Skip to content Stepping Up to Greatness: Be Prepared for Battles Jun 10 · 36 min ...more
Stepping Up to Greatness: Be Prepared for Battles
June 10, 2025 · 36 min
Pastor highlights that spiritual growth does not exempt one from battles; rather, it equips individuals with the tools to face them.
Series "Men's Breakfast" with John Mark Caton June 10, 2025 · 36 min · "Men's Breakfast" with John Mark Caton
Pastor highlights that spiritual growth does not exempt one from battles; rather, it equips individuals with the tools to face them. ...more Show the full description Show less Pastor highlights that spiritual growth does not exempt one from battles; rather, it equips individuals with the tools to face them.
Series "Men's Breakfast" with John Mark Caton Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
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Stepping Up to Greatness: Lessons from Deuteronomy 0:02 Welcome to Men's Breakfast with John Mark Keaton. Join us as John Mark shares his insights with other men in his ministry rooted in the timeless truths of the gospel. Today's message will encourage you to0:14 inspire, inform, and invest in the lives of others. This is Men's Breakfast with your host, John Mark Caton.0:23 Certainly good seeing, all the, first timers in here. Keep inviting folks, as we, just come in here and study word the word of God, verse by verse, chapter by chapter.0:35 We're in the book of Deuteronomy, and, we're gonna go back to Deuteronomy chapter 4 today. We're gonna be back in Deuteronomy chapter 4, and we really have been in this series entitled,0:47 kinda stepping up to greatness. What is it gonna take, for us to make it to grace greatness? And we're and we started looking at the book of Deuteronomy, where the children of Israel, are really not yet in the0:58 promised land. It's their second time. Moses, who's 120 years old, is with the children of Israel on the east side of the Jordan. He knows they're going to go in this time, but Moses1:10 also knows he's not going with them. But even though he's not going with them, he wants to give them instructions that will allow them to be successful when they actually do do go into the promised land. So, you know,1:22 kudos, high fives to to Moses. He could have said, man, if I'm not going in, I don't care about y'all. But he didn't. He said, let me just sit you down, remind you of some things. So when1:34 you go into the promised land and Joshua will lead you into the promised land, you'll be as successful as you possibly can. And so we're in Deuteronomy chapter 4. We started looking at this. We started talking, about1:46 from Deuteronomy 4. Man, Moses gives really about 5 or 6 or 7 key steps to victory when they get into the promised land. And for us, they're victory1:58 in our lives. Alright? I I don't know where you feel like your journey, and I don't know if you sense. Maybe you're at such an age, you're young, that, you know, man, I'm gonna land in my promised land someday. Maybe you2:08 feel like I've been in my promised land for a long, long time, or maybe you feel like, you know, I may not get there fully, but what I am going to do is I'm gonna encourage someone else who is2:20 behind me, that when they get into their promised land, they will be as successful as they possibly can. And that's what we're seeing in Deuteronomy chapter 4. It's Moses kind of sitting down with the men saying, guys,2:32 let me remind you of a couple of things, of these key features that allow you to be successful. We also started last week talking about, we sometimes have a common misconception that,2:45 that if I become spiritual enough or if I, grow in my faith enough, then I will never have battles. Or if I make it to my2:57 promised land, I somehow won't have to fight and struggle. Everything will get easy. And I reminded you last week, listen, the children of Israel fought their way out of slavery. They fought their way3:09 all the way through the promised land as they journeyed for 40 40 years around in the desert. They had battles to overcome. And guess what? When they go into the promised land, what do they have to do? Fight.3:22 So wherever you are in your life, I wanna encourage you with this. Man, if you are in a battle, it's not because you aren't spiritual. Now there are times that we're in battles because we make mistakes.3:34 But don't ever think God doesn't love me. He's allowing me to go through this battle. And don't ever think I'm gonna get to a place in my life, a spiritual place in my life that I will never have battles. So the reality3:45 of it is we all need these points. We need to glean the insights of what Moses was telling them to be successful as they went to the promised land and apply them to our lives. As we make our journey, as we3:57 move forward, as we become the men, the church, the community that