
will often be very successful in this world,
the ones that they don't want to hear anything.
they're not going to be very successful.
You know, I work a secular job,
I've worked secular jobs for my whole life basically,
and many of the companies that I've worked for,
The bosses, I had been fortunate or lucky enough to work alongside of them, the CEOs,
the main people, the owners of these businesses and get to know them.
What I've noticed between all of them is they are always lifelong learner type personalities.
They're type of people that are constantly learning, constantly reading books, constantly
trying to grow, constantly trying to hear from their employees, ways to improve their company,
ways to improve their business, how to get things going.
what I've been around and the ones I've seen.
And again, that's what the Bible is saying.
Not just my personal experiences or my personal anecdotal experience,
but here's the thing, this is what the Bible says,
I see it in the real world and it makes sense.
You want to be a lifelong learner, you'll be smart and wise and make money,
you think you already got it figured out, you don't need anybody's help,
often that'll lead to poverty.
Often that'll lead to being poor and destruction
and all kinds of horrible things the Bibles bring up.
Proverbs chapter 3, go back again.
Proverbs chapter 3, look at verse 10.
We need to receive instruction.
Proverbs 3, verse 10, the Bible says,
I mean, is that the one I wanted?
Yeah, it is.
All right, I just, I meant to start in verse 11.
I just wrote it down.
My son despised not the chastening of the Lord,
neither be weary of his correction,
for whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth,
even as a father, the son in whom he delighteth.
What is the Bible saying?
Don't despise the chastening of the Lord.
Notice this, neither be weary,
of his correction.
Why do you think he would bring up
being weary of his correction?
Because if you're a Christian and you read the Bible
and you go to church,
you're gonna get corrected all the time.
And it's saying, don't be weary of his correction.
Don't don't despise God constantly correcting us and constantly trying to improve us
I mean you read John 15 the Bible saying God's gonna purge the vine so that it can bring forth more fruit
God is constantly trying to improve us
God is constantly trying to get us better get us to the next level get us to go a little bit higher do a little bit more
Become that become a better worker
Become a better Christian, become a better preacher, become a better soul winner.
Just become a better husband, become a better friend, become a better brother,
better brother, speaker apparently, I need to do that.
Just, we always need to be improving constantly.
And we shouldn't be weary of God's correction.
We should love church.
We should say, hey, here's another opportunity
for me to get better.
It's not like, ah, Sunday night church,
I guess I better go.
No, no, we shouldn't despise that.
We shouldn't be weary of church.
We should say, man, I wish I could get a fourth service in
because I just love learning.
I love hearing the Bible preached.
I just love getting better
and becoming a better Christian and a better person.
That's the type of attitude we should have.
I'm not saying we all do,
but I'm just saying that's what we should have, right?
and the Lord loves us, that's why He corrects us.
You know, the reason why someone corrects you is often
and almost always because of love.
If your boss is giving you correction,
you know why he's giving you correction?
Because he actually thinks you're a worthwhile employee.
Because here's the thing, when a boss looks at an employee,
if he thinks, you know, this guy's not helping my company,
I don't even know if I see him being here for a long time
and he makes a mistake, he's gonna fire him.
He's not going to spend the time investing his effort and energy to correct him on every
little thing.
If someone comes in and they just don't have the skills or the aptitude to do the job,
he's not going to just sit here and correct him over and over and over again.
It's too much of a waste.
He's just going to fire him.
So when a boss is actually giving you correction, instructing you, trying to help you, it means
he really loves you and wants to invest in you.
You know, if your spouse is giving you correction, it's because they don't want to live with
you the way you are.
They want you to get better.
You know, they want you to improve.
You know, if your pastor is giving you correction, it's because he loves you.
Because at the end of the day, any time you correct someone you're always putting, there's always a little bit of a risk of them getting offended, leaving, quitting or whatever, right?
There's always that little bit of a risk. Why do you think that the many preachers today don't preach that hard or don't preach anything specific?
It's because they don't want to lose anyone. That's why. But at the end of the day, why do they not want to lose anyone?
because they're selfish and they just want that money attention or to have people in their church.
The person that's not afraid of losing you and wants to tell you what you need to hear is the one that loves you the most.
The one that loves you the most is not so concerned about whether you come and go.
He's more concerned with you hearing what you need to hear.
and telling you the things that you need to work on
and improve on.
And you know, that's really important to understand.
When someone's correcting you,
it's typically coming from a place of love.
Therefore, we should love the person
that wants to correct us.
We should love the person that wants to help us
get a little bit better.
We should love the person that would call us out
on things that we have that aren't right.
Whether that be an attitude, a spirit, a mindset,
a face, a look, you know, something going on in our lives.
You know, people say like, oh, you're mean to single guys.
You always are constantly giving them
all these correction and tips and calling them out.
Must mean that I actually love them then.
