The Everlasting Way

The Everlasting Way 

Psalm 139:23-24: Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.

·        David had decided he wanted to be led by God in His ways, and he was willing to make some changes in his life. He knew his issues were “heart issues,” so David asked God to reveal any areas of his heart that were not pleasing to Him.

·        There are things in our lives that we have attached our hearts to and we need to let go of them, we must detach our hearts from worldly things if we want a “relationship with God.”

·        Living in the world we use our minds/heads, but to be in relationship with the Lord we need to learn to use our hearts.

·        He is not hiding from us! He wants to lead us deep into this relationship… but we have to do things His way!

·        We do not need to complicate it. You do not need a self-help book, the Bible tells us everything we need to know.

·        His grace towards us is greater than we can ever imagine.  It’s amazing.

·        So how do we have this “fellowship” with God? Where does it begin? 

2 Corinthians 5:20-21: Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

·        First things first, it begins with us reconciled back to God. We were rebellious sinners, we were enemies of God, we were at war with God in our rebellion, and we needed to surrender our lives to Him in reconciliation…on His terms!

·        We do not set the terms; He does not meet us halfway. It’s His way or there is no way.

·        And this reconciliation can only happen through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is truth.

·        First our sins need to be atoned for. Payment needed to be made, restitution… so forgiveness for sin could be made. This is what Jesus did for us on the cross, since there’s no forgiveness of sin without the “payment” of blood.

·        Second There needs to be justification. Our God is a Holy God, and our God is a “Just God.” After we have been cleansed in the blood, legally… in spiritual terms, we need to be made “righteous” to come into His presence.

·        Therefore through the finished work of the cross, we were given the “gift of righteousness.”

·        Third There needs to be “regeneration.” Everything that Jesus did on the cross would be of no use in our relationship with God unless our “nature” was changed. This is our “born again” moment. We need a “new birth” from the Holy Spirit-- in our spirit-- so we can become “partakers of His divine nature.”

·        Paul uses the term, “metamorphosis.” The same term used when a caterpillar become a butterfly. The worm’s nature has changed; it can never go back to being a worm. It is no longer earthbound, but can soar above the world…heavenward bound.

·        It’s important that we understand this can only happen through His grace:

Romans 5:19-21: For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. 20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

·        What God is… He is without limit. If you are thinking of a limit, you are not thinking about our God. No human can comprehend infinity; you must use your faith, and believe it with your heart.

·        If you have a medicine that has no limit to cure a disease, which has a limit, then you know that disease will be cured. When the limitless grace of God attacks the limits of sin in a man, you know that sin has no chance. This is what happened to your sin and this is what happened to my sin.

·        When God says, “much more” and adds the word “abound,” its infinite, its beyond our ability to imagine, so the only thing we can do is believe it in our heart and magnify this truth in your life and your heart will follow!

·        Now that we have been reconciled to Him… we may come into fellowship with Him. And this must also be done on His terms! 

1 John 4:12-13: No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

·        This truth is important to our relationship with our God. We can have fellowship with Him because He is with us; in us.

·        I’ve often heard in prayer meetings or church services, “Oh Lord come into our presence, come near to us Lord.” Unfortunately many Christians still think He is far away. Maybe if we pray hard enough, or get a prayer chain going, we can get His attention.

·        God is as close to you right now as He will ever be. His is “omnipresent.”

·        In His infinite attributes He is present everywhere. God has no limitations, and this is hard for us to understand with the limitations of our minds. No matter what you are doing or where you are…God is there.

·        Unfortunately many Christians want to “feel” their connection with God; therefore they do not believe that He is near so they are often trying to get His attention. Maybe it’s His day off, or He’s off helping someone else.

·        Elijah, had the same issues. Only after all the other noises were gone was he able to hear the “still small voice.” Our trouble is we don’t get still enough to hear that “still small voice.” The Bible says, “Be still and know that I am God.” 

1 John 1:2-6: The life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

·        In order to have fellowship with Him-- none of His terms are negotiable.

·        Too many Christians are trying to have a relationship with Him like they have with one another, and it will never work. My relationship with others is based on me being physically there, but His manifest Presence is different.

·        My problem is I’m using my mind and my experiences with other people… to try to have a relationship with my God, and it is not really based on what He has revealed to us in His word.

·        We may have head knowledge… but we have no heart knowledge. Only our heart can experience Him.  This is where our joy becomes full!

·        John tells us something important: If we walk in darkness we will not be in fellowship with Him. This spoils the relationship. If there’s sin in our lives, let go of it so your joy may become full! 

John 6:63,66-68:  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” 68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

·        I have discovered that when I am in the Word of God, I will experience the Living Word… if I learn to read with my heart.

·        If I have not experienced the Living Word then I have not really read the Bible… I’ve only read it with my head.

·        The Bible is not like any other book, when I read it I am entering into a place where God desires to reveal Himself to me. As I get into the Word of God… the Light of the Holy Spirit begins to reveal God to me in my heart.

·        The great secret of the Christian life is to begin experiencing God as he has led me to experience Him… in everlasting ways.

·        It is His great pleasure to reveal Himself to me in His Word.

·        As I get to know Him, I begin to recognize and experience Him within me.

·        My desire for more of Him is kindled like a flame of fire, and I experience Him in fellowship that goes beyond head knowledge, it is something that becomes difficult to explain with ordinary words. He is more than we can ever explain. 

Colossians 3:1-3: If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

·        We should not be seeking the things of this world, but set our hearts and our desires on the things above. Otherwise my heart is divided, and I cannot have the world and the Lord, too. And Once again I will not hear that still small voice in my heart.

·        Worship is not about singing a few songs on Sunday, but reproducing that worship throughout the week so that our worship becomes everyday experience, or it’s not true worship and we do not understand who God really is.

·        When our heart worship becomes daily (magnifying Him throughout our day), our fellowship with God grows day by day, and the Holy Spirit unfolds the true joy that is available to us when we worship in spirit and in truth…daily.

·        And we are transformed, more and more into His image.

·        The more I become like Jesus the more I become “intimate with Him.”

·        Those things that are not like Him in my life need to be crucified… they need to die, or they will come back again.

·        There’s nothing in the “world” that can help us find a deeper relationship with our God. Therefore we must turn our backs on the world and walk in the way of the cross. Whatever it costs is worth the fellowship on this side of glory.

·        It’s this simple; I must magnify everything of God in my life… and minimize everything of the world. 

Matthew 16:24: Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

A young man came to an old saint and asked, “What does it mean to be crucified with Christ?” After thinking a moment the old saint said, “To be crucified with Christ means three things:

1.     The man who is crucified is facing only one direction. You cannot turn around and see what’s going on behind you. You stopped looking back, and forget about those things that lay behind… and look straight ahead, and that is the direction of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the direction of sanctification and the Spirit filled life.

2.     One more thing about the crucified man is he’s not going back. He doesn’t say to his wife, “Goodbye, honey, I’ll see you after 5:00.” He’s not coming back. When you die on a cross, you say goodbye to the things of this world, we are to longer make accommodation with the things and people we used to abide with.

3.     Another thing about the man who picks up his cross, he no longer has plans of his own. Someone has made his plans for him. On his way to the top of the hill, he doesn’t see John along the way and say, “See you next Saturday John, and we’ll go hunting together. He’s finished; he’s going out to die.

·         It’s a beautiful thing to say, “Lord, not my will, but yours be done. What would you have me to do, Lord?”