God wants us to be in. So, don't ever think, man, if I'm in a battle, it's because I'm not spiritual.4:10 It's never gonna be the case. We will always be in a battle, so we wanna glean these insights. Alright. So if you were here last week, we started just look at some keys to victory. And and key number 1, we4:21 looked at last week and is this, men, we have to listen to God's word and do it. Justin just mentioned that. That's where we looked at. Look at verse 1, Deuteronomy chapter 4. This was last week. We're gonna burn through4:32 this 1. He says, now here Israel, now Israel, hear the decrees and the laws I'm about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and it may go well with you as you take possession of the4:44 land of your lord your god, and with your ancestors that god has given you. So what he says is that first of all, you have to listen to God's word, you have to obey it, you have to hear it. I4:56 think a lot of times we hear it, but we don't do it. Alright? Every time we read God's word, there is a hearing, but the real question is, is there a doing? If God's5:08 word convicts you about something, are you willing to make that change? Are you willing to take that step of obedience? If you do, you're gonna be more successful in the land is what Moses says. And And so that was5:19 number 1. Number 2 is this, and this is where we stopped last week, and I didn't even make it through this whole point, because y'all listen too slow. How many of you remember that? Guys, we don't ever wanna5:32 add to or take away from god's word. Do we understand that? Nor do we wanna spend our lives listening to teachers that are consistently adding to or taking away5:43 god's word. You say, where do you see that? Look, Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 2. Moses said, listen. He's he just said, listen to God's word. Follow it. But then notice what he says in verse 2. He says, do not add5:55 to what I have commanded you and do not subtract from it. So interesting. He says, hey, guys. Don't go adding to it, and don't go taking away from it. How many6:07 of you know we have a lot of people today? A lot of teachers love to add to God's word today. How many of you know we got a lot of people to be culturally relevant or friendly? They love to subtract from God's word6:18 today. Can you believe all the way back before the children of Israel made it into the promised land? Moses was warning the people of his generation, don't add to it. Don't6:30 take away from it. Man, what what do the prophets remind the children of Israel? Don't add to it. Don't take away from it. What did Jesus say? Don't add to it. Don't take away from it. And so I love this. He says,6:41 listen, guys. Do not add to what I've commanded you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you today. Remember, we talked about this last week. We went all the way to book of6:52 Revelation 22. What does it say in the last chapter of the Bible all the way at the end? What does it say? Look at verse 18 Revelation 22. I warn everyone who hears the words of prophecy of this7:04 scroll. If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in the scroll. I will tell you as a pastor, that scares me to death7:17 that I go too far with God's word. That that if I'm giving you an opinion, I don't tell you I'm giving you opinion. This Sunday, go ahead and make a little, make a little advertisement for Sunday's message.7:29 It's 2 things we're gonna talk about Sunday. 1, is anybody in here have a loved 1 who's died? Where are they? Where are they right now? And number 2,7:41 how many of you know that Jesus is coming back? And we're gonna be talking about the second coming. Those 2 things I'm talking about this week. Where are believers who have died right now? Where they at right now? And7:52 when is the rapture going to happen? Alright? Now how many of you know there's a little disagreement on when the rapture is gonna happen? We're gonna talk about that. Some people are pre trip, some people are mid trip,8:03 some people are post trip. And here's what I know. Everybody can have an opinion. I have an opinion. But Jesus said, it's not even for me to know the times8:15 of the season the father is going to return. And just FYI, if Jesus doesn't know it, neither do I. How many of you agree with that? Alright. So if you want to come, I'm gonna talk about8:27 the different ways. What does it mean to be pre trip, post trip, mid trip? I'm gonna talk about those things, but I'm gonna step back and say, listen, Some really good people are here. Some really good people are here.8:36 Some really good people are here. All I know, if I get a choice, I wanna leave early. How many of you with me? There are some of y'all that I wanna leave through the tribulation.8:48 Fact fact, if I die before you, I'm going to encourage God to leave