It's not that I hate them. It's not that I want them to be in the positions. They are in it's because I care for them
And I want what's best for them and I want to help them. Oh, you're constantly ripping on this issue
You know, well, maybe that's an issue, you know marriage or something
You know, I love couples being married and I love marriage and I love
Husbands being good husbands and wives being good wives and and parents being good parents and I love children
You know, I'm not giving these these instructions because I dislike these people. I'm doing because I love these people
And we should understand that that's where the place is coming from.
Why should we understand that?
So that when someone brings the correction to us, they love us.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
You know, what if you share something with one of the ladies in this church and it's
gossip and they say, hey, we probably shouldn't say that.
That's kind of gossip.
They actually love you don't they whereas you share something you shouldn't or you say something you shouldn't and they just say
Oh, you're so wonderful. That's the that's the kisses of an enemy. That's deceitful. That's harmful
You know, but do we like it when we do something wrong and someone calls us out? Probably not. Is it comfortable?
No, but you know what I'm telling you the people that correct you are the ones that actually love you
The ones that are never going to correct you do not necessarily love you.
And so you have to be careful about that and have the right attitude.
When someone calls you out, be careful, does this person actually love me?
Go to Revelation 3.
I want to move into my first point, and I'm just going to make three this evening about
receiving correction.
Number one that I want to talk about is the right attitude when you receive correction.
having the right attitude and receiving correction.
We kind of already hit on this,
but we should desire a correction.
We should appreciate.
correction. We should not be upset, despise, or be weary of correction. We see the bad
attitude is despising, refusing, not wanting it, not liking it. It's grievous unto you.
Whereas the good attitude is you love correction, you want correction, you're looking for correction.
That's the type of attitude we should all have. And when you have this attitude, everything
else is going to flow downstream correctly.
I would argue if you had the right attitude the next two points I'm going to make will
just happen automatically.
But I still want to help you.
And my three points are this,
you need to have the right attitude
when receiving correction,
the right body language,
and the right words in response.
But typically when you have the right attitude,
you're gonna have the right body language,
and then you're gonna have the right words to follow up.
But at the end of the day,
I'm still gonna help you so that way
no one gets confused where you're at, all right?
But when we receive correction,
we need to have the right attitude, the mindset,
because that's gonna be the most important point anyways.
And we need to say, hey, I want correction.
Please help me be better.
Revelation 3, verse 19.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten,
be zealous therefore and repent.
What is the attitude?
Not only that we should want correction,
but that when we get it, we want to implement it.
We want to be zealous and we want to repent.
We want to change, we want to fix it.
We want to improve.
I'm not only just getting correction
because it's the right thing to do,
I actually want to implement it.
I actually want to get better.
I actually want to do things differently.
I want to be zealous.
I want to repent.
I want to be a great person or want to be a great Christian.
I want to be a great husband.
I want to be a great spouse or brother or worker or whatever it is.
I want to be a great soul winner.
You know, that's what I just genuinely desire.
And because I desire that, I want God to be pleased with me.
When I hear correction, when I hear instruction,
I'm willing to just change.
I want to go to two places in Psalms, go to Psalm 34 for a second, go to Psalm 34.
What is our attitude?
We should love and receive correction and we should be zealous and we should do it.
We need to have a good attitude, not, what's the wrong attitude?
Not you know the people do this kind of stuff you start giving them correction
And they just kind of like shut down they get and I'm gonna get in the body language in a minute
But it's just like they kind of shut down they become icy
They don't want to hang out the relationship changes the attitude changes. It's just it's just you know
Or they just get mad they get angry. They just lash out or whatever
And you know, that's not the type of attitude our attitude should be appreciative
Our attitude should be thankful.
Our attitude should be,
I'm glad I had this opportunity to get better.
That's what we should be thinking in our mind.
Psalm 34, look what it says in verse 18.
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart
and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
You know, God likes people that are willing to say,
hey, yeah, I'm wrong.
They have a broken heart a broken spirit. Hey, I did this. I messed up. I screwed up. Yeah, I
And what's contrite? You know contrition is basically wanting to get this right realizing they're wrong
Having this kind of an attitude. I'll show you another one go to I think it's Psalm 51
Go to Psalm 51 and
Look at verse 17
It's gonna be similar pretty much the same thing
The Bible says in verse 17,
the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
a broken and a contrite heart of God,
thou wilt not despise.
Hey, when he says you're wrong, you screwed up,
you did bad, you needed to work on this,
it's saying you're right, I'm wrong, I wanna fix it.
Having this broken and contrite spirit.
Go to Psalm 141, 141.
And I would argue that the point that I'm making is this,
that when you get called out, when you're being corrected,
the first step is taking ownership, isn't it?
Just taking ownership.
Realizing, yeah, I screwed up.
Yeah, I did something wrong.
That's the broken heart.
That's the contrite spirit taking ownership
and recognizing, yes, this is true.
Yes, I'm in the wrong.
Yes, there's a problem.
Whatever it is, right?
Now, as we start responding to this,
we would potentially apologize for our actions as well.
But we first have to just accept it.
