True Abiding

 True Abiding

Genesis 1:25-26: And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

·       God created the heavens and the earth, and he made all living things with a life that He chose for it and was particular to its own kind.

Ø And He made that life for the kind of environment that He chose for it.

·       As each living creature “stays in its environment” and “lives the kind of life” for which it was created; this fulfills its purpose. Nothing higher can be said for that creature… other than it fulfilled God’s will for it.

·       God gave man a certain kind of life, and an environment to inhabit. He has no higher calling than to “live in” or “abide in” His environment and fulfill God’s will as the purpose for his life.

·       As originally created, God made man in His own image and man was more like God than any other creature because there is no other creature than man… that was made in God’s image.

Jude 1:6: And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

·       And any being that has left its environment for which it was created will only know pain and misery because they are not fulfilling the purpose for which they were created. This is true of any living creature.

·       Here we see that angels are created beings and many left their habitation (their abode) for which they were created. They became evil.

·       But we are not told that any of the angels were created in the image of God. They were created differently than men, with a different purpose.

·       They also have purpose in their proper domain; in their environment.

·       They are servants of God… not friends and family.

Ø We were created to know Him. It is our purpose; He is to be our habitat!

Hebrews 2:16: For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.

Ø There is no salvation for the fallen angels because they were not made in God’s image.

·        Man is also fallen. No matter what anybody says, man is not alright. Man is like a car that has left the highway, gone over the guardrails, and crashed into the rocks.

·        When Adam sinned, he sinned with a “fallen” angel, and was banned from his environment “in the Garden” where he walked in the presence of God. Because of sin, Adam’s spirit could no longer abide with God. God cannot abide with sin.

·        Everything changed…another spirit, an evil spirit, now dominated Adam’s life:

·        A fallen angel, a spirit of disobedience was abiding with Adam.

·        Now, Adam’s new fallen nature, his flesh… was evil. It was a self-loving nature, not a God loving nature. Adam’s new nature was like the fallen angel.

·        This evil selfish nature became the “power” in his life. His spirit could no longer contact the Spirit of God, because it had become separated from God. Guilt, shame, and condemnation made Adam fearful of God. Adam therefore, hid from God.

·        But because of sin, man has chosen the gutter instead of the presence of God… because he abides with another spirit.

·        The pain and misery from Adam’s leaving his habitation (his abiding in the Presence of God) has affected the fulfillment of the purpose for which we were all created, and has affected all of Adam’s descendants. It was a tragedy of “epic proportions.”

Romans 1:21: “they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful”

·        Deep within every human is a deep spiritual memory of having once known God.

·        It is like an echo of something long gone. Having been separated from the true God, we have made ourselves the “god” of our lives…doing our will instead of His will.

·        Man does all kinds of things in his own selfish will; some climb the corporate ladder for money, others educate themselves, and some desire to be famous… trying to find purpose in his own imaginations, instead of in the Presence of God.

·        But why did God not abandon man like he did the fallen angels?

·        Because man was made in God’s image so that man could know Him unlike any other creature and fellowship with Him.

·        The angels that remained in the presence of God can obey God, and worship God, and they have certain capabilities… but they cannot know Him in the same manner as God created man to know Him.

Psalm 8:4-5: What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor, You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.

·        Adam was made “a little lower” than the angels, yet Adam was crowned with glory and honor because Adam was made in the image of God.

·        Adam was made from the dirt from the earth. He was created to reign over the earth from which he was created.

·        The title “son of man” here refers to Adam as the head of the human race, as opposed to being a “son of God.”

·        God made mankind a “little lower” than the angels because His intentions were to always lift man higher than the angels through His redemption plan, it was a rescue plan. Adam’s sin was not a surprise to God. There was always a plan for a Redeemer.

·        Adam was of the earth, but was bound for heaven! The writer of Hebrews quotes Psalms 8 to give us more info:

Hebrews 2:9: But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

·        What does the Bible teach us about knowing God? He can be known! He has not abandoned us! How can we know Him? We can know Him through Jesus Christ.

·        Jesus called Himself the “son of man” referring to His humanity.

·        Jesus is really the Second Adam, or Last Adam, who has come to deal directly with what the mess the first Adam brought upon mankind.

·        Since Jesus was born into a human body, His state as lower than the angels was temporary. As a result of His finished work on the cross, Jesus was crowned with glory and honor, and He is now seated at the right hand of His heavenly Father.

·        And now as we are “in Christ” we are lifted up with Him! And we can know Him and he wants us to know Him!

Philippians 3:10:  That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

·        Paul didn’t just want to know the Lord intellectually. He wanted to know Him experientially and personally!

·        He meant His heart touching God’s heart. He meant His spirit touching God’s Spirit in true fellowship.

·        Paul wanted to know God, not just know about Him. This describes many Christians, they only know about Him. Some have known him, but only faintly. It’s like hearing a recording of God’s voice instead of the voice itself.

·        It’s as if someone reads a book about someplace. They may know many facts and information about the place, but anyone who actually travels to that place only smiles when they hear others talk about it. Many Christians have only read a book about God. It’s as if they’ve seen only a picture instead of the experience.

·        God sent His Son, Jesus; to bring back the image that man had lost.

·        He redeemed man by the blood of the Lamb to bring man back into His environment; God is that environment! God wants us to abide with Him again.

·        Is not the ocean the environment for whales? Is not the air the environment for birds? Is not the dirt the environment for worms? The heart of God is the environment for man!

John 5:39-40: You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

·        The Bible is not an end in itself; those who make it so are in error. The purpose of the Bible is to lead us to God. The word of God is like a door, or a ladder, it is an entrance in. It is “one of the means” of His communication with us.

·        Many have undergone a kind of brainwashing where studying the Bible is an end in itself. We parse the words, we look up men’s commentaries, we listen to videos, Greek word meanings, and we go to conferences… thinking that somehow this will get us closer to Him! Yet we still thirst.

·        Most are trying to reach God with their minds instead of with their hearts.

·        Don’t get me wrong… I love to study the Bible, but for one reason, to hear from Him. I want to hear His voice, I want to know Him, and I want the Holy Spirit to manifest Christ to me in the volume of the book as He promised.

Psalm 42:1-3:  As the deer pants for the water, so pants my soul for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, “Where is your God?”

·        Every one of us was made with eternity in our hearts. We hunger and we thirst for something we don’t understand. We fill the emptiness with the things of this world, people, religion, drugs and alcohol. But none of these things can ever satisfy us.

·        When we are trying to live outside the environment for which we are created, as the great philosopher, Mick Jagger said, “I can’t get no… satisfaction!”

Matthew 5:6-8:  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

·        Jesus says we hunger and thirst for righteousness.

·        We know that sin has left a filthy stain upon us. We know something is wrong deep inside, and the evidence is in how we treat others.

·        Our own love and righteousness is like filthy rags, our hearts are focused on evil, but we continue to hunger and thirst. Never quenching our thirst and never filling our hunger, never seeing God.

·        A pure heart is a heart that is focused on God. All of a pure heart’s affections are not on worldly things but on the Lord. The pure heart loves God, totally and completely.

·        The pure heart may not see God face to face in this life, but the pure heart will see God in others, and will see God in the stars, and will see God in all of His creation, because God is “omnipresent.”

1 John 4:16: And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

·        God is love, and there is no other way to experience Him. There is no other way to abide with Him. It’s only with your heart and your yearning for Him that our love for Him reaches out and touches the Eternal. God wants to give you Himself!

·        You can never experience Him with your brain, just let the love of your heart reach out and touch Him. Just believe and love… it’s by faith and love that we can know Him.

·        Don’t let anyone tell you how much you can have of Him, only God can tell you how much you can have. Don’t let anyone pull you aside and tell you are too excited or too fanatical, or let them tell you that you already have all you will ever have.

·        Too many Christians have been walking under a cloud for too long, His face is shining bright and His divine illumination shines brightly upon you. Rise above your clouds.

John 15:5-7:“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

·        Come into the environment for which you were created. His Presence is waiting for you.

·        Abiding in His presence makes all things possible, and without Him you can do nothing. Abiding with Him you will be fruitful within the purpose for which you were created.

·        If you are not abiding in Him, you will wither. You will be unfruitful, miss your destiny, and sink into religion.  One last thing, if you abide in His presence and in His word… you will ask and receive what you ask!

The Spirit of Truth

Spirit of Truth 

Ezekiel 37:1-3: The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. 2 Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. 3 And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”

·       The Holy Spirit has been present and active since the beginning.

·       More than 2500 years ago the Spirit was moving upon the prophet Ezekiel in a valley of dry, dead bones. The Spirit asks Ezekiel a question, “Can these bones live?”

Ø Ezekiel has no self-trust, so he says, “O Lord God, You know.”

·       Self-trust is a barrier to moving in the Spirit.  Instead, he’s humble, he’s open, he’s ready for something to happen that is beyond his own realm of experience, and he has a sense of expectation. This is how we should interact with the Spirit.

Ezekiel 37:4-6: Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. 6 I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”

·       We learn something essential about the Spirit, He desires life and He wants us to speak life, to prophesy life and to expect life in His Presence.

·       The purpose of this message is about getting us more familiar with the Holy Spirit and His agenda. He was with the Old Testament saints and He will be with us in an even greater way because of the cross of Christ.

·       Jesus said John the Baptist was the greatest prophet, but we will be greater than he. So if the Spirit did this with Ezekiel, just try to imagine what He could do in you with the Spirit dwelling within you!

·       So let’s go back to the words of Jesus and learn more about the Spirit: 

John 14:15-18: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

·        Jesus’ death and resurrection had a goal, cleanse us from sin, make us new, to fill us with the Holy Spirit, to give us eternal life, and to help us keep His commandments! The Spirit of Truth will abide with us forever, and He will “manifest” Jesus to us.

·        The Spirit is not only our Helper and Comforter, but He is also the Spirit of Truth.

·        The world we live in is filled with the lies of the enemy. It’s like we have a “truth detector” living within us to help us follow truth. He leads us into the Truth, the Way, and the Life.

John 14:25-27: “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

·        Did you know there are some things you don’t need to know and some things you do need to know?

·        The Spirit, teaches us “all” things. Please allow me to translate this; the Spirit gives us revelation of the things we need to know.

·        For example, unbelievers say the Bible is hard to understand… they do not have the Spirit to give them revelation from the Word.

·        When we have Bible study we always humbly ask for the Spirit to give us revelation. He lives in us and He knows us and will not take us deeper than our current desire to understand.

·        We study the gospels so we may know the things that Jesus said. We learn these things over and over; we hide them in our heart do that the Spirit has something to work with. If you don’t have word in your heart the Spirit lacks “the tools” to engage you.

Ø I cannot obey the commandments of Jesus if I do not know the things He said.

·        We must read the word and hang out with Jesus as our friend, our brother, and our Lord. How can you have a relationship with Jesus if you do not know Him by spending time with Him? And He comes to us in the volume of the book.

·        In the context of the verse, Jesus speaks of His peace that He leaves with us in the context of the Holy Spirit.  Our brother Paul gives us more info:

Colossians 15-16: And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Ø We are to let the peace of God “rule” in our hearts. How are we led by the Spirit? Follow the peace! When there is no peace; stop!

·        People are often waiting for the clouds to part and some kind of voice coming from heaven like a Cecil deDemille movie. I’m not saying you will not hear a voice; I’m saying look for the peace of God and follow that!

·        You cannot separate the Spirit and the word. The word is in the Spirit and the Spirit is in the word. Expect to hear Him when reading the word. They are a one volume set!

·        If you follow only one or the other you will be in error! You will miss it! You will get goofy… or dry like some Christians who are for only one or the other.

·        But if you follow the peace of the Spirit you will begin to know grace in your heart, beyond your mental understanding. Grace is the essence of how the Lord relates to us, it will eliminate all fear.

John 16:7-11:  Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.  And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

·        Jesus death, resurrection, and ascension were to our advantage so we could have the Spirit dwelling within us forever as new creations! He will never leave us or forsake us. If He is for us, who can be against us.

Ø You must see this; He convicts the world of sin. The sinner, as an unbeliever, must be convicted of his sin if he is ever going to come to Jesus-- the remedy for his sin. He must come to the knowledge of his guilt, condemnation, and judgment before God.

·        That is why we must preach the truth of the gospel; there is a hell and there is a heaven. Both heaven and hell are a reality and they are forever, so we must choose between life and death before it is too late. This conviction helps him to understand the truth of his situation without sugar coating. This is the Spirit’s job!

2 Corinthians 5:21: For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Ø It’s also the Spirit’s job to “convict” the believer of righteousness, not self-righteousness, but the gift of righteousness.

Ø It’s because Jesus has gone back to the Father and is no longer here in person to remind us that He has made us righteous before the Father.

·        The Spirit is not here to convict us again and again of sin, no matter what some preacher tells you! The Spirit reminds you if you stumble to get up and keep going, you are still as righteous as Jesus because you have His righteousness.

·        This is not a “second class” righteousness.

·        It’s not temporary until you mess up. No, a thousand times no.

·        You are now a “saint.” You’re not a “sinner” saved by grace. You were never a sinner because you sinned. You were a sinner because you were born that way. In your second birth—you were reborn a saint! Let’s see the practical effects of that:

Isaiah 54:17: No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me,” says the Lord.

Ø It’s the righteousness that keeps any weapon formed against you from prospering. It’s the kind of righteousness that breaks addiction, despair, sickness and disease. It’s the kind of righteousness that picks you up when you fail.

·        It’s a grace gift and through it we will rule and reign in life through the One, Christ Jesus! (Romans 5)

·        The Spirit reminds us that the devil is already judged. And those who follow him and are “of” him will be judged too. There is a judgment coming, make no mistake about it. We can take rest in that fact, that the devil will not win no matter how much it looks like he is winning in this age.

John 16:13-15: However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

·        I love this truth; the Spirit of Truth speaks the things He is told to speak, and He will tell us the things that are still to come. He wants to prepare us

Ø He always glorifies Jesus. Life belongs to Jesus, healing belongs to Jesus, freedom belongs to Jesus!

·        And when we glorify Jesus He loves to join in and manifest Himself in our midst declaring the things that belong to Jesus. You want to see healing? Glorify Jesus!

John 7:37-39: On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

·        The Holy Spirit dwelling within us Jesus compares to rivers of living water; cool, clear and pure. It is a fountain, never ending, constantly flowing, and satisfying every thirst.

·        These are grace rivers-- delivering to us everything that is part of our inheritance from the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

·        These rivers are abundant overflowing to those around us, like they did in Jesus! Pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing! This is abundant life. It’s radical, it’s wonderful, and it’s beyond whatever we could hope or ask for.

·        We are not to swim upstream in the river of the Spirit, we must flow with it.

·        There is a condition; we must glorify Jesus!  We get to glorify Jesus!

·        There’s something else--we can quench these flowing rivers.

·        The devil cannot stop it, only we can quench it! When we stop glorifying Jesus, the water begins to trickle instead of flowing. When we put our minds on the things below instead of the things above, the Spirit is quenched!

·        One last thing: 

2 Corinthians 3:17-18:  Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Ø We must see this also; it’s the Spirit’s job to transform us into the image of Jesus. As He frees us from the things that bind us He also helps us focus on Jesus.

Ø We are to behold Jesus in the word.

·        James tells us that the word is like a mirror: For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror and after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

·        If you listen to the word, but do not put it into practice you are like people who look in a mirror and see themselves as they are, instead of what they are called to be.

·        We are to behold the glory of Jesus in the mirror; as we see Him we are to desire to be like Him…it’s there that we are transformed.

What are you seeking?

What Are You Seeking?

What Are You Seeking? 

John 3:16-17: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

·        When Jesus Christ came down from heaven’s pure glory to walk among us, His perfect soul never knew any wrong thoughts, nor any impure motives.

·        He was God come in the flesh and He was perfect in every way.

·        Those who followed Jesus were the prostitutes, the drunks, the pagans, the thieves, the criminals, the deaf, blind, and lame…the sick and the infirm.

·        Those that were against him were the priests, the pastors, the churchy people, the legalists, rulers, and teachers. The “religious people.”

Luke 15:1-2: Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”

·        The religious people thought they were too good and moral to be around the “unclean.”

·        Religion without love is a dangerous thing! History is filled with examples of the things done by religious people who did not have love… they’ve given Jesus a bad reputation.

·        And it is still happening today, people killing each other in the name of God.

Matthew 14:14: And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.

