Shining The Truth

LOVE PART 11

2011-12-06T08:54:00.001-05:00

1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 1 Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
As I usually do, I am going to give you a refresher of what we have covered the past ten weeks. We will have at least one more message on this text and possibly even two more depending on how it all comes together.
When we started we covered the first three verses and in it we saw the importance and the necessity of love in the Christian’s life. Paul stressed that there is nothing more important in the life of a Christian than love. So Paul goes on not just to tell us about the importance of it but what it should look like. That is what we have been covering for the past several messages starting with…

Love is patient or slow to react and it waits steadfastly.
Love is Kind, it looks for a place to act, it is active
Love does not envy, it is not jealous of others accomplishments
Love does not boast and is not arrogant; we are not smarter than God
Love is not rude or unseemly, don’t be an offense to others even if it seems silly to you.
Love does not insist on its own way, our love for others cause us to insist on God’s way.
Love is not irritable or easily provoked, it is slow to anger
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth, we should not be too quick to accuse others and we should be encouraging them when they are down.
And last time we covered…
Love bears, believes, hopes and endures all things which calls us to encourage and protect others even if it hurts us.
We are going to cover verses 8,9 and 10 today.

Vs. 8… Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues they will cease; as for knowledge it will pass away.
Vs. 9… For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
Vs. 10… but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

There are several ways we can look at this and as far as I can tell they would all be accurate but let’s keep in mind the proper context of the book as we move on. Let’s begin by looking at the first phrase “Love never ends”. Some translations including the King James use the word fail. That is technically accurate for the day but by todays vernacular love never ends is a better translation. It means that true love is everlasting not that love always succeeds as one might interpret the word fail. The divorce rate of today speaks volumes to this. Of course some would claim that true love was never present to begin with if it ended in divorce and I do not totally disagree with that. Although no matter how much you love someone it does not guarantee that that love will be accepted. Of course that does not give us a license to stop loving though. Much like though we did not first love Him, He loved us enough to die for us and that love continues and will always continue.
If we go back to our context of this letter Paul is admonishing the Corinthians because they were prideful and boasting about their gifts. As I read commentary after commentary about this text it seemed to me that most just wanted to use these verses to support their beliefs of whether or not tongues and prophesy and words of knowledge still exist today or not. I think that many are missing the bigger picture. Not that it has not bearing but we can get so wrapped up in the minor things that we miss the major thing. Just like the Corinthians were and that is the same thing Paul is admonishing them for. They, just like us, were focusing on the temporal, less important issues. All those spiritual gifts that they had and were so proud of, all the talents, all the riches, they are not going to last and are not important in comparison to love. Most everything that we value will fail or cease to exist but in the end love will replace all those things that failed you, with perfection. Our perspective of what is important has become twisted and we as a people have been deceived, just as the Corinthians had.

Mat 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Mat 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Mat 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

This is not only about material things. If your heart is full of pride than your treasure is in yourself. As we have seen in previous weeks love is about laying ourselves down for others. It is about esteeming others above ourselves. My question to you is this… Where is your heart today? Is it seeking to do good and to encourage others or is it just to better yourself. Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that bettering yourself is bad, but if you place it above loving others than you are deceived about what is important. Just as the Corinthians were.

Loving God and others is our most important duty as Christians. All the other “things” even if they seem like good things. Tongues, prophesy and words of knowledge were not bad things that the Corinthian’s were doing. But they were not doing them out of a heart of love for others but they were doing them to raise themselves on a pedestal and arguing about which spiritual gift is better than the other.
I have been to churches with Sunday morning services that were a performance just like a secular concert. During praise and worship time you could sit at a small table and order and eat coffee and donuts…during the service!
The focus is no longer on love and on God. It is on gifts and talents that will expire.
I have referenced this text before and will continue probably for the rest of my life because it is so clear and it has affected my perspective in a tremendous way.

Mat 22:36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"
Mat 22:37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the great and first commandment.
Mat 22:39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

Loving God is our greatest command and loving others is second. There are no greater commands than those two. There are others obviously but they all have the same root. Love is the root. If love is the root in your life than the fruits of the spirit will be what grows on you.

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gal 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Gal 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Gal 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

These fruits sound very similar to the traits of love that we have been discussing all these weeks. Paul lays all of this out very plainly and in many places and ways in the books that he has written.

Eph 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
Eph 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
We are called to walk in love, which is a sacrificial love, as Christ did for us, and lay down our lives for others. Our own status, our own talents, our abilities, whatever it may be, if it becomes more important than love or interferes with love than it is sin. I believe that is the main point that Paul is trying to make in the text. We should strive after love and everything else having to do with gifts, talents etc. will be done in a honoring and pleasing way to God as a sweet smelling sacrifice to Him.

Love Part 10

2011-11-11T13:51:00.002-05:00

1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 1 Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
We began with the first three verses back many messages ago that showed the importance and necessity of love in the Christian's life. If we don't love than we are not a Christian. After that we covered the characteristics of love. What love is and what it is not. We covered patience. Patience is slow to react and waits steadfastly. Then kindness, it looks for a place to act. It is active. Love does not envy. It is not jealous of others accomplishments. Love does not boast and is not arrogant. We are not smarter than God? Next was love is not rude. We used the word unseemly which seemed to fit the text much better in regards to the Corinthians and Paul's admonishment to them. We need to strive to not be offensive to others even if it seems silly to us. Then we moved on to another tough attribute of love. Love does not insist on its own way. Our love for others should cause us to not insist on our own way but to insist on God's way. Then we went on to... Love is not irritable or easily provoked. And the last time I spoke we covered the very end of verse 5 and verse 6, which covered how love is not quick to accuse others and that we should encourage others when they are down.
We move on to verse 7 this week which says… Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

We move on to verse 6 this week, which is Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. King James version adds a phrase that is not in the ESV version. It adds thinketh no evil to the end of verse 5. I am going to add that to this message because it seems to roll properly into verse 6
1 Co 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
1Co 13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

We are going to start with that phrase. Thinketh no evil. I am going to use a very trusted Matthew Henry’s commentary. Although I am going to put in an easier to understand manner with the goal of not changing the meaning of what he has written. As I studied this section of scripture I found that his commentary was as accurate as I could certainly determine, and judging by the way my flesh responded by kicking and screaming it would seem effective for admonishment and encouragement.

Charity (love) thinks no evil…
Love cherishes no malice, nor gives way to revenge. It is never mischievous, nor inclined to revenge. It does not suspect evil of others. True love is not apt to be suspicious. It will hide faults that appear, and draw a veil over them, instead of hunting and raking out those that lie covered and concealed. It will never indulge suspicion without proof, but will rather be inclined to disbelieve evidence against the person it affects. It will hardly give into an ill opinion of another, and it will do it with regret and reluctance only when the evidence cannot be resisted. It will never suspect ill or have a bad opinion upon mere appearances or here-say. Love will put the best face on that it can in circumstances that have no good appearance.
As I was reading this commentary I was reminded of an illustration that J.D. used to give on occasion. I don’t remember the exact way that he put it but I do remember the point so I am going to make it my own.
Before I go on to my example let me just make the disclaimer that none of this is true and is an entirely fictitious story.
If someone came to me and told me that they saw Ed and Marty out behind the bowling alley getting high and selling drugs to kids what would my first reaction be? If I am being honest I think it would be immediate disbelief. “It must be someone who looks just like Ed or Marty but not them. Maybe (God help us!) they have twins.”
But then my source said it was definitely them. They heard them talking and heard them call each other by their names. My reaction would be something like “They must have been drugged against their will and was then threatened harm to their family if they didn’t. Someone must be holding a gun up to their family. Or maybe they were in an accident and have suffered brain damage. Maybe you misunderstood what was going on.”
You see because I love them and I know that it is against their character to do such a thing. I would have to be convinced that they were intentionally doing and selling drugs to kids. But I would have to have hard evidence like a verbal confession.
Love is reluctant to accuse others. Not that it is blind, but that it doesn’t look for unfounded reasons to drag another through the mud.
Too many times the response to the above type scenario is an immediate phone call to 20 of their closest friends to “ask for prayer” for the downfallen men of the church. Sometime prayer chains can be nothing more than gossip chains. Then within 2 hours it is all over face book that Ed and Marty are druggies selling drugs to kids and I knew that Ed guy wasn’t right. I just didn’t trust him and now I know why. Must have been the Holy Spirit warning and protecting me from that terrible man. No wonder he has a camp for kids. He probable gives them all drugs and gets them hooked so they will come to him and buy later. And that poor Marty, Seems like such a nice guy but you know you hang around guys like Ed enough and even the good guys can be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals you know.
What was not considered in this scenario is love. What may have been happening is that Ed and Marty were out behind the bowling alley taking drugs away from kids so they had the drugs in their hands so it looked like they were selling it and they were actually witnessing to the kids because they both have a burden for the souls of young people even to the point of putting themselves at a physical risk with the drug riddled kids behind the bowling alley.
Again, that did not happen. I made the story up for an example. Let’s get back to Matthew Henry’s commentary as he continues on concerning verse 6.

Love rejoiceth not in iniquity…
Love takes no pleasure in doing injury or hurt to any. It thinks not evil of any, without very clear proof. It wishes ill to none, it will not intentionally hurt or wrong any and certainly would not make it a matter of its delight or rejoice in doing harm or mischief. Nor will it rejoice at the faults and failings of others, and triumph over them, either out of pride or ill-will because it will gratify its spite of another. The sins of others are rather the grief of a charitable (loving) spirit than its sport or delight and gives one no entertainment. It is the very height of malice to take pleasure in the misery of a fellow-creature. And is not falling into sin the greatest calamity that can befall one? How inconsistent is it with Christian charity (love), to rejoice at such fall!
Love rejoiceth in the truth…
Love is glad of the success of the gospel, which is the truth, and rejoices to see men moulded into an evangelical temper by it, and made good. It takes no pleasure in their sins, but is highly delighted to see them do well, to approve themselves men of integrity. It gives it much satisfaction to see truth and justice prevail among men, innocency cleared, and mutual faith and trust established, and to see piety and true religion flourish.
As you can see in this verse there is a negative and a positive. Don’t do this but do this. Don’t rejoice in iniquity but do rejoice in the truth. Initially I would have told you that this is not an issue for me but when I look at the depth of this verse I start to see where I fall short. I do, at times, tend to look and dwell on others faulty aspects than I do their good aspects. I do, on occasion, suspect other people of things that I have no or very little grounds to believe. The truth, I believe, is that if we can find enough faults in others than it gives us, a sort of, “permission” to fail. We hold ourselves up and compare ourselves to others and it makes us feel better if we find them “worse” than we are. We are to hold ourselves up to Christ and compare. Then we can have the right perspective and know that we are filthy rags not worthy to wipe the sweat off Christ’s brow.
It is by His love towards us; Christ takes no pleasure in our sins but wants us to see His truth prevail in us. We are called to be like Christ to the extent we are able.
Matthew Henry made a comment that I have read already but I wanted to draw it out as I close.
“Love will hide faults that appear, and draw a veil over them…”
This is true love; it is what Christ has done for us. He has taken our faults and sins and covered them with His blood and has put His veil over them so that the Father sees only Christ’s righteousness when He looks at us. We are blameless to God and therefore able to share in His inheritance. I am overwhelmed at Christ’s grace and mercy.
I would like to leave you with this to meditate on. Is or has anyone ever been overwhelmed at your grace and mercy toward them? Have you ever shown anyone compassion and love when you and everyone else knew they didn’t deserve it? Is there someone in your life who has been accused of something? Whether they are guilty or not is immaterial. I challenge you to show the love of Christ to that person and reach out and help them. Uplift and encourage them. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. This is the time that many are at a place that they will accept Christ as their Savior. Don’t condemn them on what other people say or what they look like. It is Christ’s love and His word through you that will draw others to Him.

Love Part 9

2011-10-14T11:40:00.004-04:00

1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1 Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
We began with the first three verses back nine messages ago that showed the importance and necessity of love in the Christian's life. If we don't love than we are not a Christian. After that we covered the characteristics of love. What love is and what it is not. We covered patience. Patience is slow to react and waits steadfastly. Then kindness, it looks for a place to act. It is active. Love does not envy. It is not jealous of others accomplishments. Love does not boast and is not arrogant. We are not smarter than God? Next was love is not rude. We used the word unseemly which seemed to fit the text much better in regards to the Corinthians and Paul's admonishment to them. We need to strive to not be offensive to others even if it seems silly to us. Then we moved on to another tough attribute of love. Love does not insist on its own way. Our love for others should cause us to not insist on our own way but to insist on God's way. Then we went on to... Love is not irritable or easily provoked. And we were all convicted and begged for God’s mercy because we failed so dreadfully in that area. Or maybe that was just me!

We move on to verse 6 this week, which is Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. King James version adds a phrase that is not in the ESV version. It adds thinketh no evil to the end of verse 5. I am going to add that to this message because it seems to roll properly into verse 6
1 Co 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
1Co 13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

We are going to start with that phrase. Thinketh no evil. I am going to use a very trusted Matthew Henry’s commentary. Although I am going to put in an easier to understand manner with the goal of not changing the meaning of what he has written. As I studied this section of scripture I found that his commentary was as accurate as I could certainly determine, and judging by the way my flesh responded by kicking and screaming it would seem effective for admonishment and encouragement.

Charity (love) thinks no evil…
Love cherishes no malice, nor gives way to revenge. It is never mischievous, nor inclined to revenge. It does not suspect evil of others. True love is not apt to be suspicious. It will hide faults that appear, and draw a veil over them, instead of hunting and raking out those that lie covered and concealed. It will never indulge suspicion without proof, but will rather be inclined to disbelieve evidence against the person it affects. It will hardly give into an ill opinion of another, and it will do it with regret and reluctance only when the evidence cannot be resisted. It will never suspect ill or have a bad opinion upon mere appearances or here-say. Love will put the best face on that it can in circumstances that have no good appearance.
As I was reading this commentary I was reminded of an illustration that J.D. used to give on occasion. I don’t remember the exact way that he put it but I do remember the point so I am going to make it my own.
Before I go on to my example let me just make the disclaimer that none of this is true and is an entirely fictitious story.
If someone came to me and told me that they saw Ed and Marty out behind the bowling alley getting high and selling drugs to kids what would my first reaction be? If I am being honest I think it would be immediate disbelief. “It must be someone who looks just like Ed or Marty but not them. Maybe (God help us!) they have twins.”
But then my source said it was definitely them. They heard them talking and heard them call each other by their names. My reaction would be something like “They must have been drugged against their will and was then threatened harm to their family if they didn’t. Someone must be holding a gun up to their family. Or maybe they were in an accident and have suffered brain damage. Maybe you misunderstood what was going on.”
You see because I love them and I know that it is against their character to do such a thing. I would have to be convinced that they were intentionally doing and selling drugs to kids. But I would have to have hard evidence like a verbal confession.
Love is reluctant to accuse others. Not that it is blind, but that it doesn’t look for unfounded reasons to drag another through the mud.
Too many times the response to the above type scenario is an immediate phone call to 20 of their closest friends to “ask for prayer” for the downfallen men of the church. Sometime prayer chains can be nothing more than gossip chains. Then within 2 hours it is all over face book that Ed and Marty are druggies selling drugs to kids and I knew that Ed guy wasn’t right. I just didn’t trust him and now I know why. Must have been the Holy Spirit warning and protecting me from that terrible man. No wonder he has a camp for kids. He probable gives them all drugs and gets them hooked so they will come to him and buy later. And that poor Marty, Seems like such a nice guy but you know you hang around guys like Ed enough and even the good guys can be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals you know.
What was not considered in this scenario is love. What may have been happening is that Ed and Marty were out behind the bowling alley taking drugs away from kids so they had the drugs in their hands so it looked like they were selling it and they were actually witnessing to the kids because they both have a burden for the souls of young people even to the point of putting themselves at a physical risk with the drug riddled kids behind the bowling alley.
Again, that did not happen. I made the story up for an example. Let’s get back to Matthew Henry’s commentary as he continues on concerning verse 6.

Love rejoiceth not in iniquity…
Love takes no pleasure in doing injury or hurt to any. It thinks not evil of any, without very clear proof. It wishes ill to none, it will not intentionally hurt or wrong any and certainly would not make it a matter of its delight or rejoice in doing harm or mischief. Nor will it rejoice at the faults and failings of others, and triumph over them, either out of pride or ill-will because it will gratify its spite of another. The sins of others are rather the grief of a charitable (loving) spirit than its sport or delight and gives one no entertainment. It is the very height of malice to take pleasure in the misery of a fellow-creature. And is not falling into sin the greatest calamity that can befall one? How inconsistent is it with Christian charity (love), to rejoice at such fall!
Love rejoiceth in the truth…
Love is glad of the success of the gospel, which is the truth, and rejoices to see men moulded into an evangelical temper by it, and made good. It takes no pleasure in their sins, but is highly delighted to see them do well, to approve themselves men of integrity. It gives it much satisfaction to see truth and justice prevail among men, innocency cleared, and mutual faith and trust established, and to see piety and true religion flourish.
As you can see in this verse there is a negative and a positive. Don’t do this but do this. Don’t rejoice in iniquity but do rejoice in the truth. Initially I would have told you that this is not an issue for me but when I look at the depth of this verse I start to see where I fall short. I do, at times, tend to look and dwell on others faulty aspects than I do their good aspects. I do, on occasion, suspect other people of things that I have no or very little grounds to believe. The truth, I believe, is that if we can find enough faults in others than it gives us, a sort of, “permission” to fail. We hold ourselves up and compare ourselves to others and it makes us feel better if we find them “worse” than we are. We are to hold ourselves up to Christ and compare. Then we can have the right perspective and know that we are filthy rags not worthy to wipe the sweat off Christ’s brow.
It is by His love towards us; Christ takes no pleasure in our sins but wants us to see His truth prevail in us. We are called to be like Christ to the extent we are able.
Matthew Henry made a comment that I have read already but I wanted to draw it out as I close.
“Love will hide faults that appear, and draw a veil over them…”
This is true love; it is what Christ has done for us. He has taken our faults and sins and covered them with His blood and has put His veil over them so that the Father sees only Christ’s righteousness when He looks at us. We are blameless to God and therefore able to share in His inheritance. I am overwhelmed at Christ’s grace and mercy.
I would like to leave you with this to meditate on. Is or has anyone ever been overwhelmed at your grace and mercy toward them? Have you ever shown anyone compassion and love when you and everyone else knew they didn’t deserve it? Is there someone in your life who has been accused of something? Whether they are guilty or not is immaterial. I challenge you to show the love of Christ to that person and reach out and help them. Uplift and encourage them. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. This is the time that many are at a place that they will accept Christ as their Savior. Don’t condemn them on what other people say or what they look like. It is Christ’s love and His word through you that will draw others to Him.