We just have to say like, yeah.
and having the right attitude is saying,
I'm willing for this to happen, look at verse five.
Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness.
What is this guy's attitude?
Hey, if you correct me, you are being kind to me.
He says specifically, and let him reprove me,
it shall be an excellent oil which shall not break my head.
For yet, my prayer also shall be in their calamities."
He's saying, look, you coming and telling me I'm wrong when I'm wrong isn't going to hurt me.
It's not going to break my head.
It's not going to cause me the problems.
You know, it's actually a kindness.
It's good unto me.
I'm willing for you to come and smite me,
reprove me, correct me.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend.
Now, is it comfortable?
No.
faithful are the wounds again being physically harmed it's like being
knocked on the back of the head right someone needs to smack some sense into
him and it's saying it's a kindness it's better off it'd be better off if you
said something stupid and someone literally smacked you across the face
and you realize that was stupid and changed then you just keep believing
that stupid that stupid stuff
Like what would be an example? I don't know, like the flat earth, right?
If you thought the earth was flat and someone just smashed you across the face
and you're like, you're an idiot and then you just, well, okay, I got, wow, I must be really stupid
and then change, that would be way better for you than continuing to believe that and telling anyone.
I mean I think I think like almost anything just telling them you had a mental handicap people would treat you better
Then if you said like I have I believe the earth is flat like they're gonna think like you have like demons or something
Man, I mean they're gonna be like this guy is scary like stay away from this person
They'd feel more comfortable. Okay, and I'm just telling you know sometimes even a physical beating
Would be better than not being corrected
And what does he say?
Let him smite me.
He's like, let the righteous smite me.
Now again, we have a caveat here.
Let the righteous smite me.
Obviously he's hearkening under good counsel.
He's going to church.
He's letting pastors, he's letting Christians.
He's letting the sage give him instruction.
You know, we should always be willing to let the sage,
brothers and sisters in Christ give us correction.
Hey, we should be open for business for correction.
We're not doing something right.
If we got something wrong, we got a blind spot.
Please help me.
Let it be a kindness.
That's my attitude.
I want to have a good attitude.
And when it happens, I want to take ownership
and say, you know, you're right.
You're right.
I did screw up.
I did make a mistake.
I did do something wrong.
And taking ownership for their actions.
Go to Hebrews chapter 12.
Go to Hebrews chapter number 12.
What is point one? It's having the right attitude when receiving correction
Having the right attitude when receiving correction when you get called out
Thinking it's a good thing not a bad thing
But you know you kind of notice this pattern that people that leave churches disgruntled and mad
What is one of the things they almost all say? Oh, he's preaching about me specifically
What is their attitude? It wasn't that that was a good thing. It was a bad thing, wasn't it?
They don't like correction
And again, it's so funny, because it's usually not.
And it kind of makes me think, like, man,
I can if you really want me to.
Like, I can really make it about you.
But it's like, but that's not the goal.
The point is not like that.
As a preacher, you're trying to balance all kinds of ideas.
And everybody thinks everything's about them.
It's just so weird, and it's so annoying.
I was trying to explain to somebody, I'm like,
I have like over 300 members.
I have my family.
like my immediate family, then I have like my extended family and then I have like my sins
and my past. It's like the last thing I'm worried about is you. You know it's like I have so many
things to think about and then ultimately like to just be honest with you the thing I'm only
thinking about really when I'm preparing sermons is like is it right and how does God feel about
what I'm saying. Usually it's after the fact that I'm thinking like oh yeah that person's
probably gonna think that part was about them but whatever what I said was true you know.
It's like, I don't have time to think.
I mean, you probably don't realize how much time
I'm spending on my sermons or not, whatever.
But it's like, you really think I'm just sitting
in my office just like thinking about you,
oh man, I'm gonna get him, you know, oh man, point A.
I mean, just look at my notes sometime.
It's not like I have your name
with hearts all over it or something, okay?
You know, the word of God is powerful.
You know what I mean?
It's sharper than a two-edged sword piercing. It's dividing, right?
It's just causing all these different, you know feelings and emotions because the word of God is actually powerful. It's meaningful.
But the thing is we should like it.
It's like that surgery that you need and the precision of the Bible to just go in there and just get what needs to be done just real quick.
Obviously, no one likes surgery, no one likes being corrected, it's not necessarily a fun
feeling.
You know, I enjoy the sermons ripping on people that have nothing to do with me, too.
Sometimes we need that precise surgery, too, don't we?
And that's what real hard preaching is.
Hebrews chapter 12 says this in verse 6,
For whom the Lord loveth, he chastenseth,
and scourgeseth every son whom we receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons.
For what son is he whom the Father chastenseth not?
But if ye be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers,
then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh
which corrected us, and we gave them reverence.
Shall we not much rather,
be in subjection unto the Father's spirits and live?
For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he, for our
profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
You know the Bible saying, sometimes your parents just punish you just because they're
sick of you.
They're just tired of you.
It doesn't even, it's not even going to benefit you.