·        Jesus was love walking around on the earth—healing, blessing, teaching, drawing the people to Himself, for those who wanted to listen.

·        When He came to the sick or those suffering—He healed them.

·        There were always those who could not hear, or could not see because they did not want to. Nobody is as blind as the man who refuses to hear.

·        When He healed people, the religious people glared at Him while he made others’ pain disappear, they glared at Him when blind eyes were opened, they glared at Him when He made the lame walk and the lepers were cleansed.

·        Jesus loved the people, and loving them was more important to Him then rules regulations, and traditions.

·        He loves plain people, sick people, tired people, old people—He even loves people who are drunk and high

Luke 13:10-17: Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. 12 But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” 13 And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.

14 But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.”

15 The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? 16 So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” 17 And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.

·        The religious people hated Him because he exposed them as hypocrites. He saw through all of their religious schemes. He saw how they walked around “holier than thou.” He saw how their hair was just right and their clothes were impeccable.

·        But Jesus looked beyond their clothing and saw the maggots in their hearts and the serpents squirming through their souls, and the darkness in their minds.

·        You see, he loved them too! He told them the truth because they thought they were holy but they were headed to hell! There are many like that today, they think they are good enough but they aren’t! Don’t be one of those.

·        He confronted the priests boldly and told them the truth about their condition before God.

·        But they knew that if they didn’t do something about Him the people would see what hypocrites they were and they would be thrown out completely.

·        Therefore they plotted against Him and used His healing on the Sabbath as the reason to kill Him. But He knew what they were planning.

John 2:18-22: So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” 19 Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22 Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

·        The religious people said that Jesus was a “blasphemer” but in their own blindness, darkness, and self-righteousness they didn’t see that God had given them “Himself” as a temple.

·        Jesus knew they would kill Him, but He would be raised again from the dead and He would come out of the tomb after three days.

·        Through His death and resurrection He would establish eternal life, and bring it to life through the gospel so that a dying world could live forever. They would rise again just like He rose again.

·        But the religious people didn’t understand what He meant so they took Him out and nailed Him to a cross for claiming He would raise the temple again in three days.

·        Let’s review; the religious people hated Jesus because He loved sinners, His love healed people, He healed on the Sabbath, and He spoke about His death and resurrection.

Matthew 27:38-43:  Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left. And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, 42 “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. 43 He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ”

·        Now the religious leaders and the sinners turned against Him, the beat Him, put a crown of thorns on His head, spit on Him, and crucified Him. Jesus willingly went to the cross, bled, and died for those who crucified Him and spit on Him.

·        Humility, repentance, and fear of the Lord are “sweet incense” unto the Lord, but a moral superiority stinks to Him.

·        Their own self-righteousness kept them from recognizing God Himself as he stood before them. His only crime was to love sinners and heal on the Sabbath. Do you recognize Him today?

John 1:1-5: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

·        I cannot put myself in the hands of anybody that isn’t God. As long as I am in my right mind, I cannot ever bow to any man.

·        But there is a Man, who was born of a virgin, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, and rose from the dead on the third day to ascend to the right hand of god the Father Almighty, and from there will judge the quick and the dead.

·         That Man said, “I and the Father are One.” I believe Him and I will bow my knees to him!

When the Fire Goes Out.

 When the Fire Goes Out

Matthew 3:11: I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

·        When you were born again, you were baptized in water and baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire. Jesus called this “the Promise of the Father.”

·        We know that our God is a “consuming fire” as the Spirit burns away the dross or impurities within us, and sets us ablaze with the power of the Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 5:19:  Do not quench the Spirit.

Ø “Quench” means to satisfy a thirst, but it also means to extinguish or put out a flame.

·        Paul warns us not to quench the Holy Spirit. But what do we do if we allow the fire of the Spirit to go out? The Bible refers to this process as backsliding.

·        If we have allowed this, what does the path back look like?

Revelation 2:4-5:  Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.

·        Even in the early church, the believers were losing their affection for Jesus.

Ø Backsliding begins in the heart and they go back to what comes natural to them. People tend to turn away from God, their desire for Him and their passion grows cold God knows this better than we do.

·        The fire for the things of God begins to cool off; slowly the communion with Him becomes dry and brittle.

·        If you’ve been in a relationship for any length of time, you can tell when the love begins to grow cold. You know something is wrong. Perhaps that person would rather be with someone else.

·        How do you think God feels when He feels our hearts slipping away and we won’t even admit it to ourselves in our deepest moments? We may not admit this out loud, but it’s all the same.

·        For a while the backslider will keep up religious appearances and talk the talk and seem to enjoy it. But this is similar to half-heartedly laughing at a joke that you don’t get. Soon it becomes difficult to keep up the charade.

Luke 22:31-34: And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” But he said to Him, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.”  Then He said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me.

·        Satan wanted to “sift Peter as wheat,” which means that he wished to shake Peter’s faith.

·        In truth, the adversary wants to destroy the faith of every believer.

·        Jesus did not promise to remove Peter’s testing; instead He predicted that Peter would fail the test by denying Christ three times.

·        Trials are to be expected in the Christian life… they can help us grow.

·        Jesus was confident that Simon Peter would get back up again and go on to strengthen the other disciples.

·        Our faith and perseverance are revealed in repentance and restoration, not in sinless perfection. We get up and keep going, after we fall.

Luke 22:54-57: Having arrested Him, they led Him and brought Him into the high priest’s house. But Peter followed at a distance. 55 Now when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. 56 And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said, “This man was also with Him.” 57 But he denied Him, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him.”

·        Peter was following at a distance.

·        What begins in the heart soon manifests in the physical.

·        Jesus had been arrested, and the promise of the Kingdom of Heaven that the Messiah would establish here on earth seemed to be crashing. Peter was disappointed and discouraged because his expectations were not met in Jesus.

·        Jesus didn’t do things the way Peter wanted Him to do and when he wanted him to do it.

Ø Discouragement and disappointment can happen to any Christian; mature or just born again. It spares no one.

·        Joy, and victory cannot grow in a climate of discouragement. The devil uses discouragement and disappointment in Christians when other forms of temptation do not work.

·       We become more distant and attending church less because it loses some priority in our lives. We often find excuses not to attend with our brothers and sisters, it loses its importance in our hearts. It’s no longer convenient, our hearts are cold, and the fire is quenched.

·       Peter was warming himself by the “enemy’s fire” as his own fire started to dim. He was now sitting with the unbelievers, not the brethren.

·       He was hanging out in the wrong place with the wrong people at the wrong time… because it was the easy thing to do.

·       And soon what was unthinkable became possible; Peter denied Christ.

·       Backsliding started one step at a time.

Hosea 11:7: My people are bent on backsliding from Me. Though they call to the Most High, none at all exalt Him.

·       The term “backsliding” comes from a cow being led forward and for no apparent reason she decides she won’t go another inch. The more they pull her the more she backs up.

·       The old times prophets were not shy about calling out the people on their backsliding.  But you don’t hear it much anymore from our preachers.

·       It’s not that God is vengeful and wants to punish our backsliding; it’s a matter of cause and effect.

·       It’s as if someone swallows a poison pill; God isn’t angry over the fact that someone swallows the pill… it’s a matter that the pill will kill you.

·       Sin is like that, it has its own effect on us apart from God. He loves us so much; He hates to see us do this.

How can we know if we are backsliding?

Ø We are backsliding when our desire for spiritual things begins to lack our enthusiasm.

·       We are backsliding when we have lost our desire to read our Bibles,

·       We are backsliding when we have lost our desire to pray.

·       And we are backsliding when we have lost the joy of giving.

Ø We are backsliding when we become more tolerant of evil than we once were.

·       We are backsliding when we lose any sympathy for the lost and the poor.

·       We are backsliding when we are not eager to gather with other Christians for church, Bible study, and worship.

Hosea 14:4-7: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from him.  I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall grow like the lily, and lengthen his roots like Lebanon. His branches shall spread; his beauty shall be like an olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon. Those who dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall be revived like grain, and grow like a vine. Their scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

·        Some people say that their job or their business dragged them down, or maybe they blame somebody else for their backsliding.

·        No, our own desires of our hearts cause us to backslide.

·        The Bible says that our God loves us as much when we are backsliding as when we are not. He understands we are prone to wandering like sheep gone astray. He says He will heal our backsliding.

·        Therefore backsliding requires “healing.” He heals us through His love not by being angry with us. He provides dew for us in our dryness, He strengthens our roots…He revives us again.

Ø Did you know that we can have personal revival? It’s a refreshment of the Holy Spirit. He comes alongside of us and joins our battle, He calls us to return.

John 21:17: He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.”

·        Peter in his discouragement, returned to fishing…his old life.

·        There are preachers of the gospel who have dragged a full net of fish to shore; they have been successful workers, but they can become discouraged in their hearts too!

·        Jesus didn’t ask Peter, “Are you sorry?” nor “Will you promise never to do that again?” Jesus challenged Peter to love.

·        Jesus refocused Peter’s heart. And then put him right back into the race!

Luke 15:11-14:  Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. 13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

·        This prodigal son was a backslider. He’d known the good things in his Father’s house, but now the things of the world are more interesting to him than the things of His Father.

·        You could say he was blinded by worldly things. He had let his heart wander, and he had attached his imagination to the possibilities of prodigal living

Luke 15:15-18: But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.

·        Backsliding causes us to hunger and thirst for the things of our Father’s house. We soon see that the things of this world are nothing but dung.

·        We were not made to live with the pigs, we are children of God. We are made to live with Him.

Luke 15:17-19:  “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” 

·         He recalled the good ol’ days of living in His Father’s house. He knew he must return. I believe all backsliders have this desire if they were ever really saved to begin with.

Luke 15:20-21:  “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

·        His Father was waiting for him. Your heavenly Father is waiting for you. You will be received with love, not with anger. You will be welcomed, not condemned.

·        The son experienced his Father’s love, and then “repented” of his backsliding. It’s the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.

Luke 15:20-21: “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.

·        There was more in the Father’s house than the son ever knew, and now there was joy and gladness that was way beyond what he had ever experienced before.

• He had a “personal revival.”

·        He was refreshed! Why live in misery, just return!

Turn your Worry into Worship

Turn Your Worry into Worship

John 14:27: Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

·        Shalom means “peace” in Hebrew, it is a traditional greeting between Jews.

·        Shalom is highly valued amongst the Jews who have known centuries of chaos. The greeting literally means; “nothing broken, nothing missing.”

·        It seems as though fear, worry, and anxiety are running rampant in our society. Some people live in a state of low grade fear all the time and anxiety is very common in our world today.

·        This is not the will of God for us. Our Lord wants His children to live their lives with peace as our normal condition, not fear.

·        Jesus is not only our Lord and Savior but He is our Prince of Peace, and He brought His peace from His kingdom of heaven into this world.

·        He comes to bring us an abundant life, and there is no abundant life without peace.

·        The Bible says, “Cast all your cares upon Him for he cares for you.”

·        Great, how do I do that?

Matthew 6:31-34: “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

·        So many of our anxieties come from trying to control things that are out of our control.

·        Let’s seek the King of kings in His kingdom, and our worries and fears will take care of themselves. The things that have been done have been done. Things that have not been done have not been done. Worrying will not change that.

·        There are things we cannot change. So why not give Him control? What is the point in worrying about them?

·        There is direct relation of giving Him control and receiving His peace

·        Those that do not know His peace are trying to keep control of their lives.

·        Your Heavenly Father knows how many hairs are on your head, He is keeping His perfect attention on you, nothing escapes Him because He perfectly loves you. You can release your cares to Him and receive His peace.

·        Your fears, anxieties, and worries cannot coexist with His peace. We must choose correctly.

·        Isaiah 26:3: You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.

·        Jesus is saying we must redirect our focus from the things that cause me stress… to Him.

Matthew 11:28-30: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

·        Rest and worry are two opposite things. Our worries and cares are heavy to carry. You can give Him your burdens. You can give Him your anxieties and cares. He invites us to do so.

·        Perhaps you have come here today heavily burdened. I am here to encourage you to “receive” His peace. It is not just an intellectual peace like the world gives, it is a peace we can experience and feel deep within.

·        A peace that you cannot feel or experience is not the peace our Lord promises us and paid a high price for us to receive.

·        Jesus would not promise us “an idea of peace” or a “peace we will have in eternity,” or even a “temporary peace” that comes with the easing of our situation.

·        No, God’s peace is powerful, it can be experienced in the darkest of places.

·        Our souls can be calm in the middle of the storm as we turn our hearts towards Him and away from the darkness.

Luke 10:38-42: Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” 41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

·        Jesus frequently came to visit Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. He brought His disciples with Him, it was a whole entourage.

·        Martha undoubtedly felt overwhelmed when the visitors came. There was a customary obligation to “host” them.

·        She would feed them, give them water, and wash their feet.

·        As they enter Martha’s home, perhaps she looks a little frazzled and anxious in her duties. I’m sure she is glad to see Jesus, maybe she is even pleasantly surprised to see Him… but she carries a burden of providing for them at the same time. Maybe she doesn’t have enough bread.

·        He is not concerned. He did not ask her to provide for everyone. She has put these things on herself, even her demeanor is wrong because of her anxiety.

·        When Mary sees Jesus, her demeanor is completely different.

·        Perhaps when she sees Jesus she “runs and jumps” into His arms, and holds Him tight with reckless love and abandon. No doubt this makes Jesus smile and I’m sure he holds her tightly too. He loves them both.

·        These two sisters are completely different in their approaches to Jesus and therefore, have different results in their interactions with Jesus.

·        One is focused on her circumstances; the other is focused on Jesus.

·        Jesus takes His rightful place in the center of the room, and begins to teach in a way that only He can do.

·        Mary comes closest to Jesus and sits at His feet.

·        She assumes a “lowly” posture and her gaze is fixed on Jesus.

·        She finds extreme joy in His presence and listens to Him intensely.

·        She has put every circumstance in the household second to Jesus, including helping her sister. She simply adores Jesus…she is radiant.

·        Others look to Jesus as Teacher and Master, but she sees Jesus as her “all in all.” How do you look at Jesus?

·        Martha comes into the room from the kitchen saying, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”

·        Jesus looks at Martha with such love and tenderness saying,

·        “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

·        If you are worried and troubled about many things then you are not doing “the one thing.”

·        Mary was choosing to worship Jesus, Martha was choosing to worry and fuss over many things. Martha was earning Jesus love and therefore, Martha experienced no rest and no peace in her worries.

John 12:1-8: Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. 2 There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him. 3 Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

·        Mary, this sister of Lazarus and Martha, took her jar of spikenard perfume and poured it on the feet of Jesus.

·        This perfume was likely her dowry, her nest egg, her security. She poured her perfume out in an extravagant show of adoration and affection.

·        She was not worrying about her future with no financial security, she used what she had to worship Jesus.

Psalm 95:6-7: Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. 7 For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand.

·       As we bow down and worship Him our cares begin to dissolve, and all of our deepest needs are met in Him.

·       Unfortunately we chase after lesser worldly things and we inevitably find that they are empty and without meaning. Like Martha, we may prepare a meal that Jesus never ordered, leading to worry and anxiety.

·       Jesus invites us to come before Him every day and give Him our burdens and cares. He is not troubled by our troubles, but our giving them to Him is a sweet fragrance unto Him.

v Key point: It’s another form of worship!!!!!

·       He will take our worries and trade us for rest for our souls. He invites us to trade our worries for His rest. Not just one burden but every burden that is weighing us down.

Psalm 46:1-5: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3 though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.

·       God is always ready to help and is present in times of trouble. Whatever troubles are in your life right now, our God is ready and present to help.

·       Even great mountains or turbulent seas are not too great for Him.

·       Won’t you lift your hearts up to God as you sit at His feet and pour our love upon Him. If He is Lord of your life, won’t you let Him be Lord?

·       By giving Him control we let go of those things that are causing us worry and fear.

·       Give your burdens to Him so that they become His, and they are no longer yours.

·       We can be like Mary and do the ONE THING--simply sit at His feet and enjoy Him. This is abundant life.

·       This is the way the kingdom works, we do not have to complicate it.

Matthew 18:2-5: Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3 and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.

·       Children are not weighed down by the cares of this world.

·       They don’t worry about what other people think about them.

·       They don’t lay awake and worry about the mistakes of their past.

·       They are totally carefree.

·       They are free to enjoy abundant life.

·       This is only possible because they know they are not in control.