you through the tribulation. Just say Ben needs 7 solid years of8:59 bitterness is what I'm thinking. Right? So in other words, the point is here, I don't ever wanna preach that idea as though it's fact. I will give you reasons why I believe what I believe,9:11 but I also wanna make sure I'm not adding to it. I wanna say, listen, you're really not a Christian if you don't believe in the preacher, over the poster, over the mid trip. This, Man, I want to I want to stay with God's9:20 word. So here it is all the way at the end. He says, if you add to it, Revelation 22 18, that person will have the plagues that are written in the scroll. We're here9:32 talking about, Moses and how many remember the plagues in Egypt. I don't want any of those. Right? But then notice what else is from the scroll of prophecy. God will and, God will take away from that person any share. He9:44 says, and if you take away from these words, God's gonna take away any share in your kingdom. Man, I don't want to be a pastor, a teacher that is consistently adding9:55 to nor do I want to be a pastor that is willing to take away from God's word to accommodate culture. Alright? Why? Because the price, the10:07 cost is far too high. And the cost is not just for the teacher, it's also for the listener. If I care about you so much, how can I not tell you the whole truth?10:19 Even if from time to time it hurts, it convicts, it challenges. Sure. I I can go out of my way to never offend you and make sure that, that you always like10:31 me. I could come in here every Tuesday morning, every Sunday morning. I could pat everybody on the back. Everybody walk out there and say, thanks. I feel better. But it didn't help. It didn't help. So, man,10:43 always surround yourself with someone that's gonna teach god's word. And when they journey into an opinion, they say, hey. There are several different ways of viewing this. In my opinion,10:55 it's this, but others have come to a different opinion. That's what it happens in the second coming. So so the best seminary professors that I ever had, man, they totally disagreed on, you know, what the second coming11:06 was about and the millennial reign of Christ. And guess what? I'm sitting here looking at people that all love Jesus, all love each other, and just disagreed. And so, as you think about just because we disagree,11:18 don't ever step out and say, well, that guy's wrong or that girl's wrong because they don't agree with the teacher I follow. Don't ever follow a teacher, follow God's word. And if it's11:30 open for interpretation, man, leave some freedom there for people to have some disagreements. However, at the same point, where God's word is very clear, we need to11:42 be very clear all the time. And so we talked last week about part of this whole, Protestant Reformation was that as the church had grown,11:54 churches have the tendency to do what they do. The Roman Catholic church started knelt in my 95 thesis,12:06 on the door of the church there in Wittenberg, he had 95 charges against the church. That he said, man, the the church has lost its way. That the really12:18 what he did is he started saying, you know what? In these 95 thesis, this isn't in the Bible. This isn't in the Bible. This isn't in the Bible. Those were all the 95 charges. If you want to know, it was Martin Luther12:29 saying that we've added to the Bible. We've added to the practice of faith. He says, at what point does it say in the Bible the pope can forgive sins?12:42 He started saying, that's not a at what point in the Bible does it say if someone gives some money, they can get Uncle Harry out of purgatory? No. I'm telling go read12:54 them. That's what he was saying. And that's what the whole Protestant Reformation was about, is he was trying to eliminate he was trying to eliminate some of the stuff that the church added to the Bible13:07 over the year. And if you have a Catholic background in here, by the way, I want you to know, I'm not dogging out Catholics. That's not what I'm saying. But what I am saying, we always wanna make sure we step back and13:17 make sure that what we say is not adding to nor is it taken away. It's not adding to and it's not taken away. So what happened Martin Luther nails the 95 thesis on the door, they're all charges, 9513:29 charges, against the church. The church then begins to wrestle with these things. They have to make some choices. They either accept his charges and say, you know what? We do need to clean this13:41 up. Or they can double down. And guess what they did? They doubled down. You say, what do you mean? Anybody ever13:53 heard of the Council of Trent? You could get into heaven without hearing about the Council of Trent. But what used to happen in historical times is when a big decision had to be made in the church, they would14:05 bring all the church all the church