Who Are You Serving

Unknown Speaker (0:01): Wake up. It's time to kick start your day. You are listening to ScriptureLink's daily dose of inspiration. Let's go.

Speaker 1 (0:13): Good morning, and welcome to this brand new day. This is Scripture Link's daily dose of inspiration for Tuesday, 04/14/2026. And I guess yesterday, I got my dates mixed up because the the days I said we celebrate yesterday are actually for today. So today is National Gardening Day, and today is National Pecan Day. So we got something to celebrate today.

Speaker 1 (0:43): Now what were we supposed to celebrate yesterday? Well, I have national peach cobbler day. I love a good peach cobbler. I love a good peach too. Probably the best ones I ever had.

Speaker 1 (0:56): I got off a Amish farm stand in in pencil in Amish country in Pennsylvania. And we got them home and put them in a paper bag, and these things were so juicy. They were so good. Hoping to find them again one day. What also is is National Scrabble Day.

Speaker 1 (1:15): I like a good game of Scrabble too or Words With Friends. I don't know if anybody plays that Words With Friends anymore, but, anyway, those are the things we we had to celebrate yesterday, so there's nothing wrong with celebrating them today. Bible reading today, Matthew chapter 28 and Mark chapters one and two. And today, wanna talk a little bit about covering up our sins. Yesterday, we talked about habitual sins, and today, I wanna talk about covering up our sins.

Speaker 1 (1:51): And what are some reasons I had asked myself, what are some reasons that people cover up their sin? One of them, I thought, was a fear of consequences. A fear of consequences. We don't we don't want anything bad to happen to us. We don't want we don't want, well, I'll say fear of consequences.

Speaker 1 (2:18): Leave it that way. Also, protection of the reputation. You know, we don't want people's opinion of us to change. We've worked long and hard to build up the person that we want others to see. And if we if it comes that people find out we have hidden sin, if people find out we have had habitual sins, then maybe their opinions would change.

Speaker 1 (2:48): You know, someone sits in the church for fifty years and never goes to the altar, and the one time they do, people's gonna say, Well, I guess they really weren't a Christian, were they? That's that's our our nature. That's that's our things. But another one would be pride. Pride.

Speaker 1 (3:07): I'm too good. I I don't have sin in my life. I'm too good for that kind of stuff. Another one is hypocrisy. Maybe you're really not who you claim to be.

Speaker 1 (3:23): And then the last one I thought of was a desire to continue in that sin. You know, as we grow and as we mature, we need to have a desire to do the will of God, a desire to live the life God wants us to live, to walk in the paths he has for us. And sometimes the call of the world and the habitual sins and the hidden sins that we have in our lives that nobody knows about, sometimes we like him so much, we don't wanna let him go. We say, okay, God, you can have every part of my life but this. And we think that we're gonna get a blessing from God, and we think that we're we're living right with God.

Speaker 1 (4:11): We're gonna start in first John chapter number three today. And as you're turning there, I wanna remind you that you can go to our website, www.scripturelinks.org, and you could click on the study links tab. We have our very first personal or small group bible study on there, and there's a listener guide for each one of the the topics that we look at. They work great if you don't wanna listen to the episode. The episode is is linked there for each listener guide, so it works either way.

Speaker 1 (4:47): Listen to the episode, do the the study, or you could just do the study on its own. But it's entitled What God Sees. And in a world that is focused on appearances, performances, and public perception, What God Sees invites us to look deeper into the places that matter most to him. And this five session series explores how God examines not just what we do, but who we are from the inside out. Through scripture centered teaching and practical application, we discover that God sees our heart, the hidden motives, desires, and conditions shaping our lives.

Speaker 1 (5:30): He sees our speech, the words that reveal what fills us within. He sees our walk, the daily choices that reflect our faith. He sees our love, the sincerity of our devotion to him and to others. And he sees our love when it shows up, the visible evidence of faith expressed through action. Each episode challenges us to align our inner life with outward obedience, reminding us that genuine transformation begins in the heart and is revealed in how we live.

Speaker 1 (6:09): What God sees is a call to authentic Christianity, faith that is not just heard, but lived, and not just professed, but practiced. Check that out. It's free of charge. Go to our website, www.scriptionlinks.org, and click on the study links tab, and you'll find it right there. In John chapter three, we looked at verse nine yesterday.

Speaker 1 (6:36): Today, we're gonna also look at verse number eight. We're gonna do verse eight and nine today, because here he is he is contrasting two different lives. The lives of the person that is living in sin, whether it be a habitual sin, whether it be a hidden sin, whether it is the sin of their life before Christ. Then he's gonna contrast that with the life of the person who has a genuine faith and a genuine salvation in God. Let's take a look at it.