·       They cannot provide food and shelter for themselves, or pay the bills. They are totally dependent on their parents.

·       Theirs is the level of trust that our heavenly Father wants us to have.

·       Jesus is ready to take everything that is heavy and is burdensome and ready to replace it with light, your worry changing into worship. Your anxiety to adoration and your concerns into calmness.

·       One definition of worship is simply to turn all of your attention and affection towards God.

·       It doesn’t require any singing; it is the posture of our hearts. Man looks outwardly but God looks at the heart.

Psalm 103:1: Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name!

·       We cannot earn His love, he has already freely given it to us.

·       Come let us bow down and worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. There’s no striving or straining.

·       The cross is our evidence of his love.

·       Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. We adore you Lord, we glorify You, there is no one like You!

Learning to Yield

Learning to Yield 

James 4:7-8: Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Ø The word "yield" is rarely used in the Bible; instead “surrender or submit” is more commonly used.  It is a voluntary surrender of one’s will to follow and obey God’s plan and His appointed authorities.

·        Our fallen nature doesn’t like to yield or submit; therefore it becomes a choice… a difficult choice. It is the opposite of resisting or rebelling.

·        When I learned to drive, I had to learn what the “yield” sign means; I must slow down and even stop to allow others to go instead of me. Sometimes I get so caught up in my “busyness” that I don’t want to yield…even when the sign tells me I must…so I’ll race someone through the intersection causing danger and often harsh words.

·        It’s good for me to slow down, and even stop sometimes, thereby giving someone else the right of way or even control. Learning to yield is a necessary part of my spiritual maturity. We see the great saints of the past gladly yielding in joyful submission.

John 1:23-27: He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the Lord,” ’as the prophet Isaiah said.” 24 Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. 25 And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. 27 It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.”

·        John the Baptist wasn’t a wealthy man, or even a well-dressed man, he wore camel hair clothing and ate locusts and honey. He had no reason to be “self-confident.” However John found his identity in the scriptures rather in the social culture of the times.

·        John didn’t believe he should be seen and not heard. In fact just the opposite, he was bold and loud. The art of yielding or submitting does not mean being unimportant. Our Father in heaven thinks we are very important. We has work for us to do.

John 3:26-30: And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified—behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!” 27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease. 

·        The NLT says, “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.”

Ø  Pray this with me, “Lord You must increase, but I must decrease.”

·        When He overflows in us, everything that is within us that does not please Him is emptied out and replaced with His perfect love.

·        The bride does not belong to best friend of the bridegroom. The bride belongs to the Bridegroom, therefore the best man willingly steps aside.

·        “Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.” John felt nothing but joy in submitting to Jesus to the point where it was Jesus alone that could be seen and heard, and loved.

·        This brought extreme joy to John!

·        This may seem difficult for those of us that struggle with a “low self-image.”  There are some of us that feel like “wall-flowers” and should just stay away. No, a thousand times no!

·        He wants all of us to live life to the fullest and John the Baptist is an example to us.

Matthew 11:10-11: For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ 11 “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

·        John didn’t see himself as “great”—he didn’t have any special talent, holiness, or great accomplishments. John was great because he pointed people to Jesus! He was willing to become lesser so Jesus could become greater…how about you?

·        And yet… Jesus says he who is least in the kingdom is greater than John.

·        John’s preaching was the end of the Law and the beginning of the Promise of grace. Everything that was prophesied was being fulfilled!

·        The Son of God was becoming a man so that men could become sons of God…filled with His Spirit.

·        Paul tells us that we are the “temple” of the Spirit of God. Maybe you think you are deeply flawed, but that’s not how God sees you. You are more beautiful than Solomon’s Temple. Solomon’s Temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

·        The Spirit of God wants to make His home in you, that is why Jesus came and died, yet was resurrected for you. He wants to be with you forever. He has adopted you as His son…that is how much He loves you. Let that truth settle deeply into your soul.

·        Your body, is an imperfect earth suit, but it is still glorious to God. 

Galatians 4:6-7: And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

·        Those who are sons have the Spirit of the Son in their hearts. This gives us both the right and the ability to cry out “Daddy!” to God our Father, just as Jesus did.

·        We have access to the same intimacy with God the Father that God the Son has.

·        Sons are never slaves-- and slaves are never sons in their father’s house. Jesus shows us this in the parable of the prodigal son… the son was determined to return to his father as a slave – but the father refused, and would only receive him as a son.

·        There is a beautiful progression. First we are set free from slavery. Then we are declared sons and adopted into God’s family. Then, as sons, we are made heirs. We are an heir of God through Christ. We inherit God Himself.

·        For some, this might seem like a small inheritance. Yet for those who are really in Christ and who really love God, to be an heir of God is the richest inheritance of all.

·        You are precious to Him. His heart burns with love for you. The Son of God did not die for you to become invisible; that is not the submission the Bible talks about. He died to make you a son, and as a son we must learn to walk as sons.

Luke 2:49-52:  And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” 50 But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them. 51 Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

·        Jesus was the Only Begotten Son of God-- and as the Son He knew that He must yield to the Father and be about His Father’s business.

·        But He also was subject to Joseph and Mary.  He was learning to be obedient, because there was a day coming when obedience would be strictly required.

·        Obedience and yielding to the Father must also be learned by us if we are also to be about our Father’s business.

·        We are being prepared and sanctified for Him. Our choice to submit means we put Him first in all things.

·        As we learn to yield to the Father, we will also grow in wisdom, stature, and favor.

·        John the Baptist understood this, John knew his job was to prepare the way and clear the path, and then he stepped aside for everyone to look to Jesus, the King of Kings. He must take His rightful place, and we must step aside. This is yielding. 

Luke 4:5-8: Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.” 8 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

·        Now Jesus is no longer a child and He has been filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s time to confront the enemy just like the first Adam did. He is about His Father’s business.

·        The enemy’s tactics are simple; put your eyes on the world and its pleasures, instead of on the Lord. It worked with Adam, he tries it on Jesus.

·        Jesus said, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

·        Our God is a jealous God because of His extreme love for us. He knows how easily we are led astray into things that are not good for us. The culture is always enticing us with worldly things to lead our love away from where it belongs…on Jesus!

·        There is no other God but Him. Everything is a counterfeit. All worship, honor, and praise are rightfully His, and His alone. And He alone has the right to ask for our full surrender.

·        The Lord wants to keep it simple for us, He is the Lord, and He will not share His glory. There is no other like Him and we should not settle for less. His beauty, majesty, and splendor are unique.

·         Our God is a good God and He loves us. And He knows there are great dangers out there lurking to suck us in.

Ø It’s only when we take our eyes off of Him and His nature that we desire to become greater again and lose our joy!

Matthew 26:36-39: Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” 39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

·        Jesus had a yielded heart… He yielded His own desires and will for that of the Father. No one took His life from Him, He freely gave it up. He calls us to follow in His footsteps. He’s asking us to freely give up our will for His will. 

Philippians 2:5-8: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

·        Paul describes for us the mind of Jesus… it was an obedient mind. It is all too easy for us admire it from a distance. God wants us to be awed by it, but also to see it as something that we must enter into and imitate. It is something that we have choice about.

·        Jesus wasn’t trying to get what he already had; He already had the divine nature. But He humbled Himself and became obedient to the cross. Crucifixion was such a shameful death that it was not permitted for Roman citizens.

·        Jesus came all the way down to the most despised death of all, a condemned criminal on the accursed cross.  Even the death of the cross shows that there is no limit to what God will do to demonstrate His love and saving power to man.

·        There is no greater way to glorify God than through obedience, yielding, and submitting.

·        He knew He was loved, and it was through the Father’s love that the Son could obey. This is also the key to our obedience.

Luke 9:24-26: For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? 26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.

·        There’s a losing and a gaining, and its’ all in the context of gaining and losing “for his sake.”

·        When we surrender, we must remember we are yielding to Him who has yielded more than any man. Jesus possessed everything in heaven and on earth yet He gave up everything so that we could possess Him.

Ø  And possessing Him only comes through surrender to Him. He says if we do not submit to Him we are ashamed of Him!

Romans 12:1:  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

·        The Lord is calling us to offer ourselves as a “living sacrifice.” A living sacrifice still has a choice to submit completely to God.

·        It is often so hard for us to sacrifice anything, let alone our whole being. He held nothing back from us as He offered Himself as a “Living Sacrifice” for us; it was His radical love for us that led Him to the cross.

·        Therefore, it is our “reasonable service” to offer ourselves to Him in our own radical love offering to Him.

·        You can offer yourselves more to Him, more than you ever have before and hold nothing back from Him. I hope this is the desire of your heart.

·        The world cannot understand this because they do not know the love of Christ. He has proven Himself worthy of our sacrifice. No one else has bled and died to give us new life.

Easter Sunday—A New and Living Way

 A New and Living Way

Hebrews 10:19-22: Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

·        This is the incredibly good news of the resurrection of our Lord.  We can now come before Him in a “new and living way.”

·        The veil has been torn; we can draw near in total reconciliation.

·        You don’t have to let your “conscience” keep you away. The blood has cleansed you, baptism has washed you. You can now come!

Ø It’s a new way, it’s a living way. It’s not the Old way with the blood of bulls and goats and priests. It’s a new way because we have a new High Priest, Jesus! And the more we come to Him in this new and living way, the more abundant life we share with Him!

·        We are new creations and we can tell others, “Our God wants to have ‘fellowship’ with us.” We are to be His ambassadors telling others to come and enjoy His Presence. The way is open, the work is finished, the price has been paid! We can point the way!

Revelation 3:19-21: As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

·        Jesus wants to join us in communion or fellowship. It’s the new living way!

·        We don’t have to come in some special way; He wants us to come just as we are.

·        We don’t have to come to Him at a special time; we can come to Him anytime.

·        We can dine with Him on the mountain tops or in the valleys.

Ø We are His children and He wants us to know Him in the same way that He knows us. When we come in fellowship we are not bothering Him, He delights for us to know Him even as we are known by Him.

·        He has broken down every wall that separates us so that daily or even hourly…communion with Him could not be easier.

·        Deep spiritual connection isn’t for some spiritual elite; He calls us to be His friends… day in and day out.

·        In the days of Jesus, it was an honor to have a meal with someone. It was a way of enjoying one of the most intimate ways of fellowship.

·        Opening your home to someone and sitting at the same table and eating the same meal and conversation was a demonstration of trust and unity. The meal wasn’t shared with just anyone. It created bonds of friendship.

·        Therefore when Jesus invites you and me to open the door of our heart to Him he is asking for us to have deep fellowship with Him…as good friends.

·        He wants to enter in as more than just an honored guest.

·        He wants to be our Lord, our Brother and friend. He wants oneness with us, where we begin to “abide” together. We abide with Him… and He with us. We make our home together.

The Practice of the Presence of God by Nicolas Herman of Lorraine, France aka Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection.

·        Nicolas Herman had been a soldier in the Thirty Years War in Europe in the 1600’s and had his conversion on the battlefield at 16 years old by looking at a tree in mid-winter thinking about the change that would happen to the tree when spring came. He was wounded in the war and was lame for the rest of his life.

·        From that time on, he vowed to walk, “in His Presence.”

·        At the age of 26, Nicolas consecrated his life and joined a monastery as a Carmelite Monk in Paris and lived until the age of eighty. He changed his name to Lawrence of the Resurrection.

·        Brother Lawrence was to have said, “There is no greater experience in the world than living in the continuous Presence of God.”

·        His primary job as a lay person in the monastery was to peel potatoes, and wash dishes. He embraced his lowly position and humbled himself before his God.

·        His humble nature attracted many others to seek him for his spiritual guidance and his profound peace.

·        The wisdom he passed on to them in his conversations and letters became the basis for his book, “The Practice of the Presence of God.”

·        He was an ordinary man with an extraordinary God. The fruit in his life was evident from the time he spent in the presence of God.

·        He had soaked in the love of God through the Holy Spirit… and it flowed from him. It was more than Bible knowledge, it was the experience of the ongoing friendship with the Lord.

·        We are all ordinary humans with an extraordinary God. And we can also experience the level of intimacy with our God just as brother Lawrence did.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

·        Brother Lawrence did not just spend his time doing nothing but seeking God, in fact he was a busy man with many chores and duties. He had learned to experience the Presence of the Lord while peeling potatoes or cleaning in the kitchen.

·        He said, “The noise of busyness and others’ voices is not different from the time of prayer. It’s as if I am still on my knees in prayer.”

Ø Brother Lawrence when asked about how to experience the Lord’s Presence simply said, “I just ask Him for His Presence to be with me all day when I begin my day. I keep my attitude of rejoicing and thankfulness as I speak with Him throughout the day.”

John 4:21-24: Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

·        This Samaritan woman thought there were rules and regulations, and rituals were required to worship the Lord.

·        But Jesus was telling her that a new time was coming, a new day that is already here where we can come to the Lord anywhere, at any time, in anyway. The walls have been broken down.

·        There was a time when religion dictated worship and praise, but Jesus says those days are over, now we can come to Him with our hearts open in the new living way.

·        There’s a seeking that is required.

·        Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened to you! Just come!

·        We can worship Him and have communion with Him at any time and any place! What grace he has given us!

Ø Everything Brother Lawrence did he did it in a manner as though he was doing it FOR God. It was an offering to God.

Ø  He will receive everything we do as an offering if we will do it with a sincere heart.

Ø Brother Lawrence asked God to be with Him each day, and then talked to Him as though He was there. He was keeping his mind on those things that were above. And then he did everything as a though unto God.

·        This honors Him and glorifies Him by our lives. We can be completely open and transparent with Him, and open our hearts to Him… in constant and open communion and conversation.

·        We will have this in eternity, but He wants to have this with us now in this life.

John 6:48-51: I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

·        There was manna that the Jews ate in the wilderness, but they died. Jesus says there is “another bread” that we may eat and we will not die. Jesus says, “I am this Bread.” If anyone eats this Bread, he will live forever.

·        This Bread is my flesh he said. The bread in the temple was called “showbread” or the Bread of the Presence! We abide with Him in His Presence.  As we eat the Bread of Life as we experience His Presence in a transforming way.

John 6:53-56: Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

·        Jesus says that if we will, eat His flesh and drink His blood, we will abide with Him! The Father has given life to Him, and as we partake of His flesh and blood He gives life to us.

·        This was very mysterious to the listeners then, and it takes the Holy Spirit to illuminate this truth for us today. He desires for us to eat and drink from His life and love. That means we may receive His nourishment continually.

Ø Notice he didn’t say that He was steak and lobster, or cake and caviar. His flesh wasn’t for just special occasions, no He wants to be our daily bread. Bread is an ordinary food, common to every culture. He wants us to commune with him and fellowship with Him many times each day.

·        If we eat three meals each day with many snacks in between, shouldn’t we eat the Bread of Life as much or more?

·        Just as we cannot go without food, so we should partake of the life and love of Jesus regularly.

·        We shouldn’t spend our lives chasing food or other things that spoil and rot. We must seek the “bread of the Presence.” He will give us true nourishment, we just need to open the door when we hear Him knock and he will commune and dine with us as many times in the day as we remember or desire.

·        Our ears must become more attentive to his voice and His knock.

Matthew 4:2-4: 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”

·        Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, but Jesus tells the Tempter that we don’t live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

·        We can open God’s word and feast on our daily bread, we can experience Him in the volume of the book!

·        Jesus is so accessible to us, we can open up our hearts to Him every hour of the day wherever we are and commune with Him.

·        Whether we are sweeping the floors or doing the dishes we can commune with him.

·        It will take a little discipline to put away some of the distractions, but it is not impossible! Nothing is impossible with God, and you will have His very present help.

·        He longs for this sweet communion with you even more than you do, far more! And the experiences of Brother Lawrence show us that this communion with Jesus is for the common man, the ordinary man. If Brother Lawrence did it so can we.

·        The Spirit of God dwells within us and we are One with Him.

·        He will make His Presence tangible to us and will remind us that he is waiting for us, standing at the door, waiting for communion.

1 John 1:1-3: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— 2 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.

·        The way is open, He is waiting for you with arms open wide. You can have fellowship with him so that your joy may be made full. Come with rejoicing, and thankfulness, and expectation!

·        Come to Him in this new and living way, anytime you want! The more you come to Him, the easier it becomes. He’s knocking at your door.

·        Let Him in.

The Journey

 The Journey

Hebrews 11:8-10: By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

·        Abraham left the home where he was raised as a child when God called him to go to a place he didn’t know. He didn’t know where he was going, he just got up and went when he heard his came called.