You're just annoying.
But you know what the Bible says?
Parents can do whatever they want.
They can punish you after their own pleasure.
But you know what? The Bible says when God punishes us,
it's not only for His pleasure, it's also for our profit.
It always benefits us, it always blesses us, it always does get unto us.
And keep going.
Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous.
No one actually likes being called out, being corrected, being told they're wrong.
It's not fun.
But that doesn't mean that you can't still appreciate the experience itself.
Just like lots of things aren't necessarily enjoyable physically, but you still appreciate it, right?
I mean, if you go work out and you actually do a really good workout, let me tell you something.
When you're doing those final reps, it hurts, it's not fun, it's not enjoyable.
Running is never fun.
Running is not fun.
Okay, but you can still appreciate the workout you can still appreciate the reps
You can still appreciate the experience because you're improving yourself
You're trying to get better and overall you're like working out is good
But no 12th rep after the third set seem it to be joyous, but grievous
Okay, now if you're not if it's fun you didn't work out
Just like if you're being spanked and it doesn't hurt you didn't get spanked
Right, and that's kind of how life works that hey, yeah, obviously
Getting corrected all these things you're not gonna enjoy the experience right in the moment
There's gonna be a little bit of pain there, but you can still it's good pain
It's that good pain that you can appreciate and that you want,
just like being smitten by your friend,
just like the faithful wounds of the friend,
hey, yeah, I didn't necessarily like being wrong.
I didn't like making a mistake,
but hey, at the end of the day, I'm glad someone corrected me.
I can appreciate that they corrected me.
It says, nevertheless, afterward,
it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them,
which are exercised thereby.
Now verse 12 and 13 are important because it says,
wherefore lift up the hands which hang down in the feeble knees
and make straight paths for your feet,
lest that which is lame be turned out of the way,
but let it rather be healed.
So you see, there could be a tendency
that when you get corrected to have a bad attitude.
That's kind of what's being personified or exemplified here
through the body language,
where it's saying lift up the hands which hang down.
You know, it's like someone gets called out and they're just kind of like
The bus yelled at me. Mmm. Pastor Shelley yelled at me. Hmm. You know it's saying like don't it's like sick
Don't just just you know, don't be like this evolve a little bit. No, I'm just kidding
We were never monkeys. We never have to be monkeys, but don't don't just kind of have you know
The body language often tells us what someone's thinking, isn't it?
It's just like, hey, you're just kind of home and call me out, you know
People just kind of looking down just kind of kicking their feet just kind of like
Why do all the homeless people look like that, you know
It's just they look like they have a bad attitude of poor spirit, you know stand up straight
Get your hands out of your pockets. Don't let the hands hang down.
What is it saying? Lift up the hands. Do something with your hands. Don't just,
oh man, you know, do something productive with your hands.
Get into a good posture, right? The feeble knees.
So it's saying like you're not standing up straight, you're just kind of like, you know,
man.
It's just that bad body language that bad attitude that's being personified and look when someone's correcting you
This is this is where we're going into point two, but here's my tip don't change your body language
You know someone's giving you correction, you know, you don't have to be like yeah
Yeah
Mm-hmm, you know you can just stand there and look at take it like a man
Just stand there. Yes, sir. Yeah, okay. No problem. I'm sorry. Whatever, you know, just the whatever's the right response
But you can have good body things. Look them in the eye
Take accountability. Take the ownership
You don't have to just sit there and just sulk and just have this bad attitude
Right and he's saying in verse 13 and make straight paths for your feet meaning what?
Fix the problem
When they give you the correction, don't just get this bad attitude and just walk out with your hands hanging low.
No, no, no, just make a straight path to correction, fix it and let yourself be healed.
Fix the problem and don't have bad body language. It's just so frustrating.
Go over to Jeremiah 5. Let's look at some more body language in the Bible and look, body language is a major subject in the Bible.
When Cain is reproved by God, he has to call him out on his body language about his countenance falling
Right about him not having the same kind of visage
You know countenance is your face how you use your face look
And again, we need to be able to be people that receive correction well.
Now I'm not saying that you need to sit here and smile like a little puppy or something
when you're being corrected.
You don't have to sulk and just kind of have this like poor me attitude
or try to be the victim when you're corrected.
It's like quit trying to be the victim and just take it like a man and just take the ownership.
Like nothing bad happened to you is a good thing that you're corrected.
You're not a victim for being corrected.
You know who's the victim?
The person you harmed through your mistake.
That's the real victim, and it's so annoying when someone harms someone else,
gets called out for it, and then now they're a victim.
Like they're the one that did like they're the one that's actually you should feel sorry for no
You're the one that made the mistake the person correcting you did not harm you. They helped you. They were a blessing unto you
Okay, don't try to turn it around and become a victim when you get called out for making a mistake
Well, I don't like you calling me up. Well, that's your problem
Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 3. Oh Lord are not thine eyes upon the truth
Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved.
Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction.
They have made their faces harder than a rock.
They have refused to return."