leaders from the east and the west and from all over, all the bishops in. They would bring them all in. They would discuss a topic or an issue, and then they would vote on it. They14:16 would say, basically, as we look at God's word, here's what happens, here's what didn't happen. Alright. So what happened is they convened what is referred to as the Council of Trent to respond to the Protestant14:27 Reformation. To all of these charges, basically, the 5 charges of the reformers that, man, it's sola scriptura. That's our authority alone. It's the Bible. Man, salvation comes by faith14:38 alone, not faith plus works. They just went down. They had these 5 ideas, 5 thoughts, and so they convene the Council of Trent. The Council of Trent basically14:50 rejected the Protestant Reformation. And it's in that council that the Roman Catholic Church basically said tradition, church15:02 tradition, and church teaching is equal with scripture. That's a dividing line. And you can go read it. You say, pastor, you but you are you are you making this up?15:14 No. Go read about the Council of Trent. See, because what had happened as the church was growing, which it always can happen by the way, how many of you know we have traditions even at this church? Now we how many of you15:26 know we also love to shadow them? I mean, that's right. We all gather traditions. And what could happen is I could start teaching something that is my strong opinion. And guess what? Then Justin could develop that15:37 opinion as a strong opinion. Then the other Justin, I don't know if he would develop an opinion or not, but he listen. Do you understand what you you say, hang hang on. I'm this is kind of a joke. How many of you and15:48 then guess what? And they love me so much. They're gonna start following me and teaching what I teach as if it's fact almost. Right? And then they're going to dig in and find some more verses and more verse and then15:59 Pastor Dave is going to say, yeah, this is it. This is it. This is it. That's how tradition becomes equal with scripture because somewhere back in the sometime way16:11 back in the past, someone taught something who someone behind him started believing and someone behind him started believing that someone behind him started believing. So by the time you get the Protestant Reformation,16:20 they've got all these teachings about Mary and salvation and baptism and, alms and, forgiveness of sins and works based salvation. That tradition had seemed to16:32 be in Martin Luther's eyes and the reformer's eyes equal with scripture. And so he really nailed he he didn't wanna split the church. He wanted to reform the church. That's why they were called16:44 reformers. He says, you know what, guys? We need to take all this stuff that's not in the Bible and get rid of it and go back to the holy and pure righteousness of just serving God and loving16:55 God. The response of the church should have been, you're right. You're right. We've let some traditions and some teachings that17:07 are not in God's Word get into God's house. But they didn't. They instead convened a council together and said,17:19 you're right. Those traditions are not in God's word. Therefore, the outcome of our vote is going to be to raise our church17:31 tradition to the level of scripture. Is that a good idea? No. No. And basically, what they said is,17:42 Martin Luther, you better recant or die. And his response was, here I stand on the word of God, and I will do no17:54 other. And basically, pretty much the rest of his life, he hid because they would have killed him. And he just began to write God's word. So here's what I want you to do. I always want us to be good at let18:06 me give you a little quiz. Alright? I'm gonna give you a little quick quiz and that listen. That you wanna get right answers. So I just came up with some statements. And you tell me,18:18 added to it, taken away, nailed it, or missed it altogether. Alright? And by the way, they I'm not gonna grade you, but I want you to talk. Alright? So let me give you some statements. Here's a18:30 quiz. Alright. On salvation. Just add it to, take it away, nailed it, missed it. Alright? And by the way, y'all we're gonna I'm not gonna sit here and talk about the nuance. I said, what about18:42 salvation? Salvation is by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Nailed it. Nailed it. Nailed it. Right? Nailed it. Alright. How about how about this 1? Salvation is by18:53 grace and faith in Jesus Christ and works and the sacraments and baptismal regeneration. Added to. That is19:05 exactly what was taking place in Martin Luther's day. Yes. Grace of God is involved. Faith in Jesus Christ is involved. But you need to have some confession. You19:17 need to do some sacraments. You need to do some different things like that. You're right. Added to. Here's another 