·        How can we find a place we’ve never heard of? How can we know the way?

·        The Bible says that Abraham was waiting for something more.

·        He had high expectations. He knew there was a God, and he knew that nothing could really satisfy him in this world. He knew that only God could satisfy him.

·        Have you figured out that out? Paul said it was all “dung.”

·        The Bible says that Abraham was a friend of God. Are you a friend of God? Does God know you want to be his friend? You can tell him so today.

·        The Bible tells us that Abraham waited for a city that had God made. He was willing to wait for it… this city would be his destination or his destiny.

·        For Abraham, this world was not his home.

·        His home was with God, and until he would live forever with his God, Abraham would live in tents. He didn’t build a house, he didn’t have a mortgage, he didn’t do the things that many do while they are here trying to make this world their home.

·        Abraham was just passing through here, on his way somewhere else, so he didn’t get stuck here. He didn’t get stuck in material things, he didn’t get stuck in politics, he didn’t get stuck in the culture… he knew where he was going.

·        Do you know where you are going?

Philippians 3:18-20: For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

·        The Bible says we walk through life. Life is the journey that each of us have. Our walk begins before we can walk, and it ends when we can walk no more. We walk towards the end, even though most of us cannot see the end, the end is there for each of us.

·        It reminds me of a road trip. We all get in the car and start heading towards our destiny. There are usually signs along the road to tell us important info about things near us like gas, food, and lodging where we can make a pit stop. I am grateful for the signs along the way, they keep me informed.

·        There are also people, distractions, detours, and road construction that will keep us from arriving at our destiny.

·        There are many who don’t want us to make it to where we are supposed to be.

·        There will always be people who want me to go their way, instead of the way of my destiny. There are people who will point me in any direction, except the way I am supposed to go.

·        There’s always someone in the car that says, “Are we there yet?” “How much longer?” The signs are there to help us to keep our fellow travelers informed.

·        There are even those that are trying to point the right way for me.

·        There are also signs along the road that tell me, “Jesus Saves.” I see crosses on churches, there’s worship music on my radio, there’s someone wearing a Jesus t-shirt. These are all signs for me to tell me about my destination before I get there.

·        The Lord is telling us that our citizenship is not of this world, but it is in the next one. Therefore, we are not citizens here… we are aliens on earth.

·        We do not belong here, we belong elsewhere. He tells us that in the Promised Land of our citizenship, Jesus will transform our lowly bodies into bodies like his.

·        It’s a place called heaven.

Revelation 22:13: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”

·        Jesus says He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. God is always first, and God will surely be the last.

·        Man has no say in his birth, nor in his death. One day the little man finds that he is alive and accepts that he is. Before that he had no say in anything.

·        After that he may strut and boast that he is independent of God and say he doesn’t believe in God, it’s nothing but a big hoax to keep the masses in line.

·        Have your fun little man, you are just babbling between your first and your last, and you are in His hands whether you like it or not. God will have the last word in your life, just as He had the first.

Ecclesiastes 3:19-20: For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. 20 All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.

·        King Solomon, the wisest man to have ever lived, determined that everything under the sun was meaningless. In many ways, we are just like the animals, back to the dust we go.

·        All we are is dust in the wind!

·        In the meantime, we busy ourselves with the meaningless things of this world.

·        Our minds are usually set on getting more stuff; our minds are set on the things that really matter

Ezekiel 47:3-5:

And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles. 4 Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist. 5 Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed.

·        This river of Living Water is our eternal life in the Holy Spirit. We all come to the river, we all make choices about the river. Even if we don’t choose we choose.

·        Some choose to stay on the bank of the river, and never partake. The river of life just passes them by.

·        There are others that choose to stick their toe in or enter the river only to their ankles. They’re willing to try it sparingly, but never really enter in. It’s like they want a taste without commitment.

·        There are others that wade into the water waste deep. They are in the water, but not all the way in. They’re really trying to keep control and are unwilling to totally trust God. They’re in the water but they still trust in their job, their bank account, the government, or some other thing besides God.

·        Then we find the ones who are willing to really go for it.

·        Maybe they think they have nothing to lose.

·        Maybe they know this world has nothing for them.

·        They know they’re just passing through, their destiny is somewhere beyond this world.

·        These ones are willing to dive into the river of life, to get in over their head where they lose control. They choose to let the Lord their God carry them to their destiny, because they trust him.

John 14:1-6: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

·        There’s only one way to get there, His name is Jesus.

Cross or Throne— it’s Your Choice

 Cross or Throne —it’s Your Choice

Philippians 4:11-13: Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

·        In 1906 the Carnation Milk Company introduced a slogan saying, “Contented cows give better milk.” Since cows were content with their lives, their milk should be better. That may be true with cows, but spiritual contentment in a Christian is a problem.

·        Paul is telling the believers that we are to be content with our earthly things, not our heavenly things. His circumstances (altitude) didn’t dictate his attitude.  The Christian who believes he has arrived spiritually, will go no further.

Ø Every Christian will become what his desires have made him. The great saints had hungry and thirsty hearts. David said, “My soul thirsts for the Living God.” The longing for more experience with Him took them to places content Christians will never see.

·        We fear extremes… as if it were possible to have too much love, or too much faith, or too much holiness.

·        In reality, we can thank God for everything up to this point, but let’s not stop here, let’s press on to the deep things of God.

·        We must keep our feet on the ground, but let our hearts reach for the heavens. We must refuse to be average. Refuse to become dry and brittle like old wineskins.

Ezekiel 37:1-5: The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.”

·        Christianity is not supposed to be dry and brittle as an old wineskin; but we are called to be filled with new wine, happiness, and joy.

·        Therefore so many of the saints experience the dryness of “the boneyard” instead of the ‘living water” of the Holy Spirit. Truth that is not experienced is no better than “error” and may be just as dangerous.

·        The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were not the victims of error; they were the victims of their failure to experience the truth they taught. Like many of our leaders today, they lack the inward experience that is available to all of us, but still just out of reach. 

Philippians 3:12-14: Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

·        Paul knew he had not “attained” spiritual maturity that so many Christians think they have. He had learned to be content with the earthly things he had but was never content with his relationship with Christ, he wanted more.

Ø Paul was unable to live an average satisfied Christian life; he wanted everything that was purchased for him at the finished work of Christ. He didn’t feel it was “greedy” to want more, and he was willing to eliminate anything in his life that would keep him from receiving more.

Ø He wouldn’t let anything in his past paralyze him … he was always moving forward. If anyone could be content with the things he had done for Christ it would be Paul, but he understood how limited his time was, and how unlimited his possibilities in Christ were.

Ø Every one of us is “called” and with our “calling” comes the power to reach forward to the prize… the prize is being transformed into the image of Christ.

·        The gospel not only provides transforming power in the human life, but it provides the model for this new life, and that model is Christ Himself.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18: Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

·        The Spirit of the Lord gives us liberty, His truth sets us free. There are so many thoughts, concepts, hurts, and pains we need to be set free from, but here’s the beautiful truth; it’s the job of the Holy Spirit.

·        We were created to “behold” something; and that is the person of Jesus Christ.

·        There is a battle for what we will behold; the things of this world or the things that are above. And we will become like that which we behold.

·        Our Father wants us to be like Jesus, the devil wants us to be like him.

·        When I was a boy, I wanted to be like my cousin, he was my idol. I walked like him, I talked like him, and I combed my hair like his, I was a little version of him.

·        However, when we grow up, not much changes we just get better at hiding our imitations. We go along with the styles, the language, and the mannerisms of our new idols… these are our choices.

·        However when we become partaker’s of His divine nature, our human nature is transformed into something new, we are transformed into the image of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5: And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my  speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

·       The cross of Christ is the most revolutionary thing ever to appear before men. The Roman cross never compromised, it wins all arguments, it’s consequences are always the same, it killed all who were nailed to it, even Jesus Himself.

·       After Jesus’ death and resurrection the apostles went out to preach His message; it was the message of the cross. It was a radical message. They carried the cross with them, and the same power of the message of the cross went with them.

·       The message of the cross transformed the lives of men. The message of the cross transformed the pagan world from its bondages to liberty and freedom.

·       The cross is effective in destroying one thing and creating another. It wins by defeating its opponent and enforcing its will upon it victim. It never compromises, it never surrenders, it only ends opposition.

·       The cross itself wasn’t the message, it was who was upon it that is the message; it’s Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Ø We must all do something about the cross, and we are only permitted two options—flee from it or die upon it—the same as Jesus.

·       If we will choose to “flee from it” we will make Christianity something other than what it is. Then the language of salvation will be empty and lack its power because we’ve left the truth of the cross.

·       If we are wise we will do what Jesus did; endure the cross and despise its shame for the joy set before us. In doing this, we are submitting to the pattern of our lives being destroyed and built up again in eternal life.

·       The cross will cut deeply in our lives where it hurts the most, destroy our carefully built reputations and bring our selfish lives to an end living in the fullness of our “new freedom” in the Spirit. 

Galatians 2:20:  I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

·       There is no contradiction here; to die that we might live! There are two kinds of dying, a dying that we should desire and a dying we should avoid at any cost. Paul had chosen that anything that kept him from experiencing the Presence of God in his life must be taken out of the way, even his own self-love.

·       Paul’s life continued, he wrote his books, he continued in ministry, but his own personality becomes strangely transparent as the light of Christ shines through him in a glorious splendor.

·       There are “some” that have tried to get themselves out of the way by withdrawing from society to fast and struggle with their flesh. This way never works, it’s too hard. NOTHING WORKS BUT THE CROSS!

Ø On every Christian’s heart there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne until he puts himself on the cross; if he refuses the cross he remains on the throne.

·       Too many of us want to be saved, but we want Jesus to do all of the dying; no cross for us, no dethronement, and no dying. We remain king of our own little kingdom, we wear our little tin crown, and doom ourselves to weakness and lack of any real spiritual power.

·       Our uncrucified flesh will rob us of purity of heart and prevent living water from flowing in our hearts. We will remain in the Valley of Dry Bones never fulfilling our calling.

Philippians 3:7-11: But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

·       Paul had a goal for his life. Paul wanted to be found in Christ. And Paul wanted to know Christ. It was his relationship with Jesus that gave him value. Everything in comparison was like dung. He was content with his few earthly possessions, but He wanted more of Jesus.

·       He knew that God had called him. He knew that it was in that calling that he would find everything he ever needed. He knew he would find his purpose, he knew he would find fellowship with Jesus.

·       God’s not looking for a silver vessel. He’s looking for a surrendered vessel. If you can look at your life and say, “Look what I did,” or “I’m a self-made man,” then you haven’t really trusted in Christ. You are just doing things in your own strength.

·       When I got started in ministry, one of the things that really blessed me was ministering in nursing homes. I met a woman who was wealthy.  She would say, “I used to be important! People used to think I was somebody special!” But by then, nobody would come to see her… it was sad.

·       When this woman was younger, everybody thought she was special. But someday, every one of us is going to come to the end of ourselves… anyway.

·       It’s who we are in Christ that matters. That’s all that matters.

·       Paul was pressing toward the mark because he had a goal. If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there. Having a destination will limit your choices and help you make decisions.

Genesis 26:17-18: Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. 18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by the names which his father had called them.

·        Perhaps we should act like Isaac did and open the wells again that our fathers have dug, and have been stopped up by the enemy. The waters are there, cool sweet, and satisfying.

·        The history of the saints is filled with examples of people who chose to pick up their crosses and deny themselves to follow Jesus.

·        The enemy wants you to fill in your wells of living water with the worldly things that can never satisfy you. We work and work, go into debt, buy more things to impress people who only care about themselves. This is misery.

·        The slave masters of Egypt were never as cruel as our own selfishness at the expense of the rivers of living water rising up from within us.

·        Our Promised Land is the place where we can flow in the river of the Spirit. It’s a surrendered life that allows him to carry us along to His perfect destination for us.

The Law of the Jungle

 The Law of the Jungle

Genesis 3:15-18:  Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

·        Because of sin, Adam was forced out of the Garden and into the fields, there he would eat from the ground through hard work, sweat, and strife. If a farmer relaxes from his labors for just a short time, the wilderness will take over his fields again in such a way that it will be hard to tell if the farmer was there at all.

·        Every farmer knows the hunger of the wilderness. No new machinery, or new weed killers or sprays, can ever quite kill or destroy the encroaching wilderness. No matter how well the soil is prepared and how well kept are the fences, the wild just keeps coming until once again the field is swallowed up by the wilderness.

Ø Here’s a truth: Nature always moves and desires the wilderness, it is against fruitful field. Every farmer knows this.

·        Everything in this world is in a constant state of degradation not graduation; devolution not evolution; everything is going downhill.

·        It’s a natural law. Things aren’t always getting better and evolving in wonderful ways. We are not progressing towards utopia, we are heading towards Armageddon.

·        As Christians, we cannot ignore the natural law that would cause all things to return to a wild state after its careful cultivation. These laws run through the whole region of our fallen world affecting natural things and spiritual things.

·        So what is true of the field is also true of us if we are wise enough to see it. The direction of this fallen world is not towards godliness, but definitely away from it.

Matthew 21:12-13: Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”

·        This is the second cleansing of the temple occurred just after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem the last week of His life on Palm Sunday.

·        Jesus’ first temple cleansing happened in the beginning of His ministry, and now nearly three years later the same problems that were present earlier were creeping back into the temple again.

·        The New Covenant tells us we are the “temple” of the Living God. It is Jesus’ job to cleanse our “temple” and fill us with the Holy Spirit. But we have a responsibility to stay aware that the unclean things will attempt to creep back into the clean again.

Matthew 12:43-45: “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”

·        I believe Jesus makes it clear that it is the intention of the enemy to make that which has been cleansed…unclean again.

·        For the new Christian or even in the mature Christian, there is a constant pressure for the “unclean” things to reenter that which has been cleansed, therefore, we be aware of the nature of these things.

·        First we must know that it is impossible for a Christian to be possessed by a demon. The believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God who comes to reside in our hearts when we give our lives to Christ.

Ø However, while Christians cannot be possessed by a demon, we can be influenced by one. We are not above the Law of the Jungle.

·        We sometimes think that we have had a spiritual experience, or a situation where we have experienced victory…and it leads us to believe that we will always have “victorious living” for all of our days. This is error.

·        The truth is that no spiritual experience, no matter how wonderful, can ever keep us from temptation. And temptation is nothing more than the wilderness trying to enter our fields.

·        There’s nothing more upsetting to the devil than a heart that has been purified by the Holy Spirit. It is a newly cleared field, and it will be soon challenged by the enemy. It starts in little ways around the edges of the field that are closest to the wilderness.

Proverbs 4:23: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

Ø If neglected… the human heart will soon be overrun with worldly thoughts and temptations, which will soon lead to immoral behaviors.

·        The church tries to combat this with more Bible study, church programs, short term mission trips, and organized church activities.

·        But the Law of the Jungle operates throughout our fallen world, whether it’s in the classroom or in the mission field.

·        In our efforts to spread the gospel, we often run head-on into the Law of the Jungle. Bible studies and organized activities are all good things, but unfortunately after we make a few converts its not long before they are left to their own devices again and the Law of the Jungle prevails.

·        It’s like letting a flock of newborn lambs run freely in the wilderness, how long until the wolves or thieves show up? Our efforts should keep the Law of the Jungle in mind so that the new lambs are put under the authority of shepherds who will love the sheep and raise them into maturity.

Luke 8:5-8: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 6 Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”

·        Jesus compares our hearts to soil and the seeds to the word of God. The different kinds of soil determine the fruitfulness of the man’s spiritual life. We cannot escape our own “spiritual maturity” level. We cannot rise above our inward spiritual life.

Ø Our crop is determined by the condition of the soil in our heart.

·        I have seen many men practice preaching and teaching in their own strengths; learning, word study, and emotional conjuring… but they lack the fire of the Spirit.

·        You see we cannot escape what we are on Monday because we preach or teach on Sunday. In other words, if we’re not walking in the Spirit on Monday, how can we expect the Spirit on Sunday?

Luke 8:11-15: “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. 14 Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.

·        The Law of the Jungle is always coming against our hearts because that is where our issues of life are formed. That is where the battle is.

·        Jesus calls it a battle against the enemy, temptations of our hearts, the culture, and its cares. He is really calling on us to be good farmers and cultivate the word of God, and value the condition of your heart.