Love Part 8

2011-09-09T14:25:00.001-04:00

1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

We began with the first three verses back eight messages ago that showed the importance and necessity of love in the Christian's life. We cannot call ourselves Christians or even a follower of God or Christ if we don't have love. After that we covered characteristics of love. What love is and what it is not. We covered patience. Patience is slow to react and waits steadfastly. Then kindness, it looks for a place to act. It is active. Love does not envy. It is not jealous of others accomplishments. Love does not boast and is not arrogant. If we don't rely or trust in God or His word then we are, in essence, saying we know better or are smarter than God? Next was love is not rude. We used the word unseemly which seemed to fit the text much better in regards to the Corinthians and Paul's admonishment to them. We need to strive to not be offensive to others even if it seems silly to us. Then we moved on to another tough attribute of love. Love does not insist on its own way. Our love for others should cause us to not insist on our own way but to insist on God's way.
Now we move on. Love is not irritable. Most translations use the phrase... Is not easily provoked. Again I find that other translations seem to catch the essence of what Paul is trying to relay to the Corinthians. We need to read this in the proper context to be sure that we are not adding our own unfounded opinions to the text. Remember that this letter was written by Paul to the Corinthians because they were doing a lot of things wrong. This is a letter of rebuke and correction from Paul. Of course Paul includes encouragement as well, but the Corinthians were doing some very unacceptable things. Things that even unbelievers would say were wrong. They were giving in to human temptations and desires. They were mixing worldly behaviors into their Christianity. Much the same way many do today and many of us still struggle with. I consider myself guilty in this area and am thankful that through the forgiveness given to me by Christ I don't have to be condemned for my failure as a follower of Christ. God knew that we would fail, He knows that we are not capable of perfect love as he demands. That is why He sent Jesus, the only one who ever succeeded in loving perfectly to cover our sin with His grace.
So if Paul was writing to the Corinthians about not being easily provoked, what would he have been speaking about? We need to look specifically at what the Corinthians were doing. That doesn't necessarily mean that you can't apply this to other areas but we need to start with the literal.

1Co 1:11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.
There was quarreling amongst Christians.

1Co 1:12 What I mean is that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," or "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ."
1Co 5:2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
There was pride and arrogance

1Co 1:13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
There was division in the church

1Co 3:3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
There was jealousy and strife

1Co 5:1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife.
There was sexual immorality

These are just five examples from Paul's letter explaining to us a little about what was going on in Corinth. If you look at even just these few things that I have pulled from the letter they all seem very familiar to me. Firstly because it looks much like many of the churches of today and these are some of the issues that we still have in the church. Secondly if we look at our list so far on what love is and what love is not we can see Paul addressing each one of these issues that the Corinthians had and we have today. He spends all these chapters pointing out some major issues that the Corinthians had and in one chapter tells them how to fix them all. Because no matter what your issue is, the answer is always the same. Jesus Christ our savior and redeemer. Almost like he is saying that if we just had love we could overcome all these issues of sin in our hearts and in our churches.
Now, as we go back into our specific attribute of love for today with all that we just discussed in mind. Love is not easily provoked.

Love will restrain our improper passions and will not be exasperated.

Love alleviates our urge to argue, Love conquers our conceit
Love draws together our division, Love strangles our strife,
Love subdues our sexual immorality.

This is of course not the entire list, it is not even the entire list Paul gives in 1 Corinthians. But now that we have looked at the literal examples that Paul gives we can see how it applies to all areas of our lives in which we do not restrain our passions.

Matt. Henrey writes...
Where the fire of love is kept in, the flames of wrath will not easily kindle, nor long keep burning. Charity will never be angry without a cause, and will endeavour to confine the passions within proper limits, that they may not exceed the measure that is just, either in degree or duration. Anger cannot rest in the bosom where love reigns.

As I close I want to encourage you that if are easily provoked by improper passions, whether it be anger, conceit, sexual immorality or any other “feeling” that controls your actions. There is still hope for you as there was for the Corinthians.
Allowing your actions to be controlled by your feelings is not always a bad thing. But as Mr. Henry states it must be confined within proper limits. I have very strong feelings toward my wife and therefore my actions will show that. I will hold her hand or kiss her or do something special for her. I allowed my actions to be controlled by my feelings for her. But if I started to treat Lisa or Sue with with those same actions then I have acted on an improper passion. So Paul is not trying to tell us that we can't have passion or act on passion but we should control the direction and actions of our passions. Oh if we could have the passion for Jesus that we do for ourselves or others.
So how do we get that passion? How do we not be easily provoked to improper passions and be easily provoked to proper passions?
As I said I am passionate about my wife. I don't have to try to think about doing an action that will show my passion to her. It comes naturally to me. I do it without having to think about it. It is second nature to me. But it hasn't always been like that. When we first met I didn't even like her. I thought she was mean and rude and I didn't want anything to do with her. But then I started to get to know her and thought... She is not quite as mean as I thought. I guess she is okay. Then we went on our first date and I acted like a jerk to her and she vowed to never go out with me again! But my best friend was dating her sister and so we still saw each other. She finally agreed to go on a date again with me mostly because her sister begged her to and we spent hours just talking with each other and learning about each other and we began to fall in love that evening. That was 24 years ago and we have had some difficult times. But because I have devoted my love to her, know her intimately, I no longer have a struggle with being easily provoked to improper passions with another woman. I am easily provoked to proper passions because I want to show her my affection. But it all comes naturally now. It is not challenging, it is not difficult to remember or to consider how my actions would effect her. She is always on my mind.
That is where Jesus wants us and that is how we get there. We need to have such a close relationship with Christ that we would always consider how our actions would effect Him. Would it make Him happy, sad, proud, embarrassed etc. The relationship with my wife is a result of many years of constant close interaction with each other.
I would like to contend that if you are easily provoked to improper passions, the answer is a closer relationship with Christ. We get that closer relationship by constant close interaction with Him, in His word, in prayer. Living every moment of your life considering how your actions will effect the one you love.

Love Part 7

2011-08-30T15:40:00.002-04:00

Well here we are again still working on our series on love from 1 Corinthians chapter 13. I have been blessed with what God has revealed to me as I study and speak on this topic. I have learned that I excel in some areas and have been found wanting in many other areas. I pray that it has caused you to consider what God has to teach you and that you will be receptive and open to God's encouragement and admonishing that comes from His word both read and preached. We are going to start as we usually do by reading the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

We began with the first three verses that showed the importance and necessity of love in the Christian's life. We cannot call ourselves Christians or even a follower of God or Christ if we don't have love. After that we covered characteristics of love. What love is and what it is not. We covered patience. Patience is slow to react and waits steadfastly. Then kindness, it looks for a place to act. It is active. Love does not envy. It is not jealous of others accomplishments. Love does not boast and is not arrogant. Remember me pointing out that if we don't rely or trust in God or His word then we are, in essence, saying we know better or are smarter than God? The last time I spoke it was about love is not rude. We used the word unseemly which seemed to fit the text much better in regards to the Corinthians and Paul's admonishment to them. We need to strive to not be offensive to others even if it seems silly to us. Now we get to move on to another tough attribute of love. Love does not insist on its own way. Just saying that phrase causes conviction in my heart. I know that I have a long way to grow in this area in my life. So I am praying for God's mercy and grace as I stumble along in life sometimes failing and sometimes victorious with this subject. Lord willing this message will give us better understanding and cause conviction that leads to repentance and encouragement to continue the race that has been set before us.

This attribute of love covers a huge area, and if you recall last week I commented that many of these attributes overlap one another. This particular attribute overlaps all of the others in one way or another. As I have been saying for all of these weeks...Love is about self sacrifice.
First, let me just say that this does not come easy and is not natural to our flesh. It will fight and argue and rationalize to the bitter end trying to convince you that you have to look out for number one because no one else will. We have been raised in a society that actually endorses and encourages this mindset. We live in “dog eat dog” world. Phrases in the business world like...”If your going to make it to the top you are going to have to step on some people to get there”.
Even a small “innocent”child will not naturally look out for another before themselves. I have seen that even in my own grandchild who I thought was a perfect angel! They have to be taught to share and to not hurt others. I bring this up to encourage you so that you aren't too beat up and think that there is something wrong with you because you have these feelings of selfishness. As I said earlier, I still struggle daily with issues of selfishness. We have to crucify our flesh and live in the Spirit moment by moment or we will fail. The only way to do that is to be in constant communion with God through prayer, praise and participation with God and His word.
Now that I have given away the end lets go back in and dig around a bit. One commentary I read on this phrase gave this definition for this phrase...(Love does not insist on its own way) Love is not possessive, demanding, stubborn, or dominating.
Have I stepped on any toes other than my own with that list? Don't worry if I missed you the writer goes on to include... Love does not talk too much but listens as well.
There.
That should include about everybody!
I would like to quote my good friend and pastor JD Hatfield on this text.
“This would also include shallow, self-focused lifestyles that refuse to be good stewards of what has been entrusted to them. In other words, people who don't have the right priorities for their prosperity. They are most interested in increasing their standard of living, without thinking of their standard of giving. Saving is good stewardship, but hoarding is not holy. We are to channel the resources God gives us and be a conduit of His blessings.”
This text is not saying that we necessarily have to live a life of poverty and give every penny and every morsel of food that you have to the poor. It is not saying that you should ignore the needs of yourself or your family. Although I think that sometimes, in some cases God does require that kind of obedience to teach faith. Remember the rich young ruler... Jesus told him to go sell everything he had and give it to the poor. But Jesus didn't tell everyone he met that they must do that. Because He knew the rich young rulers heart. He knew that his possessions were more important to him than God or others.
Let me give you a simpler more real to life example of love...
We are going to the Ocala drive in movie theater Friday night as it has just re-opened and is an inexpensive way to go to the movies and enjoy a night out. We get there an hour early and there is already a line with 50 or so cars ahead of us lined up on the side of the highway. So we pull off the side of the road and waited in line. As we are sitting there waiting a little Volkswagen bug cuts right through the line and pulls over. Of course the first reaction of some of the people were...Hey, they are cutting in line. That's not fair. Well as we continued to watch we were able to see that they were actually trying to get over so that they could help a stranded vehicle further off the road. But the first reaction by some was selfish and had an air of we deserve to be in front of them. We put in our time of waiting. Kind of reminds me of the workers who all started at different times of the day and all got paid the same amount. We were still going to get in to the movie with a good spot to park that one car was not going to effect our experience. So the people in the bug fix the other car and get it running and now are patiently waiting to get into line for the movie and again the first reaction of some... “There not going to get in front of us.”
This may seem like a silly example but it shows us that we are at our core... sinners that but for the grace of God would all kill and trample one another to get what we want. We are not naturally going to put others needs above our own. We are not naturally going to go out of our way to help another. God and His grace and love for us is our only hope.
As I close I would like for you to consider. If Jesus is love and He portrayed all these attributes while on Earth in human form. The ultimate act was His self sacrifice on the cross. He gave up the glory of heaven to come walk on the Earth as man, yet fully God, out of His obedience to the father because He loved us and chose to give His life up for us.
Our love for others should cause us to not insist on our own way but to insist on God's way. We must make sure our sacrifices are out of gospel gripped hearts; otherwise, it becomes a joyless and fruitless effort of self-righteousness. We should be struggling with the tension of doing things for our own self interest verses doing things for others because we are called to do so and because we have the ultimate example to follow. That of Christ dying on the cross for us and being raised again to the heavens at the right hand of God waiting to receive you.

Love Part 6

2011-08-15T20:05:00.001-04:00

This is part 6 in my series on love using 1 Corinthians chapter 13 for the text. We will start as usual with reading our entire text.

1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

The first three verses speak of the importance of love in the Christians life. We have looked at other verses that support that and moved on to defining what love is and is not and how to apply that to our lives in order to be obedient to the Lord, the One who first loved us.
We have covered patience. Patience is slow to react and waits steadfastly. Kindness looks for a place to act. It is active. Now we are looking at a few things that love is not. Love does not envy. Love is not jealous of others accomplishments. Last time we covered boasting and arrogance. We saw that boasting and arrogance covers a little more than it seems on the surface. Remember that arrogance believes that we know more or better than God does. Now we move on to Love is not... Rude.

Once again if there is such importance in loving on another and this is God's definition of what love is than we need to do due diligence to understand what is being taught to us here. Is it as simple as don't be rude to one another? I am not usually rude. As a matter of fact I will usually go as far as I can the other way to not be rude. Not because I am some kind of a saint but because being rude causes conflict and I avoid conflict at almost any cost. Sometimes avoiding conflict is good but I am learning as I grow older that conflict is sometimes the only means of resolution. It is how I handle myself in the midst of that conflict that will determine how that conflict will effect me. Back to my point! I do not consider myself to be a rude person and usually go out of my way to be sure that I am not rude and I do everything that I can to be sure that no one else mistakes one of my actions as rude. As I began to study this I realized, as I have with all the other parts of this series, that there is more to being rude, as we understand it, than it appears on the surface.
Most versions render this text... Love doth not behave itself unseemly, some use the word indecently. I like the use of unseemly much better than rude because it covers a much broader definition and fits in with the things that the Corinthians were doing better than just being rude as we understand the word rude today.
The most common online definition for rude is... discourteous or impolite in a deliberate way. One of the less used definitions was not properly or fully developed.
The definition of unseemly is... not keeping with established standards of taste or proper form; unbecoming or indecoruos in appearance, speech, conduct, etc.
As you can see the term unseemly covers a lot more ground than just rude. Although rude could be in the definition of unseemly.

Again, I want us to come back to the context of our text like we did last time when I spoke on arrogance. Paul is admonishing the Corinthians because they were doing things that were not in line with what he was teaching them. We can see that rudeness played a part in that admonishment if we look at a few particular issues.
In chapter 5 we see an example of the rudeness or the unseemly behavior that the Corinthians were doing.

1Co 5:1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife.

An act that is not acceptable by even paganistic standards is a rude, unseemly behavior that is not acceptable by the standards of love. Love should be the example of a moral character that is above what is just considered acceptable.

Another example that the Corinthians give us I used last time.

1Co 11:20 When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat.
1Co 11:21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk.
1Co 11:22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.

John MacArthur writes this on this text...

This is a person, a man or a woman, who has not the ability to discipline his behavior with others in mind. He's just rude and out of place and overbearing and totally self-centered. And this... there couldn't be a better definition of the Corinthians. They were so rude, for example, they came to the love feast and ate all their food before the people who had none got there. They over indulged. They were like hogs when it came to eating at the love feast. Their behavior at the Lord's Supper was so bad they got drunk, kept taking the cup. Women had overstepped the bounds of female propriety before God and the women were taking their veils off and usurping the role of a man in the church and he's saying. “ You are not acting in a becoming way.” And the undisciplined, rude conduct of the Corinthian glossolalias (tongues) had come to the place where it was the antithesis of love, Everybody shouting out. Everybody talking. Everybody trying to get the prominence and nobody considering at all the other. And when you do that, there's no love there. Love is never rude because love is always lost in how what I does affects somebody else.

This is about a lack of courtesy, civility, consideration, tact, manners and politeness. A person who is rude isn't concerned about how their bad behavior is limiting the enjoyment of others. It is like a loudmouth or constant complainer at the restaurant, or the person who eats with their mouth open, talks with their mouth full, and slurps their soup. These are practical, silly illustrations but the point is the same. It is not very loving to disregard decorum by carelessly demonstrating our own lack of discipline.

We are called to live a life of self sacrifice. If we love to wear hats in the house and we go into someones house who is offended by wearing a hat indoors. Then our love should cause us to remove our hat. If you walk in the front door of someones house and you see a pile of shoes next to the front door and a white carpet. Then our love for others should cause us to respect that individuals wishes and remove our shoes. We should be active in this and observant. Look for ways to not be rude or offensive to others. Be sensitive to others feelings.
You are going to think some people are silly or plain out crazy with some of the things that bother them but, again, we are called to give up our desires for God's desires. His desire is for us to not be rude or act unseemly as we love one another as He loves us and puts up with our little quirks.

Love Part 5

2011-07-28T16:29:00.002-04:00

We are continuing with our series on love using 1 Corinthians chapter 13 as our text. This is part 5 in the series and there are many more to come. Lets start by reading our text again.

1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

The first three verses speak of the importance of love in the Christians life. We have looked at other verses that support that and moved on to defining what love is and is not and how to apply that to our lives in order to be obedient to the Lord, the One who first loved us.
We have covered patience. Patience is slow to react and waits steadfastly. Kindness looks for a place to act. It is active. Love does not envy. Love is not jealous of others accomplishments. Now we move on to boasting and arrogance. Love does not boast and is not arrogant.