Now again, I'm not saying that if you get called out or do something you can't show
because we probably should sometimes, or some embarrassment, what are they showing?
Their faces are harder than a rock, it's just like, you know, they get called out and just like,
whatever, it's wrong, you're not right about me. You know, just their face is just like,
it's just hard, it's just hard face, it's not soft, it's not tender, it's not open,
Yeah, and it's just like they just change their visits to basically say I'm not gonna receive correction right now
I'm like a rock and
It's saying this is what the children of Israel are like when God would try to say hey you're doing something wrong
You're on the wrong path quit worshiping false gods and bowing down to idols and committing adultery and stuff
They're just like yeah, whatever do whatever I want
There's kind of this body language of their face is harder than a rock and look when you're getting called out when someone's correcting you
Don't have a sour face
Don't have a prideful look
Don't roll your eyes
Boy that is just that is irritates the fire out of me
Rolling your eyes don't cross your hands and don't get all cold with the person
You know what?
You should receive correction like a normal person.
Just, hey, and if you need to, have a little bit of shame.
Have a little bit of embarrassment on your face
and say, hey, I'm sorry.
Not just like, ah, ah, he corrected me.
What does it say in verse four?
Therefore I said, surely these are poor.
Wow, that's funny.
It's like, I think I remember in,
In Proverbs, it said that the poor person was the person that would not hear a buke.
And then he tells us that they won't receive correction here, and then he says,
oh, these are poor.
That's funny.
It's kind of funny that you go talk to the homeless person, you say,
hey, why don't you get a job?
And they won't hear anything you have to say.
You try to give them any correction, any instruction, and they won't hear.
Why?
Because it's a correlation to the person that won't receive correction and being poor.
Oh, you hate poor people. I don't hate poor people, but they hate what I'm saying and they're gonna say oh you just hate poor people
No, I love you. I'm trying to tell you you're poor because you can't receive correction
That's your problem. You don't want anybody to improve you. You don't want any instruction
You don't want to learn you're just someone that's already got it all figured out. Well, no one's gonna be able to help you
That's why you're in the situation you're in many times people have the things they have because they're willing to learn grow and get
Better notice it says not only to their poor. They are foolish too
For they know not the way of the Lord nor the judgment of their God. You know God loves judgment
What is judgment going to do? It's going to see where are you at?
How are you doing? Did you do something right? Did you do something wrong?
We should seek for judgment. We should want to know where we're at
if we're doing good, bad, things that we can improve on.
Go to Jeremiah chapter 17. Go to Jeremiah chapter 17.
Don't have a sour puss face. Don't roll your eyes.
Receive correction.
And again, when you have the right attitude that you like correction, that you're willing
to be corrected, often that'll help you have the right kind of face, won't it?
The person that's not willing to receive correction will often have a sour face, a hard face,
they'll roll their eyes, they're too good for instruction.
Jeremiah 17, verse 21, Thus saith the Lord, take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden
on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in.
By the gates of Jerusalem, neither carry forth a burden out of your house on the Sabbath day,
neither do you any work, but hallow you the Sabbath day as I commanded your fathers.
But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff
that they might not hear, nor receive instruction."
Notice again, the body language in relation to the fact that they won't receive instruction.
They just kind of get this stiff neck.
You know, they just kind of get that pride look,
they just, whatever.
And look, people, when they're not receiving correction,
they make these literal body movements.
They stiffen their neck, they just kind of get these looks,
they get pride, they get a hard face.
And you know what?
That is not the right kind of body language.
Don't stiffen your neck.
Don't try to look down on people.
You know, just, just okay.
Yeah, sorry, you're right.
I shouldn't have done that.
You know, have normal body language, don't change, don't start changing.
These are things, when you start receiving correction
and you start noticing your body moving, pay attention to that.
You might notice it in your kids.
You might notice it in teenagers.
You might notice it in other people.
But boy, body language will tell you a lot about what someone's saying.
And that's why women are so good at often reading you men
is because they're reading your body language.
I'm just telling you.
Women are often experts at body language for some reason go to Zephaniah chapter 3 Zephaniah chapter 3. It's like
Women can just tell like what everybody's thinking often time. I'm like man. This lady just doesn't like me
They're like, how do you know and they just it's just they some they just read people
They just kind of can read the body language and I think that God
I think that God hardwired women to have this because of children like think about babies and all this kind of stuff like
You know, when my babies and toddlers talk to me,
this is why I hear,
man, man, man, man, man.
And then she's like, she wants a cookie.
She needs someone to take her to the bathroom and you're just like, what in the world?
Why didn't she say that, you know?
It's like moms are just experts at non-verbal communication because it's like hardwired
and they're just practicing it all the time.
So somehow they just become expert in just reading people, reading their children, learning
and picking up on a lot of these clues.
Whereas a lot of us men, we're just working with other men and we're just like grunt.
Hey, I want a hammer, hand me the hammer.
We don't necessarily get as much training and practice
maybe on a daily basis of learning body language,
so then we're not as keen often in this.