Matthew 7:16-19: You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

·        Men do not get grapes from thorns nor figs from thistles. The fruit of the tree is determined by kind of tree that it is, and the fruit of life by the kind of life that it is.

Ø There is another “law of nature,” a man’s soul will reflect that which he is focused on. What a man is interested in, will determine what kind of fruit he will produce.

·        We must realize the powerful effect that our affections have on the attractions of our hearts. It’s kind of like a compass, where it will always point to the North Pole. The pole may be very far away, but the heart keeps true to its secret loves and desires.

·        What will do we think about in our free time? Where does our imagination go when it is free to roam? When we answer this honestly, we will know where we are and what kind of fruit we will bear.

·        We cannot fake it; that which is concealed will be revealed.

·        When the first robin shows up, it doesn’t mean its spring, nor does one hot day mean its summer. Our hearts are the same way; one frantic prayer doesn’t make a field flower or produce fruit.

·        The field must be soaked in sunshine over long periods of time, and the rains must come to water the field and the seed for the field to produce. The same is true with our hearts; we cannot rise above our water level. We cannot make up for neglect of our relationship with god and spiritual things in a short time.

·        We cannot let our hearts determine and establish its affections; we must set our hearts on the things above.

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. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

·        One of the things we can do to remain vigilant over our hearts is to focus on things above.

Ø There is a spiritual cleansing that takes place as we focus on the above with praise and worship.

·        We must take direction from “above,” not from the culture around us. Although physically in the world, we are not to believe the same things as the culture around us. That would be taking their cues from “below.”

·        How are we to cultivate the values that are from above while living below? It takes a concentrated effort. We must “set our minds” to it. We are inundated with messages that promote the “below” behavior.

·        Even if the messages we receive from below are not completely immoral, their perspective is one that excludes God and prioritizes things as though life on earth is all that matters—our happiness and fulfillment (the “right” to be happy) are top priority.

·        If we want to be directed “from above,” we must make an effort to counteract the messages that are present in our culture.

Ephesians 4:20-24: But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

·        The old man and the new man are as different today as when Paul wrote this long ago.

·        Our old nature, the old man… is like the wilderness or jungle trying to creep back into our lives. It begins with deceitful lusts as the affections of the heart wander away if not closely guarded.

·        The only way that a person can live according to the above… is if he or she is taking directions from somewhere other than the ‘below.”

·        As we believe the truth “from above” more than the lies “from below,” we will start to act like creatures born from above, who have been raised with Christ.

Romans 8:5-6:  For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

·        We are created with desires, we couldn’t live this life without the desire for food, we couldn’t perpetuate our species without the desire for a mate. These things are true in the Law of the Jungle and they are also true in the things of God.

·        When our whole desires are bad, the whole life ends up degrading into something bad. But if our desires are good, our life will come up to the level of our desire…if we have the enabling of the Spirit.

·        If our desire is after God and holiness, then that desire will become dominant. We were made in the image of God and to become like Him is a desire that is within each of us; we are God-hungry and Spirit-thirsty. As we sanctify our desires, this hunger will lead us into grace and godliness.

·        It’s our unsanctified hearts’ desires that lead us back to the jungle. We hear people say, “But I love her, how can that be wrong?” Or they say, “Just trust your heart.” The truth is that we must totally surrender our hearts to the Lord and deny many of the desires of our hearts.

·        I am so grateful that we have the word to lead us when our hearts are screaming louder than the Spirit. To bring our desires to the cross and allow them to be crucified there is a good and beautiful thing, and it is pleasing to God.

·        The blood of Christ will not only cleanse us from sins we have committed but will also cleanse us of those inward desires to sin. We are to keep our minds on the things above, and our desires will follow.

Abiding in the Land

 Abiding in the Land

Joshua 1:7-9: Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

·        Israel is at the edge of the Jordan River. Moses is dead. After 40 years in the desert they are ready to enter the Promised Land. All of the children of Israel that came out from Egypt are gone except Joshua and Caleb, the two spies that believed God’s promises. The vast majority didn’t enter in because of unbelief.

·        As God was with Moses, so He would be with Joshua, he wasn’t going forward alone, and so He will be with us. He is with us wherever we go. This is the promise of His Presence.

·        The Lord chose Joshua to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land because he believed God. We need leaders that are anointed by the Lord to lead us into the Promised Land that also believe God.

Ø  God commanded Joshua to speak the word, meditate on the word, and obey the word and He would be successful. God was not withholding anything from Joshua. He was to be courageous, and not to be afraid.

·        God is not withholding anything from you. We can have as much of God as we can take. But we have to believe God to experience His promises 

Joshua 3:14-17: So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, 15 and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), 16 that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.

·        I believe that Joshua and the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River in the same place that John the Baptist baptized Jesus.

·        The moment the Ark of the Covenant entered the river the water backed up all the way to the city of Adam, a picture for us about our baptism; the curse is backed up to Adam as we enter our Promised Land. We are separated from Adam

·        It was also here that Elijah and Elisha passed through the waters of the Jordan on dry ground and Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind.

Ø  When we go through the waters of baptism, we are separated from who we were in Adam and we are forever placed in Christ. We are now “of God” and our identity is changed. We are in the world but no longer “of it.”

·        This was God’s plan for them, a separated life. This is where God wanted them to be, they weren’t to ever go back.

·        This is true with our walk with the Lord, there should be no going backwards. This was a different people than those who left Egypt. Only Joshua and Caleb were left form the original group because they believed God. 

Joshua 4:8-9: And the children of Israel did so, just as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, as the Lord had spoken to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. 9 Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day.

·        The twelve stones would be a reminder to the children of Israel that they had crossed a line… and they were never to go back again into the deserts of Arabia.

Ø The Lord wants us to “not to forget to remember” important victories we’ve had. He also wants us to “remember to forget” our failures. We need to learn to forget as well as learn to remember. Do this in remembrance.

·        He wants us to rehearse our victories, and not rehearse our failures and our regrets if we want to move forward in our Promised Land.

·        We need to have markers in our lives to remind us of what God has done, so that we don’t go back again. You should have a marker for when you were born again. This spiritual experience was real. There is a struggle, there is some pain, and then the labor, and then you came into God’s glorious light.

·        The filling or baptism of the Holy Spirit is not some casual experience, it was a spiritual line that was crossed. Just like the children of Israel were a surrendered people to God when they crossed the Jordan River, so you have surrendered yourself to the Lord when you asked for the baptism of the Spirit.

·        There should be markers in our lives to remind us of how God is leading us so that we don’t ever want to go back.

·        I would say that if you don’t know that you have crossed a line…then you probably have not. An “experience” is the reality of crossing that line. This is similar to our other Christian experiences, if you do not know that you have consecrated or surrendered yourself to God, or when--then you probably haven’t.

·        Our conversion, our filling with the Holy Spirit, and our surrender to Him, are all landmarks and monuments to our encounters with Him. If there are any areas of your Christian life where you are not sure if your experience is real then make sure that you know that you know. 

Joshua 5:5-7: For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness, on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised. 6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord—to whom the Lord swore that He would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, “a land flowing with milk and honey.” 7 Then Joshua circumcised their sons whom He raised up in their place; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.

·       Circumcision was the mark of God on His people. It had begun with Abraham, and it was the sign of the covenant God had with Abraham and his seed. During their time in Egypt, God did not require the children of Israel to be circumcised.

·       But now, it was necessary for the children of Israel to renew this vow to their God. It would be a sign of God on His people that they were different from the other inhabitants of the Land.

Ø We are to be separate from the others around us.

·       The idea here is that they could not come into the Promised Land and be like the people of Egypt. They had to be completely separated from everything that was of Egypt. And God has separated us from the world around us. If my conversion is not separating me from the world around me it is not a genuine conversion.

·       People should recognize that there is something different about me. My conversion should lead to a transformation, not just cleaned up a little bit. 

Joshua 5:10-12: Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. 11 And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day. 12 Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.

Ø For forty years, God had given His people manna from heaven, but now as they entered the Promised Land they were maturing in their walk with God.

·       The manna had only been temporary until they could eat the fruits of Canaan. How many times had they complained about eating manna? 

1 Corinthians 3:1-2: And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal.

·        The purpose in bringing the children of Israel into the Promised Land was bringing them into maturity. This is a problem with today’s Christians. They are living as if they were still in the wilderness, still eating baby food.

·        A sign of immaturity is boredom, our gospel churches try to entertain the congregations with programs that have their roots in the world.

·        Our worship time with the Lord has become scripted and well-practiced with music and drama that is similar to the world. Then the people can have coffee in their coffee shops, and buy swag in their stores to satisfy their shopping desires; been there, done that, and bought the t-shirt! 

Joshua 5:13-15: And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?” So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?” Then the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Ø Our Promised Land is a “holy place.”  We must treat it as holy. It’s our place where we can sense and know the Presence of the Lord. This is basic to our new life… to have a sense of “holiness.” It seems like the church has lost a sense of reverence. It is common to try to bring our God down to our level where nothing is holy, but the Lord is wanting us to rise to “holiness.”

·        Now in the Promised Land, Joshua has a genuine encounter with the Commander of the Lord’s army. This person is none other than Jesus, Himself. As soon as the manna ceased, the Bread of Life shows up!

·        The moment the Commander showed up Joshua worshiped Him. Jesus was Joshua’s commander, and he is also our Commander

·        There were going to be difficult times ahead and Joshua needed to know how keep an ongoing relationship with this Commander!

·        The message was simple, take off your shoes and worship Him. This new Land was going to be a Land of worship and praise. The key to knowing the Commander is through worship and praise. 

John 4:23-24: But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

·       God wants us to worship Him because He knows that it is against our selfish nature. Something wonderful happens to us when we will worship and praise Him.

·       Literally, the atmosphere around us changes; demons flee, sickness and disease are healed, our desires are changed, addictions fall off, freedom and liberty breakout because He inhabits the praises of His people.

·       2 Corinthians 3:17: Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

·       Real praise and worship requires us to lose our self-consciousness and enter into a God-consciousness. Our flesh cannot enter into worship, we can only enter in in the spirit.

·       In real praise and worship we are raptured into His Presence and we get healthier, we are transformed more into the image of Christ, and miracles happen. This is the Promised Land; God’s Presence with us in a very real way. 

Acts 16:25-26: But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.

·       Paul and Silas were beaten and put in chains in the deepest part of the prison. There were many reasons for them to fall into a “pity party,” but they had learned some valuable lessons on their journey, the power of praise.

·       Maybe you need a miracle today. Maybe your complaining and lack of thanksgiving are keeping you from getting your miracle.. Try thanking, praising, and worshiping the Lord. Change the atmosphere around you.

Let your fragrance be pleasing to the Lord, not like a dumpster on a hot day.

A Prepared Place

A Prepared Place 

2 Corinthians 2:9-10: But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 

·       This was God’s purpose for Israel all along. He would bring them into the land to possess what He had promised them.

·       He could not give them this land “while they were still in Egypt,”

·       I believe that God’s purpose in Christ is the same for us today; He wants to give us a glorious inheritance.

·       We have these things; these things are already ours; they are ours because of Jesus.

·       Unfortunately, we cannot receive our inheritance while we are still wandering in Egypt. Egypt is a picture or type of the world. Egypt was a land of bondage. You want the blessings of the Promised Land… then leave Egypt!

·       This explains why many cannot experience the promises of God; they are still at home in the world.

·       It’s important to understand that God saves us “out” to bring us “into.” God saved the children of Israel out of Egypt to bring them into the Promised Land where their inheritance was… it wasn’t in Egypt.

·       It is true that God saves us “out of” our sins by the blood of Jesus, and we are saved from an eternity in hell, therefore, many Christians think, “I don’t have to worry about those things; I’m not going to hell when I die, I’m going to heaven!

·       We can glory in that, but I need to know what I’ve been saved into, and that’s not automatic. It’s like once we are out of Egypt and we say, “Well, I’ve arrived.” This is why so many people are stuck in the desert…they’re out but not in!

·       Christians will not try to enter into a land of which they have not heard. How can I go somewhere I have never heard about? How do I get there?

·       What is it that God has set before us; how do we receive all of His promises?

·       This land of promise has been secured by God’s oath and His covenant. All of God’s power and resources are part of this covenant, He is God. It’s waiting for us…Let’s enter in!!!!!

2 Corinthians 2:11-12:  For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

·        The Lord did not give the children of Israel a land that was a “fixer upper.” It was not a primitive land that needed to be developed. No, it was a land that was already fully prepared for His people… by others

·        We must understand that God had given them this land “righteously.” It already had large houses, deep wells, orchards, and vineyards. All of it was ready for them.

·        The people that lived there were evil and a moral plague upon the land. They buried their children alive in their fields to please their gods so their gods would give them a good harvest. Because of their immorality, they had forfeited their right to live there. The Lord had given them 400 years to repent while the children of Israel we in Egypt, but they refused.

·        As Christians we need to remember that our inheritance is a “gift” from God. He has opened up the treasures of heaven for us. He has done this not based on who we are but on who He is. He has done this righteously for us. He does not wink at our sin, or pretend we’re innocent, no, it was paid for by the blood of His Son Jesus! Our Promised Land was prepared for us by another.

·        Because of how good He is… we have all of creation, we have the image of God, we have the name of Jesus and we have the Holy Spirit who is leading us into our Promised Land.

·        God has not left one thing short of His glory. Everything He has is available to us. And so as we take our spiritual inheritance, we do so by His good pleasure and by His authority. This place is “ordained” for us, and if we enjoy our inheritance it is pleasing to God. Let’s go back to the Promised Land.

Joshua 1:8-9: This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

·        Israel is at the edge of the Jordan River. Moses was gone. Israel has wandered in the desert for 40 years, unnecessarily. All of the children of Israel that came from Egypt are gone except Joshua and Caleb, the two spies that believed God’s promises. Joshua knew God and trusted God, and knew he wasn’t going forward alone.

·        As God was with Moses, so He would be with Joshua, and so He will be with us. He is with us wherever we go. This is the promise of His Presence. The Lord chose Joshua to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land. Moses was the Law giver, the Law cannot get us into the Land. God chose Joshua to lead them in.

·        God commanded Joshua to speak the word, meditate on the word, and do the word and He would be successful. God was not withholding anything from Joshua. He was commanded to be courageous, and not to be afraid.

·        For us, He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. God is not withholding anything from you. We can have as much of God as we can take. But we have to believe God to experience His promises

Romans 4:20-22: He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 22 And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

·        Abraham believed God’s promises. He believed the promises were for him, here and now. He took them by faith. He seized them.

·        This is the “Law of Acquiring.”  To “acquire” means to make something your own. There is no limit in God, and therefore, there is no limit to how far we can go in His grace, His love, and His mercy.

·        It’s similar to having a gift certificate to given to you to eat anything you want, and as much as you want, in the world’s best restaurant. Everything is prepaid for you. The menu is wide open to you. But out of your own mentality of poverty, because your wallet is empty… you just ask for a glass of water and leave unsatisfied.

·        However, to receive freely from Him, I must realize my poverty and look to His abundance at the same time. His abundance will flow into my poverty when I come to the realization that I have nothing and He has everything; and He wants to give it to me.

·        But if I am trying to live out of my own abundance, I will not look to Him and take freely out of His abundance because I’m trying to get everything on my own.

·        The deeper Christian life is learning to take from Him by faith. 

Matthew 14:15-20: “Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” 17 And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” 18 He said, “Bring them here to Me.” 19 Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. 20 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. 

·       Jesus understood the Law of Supply and Demand. His disciples saw the demand for food of so many people and thought they should send the people away to get food for themselves (the world’s way).

·       It’s like He’s saying to us, “I have so much to give you, why do you take so little?” In fact, I believe the more we take the more there is available to us! This is how grace works. It is the Law of Supply and Demand.

·       In the world, supply and demand means that the more demand there is the shorter the supply. But in the kingdom, the more the demand… the greater the supply!

·       Jesus did not look to the demand but looked to the unlimited supply. In fact the supply was so much more than the demand that there was much left over… and they all ate till they were full.

Luke 6:38:  Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

·       Here’s another law; the Law of giving. The same measure you use to give will be measure back to you.

·       Our God is a giver. We are made in His image; therefore we should be givers too. Giving is foundational to the kingdom because giving does not put the emphasis on self, it focuses on others.

2 Corinthians 9:8,10-11: And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, 11 while you are enriched in everything for all liberality (overflowing), which causes thanksgiving through us to God.