Speaker 1 (7:08): First John chapter three, verses eight and nine. He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Alright.

Speaker 1 (7:37): Let's take a look at that. He that committeth sin is of the devil. It the person that is living in sin is a reflection of the devil. It's a reflection of the the the evil that is in him. That is the he is a reflection of the of what it is that controls him.

Speaker 1 (8:00): Remember in Romans chapter six let's go back here real quick. I didn't intend on going here, but the Lord's impressing these verses on my heart. And so when I sense the Lord impressing something, I wanna go back and make sure we look at it. Romans chapter six, let and we're gonna look here at verses twelve and thirteen. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof.

Speaker 1 (8:28): Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. You see, before our life in Christ, before we we came to that repentance, to that faith in in Jesus, that faith in God through the sacrifice of Jesus, sin reigned in our mortal bodies. Sin is is what we knew. Sin is what we lived in, and we were we were living for the devil, for for a lack of a better way to put it. He that committed sin is of the devil, we reflect his character.

Speaker 1 (9:09): We reflect his nature because that's what we're living in, and that's what the world is living in today. And John here in chapter three verse eight goes on and says, For this purpose, son God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. He's gonna destroy sin. He's gonna destroy that lifestyle of sin that the devil has in each one of us. And because Jesus is destroying that, we need to make sure that we don't allow that sin to reign, to command, to to be in charge of our body, that we're obeying that sin.

Speaker 1 (9:52): We're obeying that lust. And in verse we're gonna flip back and forth here between first John and Romans. And back here in Romans 13 I'm sorry. Romans chapter six and verse 13, we see something that that is a choice that we make every single second, every single minute, every single hour of every single day. And that is what are we gonna yield ourselves to?

Speaker 1 (10:21): He says, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteous unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Each day, each minute, we're deciding who it is that we're gonna yield ourselves to. Are we gonna continue living in sin? Well, then we're gonna continue living for the devil. The devil's gonna continue reigning in our body.

Speaker 1 (10:53): He's gonna continue reigning in our mind. He's gonna continue all that. But if we yield ourselves to God, that shows of our true genuine commitment that we've we've made and we're living for him. If we go down to verse 16 of Romans chapter six, he says, know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. Paul's saying that whoever it is you yield yourselves to, that's who you're gonna obey.

Speaker 1 (11:31): Whether it's it's sin that's gonna lead to death or of obedience to God, which is gonna lead to righteousness. He that commits a sin, he that yields his life to sin, he that obeys sin is is of the devil. And the devil sinneth from the beginning. That's all the devil knows is how to sin. And and before our life in Christ, that's all we knew how to do was sin.

Speaker 1 (11:58): But Jesus came that he might destroy the works of the devil, that he might destroy the work of sin in our lives. The problem is a lot of times we all have our our little pet sins, our little habitual sins, our little sins that we have hidden that we think we're the only ones that know about. And we'll say, God, you could have everything else, but I want this little sin. This is what I want. This is what I I want in my life.

Speaker 1 (12:27): And we're not truly yielding ourself to God. We're not truly allowing him to come in there and to destroy the works of the devil in our lives. And as long as we're holding onto those pet sins, as long as we're holding onto our habitual sins, as long as we're holding on and hiding the sins in our life, that's always gonna be a spiritual hindrance. We're never gonna be where we need to be with God, and we're never gonna be the people he wants us to be. That's a harsh teaching.

Speaker 1 (12:59): I understand that, but it's the truth because we have to we were told in in first Peter chapter two, we were told in in Hebrews chapter 12 that we need to lay aside those things. We need to lay aside sin. We need to lay aside the things that weigh us down. We need to lay aside the things that trip us up and gets us entangled. And as long as we continue to pick them up, we're not gonna be where we need to be.

Speaker 1 (13:28): You know, sometimes we go to the altar and we're shedding tears, we're shedding snot and everything else, and and we're we're committing to God and we're laying our things down only to pick them right back up and walk away with them. We're not leaving them there. What do we do if we are stuck in a habitual sin or we are trying to hide our sin? What do we do to get rid of that stuff? Back in chapter one of first John.

Speaker 1 (14:02): You know, I like the books of first John, second John, third John, Peter, first Peter, second Peter, James. I like these. These are easy to understand. These are our kind of smacky in the face truth here. And James or John here in first John chapter one, we're gonna look at verses eight through 10.