But I'm just telling you, you should still think
about body language and try to learn this
and try to read this and the more you talk to people,
go to church or around people,
the more you're gonna pick up on this kind of stuff.
But it's important because even though we may not be as good at it almost everybody picks up on a lot of body language
A lot of the clues and your boss often will and other people around you
And it's important when you're receiving correction and not have bad body language
Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 1
Woe to her that is filthy and polluted to the oppressing city. She obeyed not the voice. She received not
Correction she trusted not in the Lord. She drew not near to her God
Now, I believe this is a euphemistic description but I also think it's applying to body language
as well because it's talking about drawing near to God in kind of a euphemistic way.
It's not like God's in Temple Zero and it's talking about your distance to Temple Zero
or something.
But you will notice that when someone's correcting you and you have a bad attitude, sometimes
they'll literally physically distance themselves from you.
They're like, yeah, what do you want to say?
They'll kind of they'll kind of separate or they'll put distance or they don't want to come near
Undo you whereas again if you have good body language, you're not gonna abandon a conversation
physically
You can honestly even tell if somebody wants to talk to you or not by the way that they're standing
Because wherever their feet are pointing is telling you where they're wanting to go
So, if I'm talking to Diego and my feet are pointed at him, I'm engaged in the conversation.
If Diego's talking to me and I'm standing like this, let me tell you something.
This person wants to exit the conversation.
Why?
Because my feet are pointed here.
And I'm just telling you, it's a subtle clue.
If you're talking to somebody, pay attention to where their feet are pointing.
Because that'll tell you if they're actually engaged in the conversation or not.
But the same thing, if your boss or someone's giving you correction and you kind of notice
yourself, just straighten up, give them their attention and pay attention to them.
This is a good way to receive correction.
Whereas the person is just in themselves, changing their feet, trying to do whatever.
What do you get? What is the impression you're getting from that person?
They're literally moving away from you and their feet are like this. You and I both know they're like
They're trying to run away from the conversation
Whereas the person not moving staying in close proximity with their feet pointed at you. What they're trying to actually have a conversation with you
And sometimes it's like this all of a sudden he starts correcting me and I'm like, yeah, yeah, whatever. Okay. Bye
That's not good way to receive correction
Good way to receive correction is to keep your body language there engaged in the conversation be willing to receive the correction
Not hanging down low not having the sour face not doing these things. Of course. It's usually downstream of your
Attitude go through it to Genesis chapter 3 go to Genesis chapter 3. Here's the third thing. I want to bring up is your response
What do you say when someone corrects you and?
This one just irritates the fire out of me, but
You know, I'm a lot more chill than probably people think,
but in general, boy, it just irritates me
when someone does this.
I don't necessarily call them out on it,
but when I correct someone or someone is corrected,
you know, this is what just pisses me off
is when they shift the blame,
or they blame someone else.
Or here's what I'm saying, like, I'm just gonna get,
er, was they blame you, okay?
and then they blame you, okay?
We're gonna see this exactly in the Bible, all right?
Genesis, chapter number three, look at verse 11.
Hey, did you eat off that tree, Adam?
The woman you gave me.
He's just immediately blaming God for him eating on the tree.
Well, I'm just doing what you told me to do.
Whatever you instructed me to do or whatever.
Or I'm just doing...
It's like, they don't take any accountability for what's actually going on.
They just blame shift and say,
well, this is what you said or this is what you're doing
or you wanted me to do this or what...
It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
It's like, no, no, no, when someone's correcting you you need to just probably shut your piehole and take accountability right away
And really think about what's actually going on. Don't be an Adam here and blame Eve because you know what?
God doesn't blame Eve. He blames Adam. He says that Eve was deceived, but the man was not deceived and the man was in
Transgression and Adam is accredited as the one bringing sin in the world even though Eve ate first
Why? God does not blame Eve for Adam sinning. You know God blames Adam for sinning? Adam.
Adam, you're the one that sinned. Did you eat off the tree that I told you not to eat off of?
Well, but you gave me this woman and she gave me different instructions, you know. Oh
You don't listen to her. You listen to this, right?
And, you know, when you get called out, when you are given instruction, do not sit there
and blame shift or blame other people or blame the person giving you instructions or whatever.
Just take it.
And, look, I've been there, I've done that, but, you know, the right attitude is just
to take it.
I remember working on a project with one of my bosses one time and I spent like the whole weekend working on it
Doing everything that he said come in the morning morning show him the project and he's just like you didn't do what I said
And I'm thinking like I
Mean I did I did do what you said
But technically I didn't do something exactly like what he wanted
So then he just immediately deletes all of my work and makes me redo it all
And I was, like, not in a good mood about that internally.
But you know what?
I just said, OK, what do you want me to do?
And then I just did it.
And look, what he did was wrong in the sense
that all I had to do was tweak a few things.
And had it dialed in, it would have probably been five minutes.
But he made me redo hours and hours worth of work,
which was really, really frustrating and infuriating.