·       There are ways that grace flows. It’s not through selfishness. Nothing will stop the flow of God’s grace for you quicker than greed. The ultimate goal for us in grace is to be a conduit for His blessings.

·       You can look at it like a hose for water. As the water flows though the hose, the hose itself never dries out, the hose is never thirsty. The hose never tries to keep the water for itself. The hose is more interested in keeping the water flowing!

·       If we want to draw on our own strength, God will allow us to go that way to our own detriment. On the other hand, if we want to tap into to the great grace and mercy of God… we have an open door before us.

·       God has put before us the great Land of Promise. He did not lead us here to leave us on the outside looking in, but to bring us fully into his amazing grace. He’s looking for those who will believe.

Hebrews 11:6:  But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

·       This is the Law of Faith; there is only one way to receive freely from God, it’s to believe that He is a giver.

·       He wants to give all He has to us; if he gave us Jesus will He not freely give us all things? There’s nothing wrong with God and there is nothing wrong with you, therefore just enter in!!!!

·       I believe that those that fail to enter into God’s Promised Land, fully, do not please God.  My worst enemy is myself.

·       If I could let go of my past-- and grab ahold of what God has for me now—the provisions and the access to heaven—I would begin to experience the kind of Christian life that is full of Joy, praise and honor to God.

·       God wants to lead us and guide us, he has already provided everything we will ever need. As we walk with God, we will access strength and grace, enabling us to rise above our circumstances and our enemy.

·       God did not lead us out of Egypt so that we could be burdened the rest of our lives. God led us out to lead us into a land flowing with milk and honey; joy and praise.  There are people who think they have everything under control, but there are those of us who desire God to lead us and guide us.

The Fear of the Lord

The Fear of the Lord 

John 6:63-64: It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.

·        Did you know there is a difference between being Bible taught and Spirit taught?  You can teach the Bible, but never produce any true “living Christianity” or “practical godliness” because the reader still lack the radiance of the Spirit.

·        You can’t really dismiss them as hypocrites because so many of them are serious about their faith, but they are still blind from lack of a vital relationship with the Holy Spirit. This is our Promised Land. It’s important for us to understand this.

·        The Scriptures must be read with the same Spirit that wrote them to be understood!

·        This is how the written truth becomes the living truth within us. Jesus is the truth and cannot be confined to mere words, but the Spirit delights in making Jesus come alive for us in the Scriptures.

·        The Bible is the door to “real experience” with Jesus, through the Spirit.

·        In these last days, we need believers who are spiritually hungry that will first know the Truth of the Scriptures; and second, will know the Word through the enlightenment of the Spirit. So let’s begin with the fear of the Lord:

Proverbs 9:10: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

·        Here’s a great truth; No one can know the “grace of God” who has not first known the “fear of God.” This is essential in understanding His grace. Unfortunately many want the grace of God… but their journey didn’t begin with the fear of the Lord.

·        God’s plan of redemption was spoken to Adam and Eve while they were hiding in “terror” from the Lord after they had sinned.

·        The Ten Commandments were given to Moses as he and the children of Israel trembled in terror from smoke, fire, quaking and the voice of thunder and the sound of a trumpet called out to them from Mt. Sinai.

·        Even the shepherds who lay in the fields at night on Christmas night trembled and were afraid as the host of angels proclaimed the coming of our “God with us.”

·        From Genesis to Revelation, the presence of the Holy God struck fear in the hearts of sinful men. There’s something within us that instinctively knows the “terror of a Holy God.” It’s something supernatural. We can’t expect grace without the knowing of Holiness.

·        It’s where the “created” comes into contact with “the Creator.” The “animal in us” is very prideful and self-confident, until we, as sinful creatures, come into contact with pure Holiness; that is the fear of the Lord! Therefore grace is amazing.

·        It’s the beginning of wisdom and understanding. Let’s see this with the Prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 6:5: So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

·        Isaiah was a good man, well educated, a cousin of the king, and very well respected. Yet when He came into the Presence of the Holy God, Isaiah was “undone.” He saw that he was “unclean.” He needed to repent, not of what he had done, but repent for what he was.

·        Until we repent of what we are, we will never understand how wonderful the love and the grace of God is for us in our New Covenant.

·        Until we understand the terror of the Lord, our “carnal heart” will understand the love of God as confirming our own “self-righteousness.” We will think of ourselves as “lovable.”

Isaiah 6:6-8: Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.” 8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me. And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

·        Isaiah had no more self-confidence; he’d seen what he truly was. The fear or terror of the Lord had completely destroyed his self-confidence. Until our self-confidence is destroyed our Lord will not show Himself to the eyes of our faith.

·        Until our self-confidence is gone, we will not be able to tell the people the truth of His gospel with His power.

John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

·        We all love this verse and believe it with our hearts. But it’s not always wise to take verses out of their context. This can make giving our lives to the Lord as something that’s like buying fire insurance.

·        We are encouraged to say a little prayer, and go along our merry way! Let’s look at more context:

John 3:19-21: “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

·        Coming into the Light of God requires repentance from us. We must agree with why we are alienated from God in the first place, because we are condemned as sinners. It requires us to believe that there is a Holy God and I am not Him!

·        Cain and Abel are examples; Cain brought a sacrifice before the Lord thinking God would accept him as he was. Abel brought a sacrifice before the Lord because he knew he was unacceptable “as he was.”

·        The fear of God would have changed the direction of Cain’s life.

·        I think that many preachers have tried to induce the terror of the Lord into people by making threats of hell in the name of the Lord. Hell and judgment are real, but they cannot produce this mysterious thing we call “the fear of the Lord.”

·        It’s the deep reaction in the heart of a fallen man.  We can preach condemnation; but it usually fails to produce long term results.

·        Only the Holy Spirit can produce this fear of the Lord in a man’s heart… it’s like a warning of danger. It’s a supernatural thing.

·        But being filled with the Spirit brings the Presence of the Spirit into a congregation or church.

·        It’s just like when Moses came down from the Mount Sinai, his face glowed with the Spirit and it caused the children of Israel to fear the Lord because of that sight. Moses didn’t threaten them, he just shined!

Isaiah 1:16-18: “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. 18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;”

·        There should be a radical transformation in the life of a believer.

·        The idea of pardoning a rebel without his giving up his rebellion is wrong throughout the whole Bible.

·        A governor of a state was going to pardon a young man in prison and decided to go visit him. The young man did not know his visitor was the governor. He asked the young man what he would do if he was released, he said, “I will go and slit the throat of the judge that put me in here.” The governor left, the convict stayed in prison.

·        I think that the preaching of salvation without repentance is deceitful in handling the truth, and therefore some think they are saved when they might not be. There is no salvation without repentance, and there’s is no transformation without repentance.

·        These are the hypocrites that give Christianity a bad name and actually repel those who may be seeking a life of salvation.

Acts 8:18-23: And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! 21 You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. 22 Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.”

·        There are many in “the faith” that are seeking a deeper relationship with the Lord. Their hearts are genuine; they love the Lord and want all that is promised to us in the word. They are seeking the Promised Land of Christ.

·        There are many churches that are offering a new form of “snake oil.” They say, “You can have the power. You can heal people and prophesy… you can be a super-saint.” Too many people want all the gifts of the Spirit without first developing the fruits of the Spirit.

·        The problem is that the moral groundwork has not been laid for this kind of ministry. The foundations of the faith are not present. There is no real salvation and reformation without repentance from what we are.

·        If you develop the fruits of the Spirit … the gifts will follow you wherever you go.

·        Simon wanted the power of God without knowing the Lord, and that is of the devil.

Acts 19:13-20: Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” 16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 18 And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. 19 Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. 

Matthew 7:21-23: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

·        This is as true today as when Jesus said it. I believe that we should look for the fruit in our own lives to determine where we are really at in our relationship with our Holy God!  Is our faith real, or is it based on something else, or someone else’s faith? It’s time to find out!

Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

·        Real faith is a disturbing thing to those who don’t really have it. Paul tells us that Jesus is the object of our faith. When we look to Him, faith is a supernatural result.

·        Real faith demands a change in our lives; this change is also a “supernatural result.”

·        We see that a part of us is against our “Holy God” and it must die. We accept what we are… to become what we will be.

·        Many Christians have so arranged their lives that they can do just fine without the help of God, yet are still pretending to seek Him. True faith is an absolute trust in God, all-in, no plan B.

·        Here’s the truth; since Adam first stood on planet Earth, God has never failed anyone.

·        But the man of pseudo faith will do his best to never put himself in a situation where he would need to use real faith…he stays in his comfort zone. Our God is looking for someone who will leave his comfort zone.

·        We must trust God in this day as fully as we must trust Him in our last day. Because for each of us a day is coming where we must trust Him because we will have nothing but God.

·        Health, wealth, friends, and hiding places will all be swept away. It will be a tragedy to find out that we had not really been trusting God during our earthly days.

·        It would be better to invite God to remove every false trust, remove our hiding places, and discover for ourselves whether we can actually trust Him. It’s a harsh cure but time is running out for all of us.

·        The terror of the Lord is the beginning of grace!

Revelation 6 Bible Study

 Revelation 6

There are three important keys to notice:

·         First, these things happen after Jesus death and resurrection. When we are not told. Second, the color of the horse. Third, the havoc the seals bring. The riders are spirits and they are “allowed” (passive verb) by the Lamb to wreak havoc on the earth. Sin has consequences.

Revelation 6:1-2: Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.” 2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.

·         White horse and the rider conquer, suggesting that he brings wars and oppressive governments to the earth.

Revelation 6:3-4: When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come and see.” 4 Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.

·         The first seal suggests military force, whereas the second seal suggests the militant citizens of the earth will brutally murder each other.

Revelation 6:5-6: When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.”

·         The rider of the black horse will cause famines, inflation, and food shortages to come upon the earth. The scales suggest commerce and markets, buying and selling.

Revelation 6:7-8: When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.” 8 So I looked, and behold, a pale (chloros) horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.

·         The name of the rider is “death.” The name “death” is indicative of what the horse and its rider bring—“Death and Hades followed with him.”  Hades is the place of the dead, confirming that the rider of the pale green horse will cause many on the earth to die. 

·         These four horsemen will cause a fourth of mankind to die. They will affect the entire earth. That there are four seals and, thus, four horsemen suggest these riders go throughout the entire earth because 4 is the number of the earth in biblical numerology

·         The seals are definitely opened after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven based on Revelation 5:5–10. What is not clear is how long after Jesus’ ascension He opens the seals. To answer this, we need to look outside the book of Revelation to what Jesus says in the Gospels. 

Matthew 24:3-14: Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” 4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved.  14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

·         The death brought by the four horsemen aligns with what Jesus says will happen between his ascension and return, and we see the effects of the four horsemen in the world today and for the past 2,000 years. 

Revelation 6:1-8: The four horsemen of the apocalypse “could be” the ideology of the “isms”: Catholicism, Islamism, Capitalism, and Communism, symbolized by white, black, red, and a pale green horses. All of these horsemen are riding in these days.

·         325 A.D. Emperor Constantine of the Roman Empire converted to Christianity and invited the Babylonians to join his new “Catholic faith.” The Babylonians worshipped a “goddess mother,” this is how the worship of Mary began in the Church replacing Jesus as the central figure. (White horse).

·         600 A.D. The Roman Empire became the Holy Roman Empire and was formed with a religious leader from the Vatican (the Pope), and the political leader (the emperor Charlemagne.) The last emperor anointed by the Pope in the Holy Roman Empire was Napoleon in1806. (1200 years). How many have been killed during the Catholic Inquisitions from 606 AD to 1800? It’s estimated that over 50 million have been executed for “heresy.”

·         The Holy Roman Empire was reborn by the “Treaty of Rome” in 1957 that formed the six nation “European Common Market.” By 1992 it had grown to 12 nations and renamed itself “the European Union.” And by 1999 the Union had grown to 15 members and adopted its own currency, the “Euro.” Today there are 27 nations that are part of the Union with more than 500 million people; this reborn Holy Roman Empire surpassed the U.S. to become the largest economy in the world. It will have a religious and political leader. The Antichrist and the False Prophet will both come out of this new Holy Roman Empire. (See Daniel 2:42-44 )

·         1188-1192 A.D. The Sultan Saladin defeated the Crusaders from Europe in Jerusalem, and established the Muslim “Caliphate” in the Middle East and North Africa establishing the first pan-Arab Muslim government under Islamic Sharia Law. (Pale green horse). Professor Bill Warner, author of several books on Islam, estimates the total number killed in Muslim jihad to be 270 million.

·         1776 A.D. The British colonies in America successfully revolted against Britain establishing the United States of America. This new country began the “free enterprise” system of capitalism in a representative republic. This would include current capitalism: big pharma, big agriculture, and the military industrial complex. (Black horse). Capitalism didn’t begin with America, centuries of slavery and colonialist oppressions were all done in the name of profit and greed. The wars against Communism for market access included with other abuses total more than 100 million people dead.

·         1917 A.D. The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia was the first communist revolution, followed by China in 1949 (Red horse). If we add to this list the deaths caused by communist regimes that the Soviet Union created and supported—including those in Eastern Europe, China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia—the total number of victims is also well over 100 million, closer to 150 million.

Revelation 6:9-11: When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.

·         The data of the late Christian researcher, David B. Barrett, puts the number of Christians martyred since the time of Jesus at 70 million. It puts the number of Christians exterminated in Nazi Germany at a million, while the number of Orthodox Christians and others murdered in Russia between 1917 and 1950 at 15 million.

Revelation 6:12-17: I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. 13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. 14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. 15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

·         When the sixth seal is opened, cataclysmic events happen: This same even is seen in the trumpets (Rev. 8) and bowls (Rev.16). These things do not happen 3 times, but the seals, trumpets, and bowls describe the same event. Therefore, these seals, trumpets and bowls are happening in concurrence.

Joel 2:30-31: “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

·         Joel is clear that cataclysmic events like those in the sixth seal will happen “before the great and awesome day of the LORD” The Day of the Lord is the return of Jesus.

Matthew 24:29-31: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Jude 1:14-15: “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints,  to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

Entering the Land

Entering Into the Land 

Exodus 23:20: “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.

·        The Lord has prepared a Land for us just as He did for the children of Israel. It’s the Land of His promises. And if we want to enjoy “the deeper Christian life” we must grasp those promises.

·        The deeper life is experiencing those promises for ourselves, and God has set a path for us into those promises. So let’s look into this.

·        Israel was not going into a Land that they chose; God led them into a place that He chose for them.

·        He chose the destination and He chose the way to get there. They couldn’t even imagine what a wonderful place He had prepared for them as they had been in bondage for so long. It was beyond their comprehension.

·        God is asking His people to trust Him and follow the Angel. They had seen great miracles in being led out of their bondage for 400 years in Egypt; the evidence was there for their trust.

·        And in the same way, He asks us to trust Him because of the things He has already done in our lives. We just need to look at the evidence.

·        How many times has God saved you that you know of? How many times has He saved you that you are not aware of?

·        He’s asking us to just follow the Shepherd, like a sheep. 

John 10:14-15: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

·        Jesus give us more evidence as to why we should trust Him, He lays His life down for us.

·        He’s not like the hireling who taking care of the sheep is just a job for them. You cannot trust the hireling when things get bad, he will run away because he is just doing his job for the money. He just punches the clock. It’s just a job. He’s not an “owner.”

·        The owner of a business is usually the first to work in the morning and the last to leave. He doesn’t punch a time clock. He carries the responsibilities for the success or failure

·        Jesus takes responsibility for us He is the Good Shepherd and He wants to lead us into our Promised Land. We are “His sheep.”

·        We’re like sheep; in our ways… we will never find our Promised Land. Sheep have been known to follow each other off of a cliff.

·        There are wolves out there who want to catch the sheep or scatter the sheep or eat the sheep.

·        The Lord wants to make it easy for us…just follow the Shepherd, one step at a time! 

Exodus 23:22: But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

·        We are going to meet opposition in this world. The world is a place filled with delusions and lies. There are those who want to sell us their snake oil, lead us onto another path, scatter us, and devour us.

·        But if we obey His voice, and follow His path, we are promised protection. Here’s the truth: he wants to fight our battles.

·        Our Shepherd’s rod and his staff comfort me. His rod scatters the wolves and His staff gently leads me back on the right path.