Before we begin looking at boasting and arrogance I would like to bring us back to the context of the text. Paul is admonishing the Corinthians for their behaviors. They are arguing over which of the spiritual gifts are more important. They are allowing things to happen in the church that people in the world wouldn't even allow. Some are gorging themselves in communion and shunning those that don't have for communion. In chapter 13 Paul covers all these issues by teaching what love is and where the Corinthians were lacking. JD uses the phrase for these chapters “Love limits liberty” We are free to act as we want but our love for others should limit that liberty. Having a sip of wine is not a sin in and of itself. We are commanded to not get drunk with wine but having a sip is not getting drunk. So we have the freedom to have that sip. But if we cause a new Christian or even an older Christian or maybe a prospective Christian who may be struggling with alcohol to stumble by our drinking. Then our love for others should be strong enough to overcome our desire to drink. If it is not then we have a drinking problem already. If we look at these definitions that Paul uses of what love is and put them in practical, for today, situations then we can begin to understand some basic principles of how we are commanded to act by God. Love is self sacrificial. We are to follow the example that Jesus is for us. When Jesus was on the earth he could have been or done anything he wanted. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He didn't have to suffer, he chose to, out of His love. Would it have been wrong for him to come to Earth and take His rightful throne and prevent His suffering? No. He is God. Whatever He does is right. So He sacrificed himself, by choice, because of His love for us. We are called to do the same. To sacrifice ourselves for God and for others. Jesus gave up His right to boast to become a servant to the very people who would crucify Him.
As we look back at the Corinthians they were using their spiritual gifts to show off. To show that they were more “spiritual”. Obviously not the example that Christ left for them.
KJV uses the term...
vaunteth not — JFB injects this commentary... an indirect rebuke of those at Corinth who used the gift of tongues for mere display.
What does all this do with loving? That was running through my mind when I wrote this if I am being honest. If I am reading this correctly it says that love does not boast then reason would say... one who boasts is not loving.
Still, you may be wondering what does boasting have to do with loving? So was I! Lets look a little deeper then. It is obviously written here for a reason.
The Robertsons word pictures uses the phrase... to play the braggart.
If you are boasting in yourself then you are not paying attention to the needs of others. The Corinthians made a perfect example of this with communion. The rich would go to communion and eat like gluttons and get drunk while the poor had nothing in which to take communion with. But the rich were so tied up in themselves that they had no concern for the others.
Love extinguishes pride, arrogance and boasting. Love does not insist on power or respect. Jesus had the right to boast and did not. We don't have the right to boast and do.

1Co 4:7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
The reason boasting and arrogance are so opposing to love is that it raises yourself above other Christians. Which means that you think of yourself as superior. One who thinks themselves superior over others will treat them with contempt and those who are treated with contempt will despise the other. Doesn't sound much like love does it? Those who truly love will honor one another and seek to put others needs above their own.
Php 2:3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Php 2:4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Php 2:5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
Php 2:6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
Php 2:7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Php 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

I know what your thinking... I don't boast, I am not arrogant! Much like we discussed envy and jealousy last time. Lets make sure that we understand what boasting and being arrogant is and includes.

A proud, boastful, arrogant person will think of themselves as indispensable or irreplaceable.
They don’t need anyone else – they are self-sufficient.
They don’t need you.
They don’t need me.
And they don’t need God.
Do you fall into any of these? I did and still struggle with it in some areas of my life. In business I find myself thinking and sometimes even saying that nobody can do this job as good as I can. I am the only one that will do it right. If I didn't do it myself than everything will fall apart.
To an extent, as the business owner if I don't do my job then things very well could fall apart. But I want to get to the heart of why I say and feel those things. Usually it is because someone has done something wrong or not my way. The fact is that there are people out there that do a better job than I do and are more experienced or more qualified to do my job.
I have some of the same issues with my family. I tend to think that if my children or wife didn't have me to hold everything together than our family would completely fall apart. The truth is in all of these matters is that it is not me or my talents or wisdom or my strength that holds anything together. It is God who holds everything together. I may be a tool that He uses but I in my own strength can do nothing to fix or keep together any of these things. They are out of my control. Yet we, out of our boastful arrogance try to fix things on our own without including God, or even trusting God for the outcome.
If we disregard or lack in the faith to trust in the counsel of the God's Word for instruction in our life then it is our arrogance to think that we know better than God. If you knowingly do something, anything contrary to what the Word of God teaches for any reason than you are saying that you know better than God.
James chapter 4 verse 6 says...As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
Love does not boast and is not arrogant...
I discussed how boasting is focusing on our own lives and therefore is not love but it goes much further than that. If my arrogance causes me to think that I know more than God about a situation then my counsel to others will be tainted with my earthly wisdom, be a lot or a little, but it will not be biblical counsel. Giving counsel that is not biblical is far from loving one another.
As you can see boasting and arrogance can go a lot further than maybe you considered. But we conquer these with love. We cannot esteem others above ourselves and still be arrogant. It is not possible. I pray that God will grant you ears to hear and a mind to understand and a heart to love today. God bless us as we strive to be obedient and submissive to our loving father and Lord.

LOVE PART 4

2011-07-23T11:13:00.001-04:00

We are going to continue our study in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. We have already discussed the importance of love as written in the first three verses of our text. Just to refresh... Love is the most important thing in a Christians life.
Mat 22:37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the great and first commandment.
Mat 22:39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

So, if love is this important than we should understand what it is, what is expected of us by the Lord, and how do we accomplish that. That is the whole purpose of this whole series is to learn how we can be more obedient and be more pleasing to the Lord. If that is not your goal then we need to start back at the beginning and be sure that you have been saved. We may have times that we resist God and his correction but overall we should have the desire to please God. Because one who is born again loves their Savior. Like a young child trying to impress their father. They still make mistakes but they ultimately want their fathers approval because they love and respect him.

On to our text...

1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

We have already covered that love is patient and kind. Being patient is more than just waiting. It is not just I am going to sit here and be patient until my children come visit me. It is, my children never come visit me they are mean to me when they do come but I am going to be patient and still love them. Kindness is more than being pleasant or agreeable to others. It is aggressively seeking to do good to another. Kindness does not wait for a chance to act, it searches for a place where it can act. Patience waits to act, kindness does not. But both are love.

Next on the list is what love is not... Love does not envy...

Before you are too quick to dismiss yourself from this one and say that it does not apply to you. That you are never envious. You should realize that envy includes jealousy. Thinking that someone has something that should be ours, wanting something someone else has, and wanting someone else not to have the thing at all. It is resenting a person, being displeased when thy have success. Even if you don't think that they deserve it.
I worked with a young man for about 3 years and we contemplated becoming partners and starting a business together. I soon realized that we had different ethics and ideas on how a company should operate and he was not a Christian and lived a life outside of work that I did not approve of. So we shook hands and parted ways and both went and started our own businesses. We would occasionally contact one another to talk about business. If I am being honest we probably only talked when one of us had something that we wanted to brag to the other about. But we will get into boasting next time! But when he would tell me about a big sale that he made or how much business he had I found that jealousy would well up inside me. I couldn't understand how someone who was dishonest and lived a life of hell was getting all the business while I was trying to live a life pleasing to God and I was struggling. I deserved (so I thought) to be the one with all the business and making all the money. But I brought jealousy to a whole new level. Not only did I want to be the one busy and making more money than him, I realized that that might not be the proper Christian perspective, so I prayed that God would take away all his business (and give it to me!) so that he would “see the errors in his ways” and come to God. That may be all fine in some ways and God may actually allow “bad” things to happen to bring people to repentance. But I wasn't concerned for his spiritual well being at that time. I was concerned about my financial well being.
I was the one who needed to see the errors in my ways! I wasn't showing love. I tried disguising it as love but it was me trying to manipulate God. That never works!
Envy may seem to be one of the minor sins that really doesn't hurt anyone else. It is not like my envy actually caused him to lose business. The fact is that envy can be one of the most damaging sins. They call marijuana the gateway drug because people who typically smoke marijuana eventually want more than just marijuana. They move on to more destructive drugs.
I see envy as a gateway sin. Because it leads to more destructive sins.
Envy led to Cain murdering Abel
Envy led to Joseph's brothers to sell him as a slave
Envy led to Jesus' death on a cross
Mat 27:17 So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?"
Mat 27:18 For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up.

Do you see how envy and jealousy leads you away from loving.

Jas 3:16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.

Pro 27:4 Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?

Envy and jealousy can be more damaging than cruelty and anger. Where there is jealousy there is not love.

Now that we understand the gravity of envy and jealousy we must as Christians who want to please their father develop a strategy to prevent, as much as possible, being envious. It is in our sin nature to be envious and we will, if left to our own devices, fail in our attempts. We do not possess the power on our own to defeat envy and jealousy any more than any other sin that we may do. It is not just pulling up the boot straps and trying harder. You may be able to control some of the actions caused by envy some of the time. But the envious heart can only be subdued by the Holy Spirit within you interceding on your behalf to the Father.

Walking by the Spirit is the answer to envy.

Gal 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Gal 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

We walk by the Spirit by reading and obeying His word, the Bible. It is not some mystery that everyone can't understand. It is simple and plain. Mind you, I did not say that it was easy. Walking by the Spirit requires constant diligence. You can't be in the Word for an hour a month, or at church two hours a week or in fellowship twice a year and expect to be victorious over envy and jealousy. Or any sin for that matter. That is the part that is required by us. Diligent obedience to walk by the Spirit... God will take care of the rest. We spend all of our time trying to take care of the rest and not doing what God has told us to do. Be in Him and he will give you rest. If you are doing it any other way than you just become exhausted and fail and then most blame it on God. God has given us the answer. He offers us peace and rest in our obedience to Him. Proper submission is a wonderful thing.

God bless you as you seek His face and seek to walk by the Spirit. May God grant you peace and rest, regardless of your circumstances, in your walk.

Love... Part 3

2011-07-05T10:44:00.001-04:00

Going back to our text in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 we are going to continue on in our series about love.

1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

As we covered the first three verses we were able to see the emphasis that is put on love. It would seem as though love is more important than anything else we can do. Love must come first. We see this in other places in the scriptures.

Joh 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
Joh 13:35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
As we can see, it is not a suggestion that we love one another. Jesus spoke those words. Loving is a commandment.

1Pe 4:8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
1Pe 4:9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
1Pe 4:10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:

Here in Peter we also see that loving one another is placed on the top of the list. Did you notice that it says in verse 9 without grumbling?

Loving while grumbling is not loving at all.

We have to come to a point that the desire in our heart is to love one another.
It seems much easier, especially as we continue this study and learn what it really means to love, to just be a hermit and live by ourselves as much as possible. It seems easier if we would just not have any social interaction. People can leave me alone and I will leave them alone. The truth is that can be very appealing to me. I would like to be living in the woods up in Maine so I don't have to interact with others. But that would be in direct disobedience of God. We are commanded as we saw to love one another. We are supposed to be part of a body. If I am by myself then I am not able to do either one of those. That comes back to having a desire in our hearts. How do you get that desire? Be obedient whether you like it or not. Just because you know that you are supposed to do it. Your obedience will be rewarded and loving will become easier and easier.

Heb 10:24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
Heb 10:25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Don't we all want to be encouraged? Meeting together as we are and one on one and loving one another is what helps us continue in our obedience. As we begin to love others you will start to see them change and become easier to love. If I am nothing but loving, caring and encouraging to my wife she is going to have a hard time getting upset with me. She may even want to be upset with me but if I show her nothing but love then it will stir her up to love me even though she may not like something that I've done. She is not going to respond in the same way then if I were always yelling at her, treating her poorly and calling her foul names. Of course there are some out there that just want to be contentious so this may not be effective to someone who is in rebellion to God or is unregenerate. But that doesn't mean we don't still have to love them. Remember whether we feel like it or not we are commanded to do it.

“Love is an action commanded by God not a feeling concocted by us.”

“Feelings are a result of love...not... love is a result of feelings.”

I spoke on patience last time, next we come to... Love is kind.

Matthew Henry writes this commentary on this...
II.It is kind - chrēsteuetai. (khraste-yoo'-om-ahee) It is benign, bountiful; it is courteous and obliging. The law of kindness is in her lips; her heart is large, and her hand open. She is ready to show favours and to do good. She seeks to be useful; and not only seizes on opportunities of doing good, but searches for them. This is her general character. She is patient under injuries, and apt and inclined to do all the good offices in her power. And under these two generals (Speaking of patience and kindness) all the particulars of the character may be reduced.

Kindness is more than being pleasant or agreeable to others. It is aggressively seeking to do good to another. Kindness does not wait for a chance to act, it searches for a place where it can act. Patience waits to act, kindness does not. This is how we are commanded to love. When was the last time you performed a random act of kindness? Are you looking for ways to be kind to others or are you hiding in the shadows hoping that no one will see you so you don't have to be kind to them? I have been in both of those shoes. Sadly even just in this week. We are not going to be successful at this all the time. Jesus is the only one who is able to love us perfectly. That does not mean that we don't strive to love one another better. There is always room for improvement. If you don't think so, ask a friend or your spouse. I am sure that they can tell you where you are falling short!

I am going to close with our reference in Hebrews.

Heb 10:24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
Heb 10:25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

My goal today is to stir you up today to do love and good works. Find a reason to be kind. So your sitting here in your chairs saying Dan what can I do? I can't hardly take care of myself right now. What could I possibly do for others? Sometimes just holding someones hand or giving them a smile or telling them that God loves them is more important than anything else they may need. The important thing is that we look, search and desire to find out how we can be kind to others.
Sometimes being kind can be rebuking. If my son is doing something that could hurt him and I tell him to stop that is being kind. Being kind is not just about warm fuzzy blankets and teddy bears. It is loving someone enough that even if they don't want to be your friend anymore you will still tell them that the life they are living is against the word of God and it is wrong.

God bless you as you seek to be patient and kind with one another. May God give us the strength and discernment to administer kindness as would be pleasing to Him.

Love Part 2

2011-06-14T10:38:00.001-04:00

I spoke last time on Love. I used the obvious text of 1 Corinthians chapter 13. I would like to refresh your memory on some of the main points and then we will continue on. First of all let's read our text again.

1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

If you recall we looked at the world's definition of love and contrasted that to the Biblical definition of love. The worldly love must be accompanied with feelings and emotions. Biblical love is a command by God that may very likely not have any feelings towards the individual at all. I used the reference in Deuteronomy where we are instructed to love the sojourner from another land. By the worlds definition of love how could we have warm feelings about someone we have never met. But we do know God and we have a relationship with God and he commanded us to love. So if for no other reason we should be loving out of obedience. Even if we don't feel like it! I had two phrases that I told you last time and it is important to this entire study so I am going to continue to remind you and myself.

Love is an action commanded by God not a feeling concocted by us.

Feelings are a result of love...not... love is a result of feelings.

We then discussed that we have to pursue love, chase after it because it is not going to come naturally to us. We are naturally, since the fall of Adam, a self serving people. We naturally will always look for things that are in our best interest and not others. But real love is self sacrificing. It is always looking out for others. Those that are closest to you and those that you don't even know.
I heard a sermon last week and there were 3 points of why we are supposed to be evangelizing or spreading the gospel. The first was compassion...Jesus had compassion for His followers. The second was concern...Jesus had concern for His followers needs. And thirdly it was a command. Love has all the same requirements for all the same reasons. Of course if we are loving someone how could we not tell them about the savior who died for their sins.
We are going to eventually look at all the different facets of love laid out in 1 Corinthians 13 but before I start with that today I wanted to point out that all of these actions point us to Jesus and what His life and death were for us. If you think that you can just try real hard and be compassionate and be concerned and then you are going to fulfill the command of God for us to love one another then you are wrong. Am I confusing anybody yet? Christ did all of this perfectly when He was here on earth but He is the only one who can or could or will. We are to strive to be like Him but we will never become Him therefore we will never love perfectly. And without Jesus helping us we can't do it even a tiny bit of it at all. Remember we are still fallen man. If we could love perfectly for even a second then there was no reason for Christ to die on the cross.
So, the goal in all of this, and the focus of all of this is to learn to “love” Jesus. Then Jesus can show His love, through you, to others. It is about becoming a conduit of Jesus' love. It does not come from within us. Our requirement is to be submissive and obedient to Him and frankly that is going to require an attitude adjustment for most, if not all, of us. So as we look to the scriptures and learn what love is and how to apply it to our lives, if we look at Jesus in the Word first, we can then gain a proper perspective of what “our” part is in loving one another and allow Him to love through us.

Love is patient... (long suffering) It is translated into suffereth long —which implies... under provocations of evil from others.
Being patient is more than just waiting. It is not just I am going to sit here and be patient until my children come visit me. It is, my children never come visit me they are mean to me when they do come but I am going to be patient, still love them and not take them out of my will.
Isn't that what Jesus does for us? We are part of His family and we don't visit with Him like we should, we sometimes may even be angry with Him, we hardly ever call on Him unless we need something. Yet once He puts us in His living will, He will never take us out.
Patience is the ability to be wronged, and while having the power to retaliate, doesn't do it. That should be a major part of marriage counseling in my opinion! Jesus illustrated that for us when He was on the earth. He was mocked, abused and could have struck them all dead or diseased but He didn't. He prayed that God would forgive them because they knew not what they were doing.
As I said earlier we are looking at Jesus first and what he did for us and now we look at how can we be a conduit of His love.

We show God's love through patience by being a servant of God.

A servant of God will ministering to the needs of God's people regardless of consequence. Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians...

2Co 6:4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities,
2Co 6:5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;
2Co 6:6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love;

But as you can see we must commend ourselves in every way... unless it doesn't go along with my plans for my life. Not quite. That is our part, like I said earlier, submission and obedience to God is how we love others. That is how we can love those that we don't even know. By being submitted to the only One who can truly love. Do you want to know how to love your spouse more? Submit to God.
Being a servant of God requires patience which allows you to be a conduit for God's love to flow through.

We show God's love through patience by preaching His word.

A preacher of the Word is sharing the good news of Jesus with the lost and is training and maturing other Christians. As we see in 2 Timothy this requires some patience.

2Ti 4:2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
2Ti 4:3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
2Ti 4:4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
2Ti 4:5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Preaching and correcting others is showing God's love to others. Even when the congregation doesn't listen, when the person your counseling does everything exactly the opposite of your counsel and then blames you for the calamity in their life. This does not just apply to a preacher preaching at the pulpit. This applies to you sharing the gospel with your neighbor or helping a friend through a hard time. Your patience in reproving, rebuking and exhorting and preaching the word is how you can be a conduit for God's love.