Speaker 1 (14:23): He says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. So if we're stuck in habitual sin, if we're if we are are hiding our sins and we're saying, We don't have any sin, I'm not done nothing wrong. John here is saying that we're deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Speaker 1 (15:05): How many times in the gospels, now we're finishing up Matthew today, how many times in the Gospel of Matthew did we read where the Pharisees say they had no sin? Where the Pharisees say that they walk in sin, they don't have sin, they are sin free. You see the Pharisees were deceived. The pharisees didn't have the truth. You have to come to a realization, my friends, that we are sinners for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Speaker 1 (15:43): All, that little three letter word, all. That means every single person that has walked the face of this earth from when Adam and Eve was created right up to today, 04/14/2026. Every single one of us, except for the Lord Jesus Christ, has walked in sin, have sin in our life, and we gotta quit deceiving ourselves, and we gotta quit making ourselves look like we're better than we are. And we have to admit that we're sinners. You know, as we compare ourselves one to another, we say, well, I'm not a drunkard.

Speaker 1 (16:21): I'm not a druggie. I'm not a homosexual. I'm not a liar. I'm not a thief. We look at that and we say, Well, those sins are the big sins, but there's a lot of others have you gossiped.

Speaker 1 (16:36): We talked about that the other day. And we gotta quit comparing ourselves with others to make ourselves look better. We need to realize that we're sinners. And if we say we haven't sinned, we're deceiving ourselves. The truth is not in us.

Speaker 1 (16:56): And then in verse number 10, he says, if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Can you imagine the audacity of us today? The creation of God sitting here saying, God, you're a liar. I'm not a sinner. I've not done nothing wrong.

Speaker 1 (17:15): But yet when we have these habitual sins that we don't confess, when we have these sins that we're hiding from everybody else, that's essentially what we're doing is we're saying, God, I don't have no sin. I have nothing to confess. And we're we're calling God a liar. If you were standing and looking at God face to face, eye to eye right now, would you have the guts to look at him and call him a liar? But when we realize our sin, when we realize our need for a savior, verse number nine gives us the answer.

Speaker 1 (17:57): If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we confess our sins, if we repent of our sins, he is faithful, he is just, and he's gonna forgive us. Even those pet sins that nobody knows about, even those habitual sins that we've done for so long, they've just become part of our life and we don't even realize what they are as sin. Well, I think I got a lot more I wanted to talk about today, but I think we're gonna stop right here. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:55): I think we're gonna stop right here. Friends, what about the sins in your life? The sins that nobody knows about. Are you ready to confess them to God? Even if nobody else knows, God knows about that sin.

Speaker 1 (19:12): We're gonna talk a little bit about that tomorrow. Tomorrow, we're gonna we're gonna look at some some examples of people in the Bible who tried to cover up their sins, and we're gonna see what happened to them. And we're also gonna talk about what to do and how to discover if you do have hidden sins or habitual sins. That's what we're gonna look at tomorrow. But for today, are you ready to confess that habitual sin?

Speaker 1 (19:51): Are you ready to turn from that sin that you've been hiding for five years, twenty years, fifty years, seventy years, hundred years? We need to get things made right with God before it's too late. I firmly believe that time is short. Get things right with God, confess those sins, and start on on the path that God has for you. It's never too late.

Speaker 1 (20:25): As long as you wake up on this side of the dirt, as long as you're breathing, it's never too late. Come to him today and accept his forgiveness. Think about that as you go through this day and remember, get into God's word and allow God's word to get into you and then share that word with someone today. Have a blessed day.

Speaker 2 (20:48): John, your farm can do without you for a Sunday morning.

Speaker 3 (20:52): Pastor, I wouldn't step into your church if you paid me.

Unknown Speaker (20:55): Why not? Well, I

Speaker 3 (20:56): know old Wilbur who claims to be a Christian and Joe Bob Smith who attends your church and claims he's a Christian too. They're about as worthless as my skinny three legged hog. I'm better than they are.

Speaker 2 (21:06): Christians aren't perfect, John, but I I understand. Well, I'm here to buy a pig.

Speaker 3 (21:10): Boy, you come to the right place. I got the best hogs in the whole county.

Unknown Speaker (21:13): Really? Yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:14): That one here near the trough, he won first prize at the state fair just last year.

Unknown Speaker (21:18): How much for the three legged hog?

Speaker 3 (21:20): That old worthless thing? I'll give it to you for $4.

Unknown Speaker (21:24): Sold. There you go.

Unknown Speaker (21:26): Okay. But why you want that skinny old thing?

Unknown Speaker (21:28): Well, I'm gonna take this pig and ride all over this area telling folks that this is the kind of hogs you raise. You can't do that. I got some of the best hogs around, and you're gonna show that old thing? That ain't fair. If it's fair for the church, it's fair for the hogs.

Unknown Speaker (21:42): Another message from Lifeline Productions, the comic strip of radio at lifelinepro.com.