·        God doesn’t ever promise us that there will not be enemies in this Promised Land. Although the land of Canaan was a land of plenty, it was also a land filled with enemies…but He will fight for us.

·        As we follow our Good Shepherd, there’s going to be trials and tribulations, but He also promises He will fight for us.

Exodus 23:24: You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars.

·        Our Lord doesn’t leave us to conquer our enemies with wisdom or strength, He tells us how to conquer them; be different from them. We are not to imitate them. We are in this world but we are no longer of this world.

·        Today there are many who think that whether it’s Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, or Mohammed… it’s all the same God just different names.

·        Even many Christians “don’t want call these” other religions and the cults of Christianity like Mormons, Jehovah witnesses, and Christian Science what they are… they are wolves, thieves and robbers.

·        The Lord tells us that are we not to be like them, and we are to be hostile towards their idols.

·        Our battle isn’t against flesh and blood, but  there are idols that we must tear down; there’s the idol of worldly pleasure, the idol of compromise, the idol of mammon (money), the idol of comfort and convenience, and the idol of our culture. Jesus said, “We cannot serve both God and mammon.”

·        Their marching orders were not to conform, but to overthrow these false idols.

·        There are many today who just want to be passive. Jesus was not crucified for His good works; He was crucified for cleaning out the temple. Jesus was a revolutionary.

·        All the disciples, but one, died a martyr’s death. The cross stands as judgment against the world around us. 

Exodus 23:25: So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. 

·        Serving means we are not directing or dictating, but rather submitting to a master. In Hebrew, serving means to work as a “bondservant.”

·        As a slave who has been set free but still willingly serves his master because he loves his master.

·        As I submit myself to Him and His authority, I begin to go in the direction in which He is leading me. God is my owner, and in serving Him I agree to His ownership over my life. 

·        I agree to trust, love and obey—that enriches my relationship to my God.

·        It is important that we learn to obey our God. We want His gifts, and we want Him to give us what we want, but too often we are unwilling to obey Him. The Bible says, “Obedience is better than sacrifice.”

·        I need to choose to obey Him at all costs. Am I willing to turn my back on all things in order to serve Him?

·        I am going to have trouble obeying Him if I do not trust Him.

·        This where we have trouble because we want to know everything about a situation before we can have trust. But God wants us to trust Him even though we don’t know what the next step is.

·        If I can’t trust Him, who should I trust? Government leaders and politicians? How about religious leaders? I need to decide who has my best interests at heart. Is it the government, religious leaders, the Pope? They don’t love us; 

1 John 4:7-9:  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

·        When we think of love, we should think of God.

·        Unfortunately, our culture has dictated what love looks like through their movies and their music. We need to move away from that and focus on God’s love.

·        It’s only through a growing intimacy with God that we can grow in His love.

·        My love of God is the only way I am going to trust Him.

·        No matter what our obstacles are, or what we are facing, we are to let the whole thing go and fall on my knees in adoring worship. Everything in our lives can flow from our adoring worship and wonder of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Matthew 11:29-30: Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

·        How we see our God will determine who we serve Him. The Pharisees saw Him as hard and loveless, and therefore the way they served Him was grim and severe.

·        Many Christians today have an improper view of God. If we see Him as cold and hard, it will be impossible for us to love Him in truth… and our lives will be filled with fear.

·        They serve God like the elder brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, only doing right without enthusiasm or joy, and unable to celebrate when the prodigals come home.

·        If we see him as kind, understanding and loving, our whole inner life will reflect that kind of God.

·        The truth about God is, He is the most wonderful of all beings and His service is one of unspeakable pleasure. He is love and those who trust Him never need to know anything but that love.

·        He is a just God, but through the blood of our “everlasting covenant”

·        He is able to act to us as if we had never sinned. Our fellowship with Him is delightful beyond our understanding, and is restful and healing to our souls. 

Exodus 23:25: So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.

·        There are benefits we will receive from serving our God.

·        And this will be according to our faith. The more my faith and trust I God develops, the more I will see His benefits.

·        As I travel along His pathway where He is leading the more he will equip me and provide for me. Not only for my provisions, but in the Bread of Life and Living Water… the word and the Spirit!

·        Seek first the kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

·        Sickness and poverty are not blessings from God, or teaching us a lesson… they prevent us from serving Him fully.

·        He is a miracle God, and he can and will do miracles in my life if I will believe He will do it for me.

Exodus 23:26:  No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.

·        The loss of our children in the womb is a tragedy. It should be a safe place for our unborn. Abortion is something our nation should repent from and turn back to God, and He would heal our land.

·        There is no premature death in the will of God.

·        A man will live as long as God has work for him to do, and when that work is done, and I have completed what God had for me to do, I will get a promotion from this world into the next.

Psalm 103:2-5:   Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, 4 Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

·        This is the desire of our God for our lives. Our God is a good God and is worthy of all of our praise. Our Promised Land is filled with wonderful benefits.

·        We should not come short of entering all the way in. He has laid out the way for us, all we have to do is follow Him in and to not be afraid.

Possessing the Land

Possessing The Land 

Deuteronomy 6:10-12: “So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, 11 houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full— 12 then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

·        The Bible is one book composed of many books. God has not changed; He is still the same God today as He was then and will be tomorrow. So there are valuable lessons for us written long ago.

·        The things He did in the beginning were a foundation for everything He would do in the future. Creation/ Promised Land/ Finished work of the Cross

·        Therefore, it’s important for us to understand the similarities between the Promised Land for the children of Israel and the finished work of the cross for the Christian.

·        The Lord prepared a wonderful place for the children of Israel where they would freely enjoy the work of others on their behalf. It was a finished land, and He promised protection, provision, and rest in this new land.

·        This is the essence of grace. Jesus has gone before us and prepared a place for us in His finished work. It is our Promised Land of salvation. It’s done. It’s finished. It was paid for by the blood of Jesus! We just enter in!

·        Our challenge is in believing what is ours, and it’s really the same challenge the children of Israel had. There are some practical things that we can learn from them. God said it was theirs but they had to possess it by faith.

Exodus 23:20-21: “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.

·        God sent an Angel before them to keep them on the right track and to bring them into the right place.

·        They were to obey the Angel and not provoke him with disobedience.  He will not pardon them or forgive them; that was not His purpose.  This Angel was probably the same that appeared in the burning bush; the Angel of the Lord; Jesus.

·        He is what is needed to bring us along the right path. There is a warning that “obedience will bring them into their destiny” but “disobedience will have negative consequences.”

·        All they had to do was follow some rules to get to the place God wanted them to go. That’s the way that the kingdom of heaven works… its rules operates differently from the world. If they disobeyed the Angel they would not arrive at their destiny.

·        We find this truth in the New Testament.

·        The early churches started out going in the right direction, but soon they wanted to make their own decisions and go their own way. Most of Paul’s letters were directed to churches to stop this, turn around, and follow Jesus.

·        This is also happening today in the church, the worst thing the church can do is to try to find compromises with the culture. This does not make the world more like us; it makes us more like them.

·        Disobedience will keep us from following in God’s direction, unless there is repentance from this sin. This is true with the children of Israel, it is true with the church and it is true of individuals like you and me.

·        God’s plans have every contingency for man’s failures, our failures do not surprise God, and therefore man’s imperfections are proof of His grace. But His grace is a reflection of His goodness and nature, not our failures.

·        God waits for that moment we repent for the sin of our failures and then experience that overwhelming sense of His love and forgiveness.

·        Where sin abounds, grace abounds much more!

Hebrews 3:18-19: And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

·        Disobedience and unbelief are directly related. (Say it with me)

·        The children of Israel were disobedient to the Lord, therefore, unbelief set in and they were unable to enter the Promised Land, their place of rest. The result was wandering in the desert for forty years. Wandering is the opposite of rest.

·        If they would have entered in and “possessed” the Land, they would have “received” their “rest.” They could rest from their fears; they could rest from their anxieties, guilt, shame, regrets, etc.

·        All the good things that God had prepared for the children of Israel were still in the Land waiting for them, but they could not possess them because of their unbelief. They were on the outside looking in.

·        The Christian has all of the promises of salvation, plus access to the kingdom of heaven here on earth, right now. The kingdom operates on certain spiritual laws and unbelief hinders the operations of those spiritual laws.

·        God is asking us to believe Him in “everything,” not just some things. If we are not following the ways God has laid down for us then we are following man’s ways…and that is compromise. It’s lukewarm, its mixture, it contaminates our faith.

·        If I do not believe God all of God’s word, then I am not following God!

·        I am wandering aimlessly, even though I have a place that is just right for me in the kingdom of heaven right here on earth, right now.

Hebrews 4:2-3, 10-11: Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

·        Our place of rest is His grace.

·        It’s a place where we rest in the “finished work” of Jesus on the cross. It’s a place where we can freely receive everything that was purchased for us by another.

·        It’s a place where we don’t have to try to earn it because it already belongs to us.

·        It’s a place where we’re not trying to get what we already got.

·        It’s a place where we freely take what is ours.

·        All the promises of God are already ours, just take them by faith.

Romans 8:31-32:  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

·        If you ask the average Christian if they believe the promises of God you would get a positive answer.

·        Unbelief says: “His promises work for others but maybe not for me.”  God’s promises are for someone else, somewhere else, and at some other time.

·        And… if we do not believe all of the promises are for me in this time and this place, then I don’t have to obey God’s word. Therefore, unbelief and disobedience are common in many of the American churches.

·        So what’s the difference between believing and faith?

·        Faith says, “If this is for some other time, why not now? If this is for some other place, why not for right here? And if this is for someone else, why not me? Whatever God has done for someone else He will do for me.”

·        Faith takes what is ours and possesses it!

·        Faith takes the “I” out of the question and puts God right in the center. If God said it, it must be true; it’s true now, it’s true here, and it’s true for me. It’s mine!

·        We must recognize that unbelief will ruin our faith, and we will wander on this earth and we will not arrive at our destiny.

·        If we are going to follow the Angel in front of us, we have to believe that what God has in store for us is good.

Exodus 23:22: But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

·        This is the promise of God. If we will obey His voice and do all He says, then He will be our strength and our foundation.

·        He does not disqualify anyone who has slipped, failed, or disobeyed. The path back is to repent and admit to God where we went wrong and ask for his strength in our obedience.

·        Our enemies are Satan, the world, and our fleshly desires. And if we are going to walk in victory we need His strength because we have no real strength of our own… at all.

·        Israel never expected to enter the Promised Land unopposed.

·        Joshua led them to victory because God promised he would be an enemy to their enemies and an adversary to their adversaries.

·        The same is true for us today.

·        We cannot live the Christian life without opposition in the world. It has been that way from the beginning. Satan uses demons, other people, and circumstances against us and that puts up opposition that is too strong for us alone.

·        David understood this as he stood against Goliath. There was no way this young boy could defeat this giant of a man. But David came against Goliath in the name of the Lord, not in his own strength.

·        By committing myself to God I will certainly be put in dangerous situations. Yet the more dangerous the situation, the more I will see the kind of Christianity that God wants for me.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10: And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

·        This is the essence of New Covenant Christianity, His grace being what we need in any circumstance.

·        Paul says he will rejoice in problems because he understands that they are opportunities for grace!

·        But there are laws for how His grace works; I must be willing to be weak so His grace can be strong for me.

·        Unfortunately the average Christian is trying so hard to be strong in the face of opposition…when they really need to get weaker, not stronger so that he can be strong. That’s rest!

·        You see if I rely on my strength then God will allow me to find out the hard way that I need his strength. I have to go against my own nature to try to fix things in my own power. I can rest in His strength.

Mark 4:35-41: On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.  But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

·        The disciples were experienced fishermen who knew how to handle a boat in a storm.

·        Whenever there is a storm you must row harder and someone must be bailing the water that comes over the side before the boats sinks.

·        The disciples were giving it everything they had, but they could not keep up with the storm.

·        But Jesus was with them and He was “resting” in the middle of the storm. The harder they worked, the more He rested. Finally they stopped rowing and bailing and turned to Jesus. They didn’t think He cared they were going down!

·         He was waiting for them to stop working, so He could work.

The Law of Consequences

The Law of Consequences

Matthew 7:1-3: “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

·        The Pharisees were a group of people who focused on the sins of other people, but not their own. This is the “selfish nature” of the “fallen mind.”

·        The sinner always looks at others that he believes are worse than him… and compares himself to try to feel better about his own miserable life.

·        The Pharisees looked at the prostitutes, the tax collectors and the drunkards, but never considered their own sin at all. This process is “natural” and comes easily to all of us because it’s part of our nature.

·        The world “conspires” to influence us to consider everything but our own ways.

·        We are taught to consider houses, cars, travel, or careers. The appeal of material possessions is an appeal to the flesh.

·        The Lord is telling us to “consider” our own ways instead of considering other people’s ways. Our minds are constantly considering this or that. It is the nature of the mind.

·        Jesus warns us about the how we consider things—we are to look carefully at our own choices, our own words, our own actions, and our own lives before we consider the lives of others. He does not give us the opportunity to compare ourselves to others, but only to compare ourselves to the Word.

Galatians 6:7-8: Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

·        The Holy Spirit compares our lives to “the farmer.” When a farmer plants seeds and cares for those seeds, they will usually sprout and grow. In the same way, whatever a person “plants” in his own thinking… it will later bear fruit—either good or bad.

·        This is the eternal law of consequences. It is a law of cause and effect.

·        Everything is the “cause” of something else, therefore everything has consequences. Even the simplest thought or the words that you speak are the consequences of your mind and heart from yesterday.

·        Your words will have consequences tomorrow. Those consequences may be mild or they may be severe, but there will be consequences.

·        Everything has consequences of double importance. It is important for what it is in itself and what it will be in the future. The Holy Spirit is telling us that God will not be mocked… we are accountable for our actions and choices. We will have to give account for every deed and word.

Matthew 12:35-37: A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. 36 But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

·        The most important thing about consequences of acts, words, effects, and causes… is how they will impact our destiny. What we are will impact our destiny, now, here on earth and then, in our eternal destiny.

·        For instance, the impact of receiving Christ will impact our eternal home, our moral choices, and change us from sinners to saints. What consequence could be greater? When God saves a man, He saves him from sin.

·        A man that is not saved from sin is not saved at all.

·        There is no act of mercy or grace that can allow an evil man into the presence of God. He did not call those who thought they were righteous, but those who knew they were sinners.

·        There is a great debate within theologians about whether once you have been saved if you are always saved. But one thing is for sure: God does not put a pure robe of righteousness over our filth and allow that person to stand before Him.

·        He makes us a new creation and cleanses our filth by making us new. There’s got to be evidence of a new life or the consequences will be severe. If we teach anything else we are in error.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20:  I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days.

·        Nothing has more far reaching effects in life than our choosing.

·        We are the result of the choices we have made.

·        Even the choice we make today will determine our tomorrow. A person’s choices will determine whether he is a wise man or a fool.

·        The wise man knows that someday he will be held to account for his choices while in the body; the fool does not. In the Bible, a fool isn’t someone who is mentally stupid; a fool is someone who acts without thinking about consequences.

·        A man being “wise” has nothing to do with his education; instead it’s a man who wonders, “What will the result of this be?” Then he acts in a way that he will not have to be ashamed of the choices he makes.

·        Heaven will be full of wise men and hell will be full of fools.

·        There are “wise men” in heaven that can’t read or write while on earth, and there are “fools in hell” who have college degrees.

·        They knew about a lot of things, but they didn’t know about the one thing; Jesus!

2 Corinthians 10:4-6: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

·        There are a lot of our thoughts that need to be “taken captive.” The world has had an effect on our minds and influenced our ways of thinking and our believing.

·        If our thinking is wrong, then our believing will be wrong, and then our lives will follow the wrong course.

·        The challenge is to not allow the worldly ways of thinking and the culture to build strongholds…where we become captives of our own thinking. Therefore we are not helpless victims of our thoughts. We can choose to stop our thoughts and bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…the mind of Christ.

·        We are going to face battles and blessings along the way. Some only want the blessings, but often we will not experience the blessing until we go through the battles.

·        We must constantly make choices that will affect our destiny and our eternity. Often those choices are choosing between right and wrong, or choosing to do nothing. But choices are going to be made.

·        We will make mistakes, we will make wrong choices, and I am grateful for the grace of God. But the grace of God is not an opportunity to escape the consequences of our choices…the Bible is clear about that.

·        Even the Christian will reap what he or she sows.

·        The weapon that we have been given is the sword of the Spirit; which is the Word of God.