We show God's love through patience by walking worthy (being an example)

A person who is being an example to others of God's love is actually showing others, God's love.

Eph 4:1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
Eph 4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

A person who knows that their sins have been paid for by their savior reacts differently to circumstances in life. If a Christian loses their job they don't think it is the end of the world because they know where their provisions come from. Much the same if a christian has a terminal disease. Because they know their eternal destiny they do not fear the future. That shows God's love for His children to others. But we according to verse 2 should be careful not to be prideful of this hope that we have. We shouldn't be prideful of gaining what we did not earn. The example of the love of God on the Christian's life should be a draw for those who haven't experienced that love.

We show God's love through patience by being a servant of God.
Jesus was a servant of God while He was on the earth. He said “Not my will but thine be done”

We show God's love through patience by preaching His word.
During Jesus' ministry he was always preaching and teaching whether to hundreds or just one.

We show God's love through patience by walking worthy
Jesus lived a perfect life on the earth.

Remember, we are not Jesus so we will fail. But even in our failures we must show that God does not fail and show His love love through our failures. He showed his love by being patient with you even when you spit in His face (figuratively). Show your love to others by showing your patience to them.

Love Is Kind

2011-06-14T09:41:00.001-04:00

No Fear

2011-02-17T09:18:00.002-05:00

I will be using Matthew chapter 25 verses 14 through 30 as my primary text today. Jesus is speaking in a parable about the talents that were given to the servants of a man and how each one dealt with the talents given them.

Mat 25:14 "For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.

Of course the man going on the journey we could relate to as Jesus and the servants would be us, or Christians, that Jesus is entrusting to us His property.

Mat 25:15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.

Of course the text here is not talking about talents like singing or writing. Talents were a form of money and a talent was a rather large amount of money. I am quite sure that we can input physical talents or money or even spiritual gifts and the principal or lesson that Jesus is trying to teach will still apply. We have been given these however according to our ability. I spent many years as a young adult angry and jealous at those more fortunate than I was. I had spent my entire life in an extremely poor family and I figured that it was high time that I had my turn. But when I changed jobs and started making more money I just blew it on frivolous things and had less money to pay the bills then when I was making less. I had more money than ability to manage it. So God will give us talents (physical, spiritual) only as we have the ability to be good stewards of them. Don’t misunderstand me and think that all I have to do is to take a class in money management and God will give me more. The wrong motives will gain you nothing.

Mat 25:16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more.
Mat 25:17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more.
Mat 25:18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money.
Mat 25:19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
Mat 25:20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.'
Mat 25:21 His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.'
Mat 25:22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.'
Mat 25:23 His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.'

Here is the part I want to focus on today…

Mat 25:24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed,
Mat 25:25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.'
Mat 25:26 But his master answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?
Mat 25:27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.
Mat 25:28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents.
Mat 25:29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
Mat 25:30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

This third servant is going to be our focus today. Typically this is where most preachers convince you that if you have a talent for singing, then you need to join the choir or if you’re good at fixing things you should become the church handyman. While that may be true I want us to focus on what drove this servant to act as he did. In verse 25 the servant says “I was afraid”. The driving force behind the servant was fear. As I was reading and meditating on this I realized that a majority, maybe even all, of my life is motivated by a fear of some sort. On a broader spectrum all people are motivated by fear in one sort or another. We fear getting a toothache so we brush our teeth. We fear starving to death so we eat. Some people fear other people so they carry guns or mace. I would try to be macho about these types of things and I would say that I don’t fear these things I am just being cautious, or I am just developing a contingency. I, personally, consider all of these to be stages of fear. Before you get upset with me and tell me that you have never been afraid of anything in your life, let me just say that some fear, the right fear, is a good thing. Fear is even a necessity for a believer. Have you ever seen the bumper stickers that say “No Fear”? They drive me crazy. The vehicle is usually being driven by some muscle bound man that apparently thinks that his muscles can save him from anything. I am sure that he fears. He fears that some one will think he is a wimp!
What does the Bible have to say about fear? We have all heard the term so often used in the Old Testament that so and so feared the Lord. In the New Testament it could seem to tell us that fear is bad. Let’s look at

1Jn 4:17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
1Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
1Jn 4:19 We love because he first loved us.
If you read this out of context without paying attention one might think that if I want love then I can not fear anything. But what is this really telling us. I purposely left out verse 16 which is the only way these verses can be properly understood.

1Jn 4:16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

What these verses are really saying is that God is love and if we believe in God than we can have confidence and not dread (fear) judgment, Because God takes away our fear of judgment. This is how he showed us he loves us.

What this, and all the other references that I have found, all point to the same point. If we are one of God’s elect. If we believe that Jesus is the Son of God who came to earth, lived a perfect life and then died on a cross for our sins and was raised from the dead three days later to be seated at the right hand of God. And repent of our sins than we can have No fear of the judgment of God. (Dread) Not, no fear of God.
The bible does teach us to fear. It also teaches us not to fear. Matthew 6:25 tells us not to be anxious for food or clothing. Obviously these are two entirely different fears. There are fears of dread and anxiety. And there are fears of respect and humility. If we go back to our original text with the third servant he when approached by his master immediately began to give excuses for his behavior. If you are making excuses for your fear it is probably an improper fear.

Rom 11:16 If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
Rom 11:17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree,
Rom 11:18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.
Rom 11:19 Then you will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in."
Rom 11:20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear.
Rom 11:21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.
Rom 11:22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.

Notice verse 20… You stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. Fear of the Lord keeps us from becoming proud. It reminds us that we are just a shoot that was grafted in to the tree.

Heb 4:1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
Heb 4:2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
Heb 4:3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, "As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest,'" although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.

We should fear that others that we know do not have the assurance of salvation.

2Ti 1:5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.
2Ti 1:6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands,
2Ti 1:7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
2Ti 1:8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,

When I was a young Christian I would repeat this verse over and over again if I was afraid of something or doing something. Little did I know at that time that this verse isn’t about me becoming this superman who was afraid of nothing. It is about God giving us the courage to preach the gospel to the rest of the world. It was encouraging us to not be afraid sharing the gospel no matter what happens. It was not to give me the courage to ask my boss for a raise.
The point I wanted to make in this sermon is that we tend to fear things that we should not… and do not fear the things that we should. We should not fear what can destroy the body but what could destroy the soul. If we would fear the Lord as much as most of us fear physical things than our walk with Jesus would look a lot different. Fear can cause us to make decisions that are not necessarily in the will of God just as this servant buried the talent instead of investing.

Did I do That?

2008-10-06T20:05:00.004-04:00

Has anyone here ever had a time in their life when they felt like they should have shared the gospel to someone and didn’t? Like God opened the door for you to witness to someone and you shut it. Or perhaps you were a terrible example to someone around you and maybe you think that the reason this person is not a Christian now is because of you. Has anyone here ever prayed and witnessed to someone year after year and they just never seemed to get it? Maybe your kids or a sibling, maybe even a spouse. I, at one time or another in my life, have done all these things. I have literally cried for letting down, not just God again, but that person that I should have been witnessing to. Wondering if that was their last chance to hear the gospel and if they died right now they will go to hell and it will be my fault.
My goal today is to show you, in the scriptures, the truth behind all that. Can my actions really dictate what happens in the kingdom of God? Should I feel guilty if someone I know never seems to accept Christ? Is it my fault? I am not going to go too far into doctrine today because there is not enough time nor is that my main objective here today.
Let’s read today’s text…
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
(Joh 3:1-8)
First of all let’s start with who this Nicodemus is. He is a ruler of the Jews, a part of the Sanhedrin. He was a wise wealthy person, not someone easily converted. He was raised much like Paul would have been and it took a supernatural experience for Paul to be converted. He came by night probably to investigate Jesus not as a ruler or a Pharisee but for a personal interest. He doesn’t see Jesus as Christ at this point, I don’t believe, but he knows that Jesus is from God because of the things that he witnessed Jesus doing. Jesus’ actions caused him to look further. If we put this to application we can see that actions are used by God to draw in believers. If we walk around with peace in the face of turmoil and courage in the face of fear, if we life a life of integrity even when others know that we could have so much more if we would just stretch the truth a little bit, then others will look at us and say you could not be doing this if God was not with you. Notice that Nicodemus did not come to Jesus and say how do I “get saved” or go to heaven. He would have already known what the law says about this. By his belief if he followed the laws and sacrifices, his place in heaven would have already been secured. Jesus knew who He was talking to and got right to the point of correcting Nicodemus that He was the only way to heaven.
My point in going over all that was to point out that even the most difficult, stubborn, intellectual people can be converted to Christ. And it may begin with your obedience in one little thing.

For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
(1Co 1:19-20)
Let’s go to the end of today’s text and read the last part again.
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
It is important for us to witness, to proclaim the glory of God and to show by example God’s love. You wouldn’t hide your light under a bushel would you? 1Co 1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. God does use us for His glory. That, after all, is the purpose of our existence…To glorify God. But, we do not control God or his plans. God will complete His plans in every soul whether you are a part of it or not. He will use others if you are not willing or He can use nobody like He did with Paul and his vision.
For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
(Rom 9:15-16)
That does not mean that I should feel guilty the rest of my life for not witnessing to someone in my past. It means that I need to be ready the next time that God wants to use me. I need to study and show myself approved that He would choose me to be His mouthpiece. But God will have His way no matter what. You cannot do anything to stop or change that. But you may have the opportunity to be a part in it!

“The wind blows on those who know they have no breath, and that they must have the breath of God Himself in order to truly live.” JD Hatfield

To Judge Or Not To Judge

2008-09-12T14:49:00.006-04:00

"Judge not, that you be not judged.
(Mat 7:1-6)

This text is widely used by people who want to defend a habit or lifestyle that does not glorify God. I am sure most everyone has at one time heard “You can’t judge me.” Or “The Bible says that you are not supposed to judge me.” In a way they are right. The words “judge not” are in the Bible. What they don’t realize is that it does not mean judge in the way that we think of judge today. The word judge comes from the Greek word “Krino”. This word has many definitions. Strong’s defines it with several different words such as… Distinguish, decide, to try, to punish, to avenge, conclude, to condemn, decree, determine, esteem, go to law, ordain, call in question, to sentence.
With this many definitions it could be difficult to determine what scripture was teaching us. Or you could pick out one of these definitions and make the argument that nobody has any business telling you that you are wrong or being deceived. One such example would be the definition “to call in question”. If this were the case than evangelism and apologetics, which is defending the faith, and even the Bible would be wrong. Of course we know that this is not true. So how do we know which definition applies? We look at the whole text and determine what the entire text is saying. Does the application that we believe to be accurate line up with the Bible as a whole?
If I walked up to you and a friend of yours and said “You are great, you are a strong faithful Christian that is an encouragement to all that observe you. I don’t believe that either one of you would jump up to argue with me or tell me to quit judging us. I would be doing what Paul tells the Thessalonians in chapter 5 of his first letter.
Yet I would be judging them. But I would be judging them in a good way. So let’s read the rest of the text and try to determine in what way, am I not to judge.

(Verses 2-7) For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

The text is speaking of arrogant people who think that they are better than everyone else and are unjustly criticizing those around them. Remember, this is towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus is speaking to a very diverse crowd. Not even necessarily Christians. Scripture tells us that the people were there to primarily seek healing from Jesus. Not to follow him because He was Christ. These are the people He is speaking to. Not to mature Christians. Mature Christians should be able to help or counsel the immature, deceived or young Christians without criticizing or condemning. As mature Christians we should attempt to direct or lead with love and compassion. We should judge rightly and never with a spirit of revenge or jealousy. We should judge rightly by observing the fruit generated by ones life. Not on a single occurrence that happened in ones life.
“Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment."
(Joh 7:24) Does the fruit line up with the Word?
In Matthew the Bible tells us not to judge and in John and various other places it tells us to judge. Is the Bible contradictory? No, there is judging rightly and judging wrongly. There are things or ways that we are to judge and things and ways that we are not to judge.
We should not judge the heart or the intentions of another. God will judge that.
Rightly judging is reproving others and it is our duty to do that.

1Th 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
1Th 5:12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you,
1Th 5:13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.
1Th 5:14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

What the Bible is saying here in Thessalonians and in Matthew is that when we do judge then we need to do it in a loving, encouraging, and patient way, the way that we would like to be judged. The way that we should judge ourselves.
1Co 11:31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.
1Co 11:32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
We should be judging rightly ourselves and everything around us. We should judge our actions, our words and the actions and words of others. You should be judging what you are reading right now.
Teachers should be held to a higher level of judging than others. In Titus chapter one, we see that Paul has left Titus to appoint elders and overseers over the churches. We see some of the ways that he was to judge the people to determine their worthiness for the position.

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you-- if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.
(Tit 1:5-11)
I submit to you that this does not just apply to elders. It applies to all that are followers of Christ and we must be constantly judging, reproving, and rebuking one another within the church and outside the church. Satan comes as a sheep, not as a wolf, to deceive us. We need others around us to judge us and our actions because they will see things that we cannot because we are deceived. Yes we must go to church when we are saved. Those that will not submit to being judged rightly are those that are not rightly judging themselves. They judge on their own self worth rather than Christ’s worth.
Judge not that you be not judged. Nobody wants to be criticized unjustly nor have their motives assumed upon. However, I do want to be judged rightly. It is good for me. It teaches me. I do not want to be deceived by the Devil and everyone around me saying that they knew I was and did nothing to help me.
This is not to change what the word is saying in Matthew but this may help you to see the difference between “judge not that you be not judged” and judge rightly that you be judged rightly. It is discerning with discretion.

COPY CAT

2008-07-15T12:56:00.003-04:00

Several years ago there seemed to be this big new craze with the initials WWJD. What Would Jesus Do? While this sounds like a wonderful Christian concept, to say to your self when you’re faced with a decision, what would Jesus do if it were Him in my situation? Perhaps thinking of that phrase stopped someone from doing something they shouldn’t have been doing. I think the more appropriate question would be… what did Jesus do? Perhaps you’re thinking that Jesus could not have experienced everything while he was here. There were no televisions that tempted him to be lustful or gluttonous. There were no cars to tick him off when they pass you on the highway doing about 80 miles an hour. There were no cell phones to get angry with when they don’t work. And there were no all you can eat buffets on every other corner! But if we look at the roots of these situations we will see that he was tempted with all fleshly desires. There are no new temptations that Jesus did not confront that you have to and you can’t say… Jesus just wouldn’t understand what I am going through. I think it was JD Hatfield that once explained to me that Jesus’ temptations were actually much greater than ours because he never gave in. Not ever. We have moments of weakness where we give in to our fleshly desires but then when we give in it is no longer a temptation. It is a sin. Jesus never gave in; He never sinned, so the temptation would have just gotten stronger and stronger. He experienced more temptation as man than we could ever bear. The important thing is to know enough of Jesus’ character to know what he would do or read enough biblical history to know what Christ did do.
I do think that we should do our best to imitate Christ while He was on earth, as much as is humanly possible. But as far as I can see there appears to be a lot of confusion about what part of His life do we want to imitate. Some only want to imitate the loving part of Christ, some the judgment part, some the healing part, some the miracle part. Very few seem interested in imitating all of Christ’s attributes. By the way I am not just speaking of others, I am speaking of myself. We seem to forget that a large part of his time on earth was suffering and being a servant to others.
Lets look at Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 8;
Php 2:5-8 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, (6) who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, (7) but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. (8) And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Do we want to imitate Christ’s humbleness and become a servant of others? Are we willing to imitate His obedience to the point of death? Most of us can’t be obedient to the point of missing lunch or missing our favorite TV show let alone to death. It all starts with a desire to please our Lord and Savior which can only be there because it has been placed in you. Your flesh does not seek after the things of God.
Php 3:9-10 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-- (10) that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
Because of Him and His righteousness we should count it joy to suffer for Christ. Because of his righteousness we can become righteous and become like Him as in we become resurrected from the dead. So if you are seeking and do have a desire then praise God, He has placed that desire in you. So we should be a good steward of this, the greatest gift one could ever receive.
I’m afraid that most of us would have to be honest and say that I want to imitate Christ as long as it doesn’t hurt. We cannot pick and choose what parts of Christ we want to imitate. It is all or nothing.
Let me explain.
1Pe 2:19-21 for this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. (20) For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. (21) For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
Jesus would not have given us an example of how to act when suffering if, in Christ, we should never suffer. Jesus suffered, who do we think we are if we think that we should not suffer? We make ourselves like gods and somehow think that if we imitate the actions of Jesus than we shouldn’t have to endure the same suffering. We must maintain the proper perspective. Imitating the character of Jesus is good if your goal is to learn, obey and glorify Him. But when your goal is to become as good as Jesus, of course everybody gasps and says “I would never do that”, but if we think that we can attain salvation by our works (which would be imitating Christ) then we think of ourselves as a god and savior. We are not!
When you woke up this morning were you God? No? Then we need to stop acting like it. It is not that we want to suffer, but we should be willing to suffer.
Charles Spurgeon writes…
If so, you are in a fair way to imitate Christ. But do not seek to copy him until you are bathed in the fountain filled with blood drawn from his veins. It is not possible for you to do so; your passions will be too strong and corrupt, and you will be building without a foundation, a structure, which will be about as stable as a dream. You cannot mould your life to his pattern until you have had his spirit, till you have been clothed in his righteousness
1Th 1:6 and you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,
Why then is it so important to imitate Christ if it is not really about works? Good question. I am really glad you asked. There are several reasons.
To be an example to others -
Paul, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 1 tells the Corinthians to be an imitator or him, as he is of Christ. So Paul imitated Christ so that others would see Christ in him and be able to imitate Christ through his example.
Because we are instructed to in the Word –
Paul in Eph. Chapter 5 tells the Ephesians to be imitators of God, as beloved children. As a young child wants to imitate his dad, we should want to imitate our father in heaven. Not that we will ever attain to His glory, but that we should desire to be more like Him. Remember the devil wanted to imitate God as well. But he wanted His glory not to glorify Him.
To be a witness to the unsaved –
2Ti 2:10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
John Piper writes…Our imitation of Christ points others to Him. Our suffering is crucial, but Christ’s alone saves. Therefore, let us imitate his love, but not take His place.
Now we have some reasons why we should, lets look at how. In real life how does this look. I quoted Eph. Chapter 5 verse 1 earlier; now let’s look a little further in verse 2. Verse 1 says to be an imitator of God, verse 2 tells us to walk in love, as Christ loved us.
Eph 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
Eph 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
If you’re still wondering what that means the rest of the chapter lays it all out for you. Stay away from sexual immorality, all impurity, all covetousness. Don’t be filthy, don’t be foolish, and don’t tell crude jokes. The list goes on and on about what to stay away from.
1Jn 4:16 so we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
1Jn 4:17 by this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

He is what? He is perfect in love. Therefore we should attain to be perfect in love.