But at the end of the day, the bad attitude
would have been, well, I did as you instructed me.
I'm not going to have that kind of an attitude.
I'm just going to say, what do you want me to do?
I'm here to work, right?
Because that's just the right way to handle these situations.
You're going to have times where you feel like you're
in the right, they're in the wrong.
You're going to feel like you're being mistreated or whatever.
But sometimes in hindsight, you're thinking, well, actually,
I did make a mistake.
And here's the reality.
He wanted me to do a certain task, and I did it like 95%.
I didn't do the other 5%, and when I showed him,
it was probably a little too early.
I should have cleaned things up, got it better presented,
so that he wouldn't have been in the attitude that he was,
but I didn't technically do everything right.
So then I learned, okay, next time,
I'm not gonna ever present anything or any work in this way.
I'm gonna do it exactly as he asked,
so then that way I don't go down this road.
I could still learn something from the experience.
Did I think it was the best way to handle it?
No. Was he a good boss?
No. Did he get fired soon after
because he was a terrible boss?
Yes. But you know what?
All of our bosses is Jesus.
And the way I responded,
Jesus is paying attention to,
and then he's gonna determine my future employment
and future career opportunities.
And he likes the person who just says,
you know what, even if he smites me,
it's a kindness and I'll take it
and I'm just gonna move on.
When you get corrected, you should just take ownership.
Hey, have you eaten off this tree?
Yes.
I'm sorry.
I shouldn't have eaten on this tree.
Please forgive me.
No, you gave me this woman.
This woman that you gave me.
Like, that's just, that's just a terrible,
terrible, terrible, how do I hate it?
Go to Philippians 2, go to Philippians 2, number 2.
Also, I hate disrespectful and immature responses
when you get corrected.
Hey, you did this wrong.
Yeppers.
Okie dokie.
Thumbs up.
We live in a, look, I give thumbs up in text messages,
but it's like you get corrected or you do something wrong.
Don't just like smiley face.
You know or another thing just don't joke at all. I love jokes. I
Love memes when you get corrected. It's not the time to joke
It's not the time to make a delight of it. You should take it seriously
You should use mature grown-up language to respond should say, you know something like you're right. I'm wrong
I'm sorry. I apologize. I should have handled this better
Please forgive me. Can I make it up to you? Not okie-dokie?
Sure. Yeppers.
Gotcha.
Hey, you did this wrong. Gotcha.
What is that?
Like are we like teenagers now or something like that? It's like you should say yes, sir. No problem.
I'll have it fixed. How can I help?
This is how you receive correction and this is the kind of word responses that you would want.
Not just like, gotcha, okie-dokie.
This is just weird, immature yeppers.
I just, I can't believe it, but it happens, okay?
Or complaining about it, or saying something negative.
I mean, Philippians 2 is talking about kind of like our work
and the works that we do, the right mindset in general,
but it has this thing in verse 14.
So this is like every category, do all things without murmurings and disputings that you
may be blameless and harmless.
In the workplace, don't blame shift, don't say, well you did this, or well you're at
fault, or I don't like this, just no problem.
Now here's the thing, sometimes you get conflicting instructions, I get that.
If you're at work and your boss gives you an instruction, you think you follow it accurately
You say, I'm sorry, I got that wrong.
I'm willing to fix that.
I want to ask a question because I want to make sure I get this right.
When you said this other thing, this is how I thought it was supposed to be done, this
is how I interpreted it.
It sounds like that's not accurate.
Can you help me understand what I'm missing?
Can you help me see how I got this wrong?
That's how you respond to something like that if you really need the clarification.
If you can figure out the problem, figure out what you did on your own so you don't even have to ask.
If you really need the clarification ask.
But don't sit here and say like, well you told me to do it this way and I did it like you said,
and now you changed your mind and you're just a horrible boss.
And how can anybody stay here?
You know, it's like that's the wrong way to receive correction.
Because often you probably did misinterpret things or not catch everything or made some kind of mistake and they'll help you
You should have the right kind of response to it not blame shift not complain not dispute
Not dispute the correction. Just receive the correction. Just receive it. Okay
How can I and then you and then you're asking for more?
Hey, I'm sorry I did it wrong
Can you help me understand how to get it right?
Can you help me to see how I misinterpreted this?
What instruction would you like for me to follow?
You know, whatever it is,
that's the way to really, really receive instruction
and to improve.
Go to first of these six, this is the place I'll be turned.
So I just kind of wrote, just kind of a checklist
from the sermon.
And I'm not gonna give you verses for all this,
but I'm just, based on what we talked about,
I'm just kind of giving you the list.
When you get corrected, here's what you need to do.
Number one, take ownership.
Take ownership number two you need to apologize
You're right. That's taking ownership. I'm sorry. That's apologizing a lot of these things are gonna happen simultaneously
But you need to take ownership and you need to apologize
You're right. I'm sorry. I made the mistake. Here's number three have good body language
Right if you're having bad body language immediately fix it
If you have good body language, stay in good body language, right?
