Don't Be A Goat
About this sermon
In “Don't Be A Goat,” Pastor Dean Odle presents a Scripture-centered message about prayer, holiness, gifts of the Holy Spirit. Drawing especially from Hebrews 3, John 10:27, Colossians 3, Romans 8, the teaching emphasizes that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. Odle connects that foundation with the conviction that God calls believers to reject compromise and pursue practical holiness.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle focuses on gratitude while working through Hebrews 3. The message argues that thankfulness remembers God’s mercy and guards the heart from entitlement and complaint. It connects this with the conviction that true worship centers on God and is expressed through reverence, surrender, and obedience. The practical emphasis is to practice patient, truthful love in relationships and conflict.
Odle focuses on faith while working through John 10:27. The message argues that biblical faith trusts God’s character and acts upon His promises. It connects this with the conviction that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on the Holy Spirit while working through Colossians 3, Romans 8, Colossians 3:15. The message argues that the Holy Spirit leads, equips, corrects, and strengthens believers who yield to God. It connects this with the conviction that God calls believers to reject compromise and pursue practical holiness. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on holiness. The message argues that God calls believers to reject compromise and pursue practical holiness. It connects this with the conviction that the Holy Spirit leads, equips, corrects, and strengthens believers who yield to God. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on gifts of the Holy Spirit while working through Isaiah 28, 1 Corinthians 14. The message argues that spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit to build up the church and serve God’s purposes. It connects this with the conviction that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on the condition of the church while working through 1 Corinthians 12, Proverbs 21:16. The message argues that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. It connects this with the conviction that spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit to build up the church and serve God’s purposes. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on demons and deliverance while working through Acts 16. The message argues that demonic influence must be answered through Christ’s authority and the freedom He provides. It connects this with the conviction that faithfulness in the home requires instruction, loving correction, protection, and a consistent Christian example. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on prayer. The message argues that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. It connects this with the conviction that true worship centers on God and is expressed through reverence, surrender, and obedience. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on worship. The message argues that true worship centers on God and is expressed through reverence, surrender, and obedience. It connects this with the conviction that God calls believers to reject compromise and pursue practical holiness. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on the condition of the heart. The message argues that the inner life must be healed, guarded, and brought under the truth of God’s word. It connects this with the conviction that God’s grace forgives and also trains believers to leave sin and live in obedience. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
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- 0:00:00
[Music] Lord, thank you Jesus. Lord, we just lift you up. We just thank you, Lord. [Music] Yes, Lord. We exalt you, Lord. We exalt you this morning. You are worthy. You are holy, Lord. You deserve all the glory. Yes, Lord. Lord, we don't have the words that we should have, Lord, to give you glory and praise and honor and thanksgiving for your love and mercy toward us. Thank you, Jesus. It's hard to fathom that the sinless, spotless son of God went and was beaten and nailed to a cross for our sins. He didn't deserve it. but did it for us, Lord. And I am so grateful you did, Lord. And we thank you for the precious blood that was shed to wash our sins away, to give us healing and deliverance, and to give us the hope of eternal life with you. Can we do that again? I think we need to worship the Lord with that. Just keep exalting him for another minute here. Worship the Lord for thou Lord are high above all the earth. Thou art exalted far above. All God, we love you, Lord. Thou all Lord, thank you for your praise. Thou art high above all the earth. Thou art exalted far above. All God. Sing it to him. And I exalt thee. I exalt [Applause] thee. I exalt thee, oh Lord. I exalt thee. I exalt thee. I exalt thee, oh
- 0:03:02