1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never ends.

We need to imitate Him because it is the right thing to do, because it glorifies God, because we love Him, and because we want to, or at least we want to want to...but even when we fail, we look to Him and realize the reason we can or want to do any of this anyway is because He has already done it for us, and it is His righteousness, His glory, His love, His "want to", and His perfect life that counts for us. JD Hatfield

WICKED GOOD

2008-06-18T21:03:00.002-04:00

As some of you already know, I grew up in the back woods of Maine. If any of you are familiar at all with Maine than you know that we have some speech challenges to say the least. We use a lot of slang phrases and we use them with a lot of accent. I brought my family on vacation to Maine several years ago and they had the hardest time understanding what the locals were saying. I had to be a translator of sorts. Even though I have lost most of my accent I can still understand the accent and slang quite well. As a matter of fact, after about an hour of being around my family from Maine I revert back to talking like them. One of the odd phrases that we used was “wicked good”. Sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it? Is it wicked or is it good? It actually means “really good”.
I started thinking about that phrase, a phrase I haven’t said before now in years, and I think that there can be a “wicked good”. Not in the sense of “really good” but in the sense of a bad good. I know, it sounds crazy doesn’t it? Hear me out and I think that you will, not hear something new that you have never heard, but hear something that will put a brighter light on a principle that is consistent throughout the Word of God. I am going to use two primary verses for our text; they are Hebrews 6:1 and Hebrews 9:14. I am going to throw in verse 13 in chapter 9 just for application.
Heb 6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

Heb 9:13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,
(Heb 9:14)
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. These are the only two verses in the New Testament that have the phrase “dead works”. In the first verse it is more of a change from a life of nothing but dead works, to a life with no dead works. Like a sinner at the point of salvation. To put away the old dead works and start with new works in faith. The second verse in chapter 9 seems to refer to sanctification of dead works as more of a process of removal.
What are dead works, and what is the difference between dead works, works that lead to death, and live works, works that lead to life?
DEAD WORKS ARE …
Works that have no eternal value,
1Pe 2:12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Does the work show others the love of Christ and lead others to salvation?

Works that have no faith.
(Jas 2:14)
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?(Jas 2:15)If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,(Jas 2:16)and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?(Jas 2:17)So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
If faith without works is dead than works without faith is a dead work. Faith and good works go hand in hand.

Works that do not bring glory to God,
(1Pe 4:11)
whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies--in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Mat 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Does the work give glory to God or to something else? Anything other that God is a dead work.

Now that we have learned about what dead works are you are probably wondering how does the wicked good illustration apply to all this. Dead works are not necessarily evil works. As a matter of fact they may downright appear to be a good work but provide no useful function for the kingdom of God. Although having some humanitarian value it lacks life if it is not done with proper motive.
We all know that there are people in this world that believe that if you do more good deeds than bad than they have earned the right into Heaven. But good deeds done with the expectation of payment are not good deeds at all. It is simply a job. Rom 4:4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. Heaven is a gift, not payment for services rendered.

“Without Christ exalting faith, our deeds will signify nothing but rebellion.” John Piper
Good deeds do not get you any closer to Heaven than bad deeds get you closer to Hell. Neither one is true. This is not a tug of war event that hinges on what you do. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No man cometh to the Father except through His Son, by grace through faith, not by works lest any man should boast.
This is not to say that all good deeds are bad. What is the motive behind them? Even our good deeds, if not done with the sole purpose of glorifying God, are dead works.
Isa 64:6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away
(Col 3:17)
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.We have to be careful of our motives…
Has anyone ever heard of the cartoon Calvin and Hobbes? Well, Calvin is a hyper-active little boy with a wild & vivid imagination, & his companion, Hobbes, is a tiger. Well, in one cartoon Calvin & Hobbes were lying in the shade of a tree on a summer afternoon discussing the important things of life. Calvin says, "What if there is no heaven? What if this is all we get?" Hobbes answers, "Well, if this is all we get I guess we’ll just have to accept it." Calvin replies, "Yeah, but if I’m not going to be rewarded for my good deeds, I want to know it now."
If we are only in it for the reward than we will get our reward in this life and this life leads to death, making it a dead work even though it was a good deed.

When was the last time you prayed and asked forgiveness for your “good” deeds? I never had.
Rom 2:6-8 He will render to each one according to his works: (7) to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; (8) but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

Mat 7:22 On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'

2Co 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jer 23:6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.'

The only works that are acceptable to God are works of righteousness glorifying Him and we do not have the ability to be righteous. Christ in us is our righteousness and He acts through us to fulfill His works.

DON"T FEED THE CAT

2008-04-14T21:52:00.003-04:00

My wife is a bit of a city girl. She was raised in St. Pete for the most part but spent a little time on a small farm but never really experience the woods or wildlife. That is until she met me and I began to share some of my backwoods upbringing with her. She truly loves to see nature and wildlife. She is like a little kid with a new toy as she squeals and insists that everyone see the bunny rabbit or deer bound across the field. By the way, I have her express permission to share this! Let me get back to my story! Our family was taking our first north Georgia Mountains vacation several years ago. We arrived in the wee hours of the morning after driving through an hour or so of fog as thick as pea soup along the unfamiliar mountain roads. After we checked in at the office we were on our way to our cabin up the winding dirt road, which to us flatlanders seemed like, we were driving straight up the Rocky Mountains. I say all this to defend my wife for what I am about to share with you. We were tired, we were exhausted from a 10 hour, in the middle of the night drive and our eyes were blurry and overworked from straining to see the scary roads through the fog and last but not least very excited to be out in the middle of the woods where we expected to see and did see lots of wildlife. As we pulled into our cabin my wife starts to frantically point and squeals look it’s a bear by that tree! As the kids half awake jump up out of their seats to see, I am even looking in eager anticipation at this point. Sure enough we pointed the headlights of the car to reveal the sleekest most amazing pure black cat in a hunched position using the bathroom beside the tree! After a good long laugh, at her expense, we all went to bed with visions of bears on our minds! We later found out that it was just a stray cat that hangs around the cabins with no name. So we named the cat “Bear” and fed him some milk and sandwich meat. We have been going to the cabins for about four years now and that cat is waiting for us every time we get there for his food. Even if all the other cabins are full he always finds ours and stays around ours most all the time we are there.
Now that you have heard the story let me share with you what God has taught me through it. Like J.D. says... the gospel applied to lunch.
I am going to try to relate this story to sin and how it can affect us. Before you get all excited I don’t think cats are of the devil. But I have seen some that I am convinced are possessed! But I think the story will help you relate to this.
First of all sin and the temptation to sin will come when you are the most tired and weak. The Devil tempted Jesus after the 40 days of fasting out in the wilderness because He figured that Jesus is weak now, if I ever had a chance it is now. So just like Cindy and I, we were tired from our journey and easily deceived. If the security guard who drives around at night saw the cat he would have immediately known that it was the cat and never gave it a second thought. He was familiar with the area and knew what kind of wildlife he could expect to see. If we are familiar with the Word and Jesus our Savior than we can quickly identify sin and temptation in our lives.
Heb 5:13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
Heb 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
It would be nice if we could figure out how to never be weak and tired then the devil wouldn’t have the open opportunity to attack us or send us temptations. Not Really, Our failure and weakness helps us to realize the true glory of God. So our goal is not, to never be tired or weak but to learn not to be deceived when we are. That includes having people to which you are accountable. There have been many time s that I didn’t do something wrong that I thought was right because I had Godly counsel that helped me see the issue more clearly.
Secondly, sin is deceitful. It will appear to be one thing on the outside and when you get a closer look at it you realize that it is not what you thought at all. Like I stated earlier the more familiar you are with something the less you can be deceived. Ephesians chapter 4 in verse 27 tells us to give no opportunity to the devil. If we are not studying to show ourselves approve and if we don’t recognize who are savior is or what he expects from us than how could we possibly know what not to do or what to resist. James chapter 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. The submission part is reading the word, praying, worshipping, fellowshipping. That is how you get to know God. You don’t need to get to know the devil. We know him too much as it is. He is everything that is against God and His word.
So, sin will deceive you when your tired and weak, and it will appear to be something that it is not. So the very thing that deceived Cindy and I, we named it and called it our own. How often we do that with sin. It sneaks its way into our lives through some kind of deception and then we cling to it and protect it like it is our first born. I believed that lie for a long time with smoking. I had actually convinced myself that I deserved to smoke. It was my only vice and other people do a lot worse things than that. I welcomed that “cat” or that sin into my life. That sin in my life was my way of keeping God at a distance. I didn’t want to be too close to God at the time. He might take away my fleshly desires and I wasn’t willing to take that chance. Of course that is totally contrary to the Word of God, which tells us in Romans to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. But of course naming and claiming the cat wasn’t enough we had to feed the cat. Once we fed that cat once he would always come back for more. If you make provision for sin in your life, if you don’t remove the temptations and hold fast to that which is true in Christ Jesus then you are bound to sin again. 1 Thess. 5:21 and 22 says “but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
After writing this piece I thought of an acronym that seemed fitting.
SIN IS...
Deceptive (It will deceive you into it)
Entangling (It will not easily let you go)
Abomination (Not accepted by God no matter what)
Tempting (It will seem good at the time)
Hostile (It is unrelenting and is out to destroy you)

Matthew Henry:
We should therefore abstain from evil, and all appearances of evil, from sin, and that which looks like sin, leads to it, and borders upon it. He who is not shy of the appearances of sin, who shuns not the occasions of sin, and who avoids not the temptations and approaches to sin, will not long abstain from the actual commission of sin.

HALEIGH HAS ARRIVED!!!!

2008-03-31T14:35:00.002-04:00

Proverbs Chapter 5

2008-03-04T16:14:00.004-05:00

I have not posted in a while but I will attempt to do better. It is not that I have not been writing at all, I just haven’t been posting. So please continue to encourage me in this area. I know I should be posting but... well no excuses, I have been lazy and a bit discouraged lately. Anyway I am glad to be back and thankful that God has blessed me to be able to write yet another day. I pray that I would be a blessing to you and would honor God and His Word in all that I do and write.
The text for this will be from the book of Proverbs so I thought it would be fitting to make sure that we understood what a Proverb is so that we can read this and understand it in the way it was intended.

According to...
American Heritage dictionary
Proverb - A short pithy saying in frequent and widespread use that expresses a basic truth or practical precept.

The part of that definition I would like us to focus on is that it expresses a basic truth or practical precept. It, in itself, is not necessarily THE truth; it conveys the truth through a statement, which may not even be related to the truth itself. For example the worldly proverb that says... Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, really has nothing to do with chickens, although it may apply literally. The truth or precept that is being conveyed is to not count on something that hasn’t happened yet. So, with that in mind I am going to read chapter 5 of Proverbs and interject my thoughts as we go through them. All that is in blue italics is directly from the Word. My comments follow.

My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding,
that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.

Solomon was the author of this Proverb and it would appear as though he is speaking only to his son and giving him some advise about becoming a man and some things that he should watch out for. However in the first verse the term “my son” in the Hebrew translates to not just your direct offspring but it could be used for many generations or perhaps even an entire race of people. Just as they called Jesus the son of David, He was not the direct offspring of David. So we should see if this biblical precept or truth applies to us, and I believe it does, partly because we find the same principles elsewhere in the Bible and also because 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that...

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Then, we should be attentive to the Wisdom of Solomon and incline our ears to what he has to say. Why? Because if we are interested in preserving our sanctification and not being tossed to and fro by anything that comes our way then we should pay attention to this and hold on to it and not forget it and even bring it to our lips so that we can remember the Word of God when other things arise that may be contrary to it.

Pro 5:3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil,

Is Solomon only talking about women and how deceptive they are? Of course not, I believe he is conveying a truth here through a statement that is not necessarily related. Honey does not literally drip from a woman’s mouth. So what is he trying to say? Perhaps that carnal thing that you desire can look real sweet. It may even try to talk you into following through with your fleshly desire. It looks as sweet and smooth as honey. I am listening to a sales training series that teaches me ways of convincing or persuading people to buy what I am selling and there are some pretty smooth ways of convincing people, when they don’t even realize that they are in the process of being persuaded. We should be cautious of smooth talkers and man pleasers. As we read the next few verses we see why.

Pro 5:4but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Pro 5:5 Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol;
Pro 5:6 she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.
If we do not stay away from our fleshly desires and turn toward righteousness then we are destined to follow those desires straight to Hell. Lets take just a minute and talk about what is a fleshly desire. Anything that does not glorify God, Glorifies man or the flesh. If somebody accidentally runs over your foot and your desire is to curse them out for it or yell at them for an accident, then that would be a fleshly desire and would not glorify God. But if you are quick to forgive that person then that would glorify God and would be denying the fleshly desires that Solomon is speaking of. That may seem to simple and trivial to you but something that the Lord has been teaching me through His Word and through circumstance is that the difference in going to Heaven or going to Hell is one sin. The Bible says that only the righteous will inherit the kingdom of God. The only way we can be righteous is to repent (turn away from) our sins and believe that forgiveness of our sins can only come from Jesus Christ. Repentance and Faith is the life of a Christian.

Pro 5:7 And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
Solomon seems to be beseeching us to listen. Have you ever had a conversation with somebody and they seemed to be off in another world? I am guilty of this myself and I am working on getting better. My wife will be talking to me and I just zone out and get caught up in my own thoughts and don’t even hear her speaking anymore. Of course when I realize that I have done that I apologize to her and ask her to repeat it. Solomon wants to make sure that the words that he is speaking are not falling on deaf ears. PAY ATTENTION this is important! That is what he is saying.
Pro 5:8 Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,
lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless,
lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,
Pro 5:12 and you say, "How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

After making sure that we are listening he repeats the original message and gives us more instruction on completely staying away from those desires. I gave this illustration before about the lions in the back yard that my pastor J.D. Hatfield (even so) taught us about. That the lion we feed the most will become strongest and eventually beat out the other lion all together. Well my extended illustration of that was that when we feed that lion that we throw that meat so far toward the good lion that the bad lion never gets a bite or even a sniff. Not, to just throw the meat in the middle and see which one gets it. We must make an effort to stay as far away from the bad lion as we can. Don’t even give it a chance.

Pro 5:13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.

How many of us here when we are doing something wrong and know it, do not want to listen to somebody else tell us that we are doing wrong? The last thing that we want to do is to be reminded of our guilt. My wife used to remind me every Sunday that I should be in church and I began to become hard of heart and wouldn’t listen to her or the men of the Church that would come to visit from time to time.

Pro 5:14 I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation."

But, church itself was not enough. Even though I started going to church, I was only going so that it would not cause strife between my wife and I. I despised people for coming to me and saying they missed me and were glad to see me. Of course, they were showing me love but my soul was in utter ruin at the time and church just seemed to make that more obvious to me. Why was I in utter ruin? I was in ruin because I was living my life trying only to please my flesh. There is never any satisfaction to pleasing the flesh. You will ALWAYS want more than you have.
Pro 5:15 Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
Pro 5:16 Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?
Pro 5:17 Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.
Pro 5:18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.
Pro 5:20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
I believe the point that is being made here is that we need to be satisfied with what we have, who we are, where we live etc. We should not be looking elsewhere for our wants. We need only look to God who is our provider. All good gifts come from the Father.

Pro 5:21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths.
Pro 5:22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
Pro 5:23 He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.

God sees all that you do. He sees in your hearts the things that you think and do not do. Our sin can tangle us and choke us to the point that we can no longer breathe. If we live a life of no discipline then we will die holding on to our sins misled to believe that that is what we actually want. I’ve heard people say that they want to go to hell because they won’t know anyone in heaven. I’ve heard people that think that hell is going to be a big party. They are deceived like I spoke about earlier. Your self can be your own worst enemy. We have to learn to be disciplined and taught by others no matter who you are because you, yes even you, can be deceived. A group of people is a lot less likely to be deceived than one lone person. There is strength and encouragement there.

PSALM 93

2007-08-30T22:13:00.000-04:00

Psalm 93
1 The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty;
The Lord is clothed, He has girded Himself with strength.
Surely the world is established, so that it can not be moved.
2 Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting.
3 The floods have lifted up, O LORD, The floods have lifted up their voice; The floods lift up their waves.
4 The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea.
5 Your testimonies are very sure; Holiness adorns Your house, O LORD, forever.

As we go about our lives we meet people that say they are Christians but live as if there is no God or at least like there God is not important to them.
What I would like to do in this post is to help you see Christ more clearly and to lead you to a better understanding of the character of Christ and therefore a better relationship with Christ. We are going to study the Word to learn to praise the Lord more maturely. How we perceive Christ directly affects how we worship Him. If we do not perceive Him as the all magnificent, all-powerful and all holy than we cannot properly worship Him.
From what I have researched about this psalm, most versions say this is a psalm written for the purpose of singing the day before Sabbath. It would be custom for the Jews to sing it on the sixth day of the week or before a festival or feast. This was most likely to prepare their hearts for the worship they were about to participate in. If we look at this Psalm a little closer I believe it can be broken down into three topics, which helps us see the character of God.
1 The splendor of the Lord (verses 1 & 2)
2 The strength of the Lord (verses 3 & 4)
3 The sanctity of the Lord (verse 5)
As we begin to break this chapter down lets look at the first point, which is the splendor of the Lord. Look at verse one.
“The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty;”
This first phrase sets the stage for the chapter. It declares who Jehovah is in no uncertain terms. He is the God over all. He was the King, He is the King, and He will always be the King. (Past present and future) He is clothed with majesty. He is the true King, clothed with righteousness, honor and majesty. Psalm 104 describes this in more detail.
Psa 104:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
Psa 104:2 covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent.
Psa 104:3 He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind;
Psa 104:4 he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire.
Psa 104:5 He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved.