1. Salvation is by grace, and everyone will be saved because God is so loving.19:29 Attitude taken away whatever it is. You've taken away God's judgment or you've added to his love for everybody. Right? We've just added something. Alright. Let me give you another 1. We are19:41 saved by good works and maintain salvation by good good works. Just missed it. Just missed it altogether. Right? So we gotta be the kind of people that19:53 discern if I stand up someday. Let's say someday I have some Justin served me some bad coffee. And I stand up and just start spouting off stuff that is contrary to God's20:05 word, guys, those alarm bells need to be going off in your head and go missed it, nailed it, added to it, taken away. Does that make sense? It's okay for us to think that.20:16 Now don't think over critically. There are times that someone will send me an email after I'm speaking, and I'm talking. And and how many of you know I don't manuscript? I just study, study, study. I put some outlines. I20:28 shove it in my head, and it just kind of comes out that, that that and if you come to the 9 30 service, it's going to be different than that 11 o'clock service because it just kind of all comes out. Now, don't I don't20:39 want you to, to to go around grading someone's every statement. Alright? That that that if you didn't if you didn't say it just perfectly20:51 that time, think back and say, wait. But, you know, every other time he said this, this, this, this, this, this. This time he said it this way. Alright? This time so you wanna you don't wanna be the kind of person who's21:01 always great in someone because then you'll develop a critical spirit. How many of you know Jesus kinda spoke against that? But you wanna take the constant level. Now if someone really says, listen to me, here's21:13 what the Bible says. That's what the Roman Catholic church was saying at the time. Here's what the Bible says, and Martin Luther starts reading the Bible and go, no. I'm a priest, and it doesn't say that anywhere in21:24 here. So he we need to be in in such a way that we're like Martin Luther. That when someone says something, we go read God's Word and go, I don't find that in here anywhere.21:36 Let me give you another couple. How about, let's see. Baptism. Baptism is an important step of obedience for every believer. Nailed it.21:48 Nailed it. How about this 1? Baptism removes original sin in an infant. It is their first step towards salvation. No. Missed it. Added to it. Did something different.22:00 How about this? This this would be for you and us as well. Man, when you're a Christian, you become a priest. Yeah.22:13 Okay. Be careful. Nailed it. Nailed it. Do you understand the New Testament teaches the priesthood of all believers?22:25 There is no difference between me and you, except for my occupation and my position. You are just as much a priest in your house as I am in my house. You are just as much22:37 a priest at your office, in your relationships as I am. Right? Roman Catholic church believes there is a clear distinction between the priest and the22:49 laity. Now, I would love to walk around and lord it over all of y'all like that. Let me tell you what I'd make y'all do. But here's the reality. Alright? They developed what23:01 they developed is this idea that the priest are smarter and better and more authoritative and more blessed by God than the laity. Guys,23:13 let me tell you. I am no better and no different than you are when it come comes to God's grace and God's favor.23:25 And don't ever think I'm more. God has called me to a different position, but we are all priest. Amen. If you wonder how23:37 much God loves you, you are 1 of his priest. Doesn't matter what brokenness you have, what struggle you have, you are 1 of his priest. Let me give you, no. Let me give you23:49 another 1. How about this? Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin and found favor with God. Nailed it. Nailed it. Nailed it. Luke chapter 1 verse 31. Nailed it. That's what24:01 the Bible says. You have found faith. You know how I know that she found favor with God? Because the angel said, you have found favor with God. Alright? That's the kind of smart dude I am. I24:12 mean, I'm just like getting right out there on the actual words that are in the Bible. Alright? Alright. Let me give you another 1. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin who found favor with God and and was24:24 perpetually a virgin and is now the queen of heaven and a co redemptorist with Jesus that you can pray to and move God's heaven. Missed it24:36 added. Y'all don't even know what the all of the above. See what happens. So how you say, pastor, how does this happen? Well, you get someone that begins to study Mary. And and let me tell you what, Mary's an24:48 amazing character. Right? And then someone begins to start saying, you know what? And I bet she was this and I think she was this. And, you know, the idea of, man, she if if we're gonna honor her, we need to25:00 understand that she's probably the queen of heaven. Alright. This is some good this is how it starts. Somebody just says this. Right? And then they say, you know and and and my guess is that she was not only a25:11 virgin when she was with child with Jesus, but she was always a virgin because that makes her more honorable. Right? Now that would be shocking to tell Jesus' brother that Mary was a virgin. Right? I don't know how25:23 that happened. Alright. But so then what happens well, she's up there with Jesus. Well, who would have Jesus' ear more than Mary's mother? Right? Does that make sense? And so what happens is these ideas and these25:35 traditions just begin to creep in and it's not the first guy that teaches it, it's usually his follower. And then that person's followers. Does that make sense? And so all of a sudden this idea of Mary being the mother25:47 of Jesus becomes this whole thing that you could pray to her or whatever and she can forgive sins that they literally refer to her as the queen of heaven and a co25:59 redemptress with Jesus. And when those things happen, we have to say, no. We can honor Mary as the mother of Jesus.26:11 Alright? And and we should. Do we how many of us agree we should? Right? Man, because I I don't know about you. God's never sent an angel to me to say, god has found favor with you. So she's at least more26:23 favored by God than me. Right? So we don't but what we don't need to do is make her something she's not. Guys, don't ever make me something I'm not. Don't ever make any of these guys something we26:35 are not. We are not politicians. Don't ever make politicians something they're not because they're not. I mean, we're all priests. I've just been called to a different task.26:47 Alright. So as we think about that, man, we don't add to God's word. We listen to God's word. We obey God's word. Here's the third 1. Ready? Man, we have to remember what happened in the past,27:00 good and bad. We don't live in the past, guys, but we learn from it. We don't live in the past, but we learn from27:11 it. Look back on your life and you say, when were things the best in my life? When was my marriage the best, my relationship with my kids the best, my work work ethic was the best. When was the best? And27:23 what was I doing along that time? Right. I'm learning from my past. If if I went through some very difficult seasons, difficult times, when was it really bad? And I wanna learn from it. Don't ever live27:35 in your past, but guys, we always wanna learn from our past. Pick it up. Look at verse 3. Here's what it says. It says, this is Moses. He's still talking to the children of Israel. He says, you saw with your own eyes27:46 what the Lord did at Bel Peor. You say, what happened at Bel Peor? Hang in there. I'm about to tell you. The Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed Bel Peor,27:58 but all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are still alive today. Now you say, I don't know what happened at Bel Peor, but, some of the people died and some of the28:10 people lived. So I think we wanna know what happened at Bel Peor. Anybody know? You can go back to Numbers chapter 23 to 25. I'm gonna give this to you. You can go read it. I may dig into it a little28:22 more next week because y'all are listening slow again. Because here's what happened. You had a Moabite king. Alright. Who was named Balak. And Balak is sitting here in Moab, the east side of the Jordan and he is watching28:34 the children of Israel that look like as many ants as as sand on the seashore. They're coming along. They've got their tents. They've got their caravans. They've got everything.28:47 Moabite, is a little scared. He he's standing up on a hill called Peor, and it's a mountain range. And he's looking down at the children of Israel and he goes, they're stronger than us and I'm afraid they're28:59 going to take my stuff. And so what he does is he looks through the phone book and he finds a prophet for hire. And he says, hey, and by the way, the the prophet further29:11 east in Moab is where Balaam came from. So Balaam comes over and he says, you're a prophet. Right? He goes, Yeah. He says, Come over here. Stand on a high mountain. And they and the king and the prophet, the prophet for29:22 hire, they look down on the children of Israel. And he goes, You see all those people? I'm scared of them. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to curse them and bless me. And the prophet29:34 said, give me some money. And the king says, I will make you so wealthy. If you will curse them and bless me, you won't ever have to work another day in your life. Balaam says, in.29:46 So he goes off and he sacrifices some animals and stuff like that, and he comes back and he goes to pronounce a curse and he says, God bless Israel. And Balak goes, what? He says, that's not what29:58 I paid for. He says, I paid you to curse them. And so what happens, the king walks him over and says, Well, let's look from a different ridge. You've kind of desecrated that ridge. You were supposed to curse them. You30:09 bless them, but God wouldn't let him bless them. So they go over to a different ridge. He says, Look at them all over there. He goes, Here's what I want you to know. I want you to know I will make you the wealthiest30:18 prophet in the land if you will just come back and curse Israel and bless me. So Balaam goes over there. He prays. He sacrifices some more animals.30:30 He comes back, and he's supposed to pronounce a curse on the children of Israel. And what happens is a blessing comes out of his mouth again. And the king says, I didn't pay for you to30:42 bless them. They're clearly already blessed. I hired you to curse them. This happens over and over and over and over again. And finally, Balaam looks at him and goes,30:54 the Lord God of heaven won't let me do it. He says, I can't curse him. And Balak the king is struggling. He says, they're more numerous than me. They can take my31:06 land. If they don't wanna go into the promised land, they can just have all the Moai land. Listen to this. God intervened on behalf of the children of Israel31:18 and kept the false prophet or the prophet from hire from blessing the king of Moab, Balak, and cursing the children of Israel. You say, well,31:30 then how come some of them lived and some of them died? Because a prophet goes back to him and says, listen. God won't let me curse them, but there's another31:42 way. So what's that other way? Half of those people down there in those caravans and tents are men.31:54 Are you all tapped in right now? And Balaam says, you know, I may not be able to curse these people because god won't let me. But if you'll32:06 take some women, some Moabite women, and parade them in front of god's men, there is red blood flowing through their veins.32:18 And those men who I couldn't curse will curse themselves with their lust and their passion for foreign women. And you go32:30 read numbers chapter 23 and chapter 24, chapter 23 and chapter 24, it's funny because you have this prophet for for hire trying to curse the children32:42 of Israel on behalf of the Moabite king who's scared to death of them. And then all of a sudden, the story takes a turn and a story that was32:54 funny because God protected the children of Israel becomes sad because the men failed with the women of Moab. And so the men33:06 started sleeping with these Moabite women. They started worshiping their gods. They started going the other way. When god wouldn't let them be cursed, they cursed themselves because their own lust33:18 and their own pagan desires. And it says 24000 men died that day who slept with the Moabite women.33:30 So, guys, how do we stay faithful to win the victory? We listen to God's word, we obey it.33:42 We don't add to it, we don't subtract from it. We don't live in our past, but we learn from it. Guys, I'll tell you today.33:54 Listen to this. I believe this in my life. I truly believe this in my life. Now this is opinion. I believe every day, God is standing in the gap34:06 for me, keeping Satan from cursing me. But I can still fell today, not because of God,34:18 but because of me. Who I look at, who I mess around with, what direction I go. So, guys, as you leave here,34:30 I wanna pray a blessing over every man in this room and every man online. I believe God's gonna protect us more than we know. But, guys, don't ever let yourself get34:42 caught in temptation, whatever yours is. God, thank you so much for a lesson. The man named Moses, hundred and 20 years old, who's not gonna get to go into the promised land,34:54 but still cares about the next generation. God, let us leave here listening to your word, obeying it, not adding to it, not subtracting from it. God, most of all, let us learn from our past. Our35:06 past failures, we don't live in them. Our past victories, but we don't live in those. But let us leave here today knowing that we are blessed of God, but35:18 also tempted by Satan. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen. God bless you guys. Y'all have a good day. Go tear it up.35:29 Thank you for tuning in to Men's Breakfast with John Mark Caton. For more information on John Mark's ministry and resources, please visit johnmarkkayton dot com. Until next time, remember, we're on35:41 this journey of life together.In this video 0:00 Stepping Up to Greatness: Lessons from Deuteronomy101K followers
John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
101K followers
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