Lord. Tell them again, but this time let's sing. We exalt thee. We exalt thee. We lift you up, Lord. We exalt thee. and we exalt thee, oh Lord. We exalt thee. You're worthy. We exalt thee. We exalt thee. [Music] Oh [Music] Lord, you're our Lord. Thank you, Lord. We just love you. Just tell him you love him this morning. We love you, Lord. We praise you. Yes, Lord. Jesus. Thank you, Lord. We love you, Lord. We exalt you, Almighty God. Yes. King of kings and Lord of Lords. The one who died and rose again. The one who has the keys of hell and death. Yes, the only one by which we can be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the risen Savior, the Messiah foretold. We exalt you, God manifested in the flesh. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, we give you glory. And none shall pull us away. in Jesus name. Hallelujah. Somebody praise the Lord. Amen. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God. Praise the Lord. Woo. Amen. Wow. Hallelujah. Amen to that. Well, you may be seated this morning. We welcome everyone to Fire and Grace Church. Um, if you got a seat in the middle somewhere, you might need to scoot in. We might need to I don't know how many seats we have left. Okay, we got two up front if you need anybody needs one. All right. All right. Well, I hope you have your Bibles today. We're going to obey the Lord on something. And you graduates, y'all ought to know this very well. y'all almost ought to be able to get up here and preach it yourself. But um as I was praying last night and this morning, I just felt the Lord wanting me to uh talk about something that I've talked about many times. And uh it's about hearing God's
- 0:06:02
voice. And this is absolutely I think apart from the basic gospel message itself about believing in Jesus that he died for your sins that he rose from the dead and that you have to repent turn from your sin and follow him. Apart from that, I think one of the most important things that I can teach you and that I should exhort you to do is to make sure that you are close enough to the Lord in these last days to hear his voice. And you're going to need to keep hearing his voice because things are things are going to get crazy in the world. And you're going to have to be led by the Holy Spirit. And uh the Lord's going to use a lot of different ways to do that. And you have to be sensitive to his voice and you can't harden your heart. Um I want you to turn with me first. We're going to go to Hebrews 3. We're going to start at verse 12. And I know this is repetitious, but I had no idea too that we'd have so many people here today. We've got young ones and new ones and old ones like me. And but do we preach salvation one time and then move on? No. Do we preach miracles or healing one time and move on? You know, we got to talk about just hearing the voice of the Lord and being led by the Holy Spirit. Um, it will be a matter of life and death. And there are things that if you don't do that the Lord's leading you to do, you're going to put your family and yourself in danger. That is unnecessary. You understand? And this verse here, this passage, Hebrews chapter 3, verse number, oh yeah, I said 12, didn't I? He said, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ if Jordan, where's Jordan? If if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Does that sound like we're once saved, always saved, no matter how we live? No. He says, "While it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke, how be it not all that came out of Egypt by Moses, but with whom was he
- 0:09:04
grieved 40 years, was it not with them that had sinned in the wilderness, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom he swear that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believe not. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Now, let's keep reading. Let us therefore fear lest the promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it. Now I'm going to stop right there but I want to back up to this. What he's talking about was, you know, God was manifesting himself in the wilderness to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. They could see the pillar of fire by night. They could see his glory cloud by day. They could see him at times speak to Moses out of that cloud. They heard his voice on the mountain. They saw him part the Red Sea. They saw these things. And yet, what did they do? Instead of continuing to listen to the Lord and to Moses and to Aaron, what did they do? They provoked the Lord in the wilderness. Now, we think sometimes if id have been there, I wouldn't have done that. Really, I think about Solomon who saw the Lord twice. The Lord appeared to him twice and the things that God revealed to Solomon and yet he disobeyed God's written word, multiplied wives to himself, pagan wives, and they took his heart away from the Lord. So, this is a serious thing. And when you see the word believe here, it doesn't just mean to believe it in your head. It means that you believe it enough to obey. See, I I've said this before. Y'all have heard me say believe in the Bible. Pistuo, that Greek word means to obey the Lord. It means to continue in a walk with him. All right? It doesn't just mean, "Oh, I believe that and then I do whatever I like." That's not it. That's what most of American Christianity says. I believed in Jesus. Oh, I believe. I prayed the prayer with the Baptist preacher up front. And now they don't even go up front anymore. They just slip their hand up. Nobody will see it. Put it back down. But I prayed that prayer and I believe but they don't obey. And then they go into the wilderness which is our walk in the world and provoke the Lord to anger. And what happened? They started indulging in fornication, adultery, idolatry and just flatout rebellion. Ah, who is this Moses guy? He thinks
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