“The Lord is clothed, He has girded Himself with strength.”
The Lord is clothed in majesty and with that majesty of being King at times it will require the showing of His strength. He is prepared for action. He can back up His kingdom. We will get more into that when I speak of His strength.
“Surely the world is established, so that it can not be moved.”
God is in control. The world is at His control and nothing moves without God. It is not within our ability to “move” the world. It is our job to praise God that it is within His ability. Everything is in subjection to God. Including Satan. Satan had to ask God’s permission to test Job.
Verse 2 reaffirms that God is all and He is past, present and future.
2 Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting.

We should be praising Him for His sovereignty, that He is God of all. We can trust Him because He has stood the test of time. These first two verses should be all the reason we ever need to worship Him. If He never answered a prayer, if you never saw a miracle, if your life is filled with hardship, He is still the one and only true God that will ever be.
But He gave us more than His splendor to worship. The next two verses give us reason to worship the Lord for His strength.

3 The floods have lifted up, O LORD, The floods have lifted up their voice; The floods lift up their waves.
4 The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea.
To the ancients, waters were chaotic, only a god could control the waves or the floods. So by using this illustration of floods and waves the verses show the great strength of the Lord. Probably why Jesus calmed the storm and walked on water. To prove He had control over even what seems uncontrollable. God rules over all of creation, even the forces of chaos. In reading Spurgeon’s commentary he helped to point out that the psalmist did not first try speaking to the floods or the water. He didn’t go to the Lord whining about HIS circumstances and how he shouldn’t have to go through the floods because he is a Christian. The floods were there, he is not ignoring that, but his priorities are right. He just declares the mightiness of the Lord and no matter the results of the flood God is still all-powerful. If your focus is on Christ than He will take care of the situation no matter what it is. Nothing is too big for God to handle.
Psa 124:1 A Song of Ascents. Of David. If it had not been the LORD who was on our side-- let Israel now say--
Psa 124:2 if it had not been the LORD who was on our side when people rose up against us,
Psa 124:3 then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us;
Psa 124:4 then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us;
Psa 124:5 then over us would have gone the raging waters.
Psa 124:6 Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth!
Psa 124:7 We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!
Psa 124:8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
As you can see David praised the Lord for delivering and protecting Israel knowing that God had the strength and power to do it. That does not mean that there was never any conflict. David’s life was filled with conflict and wars and David running and hiding for his life. Of course God does not always handle things the way that we think He should. But God knows best.

That leads us to the final character, which is the sanctity of the Lord. For that we look at verse 5.

5 Your testimonies are very sure; Holiness adorns Your house, O LORD, forever.

The teaching and the character of God are forever unchanged. God did not tolerate evil in the old days and He does not tolerate it today. His word is as valid today as it was when it was written. We can rely on His testimonies to remain true. God is holy and righteous and like Pastor J.D. Hatfield explains that Christ would have gone to the cross if you were the only person on earth or if there had only been one sin ever committed. Even one sin is an abomination to the Lord. It has to be, or the holiness & righteousness of the Lord is compromised. This last verse declares that God is worthy of our worship because of His sanctity and if we want to be a part in the house of the Lord than we need to be covered by that Holiness which is Christ in us, not us, which sets us apart from the world and makes us righteous in the eyes of God.
2Co 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

Matthew Henry quote:

“ The Lord might have displayed only his justice, holiness, and awful power, in his dealings with fallen men; but he has been pleased to display the riches of his mercy, and the power of his renewing grace. In this great work, the Father has given all power to his Son, the Lord from heaven, who has made atonement for our sins. He not only can pardon, but deliver and protect all who trust in him. His word is past, and all the saints may rely upon it. Whatever was foretold concerning the kingdom of the Messiah, must be fulfilled in due time. All his people ought to be very strictly pure. God's church is his house; it is a holy house, cleansed from sin, and employed in his service. Where there is purity, there shall be peace. Let all carefully look if this kingdom is set up in their hearts.”

Perhaps your thinking this is just a Psalm. How does reading or studying a Psalm change how we worship the Lord? Like I wrote at the beginning, we praise to the extent that we perceive. Studying this Psalm helps us to see the character of God and how marvelous He really is. In the book of John chapters 8 – 10 Jesus is repeatedly accused of not being who He claimed to be. Some didn’t recognize Jesus as Lord even when He performed miracles. That is why it is so important for us to know the Jesus that we worship. If we don’t know the character of our Lord then we can easily be deceived and may even deny Christ when He is standing right in front of us.

Spurgeon,
“It should be a constant theme for prayer, that in our day the reign of the Lord may be conspicuous, and his power displayed in his church and on her behalf. "Thy kingdom come" should be our daily prayer: that the Lord Jesus does actually reign should be our daily praise.”

Today is the day to start worshipping God as the God that He is. Now read Psalm 93 again as worship to the Lord. Not just words to be read but a praise to your Father above.

We need to live like Jesus really exists. Like He is standing right in front of you.

If Jesus were standing in front of you would you do what you’re doing right now? I wouldn’t. I would be on my face worshipping our holy God. Or like Mary and washing his feet with my tears. If we could truly see God in all His glory we would live different lives. We would talk differently; we would act differently, because we would believe 100 percent. Today is the day; every day is the day to worship the Lord.

Don't "Dis" God

2007-07-15T21:40:00.000-04:00

Num 11:1 And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.
Num 11:2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down.
Num 11:3 So the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the LORD burned among them.
Num 11:4 Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, "Oh that we had meat to eat!
Num 11:5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.
Num 11:6 But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at."
Num 11:7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium.
Num 11:8 The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil.
Num 11:9 When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.
Num 11:10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the LORD blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased.

DISATISFIED
The people of Israel were not content with what God had provided for them. God provided them with food and they were not happy with the kind of food that God gave them. Maybe it was too bland after a while. How often do we do that same thing? God provides for our needs and we just complain that it is not good enough. You needed a vehicle and God gave you a Honda and what you really wanted was a Cadillac. You needed lunch today and all that was available was Brussels sprouts and you wanted a grilled steak. God will always provide for His children. It is not always the way we expect though. Perhaps you say what about all the people around the world that are starving to death. I believe wholly in the sovereignty of God and although I may not understand this but the way He provides may be to take some up with Him to heaven. The key to all this is to be content in whatever circumstance you may be in. Even the little things like what you have for lunch.

DISASSOCIATED
As you begin to complain and grumble about all of your circumstances your relationship with God suffers. If you don’t believe that God is giving you what you think you need then your view or your respect of God changes. He begins to become a little less God. A little less God is no God at all. It is not God that has changed; it is you and your perspective of God. If you cannot believe that God can properly supply your needs than how could you possibly believe that He can save your soul or do anything else that the Bible says that He has done or will do. I am not saying that you should not ask for anything but you still have to accept what He does give. Matthew Henry’s commentary says “Though God graciously gives us leave to complain to him when there is cause (Psa_142:2), yet he is justly provoked, and takes it very ill, if we complain of him when there is no cause:”
Num 11:18 And say to the people, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, "Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt." Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat.
Num 11:19 You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days,
Num 11:20 but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying, "Why did we come out of Egypt?"'"
Num 11:21 But Moses said, "The people among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, 'I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month!'
Num 11:22 Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, and be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, and be enough for them?"
Num 11:23 And the LORD said to Moses, "Is the LORD's hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not."
Num 11:24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD. And he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent.

Num 11:31 Then a wind from the LORD sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day's journey on this side and a day's journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the ground.
Num 11:32 And the people rose all that day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail. Those who gathered least gathered ten homers. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.
Num 11:33 While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck down the people with a very great plague.
Num 11:34 Therefore the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving.
Num 11:35 From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth, and they remained at Hazeroth.

DISAPPOINTED
The people had all they needed. They complained that they wanted better than what they were given. When they were given what they wanted it caused their death. What they wanted caused death in fire and in plague. So does that mean we should only eat bland food and never aspire to do better? I don’t think so. We have to look at the heart of the people. They were, at the time, separated from God by their discontentment. God was angry with them; I don’t believe it was because they wanted meat per say but more so because they were challenging the authority and sovereignty of God.
Don’t be too hard on the Israelites though. We would have done the same I’m sure. In some ways I have done the same thing in my life. God knows our hearts. He hears our complaining even when they are done in secret. We have to learn to pray to God to, as J.D. would say to give us some chocolate milk. But be willing and obedient to drink vinegar if that is the provision God has given us. That is the difference between complaining and asking. If you complain about the vinegar you may never get the chocolate milk and if you do it may just make you sick anyway.

Dissatisfaction Leads to Disassociation, which leads to Disappointment

ARE YOU CHOSEN?

2007-06-16T23:55:00.000-04:00

This is the most important question of your life. Are you chosen? Matthew 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen. I have spent quite some time praying, thinking and seeking wisdom in this area. As usual I am still seeking and do not have a full understanding of this but I have enough faith in the sovereignty of God to trust that He knows what He is doing.
The verse I just read is at the end of the parable of the wedding feast in that many were invited but many were too busy to go, didn’t want to go or outright refused invitation. The verse would indicate that even though you have been called it is not a guarantee that you will be at the wedding. In this parable someone who even came to the wedding that was not properly dressed was bound and thrown out.
This is an area that causes a lot of debate and argument among Christians and non-Christians. It is a not so easy doctrine to believe or follow. People have a hard time believing that God does not call everyone to Him. They see God as all love and no judgment. God cannot be God if He is not just. People take verses like 1 Thessalonians 5:9 and 10 which says God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10: who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him and they don’t pay attention to whom this letter was written to. “Us” is the people of the church who have proven their faith and love in Jesus Christ. That is not a blank certificate for the entire world to claim salvation by.
If we read the first few verses of 1 Thessalonians we can see this clearly... 1 Th. 1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. 1:2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 1:3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 1:4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 1:5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 1:6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 1:7 so that you became and example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.
As you can see Paul and his companions were writing to a specific group of people that had proven themselves chosen.
Maybe your thinking that that is only one example that’s not enough for me to believe. Lets look at the character of God throughout the Bible.
In the Old Testament God chose the Israelites as His chosen people, He didn’t choose all people.
He chose the Levites to be the priests, not all the Israelites.
He chose some to be prophets, some to be kings.
In the New Testament God chose His disciples. Only twelve were chosen for this honored rank.
He chose particular men to pen the Bible, not just anyone.
I say all this to show you that the character of God is to have those that are chosen and those that are not. Do I really understand this? No. Why does God choose some and not others? I don’t know. What I do know is that I did not deserve to be chosen. But I believe I am.
So, how can you be 100 percent sure that you are chosen? I don’t believe that you can. I think that if we were 100 percent then we would become haughty, prideful and ungrateful. We read earlier in Thessalonians some characteristics of some who were believed to be chosen. They were faithful in love, steadfast and imitators of Christ. Are you any of those things? Colossians chapter 3 says that if we are chosen we should act a certain way. Verse 12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13: bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive. 14: And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Are you compassionate, kind, humble, meek, patient, forgiving, and loving?
We should understand that our flesh does not seek after God. Romans 3:11 tells us “No one understands: no one seeks for God.”
Your flesh does not seek God but the spirit placed in you by God does. If your desire is to seek the righteousness of God then you have the spirit in you and you are amongst the chosen, a royal priesthood, holy, possessed by God that you would proclaim the Excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)
If you are indeed chosen then we should hardly be able to contain ourselves. Think of the honor to be considered the elect of God himself. If we intellectually could grasp hold of that then we would live the life that would be evident to those around us like it was to Paul about the Thessalonians. Are you chosen? If your not sure then pray to God He would reveal Himself to you and accept you into His kingdom. If you are sure, are you living a life that is obvious to others that you are? If your not, your position may not be as secure as you thought. Remember the man at the wedding feast that was not dressed properly. He was thrown out forever. You do not have 100 percent surety. Continue to seek God and His righteousness continuously. Never ceasing to give thanks for the Hope that has been placed in you.

JOY AND HAPPINESS

2007-06-04T22:00:00.000-04:00

Most of what I write comes from experiences in my life. Sometimes it is conversations with people or just thoughts that I have. Then God and I spend some time together with these ideas and when I begin to understand it I bring it to you and try to teach and share with you these “revelations” that I have had. This topic is similar and yet different because I have not come to a complete understanding of this yet but I am confident that God will grant us wisdom and understanding as we continue to seek after Him and His ways. I have had a difficult time in preparing this but as I prayed and thought about all the people at the nursing home where I sometimes speak I began to realize that some of them were already living this. So I write this with thankfulness in my heart to the elderly who are living the example.

Jam 1:2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

I always thought how could I possibly be happy when all this terrible stuff is happening? My whole world seems to be falling apart around me and I’m supposed to be happy. This whole Christian thing wasn’t going to work for me if I was supposed to be happy that terrible things happen. After a terrible car crash that left two promising 18-year-old girls that had just graduated 4 days prior dead. One of which was my daughter’s best friend and also her boyfriend’s sister. Then on top of it all I have other family situations that, well lets just say its not stuff to be happy about. How could one possibly be happy and count it all joy? But of course being happy and counting it all joy have two totally different meanings. That is why it is important to study, learn and listen. So that is what I started to do.
So I looked into what the word joy meant and what was the lesson or what was the text seeming to say and is it the same thing as happiness.
My deduction... God will give us joy but He never promised us happiness. You may say “Dan you’re splitting hairs, it means the same thing”. No. I don’t believe it does. I think there is a very distinct difference in the joy that the Bible speaks of and the word happy that we use today. When we speak of being happy we think of laughing and as my wife stated “happiness is an outward expression of an emotional feeling”. When I asked my youngest son what happiness was to him it was getting a new skateboard, going to a party, going on vacation. He associated happiness with temporal type things. The word happiness as we use it today is superficial and without depth. It comes and goes depending on surrounding circumstances and is based primarily on feelings.
The unabridged version 1.1 at dictionary .com defines happiness as:
1. The quality or state of being happy.
2. Good fortune; pleasure

Now lets take a look at the word joy. In a majority of the texts that I will be referring to today according to Strongs is translated as...
chara
khar-ah'
From G5463; cheerfulness, that is, calm delight: - gladness, X greatly, (X be exceeding) joy (-ful, -fully, -fulness, -ous).

I love the phrase “calm delight”. In the midst of any circumstance you can have a calm delight. I wrote earlier that the people at the nursing home helped me with this sermon, I look around at them and I see the smiles and the peace on their faces and it helped me to realize that this concept can be real. Even in the pain some of them are in, even in the heartache and disappointment that some of them are experiencing they are still there every Sunday trying their best to sing and smile for the Lord. In their situation the world would tell them that you have a right to be bitter and mean and curse God for what He has done to you. But most of them are able to have a calm delight or a joy that the world could never understand without the love of Christ in their own hearts. You see it in their faces when we sing the old hymns and they come to life. People who hardly move or even grunt during the week are lifting their feeble arms to praise the Lord. The nurses are hardly able to believe how much they participate and how they are revived.
Let me give you an example that the Bible gives to help understand this concept...
. Joh 16:21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
Joh 16:22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
The woman was in pain and was not happy at the moment but she never lost her joy in knowing that she was about to have a baby. It’s worth the pain. You wouldn’t curse God because of the pain; you would thank God for the blessing of the baby.
Of course the ultimate example for us to strive to follow would be that of Christ himself. Lets look at Hebrews chapter 2.
Heb 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God,
I don’t think Jesus was ever not joyful about his purpose on this earth. He knew from the beginning why He was here and although He was not always happy, that joy was always set before Him. A calm delight if you will because He knew what was to come.
Does this mean that we shouldn’t ever be happy and have fun? Of course not.
What it does mean is that when you are going through a time of your life when things don’t seem to be so happy or are downright unhappy you can still keep your chin up and not be bitter toward friends, family or even God. JD Hatfield went over this on Wednesday evening and it applied so well I wanted to go over it with you.
1Co 7:21 Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.
1Co 7:22 For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ.
1Co 7:23 You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.
1Co 7:24 So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.
This is directly from JD’s notes on these verses. I wanted to be accurate. He wrote...Just because a slave can and should please God doesn’t mean that Paul is teaching that God doesn’t want men to be free. Just because you can glorify God in that dark place doesn’t necessarily mean God wants to leave you there, but your attitude must be that if He does leave you there you will serve Him by serving in that situation anyway. If you can be free, if you can be loosed, if you can be made whole, healed, helped or whatever then praise the Lord. If not, well, then praise the Lord too. In everything give thanks
1Th 5:18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
No matter what earthly situation you find yourself in keep yourself in the love of God.
JD also writes... Sometimes the power of God is not to deliver you from a situation but through and in that situation itself, so others, whom are not Christians or who are weak in the faith, they can see what a mature believer would do in the same situation.
Unhappiness is not necessarily a punishment for sinning. It doesn’t mean God has forgotten you, but part of God’s ultimate plan that is for His good and for His glory.
If you have the ability to be happy by all means be happy! But your amount of happiness should never affect the amount of joy you have. I could give you several references in the Bible that give us examples and lessons on having joy in difficult situations. Paul is an excellent example of this as he writes of joy while in prison. His focus was not on his circumstances but on Christ and His Glory. We need to focus on glorifying Christ then happiness is no longer a priority but a bonus.