Keep your feet pointed at the person, looking at the person.
Don't crush your arms, don't have a sour face, don't have a sipping neck.
Don't do any of these kind of things.
Just take the correction.
Have appropriate words in your response, right?
Use mature language, not this okey-dokey-gotcha, you know, LOL stuff, right?
Basically, insinuating, you agree with them.
You're taking it, you're receiving it.
You're not arguing, you're not disputing,
you're not murmuring, you're not like,
yeah, whatever, shah, shah, shah, shah, stupid,
whatever, don't hate that, whatever.
He said something else.
What, what'd you say?
No, no, no, you're just sitting there, your mouth shut,
or you're receiving it, you're using appropriate words,
you're not disputing, you're not murmuring.
Now here's the next point that's really important. I didn't clarify this but after you receive this
Instruction, you know you should do do it
Make the change right apply it and have a good attitude while you do it
So when someone corrects you, take the ownership, apologize, have good body language, use appropriate words, do it, and have a good attitude while doing it.
And look, if this is the type of person you are all the time, people will love giving you correction, will constantly help you, and you'll constantly get better,
and then you'll have all the things the Bible said. You'll be wise, God will be pleased with you, you won't be poor.
Whereas if you don't do these things what will you be you'll be like the homeless bum out there that doesn't take ownership for anything
Her life never apologizes never has good body language never uses appropriate words
Never does anything that they're told and doesn't have a good attitude isn't that interesting?
I'm trying to help you and I'm trying to give you some tips how to improve on how to receive and
instruction
Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 1,
let as many servants as are under the yoke
count their own masses worthy of all honor.
That the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
Look, when you go to work and you get corrected
and you don't take ownership,
it makes Christianity look bad.
When you...
Don't take things well, it makes Christianity look bad.
Here's the thing, when wives don't take the instruction of their husbands well and they
become cold and icy and murmur and have bad body language and argue with their husbands
and public, it makes Christianity look bad.
It makes the doctrine of God look bad.
You know, as a wife, just take correction.
Husbands, if your wife even gave you a suggestion, don't blow up at her.
sometimes we may need it. Children, boy, it makes like having big families look
terrible when your parents are correcting you children and you throw a fit,
have an attitude. You know what? It's impressive when you watch a parent
correct their child and the child just takes it. They just have good body
language, they take it, they don't allow themselves to have a bad attitude afterwards.
They're thankful, appreciative, and they move on.
It may not be fun to be corrected, you may not like it,
but you know what? Get over it and have a good attitude.
It's annoying when kids get corrected and they just can't get over it.
And of course, if you're an adult, you're acting like a child if you can't get over it.
You just get over it, accept it, appreciate it, like it.
Why? So that God and His doctrine is not blasphemed.
And it says, in any of that believing masters, let them not despise them.
because they're brethren but rather do them service because they're faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit.
These things teach and exhort.
Have any men teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the doctrine which is according to God in this?
He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and stripes of words
where it comes with envy, strife, railings, eversomisings, on and on and on.
What is the point?
The point is that we should do good under bosses, especially believing bosses, believing masters,
whatever authorities we have in our life.
Hey, that could be your soul winning partner.
That could be the guy leading a mission's trip.
That could be anything.
Hey, the guy leading the mission's trip
tells you to do something.
Yes, sir, you're right, I'm wrong, whatever you want.
I have a great attitude about it.
Hey, you're soul winning captain says something.
Hey, you're right, you're I'm wrong.
Thank you for the correction.
I wanna do better.
Having good body language having good attitude not distancing yourself not being bitter not treating them differently not getting icy
Hey husbands and wives when each other have some tips correction, whatever obviously, it's primarily husbands correct and their wives
I get it we can still take tips husbands and
Again, you can tell the guys that don't take tips because they dress weird. All right
The reason why we dress good is because our wife helped us to dress good. I'm just telling you, you know
You can tell the guys that don't take tips from their wives. All right
It's real obvious
But you know women take take the correction from your husband be a be a wife that wants their husband to correct them
Be a wife. That's that's taking it well and thankful if their husband gives them some correction
Because you know what? You'll become a better wife, and you'll have a better marriage, and you'll have a better relationship.
Children, be the child that's the wise son that hears the instruction of your father, and does what your father says.
And let us all try to do better at having the right attitude, the right body language, and the right words in response when someone gives us a loving correction.
Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for your word.
Thank you for giving us instructions so that we could be wise and that we could be successful.
We understand that whenever you're chasing us or correct us, it's for our profit.
I pray that we realize that when people correct us, it's because they love us.
I pray that we would not hate correction, but rather we would love it.
I pray that it would help us to not have bad attitudes towards correction, bad body language
or inappropriate and immature words, but rather we would be thankful and appreciative
and we would work to correct the issues that we have.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right in closing let's go to song number 349
349
Song 349 the Comforter has come let's all sing that out on the first
Thank you for watching everybody, you are all dismissed.