F.R.O.G (Gratefulness)

2007-04-23T20:31:00.000-04:00

It is time to continue on with our frog acronym. I’ve have been writing on how to usher Christ into our lives. I went over faith, which was the “F” in the frog. I wrote about the differences of right faith and wrong faith and the dangers of having faith in the wrong things. I cautioned you that blind faith could be a fatal mistake. How to determine which faith is which, (Does it line up with the Word) and what to do once you have determined that it was the right faith. (Grab a hold of it and don’t let go). I wrote of the importance of knowledge of the Word so that we are not deceived or easily swayed and in that Word is how our faith is increased.
After that I went to repentance, which was the “R” in the frog. In dealing with repentance we learned that we must start with humility. You must be able to admit that you are a sinner and that you need a savior. I explained to you that there is nothing you can do to earn the righteousness that is required to go to heaven. It required the atoning blood of Jesus Christ to cover your sins and nothing less. Your requirement is to believe and repent.
The last time I wrote it was on obedience and how obedience is the fruit of our repentance. If we are truly repentant then we would naturally become more obedient. I wrote about how we need to perceive God as “worth it”. God needs to be more important or more valuable than anything this world could ever offer. Again obedience is a moment-by-moment occurrence and you will have times of success and of failure.
So now we move on to gratefulness. Which is the last letter in our frog acronym. Gratefulness is going to be the natural progression of our faith, repentance and obedience.
I gave you a scenario of me giving my son a million dollars if he was obedient. He would want to be obedient because of the reward.
The reason we should be grateful is because we have already been given the reward. Yes, we are still in the flesh and we have aches and pains and heartbreaks and all that kind of stuff that comes with living in this world but we can, because of Christ, have a joy that passes all understanding even in the midst of what may even seem to us to be hell. With gratefulness is going to come a joy and a peace that will help keep our faith renewed, a repentant heart and a desire to be obedient to God.
Gratefulness should be a constant part of our lives because we want to be obedient to the Word. Lets read in Colossians chapter 3.
Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Col 3:17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
We are commanded to be grateful in our words and in our actions. How do we act grateful? It’s all in there! Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly... We show gratefulness when we read Gods word. Teaching, admonishing one another... What I am doing right now is showing my gratefulness to my Savior. Singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness... Singing praises to God is showing gratefulness to Him for what He has done for you in your life. If we understand what being grateful is than we can understand how to do it more often.
Eph 2:11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands--
Eph 2:12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
If we can truly understand the depravity of man than we can truly understand how far God had to go to make us righteous. Only then can we begin to show our gratefulness.
Heb 12:28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,
Out of thankfulness we offer to God acceptable worship. In our worship we glorify God. When we glorify God through this process of faith, repentance, obedience and gratefulness we are ushering Christ into our lives. Are you ready to do that today? Is there a hope of heaven and of Christ inside you? Are you willing to repent and turn from the world and turn to Christ? Are you willing to be obedient step by step for the reward that lies before you? Can you be thankful to God for all that He has done? It is as simple as that 4-step process to begin a life filled with a joy that surpasses all understanding. Not that there will not be any suffering but that you can endure because of the joy and hope that lies within you which is Christ Jesus.

F.R.O.G. (obedience)

2007-03-23T17:38:00.000-04:00

It is time to continue on with our frog acronym. I have been writing how to usher Christ into our lives. I went over faith, which was the “F” in our frog. I wrote about the differences of right faith and wrong faith and the dangers of having faith in the wrong things. I cautioned you that blind faith could be a fatal mistake. How to determine which is which, (Does it line up with the Word) and what to do once you have determined that it was the right faith. (Grab a hold of it and don’t let go). We spoke of the importance of knowledge of the Word so that we are not deceived or easily swayed and in that Word is how our faith is increased.
After that I went to repentance, which was the “R” in our frog. In dealing with repentance we learned that we must start with humility. You must be able to admit that you are a sinner and that you need a savior. I explained to you that there is nothing you can do to earn the righteousness that is required to go to heaven. It required the atoning blood of Jesus Christ to cover your sins and nothing less. Your requirement is to believe and repent.
With our re-cap complete that brings us to our next letter in our frog. “O” is for obedience. Keeping in mind that our theme to all this is ushering Christ into our lives and these four steps are in order. Start with faith to believe and in order to advance you have to deal with repentance and now we will see how obedience is next in Gods order.
If we refer back to John the baptist's ministry we see that the people that were gathered asked what else they should do other than being baptized. John gave them all the instruction to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. That is found in Luke chapter 3 verse 8. Which says: Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
There were physical works that were required. Personality changes that had to be made. The verse cautions us to not be prideful. Changes in the way they do business and in the way they live their lives needed to be made. The fruit of their repentance would be their obedience. If you are truly repentant you will become obedient. We all try to get by with our little pet sins that we don’t want to give up. We will never give them up if we can’t ask Gods forgiveness and repent of them. Obedience will come if you continue to repent. If your faith is true, your hope of what is eternal causes you to repent which makes the obedience a lot easier. I’ve given this example before but I want to do it again to make it easy to understand. If I were to tell my son that if he would be obedient to me and my wife that he would have riches beyond measure when he turned 18, then he would want to be obedient because of the reward. And if he was ever disobedient don’t you think he would come to me begging for mercy and forgiveness? God tells us that if we are obedient to Him that we will have riches and rewards beyond measure and we will be in his very presence. If we could truly grasp that then our whole perspective on obedience would change. God is better than anything you might be trying to hold on to here. I promise you. If you find it impossible to be obedient then you should check your faith and really decide if you believe and if you do then start repenting and the obedience will come out of a love and a desire to please the lord of your life. We should want to obey no matter what because we see it as “worth it”. If you want to usher in Christ then you have to decide that He is worth being obedient for.
I don’t mean to mislead you here. One way to learn obedience is by suffering. Hebrews 5:8 tells us that even Christ learned obedience by suffering. Not that Christ ever sinned but it teaches us the importance of obedience and that our suffering can bring about obedience and it is worth it. Being obedient does not mean that you will never sin again. What it does mean is that when you do sin that you, by faith, be repentant and you will have forgiveness. You will not lose your reward or not be allowed into heaven. Obedience is to be learned, it is perpetual because you are not and will not ever be perfect as long as you are in this world.
In the book of 1 Samuel chapter 15 in verse 22 we are told that obedience is better than sacrifice and to listen is better than the fat of lambs. Obedience is important. It is necessary and God demands it. Praise God that he doesn't require the sacrifices and rituals that he required of the Isrealites. We are under the new covenant and the new law that Christ came and fulfilled.
I'll end with this. When I was studying for this I came across these two verses and they seemed appropriate for what I am speaking of today. Deuteronomy chapter 30.
Verse 19: I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,Being obedient is a daily, minute by minute choice, which will you choose this minute? How about the next minute?
Verse 20: loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."
The promise to the Israelites is your promise today. If you love the Lord, obey his voice and hold fast then you will dwell in the land that he has promised you. I’m going into my next sermon on gratefulness now so I will stop. The next time I write we will fold all of this together in a package that will teach us how to usher Christ into our lives.

F.R.O.G. (Repentance)

2007-03-05T20:15:00.000-05:00

The last few posts I’ve written about how to usher Christ into our lives. We have been using the acronym F.R.O.G. Faith, Repentance, Obedience and Gratefulness as an outline of how to usher in Christ. We have already gone over faith on my last post and how to determine proper and improper faith and then holding on to and standing on the faith that lines up with the Word of God and discarding any faith that does not point directly to Jesus.
So, going back to our acronym "F" being faith, next is "R" which is repentance. That is what I will be writing about today: The importance of repentance in our journey to usher in Christ.
When I wrote on faith I explained to you that one of the first steps is humility and that you must have enough humility to know that you need faith in a higher being and your not it. Repentance is much the same in that you have to have enough humility to see that you are a sinner and that you yourself can do nothing to atone for your sins. Even the Israelites in Moses day knew they had sin and had to offer sacrifices to God in order to be clean or righteous in the sight of God. This can be difficult because your flesh will want to say, “I’m not so bad. I’ve never killed anyone, I try to be nice to everyone”.
I’d like to show to you from the book of Romans that it is not just I that is saying this but it is in the word. We are going to practice what we learned about faith last time and take the information that someone is telling us and then test it by the scriptures so that we know that this is something we should have faith in. Then when we have determined that it is according to the word we grab a hold of it and don't let go.
Romans 3:10 says... as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one;
Rom 3:11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
Rom 3:12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."
Rom 3:13 "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps(a type of snake) is under their lips."
Rom 3:14 "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."
Rom 3:15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Rom 3:16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
Rom 3:17 and the way of peace they have not known.",
Rom 3:18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Rom 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
As you can see we all have a pretty long rap sheet. The text as we read above says none and no one not some or a few.

The whole world is accountable to God.
We are accountable to God yet we have nothing of ourselves that is worthy as a sacrifice for our sins. Nor is there anything we can “do” that will justify us. As you can see we are all sinners and Gods’ forgiveness is necessary for our righteousness and only the righteous will be with Christ in eternity. Lets continue looking in Romans.
Rom 3:20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Rom 3:21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
It is not through the law that we achieve righteousness, there is no animals sacrifice that can make us righteous anymore but through Jesus Christ’s atoning blood we can be considered holy and blameless to God. It is only through Jesus and our repentance to Him that we can experience any amount of righteousness.
Lets apply that to ushering in Christ. We can see, using John the Baptist’s ministry as an example that repentance is necessary to usher in Christ. All those people had come to John out of faith to enter the waters of repentance by baptism. So we have our faith and because we now have this assurance we can ask for repentance and know that we will have forgiveness because it is promised in the Word in…
1Jo 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1Jo 1:10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Lets re-cap
We have to start with humility, know that you are a sinner, know that you must be righteous to enter the kingdom of God, know there is nothing you can do to obtain righteousness, know that repenting to Jesus Christ is the only way to obtain the righteousness required for entrance into heaven. Now lets put it together with faith and you are now in the process of ushering Christ into your life. Obedience and gratefulness will follow.

F.R.O.G. (Faith)

2007-02-25T22:23:00.000-05:00

On my last post I wrote about ushering in Christ into our heart and lives. I spoke about the parade and how I watched people ushering in Santa Claus into their lives for the holiday season and how we should do that, and more, to usher in Christ. I gave you an acronym for it and called it F.R.O.G. Faith, Repentance, Obedience, and Gratitude. I am going to break down these four areas on this post and the following three. It is that important and it is good for us to hear over and over again. The first letter if F so we will begin with faith. I have written about faith before but God reveals more and more to me as I grow. So some of this you will have heard before and some of this will be new.
The basic premise behind faith is trust. Faith is the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true. Notice that does not in itself make the statement true. You just believe it to be true. There is a good or proper faith and then there is bad or improper faith. Faith in what is false and faith in what is truth. Both are faith, but one is saving faith and the other leads to wickedness and hell. Faith alone does not save us from an eternal hell. It must be a faith that believes that no one comes to the Father but through Jesus the son. It must be a faith that believes that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It must be a faith that believes that not by works can anyone enter into the kingdom but by the works of Christ Jesus and Him paying our penalty on the cross can we have eternal life. One could have all the faith in the world that if he does enough good deeds or just takes communion once a month that he will go to heaven. But that kind of faith will send you to hell. No matter how much you believe it is true it does not make it true.
Blind faith can be a fatal mistake.
Faith must be directly accompanied with knowledge. Galatians chapter 2 verse 16 says yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. If one did not know that that verse was in the Bible then they may believe that works can save them. So you can see that without knowledge, faith can be very dangerous and I believe that is why there are so many odd beliefs and faiths out there today. We have to test everything with the Word and if it does not line up then don’t put any faith in it. Romans 10:17 says So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
Now that we know the difference between good faith and bad faith, or at least how to identify it. Lets go a little further. Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Once you have identified what you should have faith in, you need to grab hold of it and not let go. Believe in it like your life depends on it. It is our faith (in the right things) that shields us from the enemy’s darts. Ephesians 6:16
So if we want to start ushering in Christ we need to work on our knowledge of the word so we know what to believe and know what to have faith in.
FAITH IS THE VICTORY

F.R.O.G.

2007-02-15T21:26:00.000-05:00

Over the Christmas holiday my family and I had the “privilege” of attending the local Christmas parade. We sat, with the sun in our eyes and sweat dripping down our faces for over 30 minutes before the parade even began so that we could get a good seat. Then came the parade, which started with all of our elected officials kind of giving their stamp of approval of the parade. Next coming up the road are beauty queens and princesses all being driven in very expensive shiny automobiles. Then came the marching bands playing joyful Christmas music followed by some local churches trying to remind people of the real meaning of Christmas. Also there were some local benevolent type organizations and local businesses. Almost all facets of our community were represented in one manner or another all appearing to give their “stamp of approval” of the parade.
As I sat there watching all the floats go by enjoying some, not so much others, the end was almost there with the only thing left being the loud fire trucks and the Santa. We decided we would leave to avoid the traffic jam. As we walked away I turned around and I saw all the people waving, yelling and happy almost praising because Santa was finally there and I realized the entire parade was designed to usher Santa into our lives for the Christmas season. We (as a town) put out our very best people, cars, music, fire trucks etc. into ushering Santa into our lives. It got me to thinking. What would our town be like if we all ushered Christ into our lives like we usher Santa into our lives.
Of course you can’t usher Christ into your life the same way you would usher Santa. Santa is about materialism. Christ is about spiritualism. You have nothing to display or even to offer God that is worthy of Him “showing up” in your life. Even Paul who was living what seemed to be an almost perfect life for God had nothing to give that was worthy. He had to give up his position, his wealth, and his career.
So how do we usher in Christ? I’ve come up with an acronym, which will hopefully help us remember. We need to hop right out and do this so I’ve named it F.R.O.G..

Faith / Repentance / Obedience / Gratefulness

So for the next four posts I will go into these four areas in an attempt to learn and teach others how to usher Christ into our lives. I will expound on these areas as God leads me. Not to exhaust their meaning but so as to give us knowledge in these areas so that we can develop a proper relationship with Christ in every part of our lives.

Philippians Prayer

2006-11-15T22:15:00.000-05:00

We have just completed studying the book of Philippians and are learning to apply the word to our prayer life. Is there a better way to pray than to speak God’s own words? Rest assured that you are praying God’s will if you are praying from the word.
Any way, this is a summary prayer, certainly not all-inclusive, but this is what God has given me to pray and I thought I would throw it out and see what happens. Please read the book and make your own prayer and post it on my comments. I love feedback, even if you think I am in error, (especially if you think I am in error). I want to be accurate in all that I write and I am not perfect or all knowing and always learning more and more.

Philippians chapter 1
Father I thank you for beginning a good work in me and the fellow Christians you have placed in my life and for the assurance that You will finish it according to your will until the day of Your coming. Father, until that time I pray that our love would abound and would be without offence and filled with the fruits of righteousness to the glory of God. Father I pray for boldness and that we would rejoice in our salvation and in our suffering for His sake.

Philippians chapter 2
Father I thank you for your consolation, your comfort, your fellowship and your mercy. I pray that we would be of one mind in Christ and each would esteem others above themselves. I pray that we would be obedient to you even unto death as Christ did for us, and that we would work in accordance with the good work that you have begun in our lives without complaining but as a shining light to the world. I thank you for those you have brought into my life who care for me and are not seeking for themselves and who have been proven of their love and faithfulness to you.

Philippians chapter 3
Father help us to be aware of evil workers. Help us to discern what is evil amongst us that we might address it according to your ways. As we cannot trust our flesh we must rely on your spirit. We recognize that nothing in our flesh is good and we give it up to you that we would obtain righteousness, which is far superior. Not by our own actions or works for our flesh is not worthy, but we forget the things of past and press on to accomplishing the good work that you began in us. We do that by being of one mind looking to You our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians chapter 4
Father if any contention or disagreement should arise I pray we stand fast and be of the same mind in the Lord. We will rejoice in you Lord always and come to you in prayer and thanksgiving asking our requests. I thank you that in acting in accordance with your word that you promise a peace that passes understanding which will keep our minds on Christ and what is true and honest and just, pure, and lovely and of good report. Thank you Father that, again, acting in accordance with your word we can endure all things through Christ and you will provide all our spiritual needs for us to have a peace that passes all understanding.

Get Serious

2006-11-01T22:33:00.000-05:00

I believe God is calling us to get serious today. Not one of us knows when our time on earth will be done or when Christ will return for us. That includes me, and that includes you. My last breath could be this one, or this one. I’m not saying this to scare you into making a decision you don’t really want to make. But if my saying this scares you then you should really do some, well I wouldn’t say soul searching, but you should do some Christ searching.

If your relationship with Christ is just a safety rope to get into heaven and stay out of Hell then you probably don’t have enough of a relationship to even make it into heaven. You’re only fooling yourself for God will not be mocked.

I know that all sounded harsh but it is the truth and we all need to be reminded and encouraged from time to time.

In the first chapter of Luke we have the record of the conception of John the Baptist and also of Jesus. In the second chapter we see Jesus as a child growing up. But, I would like us to focus on John for now. The reason for John’s existence is stated very plainly in verses 76 and 77 of chapter 1.

Luk 1:76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
Luk 1:77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,

I am pointing this out to validate John and Johns teaching for you. Verse 77 clearly points out that if one is interested in salvation and forgiveness then they need to focus on the teachings of this man. That was his “commission” if you will.

Luk 3:3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

So John is doing his thing, he is preaching the message of salvation to the people and then the crowds begin to show up.

Luk 3:7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee
Luk 3:8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

Why was John so harsh on this crowd of people in calling them a brood of vipers? In the next few verses we are going to find out whom this crowd of people were and that should shed some light for us.

Luk 3:9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
Luk 3:10 And the crowds asked him, "What then shall we do?"
Luk 3:11 And he answered them, "Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise."
Luk 3:12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?"
Luk 3:13 And he said to them, "Collect no more than you are authorized to do."
Luk 3:14 Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages."
Luk 3:15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ,
Luk 3:16 John answered them all, saying, "I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Luk 3:17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
Luk 3:18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people.

So we see that the crowd was probably mostly made up of Pharisees, Publicans, and soldiers, the wealthier healthier, religious people.

John was wise to them though and made it clear to warn them that if they did not bear fruit then they would be chopped from the roots. If they were just there, as I said earlier, to have a safety net in which to get into heaven then they may end up being the chaff that will burn with an unquenchable fire.

I am reminded of my children when they were younger and it was time for bed. They used to go through the ritual of "I have to go potty", "I'm hungry", "and I’m thirsty". Some how all this seems to coincidentally happen when it is time for bed. But its not a drink they want, there is no hunger, they’ve already been potty twice. They are trying to use a “good” thing and manipulate it for what they think they want. Having a drink of water is not a bad thing. But using thirst as a justification to stay up longer is.

The crowd that John called a brood of vipers in Luke is the same. They were not thirsty for the water of repentance they were just interested in an "easy" heavenly guarantee. They quickly found out from John that there was more to it then a ritualistic dunking or sprinkling or repeating a few bible verses. It required action. It required fruit.

There are a lot of people saying that they are thirsty in the world today. But there are not many people willing to drink the water of repentance. They want something sweeter with some sugar or honey in it. Religion offers all kinds of different waters to you. But there is only one type of water that offers salvation in Christ and that is the water of repentance. Don’t misunderstand me; I am not saying if your not baptized you can’t go to heaven. What I am saying is that if you don’t repent there is not forgiveness and if there is no forgiveness then there is no salvation.

There are no traditions or rituals that will give you salvation from Hell. Decide today to get serious about Christ. While you have the opportunity. Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

You Can Run But You Can't Hide

2006-09-16T13:34:00.000-04:00

Why do we spend so much time trying to hide from a God that knows all and sees all?
We go about our lives all trying to be like chameleons blending in. Afraid to be a contrast or a light in a dark world. Yes, even us Christians. Even Gods chosen. Look at the book of Exodus.
Exo 20:18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off
Exo 20:19 and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die."
Exo 20:20 Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin."
Exo 20:21 The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
They were afraid of God because they were aware of their lack of righteousness before God. They were afraid of failing the "test".
So, we do today. It is easier to hide in the bushes than to "fess up". Or so we think.

Pro 28:13 Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

Num 32:23 But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.

It does no good to hide from God. Confess and we shall have mercy. I don't know about you but I need mercy!

MERCY DROPS ROUND US ARE FALLING,
BUT FOR THE SHOWERS WE PLEAD!!

Enlightened

2006-09-14T13:44:00.000-04:00

Thanks to J.D. Hatfield for helping me with my new blog design, links, and all the other goodies you tech-savvy bloggers already know, and will be seeing soon on this site.

FAITH

2006-08-28T21:56:00.000-04:00

Finally, a new post!

I want to talk about faith. Not just the kind of faith that you have to have to become saved but the kind of faith that changes the way in which you live your life day by day, minute by minute, step by step.

Lets start with a very general definition of faith…faith is the persuasion of the mind that a statement is true. II Thessalonians 2:13 simply states it as… belief of the truth. I believe God gives His elect or chosen the amount of faith that they need in order to achieve salvation. The day-by-day, minute-by-minute, step-by-step faith is our responsibility as we grow and mature in Christ. The problem seems to be is that we as Christians seem to think that that’s all the faith we need. In a way I guess that it is. You will get into heaven with that much faith.

But is that glorifying God? Is that all He really expects or wants from you? That faith is just the beginning of our walk with Christ. Our faith will not be complete until we are standing with Christ in His presence. But here is the problem… Us Christians have gotten lazy in the faith department. I am speaking for myself. Even as far as I’ve grown in Christ I have a bad week and I am ready to give it all up and wallow in my misery instead of trusting God through the trial. Certainly I can’t be the only one who has done this or is going through this right now. Has God done nothing for us that we shouldn’t trust Him through our petty little trials? What are we so concerned about anyway? In Philippians chapter 3 Paul tells us that everything we have here whether it be possessions, status in the community it is all dung compared to Christ. What do we have to lose in losing everything? Nothing worth anything! We are so busy saying “God why did you do this to me?” Instead what we should be saying is “God why have I done this to you?” and “God thank you for doing this to me”.

Phi 2:13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do you trust Him enough to believe His word? Some people don’t seem to have enough faith in God to believe that the Bible could still be accurate after the translations and what not. Pray for them because my Bible tells me in Rom 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of God. What kind of a God do we serve if He can’t even preserve His very words. I believe my God is strong enough to preserve His words through any attempts by humans to change it.

In saying that I would like you to look at a verse with me. Lets look in the book of Matthew chapter 17:20.

(ASV) And he saith unto them, Because of your little faith: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

(ESV) He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."

(KJV+) And1161 Jesus2424 said2036 unto them,846 Because1223 of your5216 unbelief:570 for1063 verily281 I say3004 unto you,5213 If1437 ye have2192 faith4102 as5613 a grain2848 of mustard seed,4615 ye shall say2046 unto this5129 mountain,3735 Remove3327 hence1782 to yonder place;1563 and2532 it shall remove;3327 and2532 nothing3762 shall be impossible101 unto you.5213

(YLT) And Jesus said to them, `Through your want of faith; for verily I say to you, if ye may have faith as a grain of mustard, ye shall say to this mount, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you,

What I would like you to take notice of is that it does not say if you have faith the size of a mustard seed. Which happens to be one of the tiniest seeds. What it does say is, faith as a mustard seed. I have researched this in the Greek and in several translations and even in Luke 17:6 the same words were used. Strong’s uses the phrase ‘In that manner’. Why do I see this as significant you may ask. It is because I believe a mustard seed has an incredible amount of faith. Again a mustard seed is among the tiniest seeds there are and yet it becomes one of the largest in the garden, rivaling that of a small tree. When that seed is planted it knows nothing else of what to do than to grow. A mustard seed does not have its own agenda. It by immeasurable faith just begins to grow, not being concerned of what will happen next or how tall it will become. Whether or not it will get washed out by a flood or burnt by a drought. Just grow. It just focuses on what it was designed by God to do day by day, minute by minute, step by step regardless of circumstances.

So how do we get to the point that we have faith as a mustard seed? I’ve already mentioned that faith comes by the Word of God. So, as I have said a number of times before we have got to be reading the Bible. Waiting patiently on the Lord is faith. Faith that God will handle any situation in our lives. Not trying to solve problems on our own. Eastons Bible Dictionary says that knowledge is an essential element in faith. We gain knowledge in the Lord by reading the Word, listening to preaching and teaching, and studying on our own. Eph 6:16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; Faith gives us the ability to extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one.

Dan

YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS!!

2006-05-24T22:58:00.000-04:00

This is going to be short and to the point. My children say that my posts are too long. So this one is for them. Hopefully they will read this and apply it and reap the benefits.

We see all these exercise plans on TV and magazines that if you will do this exercise or that exercise for just 7 or 10 minutes a day then you are guaranteed to lose weight, look prettier, be happier, get the man/woman of your dreams etc.. I think you get the idea. So many people believe these scams and do try them only to discover that they have "failed again" because it didn't work. They didn't lose the weight they wanted to, still don't like the way they look, still are not happy, and still haven't found their knight in shining armor or princess.

Well, I have the plan that will work for you!! In less than one minute a day I can guarantee that your life will change for the better and you, YES YOU, can become beautiful and be full of joy by just spending less then one minute per day on this program. I know this sounds too good to be true, but it's not. I guarantee this program will work for anybody who isn't already on it. Those who are on it rave about how wonderful it is and how much better their life is on it.

However, I must be true to my word and make this short. You'll have to wait for my next post to see what this unbelievable program is and how it works!!

Read the other posts on this site while you are waiting or visit Voice of Vision for some more great stuff.

Dan

BELIEVE THIS !!!

2006-05-15T22:31:00.000-04:00

Are you ready to find out about this unbelievable plan that can change your life by following it for less than one minute a day? The plan that can make your life better, make you more beautiful, and fill your life with joy?

There are also advanced stages of this plan for those who achieve the beginning stage. But I assure you that the promise I made of a better life is extended to those in the beginning stages as much as those in the advanced stages.

The Plan: Commit to read one Bible verse a day.

I know it sounds stupidly simple right? I guarantee that this will work though. If you are willing to commit to God that you will read one Bible verse a day, and do it with an open heart and mind for Christ your life will change. You are showing God that you are serious about Him and are making an attempt for a relationship. You may not see immediate results, (or you may) but don't get discouraged. If you remain obedient you will start noticing changes taking place in your life. Changes that are permanent. Like building a foundation.

Eventually you will find that one verse is not enough and you will have to continue on to the advanced plan which consists of more verses per day, more prayer, more praise etc..

I think most will find this first step more difficult than you think. Many Christians (myself included up until about 4 months ago) do not read the Bible on a daily basis. I don't say this to condemn, I say this to challenge you.

A lot of our "problems" would not be problems if we were living a life that focused on Christ. One way of focusing our attention on Christ is by reading the Bible. Try this... The next time a "problem" arises, focus your attention on Christ not your situation and see what happens to the problem.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness...

Dan

ARE YOU LISTENING?

2006-05-12T16:47:00.000-04:00

I Chronicles 21:1

Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.

I remember when I was a teenager and I used to look at myself in the mirror. I'd check out my muscles and how good I looked. Not that I was a hunk or anything but I was fit and trim. Not like I am now! I also remember when I was still in high school and we had an undefeated basketball team. We didn't just win our games, we pulverized our competition. For the longest time we just couldn't be beaten. We would remind our opposing team all through the game how they lacked in ability and how we excelled, chanting things like we're #1, we're #1. You're problably wondering where I am going with this. Just keep these memories in mind while I go on.

There is a great man of the God in the Bible that had to deal with a little sin in his life. I personally believe this particular issue was pride but some disagree and think it was fear. I'll address this shortly. Regardless of what the sin was you can replace it with whatever it is in your life at this moment. So this is for everybody, no matter who you are and what your situation may be. As Pastor J.D. Hatfield asks us on occasion,"When you woke up this morning were you God?" Then this applies to you.

King David was on the winning team. He was winning all his games and stomping on all his competition. He beat the Ammonites and the Syrians, he conquered a place called Rabbah and David just destroyed the Philistine giants. And in one instant David took his eyes off God and sinned. Because of all the victory David had been experiencing is why I believe that this was a pride issue and not a fear issue. Don't misunderstand me, David was a great man of God and was obedient in a majority of the areas in his life most of the time. He was very special to God and God, I believe, was overall very pleased with David. I pray that we would all have the zeal to serve God as David did. I point out all this to say that even David made mistakes in his life. So don't be discouraged, be encouraged.

Again, verse 1 reads. Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. If you are familiar with the history of Israel then you know the only time Satan has had any strength over Gods people is when they are sinning, in disobedience or rebellion.

So you say "What is wrong with David counting the people?" Moses did it. He had a census that counted everyone and it was actually commanded by God. Moses did it according to and in response to Gods will. God knew David's heart. I believe David wanted to see how strong he was. Instead of using Gods measuring stick to measure his strength , David used mans measuring stick. Pride was Satan's tool. The only reason Satan had a way in and was able to stand up against Israel is because David allowed sin in the camp. What tool is Satan using on you? Satan's main goal is to take your focus off God. As long as David was trusting God for his strength, Satan had no power. If I am facing a mirror the only thing I see is myself. I assure you there is no God in that mirror. Remember I explained earlier this isn't just about pride. It's about anything that takes your focus off Jesus Christ. What's in the mirror when you look at it? You are! Start looking at Christ!

So, we see that sin can enter into our lives with one look the wrong way. What about our hearing? David not only took his eyes off God, he apparently wasn't listening to God either.

My kids don't like to hear me and my wife "COO" at each other, so when we do they stick their fingers in their ears and make a lot of noise so they can't hear us. Are you intentionally doing something that makes it so you can't hear God? Is there something in your life that is preventing you from hearing God? Do you even want to hear from God? Or are you afraid at what He might say? If you can't hear God it is problably because you're too far away from God or not even faced in the right direction. Who are you close to? Who are you hearing?

If you are too far from God to hear Him then you are way to close to Satan. If you do hear something there is a good chance it won't be God. What is it that takes your focus off Jesus? Is it pride like David? Lust? Unforgiveness? Fear? Anger? The list goes on.

How close are you listening? Remember the story in Acts when Paul and Silas were in prison and they were praising God and there was an earthquake that opened all the prison doors and loosed everybody's chains and they were able to walk out the door. How many of us would have said PRAISE GOD, THANK YOU LORD FOR DELIVERING ME and walked out praising God? You would have missed the whole point. As brother Danny Morgan, the evangelist, would say, "We have missed an opportunity". But Paul and Silas must have been listening close. The noise of the earthquake, falling walls must have been almost deafening. But in the midst of all that they knew they were to stay as if they were still chained up. A soldiers life and his whole household was changed forever because of that! And Paul and Silas still ended up free!! Every moment is an opportunity to serve God. How far are you willing to go? Would you be willing to stay in that jail cell even if the doors fell down? Are you close enough to God that you would even hear Him speaking to you?

Again, in Acts chapter 12, Peter is in prison and is awoken in the middle of the night by an angel that is freeing him. If Peter had his fingers in his ears, the angel would have never awakened him. There scripture says that Herod was about to bring him out. Problably for sentencing, maybe even for death. But peter was listening.

Are you close enough to God to hear Him? Would you hear Him if He told you to stay? Would you hear Him if He said run? If you're not even willing to read your Bible or pray, or fellowship with other believers then you're not going to be able to hear Him. You need to turn away from that mirror, take your fingers out of your ears and start getting closer to Jesus so you can hear Him. He wants to talk to you. He wants to save your soul. He wants to guide your every moment. Are you willing to let Him?

David was looking the wrong way to hear God. God never spoke directly to David through this whole ordeal. God spoke to Gad, David's seer, but not to David. God didn't speak to David until David repented and offered the proper sacrifices for his sin. If there is something preventing you from hearing or being close to God it is as simple as repenting and turning towards God. As far as the sacrifice goes...Sorry, but there is nothing you have that is enough of a sacrifice for your sins. But!!! Praise God, Christ has made the ultimate sacrifice that is more than enough for your and my sins. Have you allowed sin in your camp? Remember David isn't the one who really got hurt for sinning. 70,000 men died from plague. Our sins affect those around us. It may not be in death but in some way, even if it is just you being a poor witness for the Lord. Repent and mean it. How do you repent? Turn away from whatever it is that you are looking at and look at God, read the Word, pray, fellowship with other Christians and don't take your eyes off Christ no matter what.

Dan

VICTORY

2006-05-02T14:12:00.000-04:00

I don't know about you but I'm getting tired of being beat up and losing battles to Satan. I've had some victories but it's been a lot harder than it had to be. Its like baking a cake, if you follow the recipe the cake will come out tasting good. I've been trying to bake a cake with bits and pieces of a recipe. Sometimes it may come out hard, bitter or too flat. Sometimes it is edible and sometimes it is not. Sometimes I had victory, sometimes I failed miserably.

My question to you is...When is the last time Satan lost a battle in your life? Are you tired of being beat up and tossed to and fro like a ragdoll? I believe God has revealed to me a recipe for victory.

The text for all this is II chronicles chapters 19 and 20.

The first steps toward victory would be conviction from the Holy Spirit to clean these areas up in your life that are displeasing or in disobedience to Gods Word. So all of this will seem pointless to you if you have not been "born again" and do not have a personal relationship with the one true God. This is the beginning of the sanctification process. God expects us to do the obvious beginning steps such as praying, reading His Word, studying, going to church, etc..

So, maybe your doing the basics. You have cleaned up some of the blatently obvious areas of sin in your life and have been pretty successful on this road to sanctification. Then God reveals to you an area that your not so ready to let go of. Perhaps that "pet" sin. Now Satan doesn't want you to be successful and will be unrelenting in his attempts to defeat you. If we look at verses 1 and 2 in chapter 20 Jehoshaphat learns that a great multitude is coming to destroy his land. Satan is going to come and try to destroy you and take away your victory. That is the point I would make it to and fail every time. I was victorious until it started to hurt a little then I would be knocked down and have to start over again.

So what happened to Jehoshaphat when he heard that multitudes were coming to destroy him? First of all he didn't wait until the danger was already there before doing anything about it. He had already placed judges to judge over their respective areas to be sure that all the land was living in fear of the Lord. He made provisions to be obedient to the Lord. This is one of the first ingredients in our cake. We need to make provision for victory. Avoiding people who are not encouraging or avoiding the bar or drinking buddies would be examples of making provisions for victory. I Thessalonians 5:22 tells us to obstain from every form of evil.

Next, Jehoshaphat fasted, prayed and went and gathered all the people to pray (verses 3 -13). So, our next step would be to fast and pray. The next ingredient I've already mentioned is he gathered all the people to pray. Jehoshaphat had to be humble. Next ingredient...fellowship (prayer) with fellow believers.

Then God spoke through others with encouragement to Jehoshaphat saying in verse 15 "Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but Gods". If we are obedient in following God's direction he will comfort us when we need it. So the next ingredient would be faith. As my Pastor and friend J.D. Hatfield says, "faith is in the face of fear".

Please understand, encouragement wouldn't be neccessary if it was easy. It will be difficult and there will be times when you want to give up. But that is when you need to realize you are doing something wrong. Read verse 17. You will not need to fight this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem! Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you. If we realize that it is not us that needs to fight this battle then we can concentrate on what God wants us to do to be victorious. But we have to be still and not try to fight a battle that we cannot win.

Our cake is almost done! Our next ingredient is praise. If you continue reading from verse 18 you'll see that praise is all that was required of Jehoshaphat and his people to be victorious over their enemy. If we concentrate on the very reason for our existence then we can live that victorious life that I believe we all want. CONCENTRATE ON GOD!!!

After the enemy had been defeated then the people of Jerusalem and Judah went to the house of the Lord and rejoiced (verse 28). This is the stirring up of the cake. The witness, which was so great and strong that their other enemies heard of their victory and were in theory, already defeated.

Now that we have added all our ingredients and stirred our batter it is time to put it in the oven (Gods hands) and watch our cake rise and become the wonderful creation we were designed to be.

Dan