·        We must be able to discern between the truth and the lies. The lies that come from the world, the enemy, and even our flesh must be brought into obedience of the truth we know of Christ.

·        We must shine the light of truth, and walk in the truth; there will be consequences even for walking in the truth, but God sees our hearts…and we must walk with a clear conscience. He is more interested in the process than the results!

·        We will not escape consequences, even Christians will be judged. Not in terms of the Great White Throne Judgement, but in terms of what we did with what we were given.

Matthew 25:14-30:  “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 

20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ 

26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. 29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

·        The long delay would tempt the servants to think that they would never have to give an account for their actions.

·        The master judged each of the servants individually.

·        Well done, good and faithful servant: This shows that the master looked for goodness and faithfulness in His servants, not brilliance or education.

·        The servant that buried his talent made excuses because he thought the master had such great power that the master didn’t need his help, and whatever he did was insignificant…therefore he didn’t value what the Lord gave him.

·        He didn’t work at it. He didn’t even try. He made excuses.

·        He produced no evidence that he had received anything from the Lord. If you are saved there must be some evidence in your life. He produced no fruit, he was a withered branch…cast into the fire.

2 Corinthians 5:9-11: Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 11 Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.

·       Paul, once again, warns us that we Christians will be judged. We will receive from Him either rewards or loss.

·       In light of this truth, it is important whether you are eight or eighty to live our lives from today on… knowing that there is a day coming, that these lives we’ve lived will be closely examined.

·       Even our thinking and words will be brought into the light. Nothing will be hidden.

·       Therefore shouldn’t we choose, today, life? Not just eternal life but a life that will be rewarded in eternity?

·       We may have to set aside some things, we may have to let go of some of our stinking thinking.

·       We may have to forgive some stuff. We may have to go all in!

Communion With God

Communion with God 

Ephesians 2:18-22: Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

·        If any church is a real church, it is a communion with the Lord. It is not just an organized institution.

·        Anyone can set up a church, get a pastor and elect a board… but until it is a communion, it is not a New Testament church.

·        A New Testament church must be a group of people who are drawn together for one reason—to seek the Presence of God—hearing God and experiencing God.

·        That is the burning bush before which we kneel.

·        If we can have a sense of His presence it will change our life for as long as we will live. It will lift us above our flesh and purify our hearts until it’s just His light shining through us for a dying sinful world to see Jesus in us.

·        It’s important that we go deeper into concepts of New Testament Christianity, but we need to go back a little bit, ok?

Luke 15:8-9: “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’

·        Jesus tells the parable about the lost coin; it’s a story about something that’s lost.

·        The coins had the image of a man stamped upon them similar to our coins today. Something important was lost, not just money.

·        The Bible says we are made in the image of God, but that image was distorted in the fall through sin. Therefore the average person also has a distorted image of God.

·        And if we have a distorted image of God, then we have a distorted image of ourselves and this will affect our relationship with our God.

·        I also believe that there is an “inward desire” for all men to look into whose image we are made and find truth.

·        There’s a longing or emptiness in the pursuit of that knowledge that weaves through every culture… through the all the ages. There’s a fascination for those who want to find God but cannot.

Matthew 1:23: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

·        God, Himself, brought proof to the world that would wipe away all of the fables, myths, legends, traditions, and the lies of the enemy.

·        He showed what the Old Testament had pointed to and prepared us for; that God would appear in the form of a man.

·        Jesus would say, “If you have seen Me you have seen the Father.”

·        Men would no longer have to go into the forest groves and build altars to worship what they did not know, they would no longer have to sacrifice animals, there would no longer have to be temples dedicated to their imaginary gods.

·        The mystery would be revealed in Person.

Matthew 18:18-20:  “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

·        This is what Moses saw in the burning bush, the manifest Presence of God. This truth cuts through all of the darkness and the confusion over thousands of years.

·        He is the God who is with us. He is the God who manifests Himself. He is the God who does miracles in our midst!

·        We have the concept that God is everywhere… but we struggle with the “manifestation” part of this truth.

·        The manifestation point is Jesus Christ our Lord. As God, He may manifest Himself everywhere; therefore we may seek His throne of grace anywhere.

·        The early church understood this, and the practice of it was very simple; they met in the Name of Jesus who they understood and believed was the “focal point” of God on this earth. They believed that He was their Holy place.

·        They didn’t need altars, temples, mountain groves or Sabbaths. They simply believed that when two or more gathered together in His name that He would fulfill His promise and manifest Himself amongst them. They would be the bush and He would be the fire.

·        They did not beg Him to come, but believed His word that “they would be His focal point” for the manifestation of His divine presence.

·        And they would minister to the Lord in prayer, praise, and worship.

·        The early Christians no longer feared God in the same way as the pagans did, they did not bring blood because their God had already shed blood for them as a man. Wherever and whenever they met… it was now a Holy place.

·        Although they did not fear Him like the pagans, they had a “holy reverence” and “awesome respect” for Him knowing that He was present.

·        It is wrong for Christians to meet for any other purpose than to minister to the Lord. In simplicity, suddenly they would all be filled with the Holy Spirit, not that they were not filled, but there would be a congregational Presence.

·        Their congregations met in secret in somebody’s house or in a borrowed building. But it was not the building that was holy; it was the presence of God.

·        And they believed that in His Presence they had the right to ask for miracles, and that their God would answer and do great things in their midst! Let’s take it another step deeper:

1 Corinthians 12:12-14:  For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.

·        Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, introduced a new concept to the early church; the church is the body of Christ. It was radical, it was new, and it was from the Spirit.

·        It was taking being made in the image of God to a whole new level. This New Testament concept tells us that in Christ we are remade into His image in a very practical way; He is the Head and we are His Body, hands and feet.

·        The concept was so simple; we are no longer separate but are connected by the Spirit to become the body for Christ here on earth. Christ is the Head, and we are His hands and feet. We are unified by the Holy Spirit with Him and each other.

·        Since Paul told us we are each temples of the Holy Spirit, He brings us together to function in unity for His purposes.

·        The indwelling Presence of the Spirit in us… individually will unify us into a cohesive group that would function like a human body, each part playing an essential role in fulfilling the kingdom on earth.

·        Your hands are now His hands. In unity we will function like Him in healing, speaking, and going. Think of the possibilities!

·        This is our spiritual reality, just waiting for our agreement level.

·        It takes a radical commitment to each other and to the part of the body that you’re in. No more offense, no more laziness, no more complaining.

·        Essentially, we would now identify with the body of Christ and our role within the body, rather than our selfish desires in fulfilling worldly pleasures. If it is operating in the Spirit, we would find complete fulfillment in communal purposes rather than individual achievements. Let’s see some other practical applications:

1 Corinthians 11:27-30: Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

·        The word unworthy has led some Christians believe they have sinned they were unworthy to come to the table and remember what Jesus did on the cross for them. However our sin should lead us to Jesus not away from Him.

·        If anyone needs to remember the work of Jesus on the cross, it is the one who has sinned. But if we have refused to repent we are mocking the finished work of Jesus on the cross for us. And we are sinning against the “body” of Christ and the cleansing “blood.”

·        The Corinthian church met together without recognizing the presence of the Lord, nor discerning that they were part of His body.

·        They were not required to believe that the “bread and wine” are actually God as the Catholics do, but they were required to believe that He was literally present in the bread and wine as it was served. Literally means “has the effect of.”

·        Paul stressed that the Lord’s Supper should be a time of celebration for the church in which Christians focus on honoring Jesus, exhibiting unity, and proclaiming the gospel of Christ’s salvation.

·        But they were meeting together for other purposes other than that of finding the manifestation of His Son.

·        They are not “discerning the body of Christ” which means they are acting indifferently toward “communion in the body,” as if it were just another meal.

·        Unfortunately, there is a literal judgment of not discerning the presence in this type of unworthy gathering, it was that many were sick, weak, and died prematurely. That is its own chastening. It’s not that the Lord is making people sick; it was that they could not discern the healing.

·        Let me put it differently; they did not have the “revelation” of the miraculous nature of the body of Christ, therefore, they were unable to receive freely the gifts of the Spirit.

·        It’s no different from someone who doesn’t believe in healing, that person is going to have a difficult time receiving healing. If you cannot believe, you cannot receive.

·        The sense of the presence wasn’t in them and so the purpose and meaning of the communion wasn’t in them and everything was “dumbed” down.

Revelation 2:4-5: Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.

·       Jesus describes other churches in Revelation 2-3, He said that they lost their first love, He said that their moral lives had fallen, He said their doctrines had wavered so much that a woman was teaching blasphemy and committing spiritual and physical fornication.

·       He said they had a name to live by but they were dead because they didn’t recognize the presence in their gathering together coming to Zion’s hill, which is Jesus Christ.

·       This is why Jesus had appeared to them with eyes as flames of fire, feet of brass to trample, and, and a double edged sword to slay.

·       He had praised and blamed, and he had pleaded with them to get right. I pray that we may be wise enough to avoid those flaming eyes of fire. I pray that our hearts question why we are here. I pray that our motives may be found pure and holy.

·       I pray that we identify as the Body of Christ and the miraculous nature of that!

Lessons From a Burning Bush

 Lessons From a Burning Bush

Psalms 16:11: You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

·        The reason we are learning to experience the Presence of the Lord is that once we walk in that Presence, nothing else really matters. Once theology turns to experience we are never the same again.

·        His presence lifts us above all of our problems and difficulties.

·        Everything pales in comparison. Earthly pleasures fade away, they are meaningless. There is fullness of joy unimaginable.

·        Moses discovered the presence of God in a burning bush. By examining Moses experience, we can learn valuable lessons to help us find our burning bush experience.

Hebrews 11:23-26: By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command. 24 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

·        Apart from Jesus Christ, Himself, there is no other person that is as well-known as Moses in the Bible. Moses was raised by the Pharaoh’s daughter in Egypt, and was probably in line to become the Pharaoh of Egypt.

·        But when Moses was forty years old he killed an Egyptian slave master who attacked a Hebrew slave and in fear, he fled into the mountains where he spent the next forty years of his life as a shepherd tending sheep.

·        After spending forty years under the stars tending sheep, perhaps the memories of Egypt began to fade away, and Moses was probably wondering about what the true purpose was of his life, perhaps he was a little discouraged; it was definitely a dry period. He was probably bored to tears.

·        Moses was in the “school of silence,” he heard the birds and the sheep; he looked to the stars at night, but was cut-off from all the noises of distraction. God took Moses out of the noise, and sent him somewhere he could hear his own heartbeat.

·        After eighty years, most are at the retirement stage of life, most are done serving the Lord, with their best days behind them. Many still want to do some good things, but it’s not about what you’re doing, it’s about who is doing it through you.

·        Who would pick an eighty year-old man and send him into Egypt to set his people free. Wouldn’t most of us choose a younger man? That’s where we differ from the Lord; He looks at a man’s heart!

·        When a man is called by God to do a work, that man then has access to all the resources and authority of God. God does not call the equipped, He equips the called! He likes to use the people who seem unlikely… foolish things of this world.

Exodus 3:1-2: And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.

·        God revealed Himself to Moses as fire, but God is not fire. Fire is one of the nearest things we can know and see that is LIKE God. The fire in the bush was God shining through the flames. It was the Presence of God!

·        Moses was a Jew. He knew about God.

·        But now he was experiencing God. This is the truth we are striving for. We cannot substitute doctrine for experience. The Bible is our pathway to experience!

·        The greatest ministry a church can have is “experiencing God,” and then tell others, “You can experience God, too!

·        I’m sure this was not what Moses was expecting. He had probably seen other bushes on fire, but this was something he couldn’t explain. The bush was on fire but the fire was not consuming the bush, this required a deeper look!

·        The Angel of the Lord, Jesus, appeared to Moses in the fire from the midst of the bush. This requires our looking deeper, too.

Colossians 1:26-27: The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.  To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

·        I believe this bush has things to teach us about the indwelling Presence of the Lord:

·        The bush was completely helpless in the fire. You will never know God as you should know Him until you are helpless in His hands, and cannot escape Him.

·        As long as you have a Plan B, you can run to safety. As long as there is a bridge behind you, you have a way to escape back to your comfortable life.

·        Even mice have a second or third hole to run to.

·        This bush could not back out of the fire, but I’m not sure it would if it could. Happy is the Christians who is caught up by the Lord and has burned their bridges, no more plan B’s!

·        I believe many Christians have never reached maturity because the door is not locked behind them. They’re plan B’s are stronger than their Plan A’s!

Exodus 3:3: Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”

·        I believe Moses’ time in the wilderness prepared him for this moment. He didn’t just try to explain it away, or find an explanation for this burning bush.

·        Moses was ready for an encounter with God!

·        He was hungry for something real, he’d been in the wilderness forty years…it was his moment.

·        God is preparing moments for us. I’ve missed many of my moments because I was focused on something else. I hope I don’t miss any more moments with Him.

·        Another thing about this bush, the fire was “dwelling” in the bush, and the bush was at the mercy of the fire because the fire was in control of the bush.

·        When you put an iron rod in a fire, soon you have fire in the iron as it glows red. The iron is still the iron, and the fire is still the fire, but you have them fused together in experience. Take the iron out of the fire the fusion stops.

·        When God enters into the human heart, they do not become one, but experientially they become one. The glowing fire in the man causes the man to become a little like God, because there’s so much of God in him.

·        And yet he is not God and God is not the man. Forever God remains God and the man remains a man. And yet, there becomes shared experience!

Exodus 3:4: So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

·        The Lord waited to call Moses until Moses turned to see the fire. Moses had already decided to see the bush on fire, but now He was looking at the fire in the bush.

·        Moses saw the bush with his natural eyes, this was not a “vision,” but now, after the “school of silence,” Moses wanted to see more than just his eyes could see.

·        God wanted to say some things to Moses, and He did. The Lord had spent years preparing Moses for his moment. He had led Moses out of Egypt after forty years, now it took forty years to get Egypt out of Moses.

·        We’ve spent many years in the world so that we have become “worldly.” The Lord wants to get the world out of us so that He can put kingdom things in us.

·        Moses didn’t have the “self-confidence” in himself that he had in Egypt.

·        The years in the wilderness, listening to his own heartbeat and questioning everything he knew had him ready to say, “Here I am.”

Exodus 3:5:  Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” 6 Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

·       The first thing that the Lord wanted Moses to understand is that God is Holy. His Holiness is an infinite purity that consumes that which is impure. He is Holy, Holy, Holy, and His glory fills all creation! He is not to be taken “lightly.”

·       The next thing Moses needed to know was “the fear of the Lord.”

·       He is not only a good God, but He is a just God, therefore law breaking, disobedience, and rebellion will be judged. Awesome respect is required for the things that are “sacred.”

·       We come from God, He is the source, and we go back to God. Therefore there is an upward moral trust that we must believe because we will be judged for the things we do while here.

·       We are not independent from Him, there is a central control of the universe, and He is Holy. And we must regard His ways as sacred.

·       Sinners don’t regard the throne of God to be legit; they do not want the Lord to rule over them.

·       But when a sinner repents and is born again, he leaves the old world and comes into the kingdom of God—under His rule.

·       One of the greatest losses to the modern church is this sense of sacredness, we have allowed “casualness” and anything goes attitude. No great movement of God can come out of this sort of thing.

·       We need a revival of reverence where worship leads to the wonderful moment of experience. Maybe we ought to take off our shoes, and come into deep worship until the fire falls and covers us in His sacred Presence.

Exodus 3:6: Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

·       The Lord revealed Himself to Moses and his life was never the same. I am also sure this bush was never the same. This flame so transfigured the bush until it became the most famous bush in history.

·       However, its glory was not its own glory, the glory came from the indwelling fire.

·       Have you ever stopped to think that all the fungus, the bugs, larvae, and worms that plague bushes… they all perished in the fire!

·       Not a single thing there but bush and fire.

·       I’m no expert in entomology, but there’s no bugs that can survive raw fire.

·       I believe with all my heart that the fire of the Lord burns away all of our impurities, including our illnesses.

·       The fire of the Lord is a refining fire!

·       The bush was transfigured in the fire.

·       It had only been scrub brush. There were millions like it all over the wilderness, but the glory of God got into the bush and was great in the bush.

·       The bush also got its meaning and purpose and significance there. It was related to the other bushes but was no longer similar to them.

·       When Jesus lays ahold of a person, the first thing that happens is to give him significance and meaning. God dwells in the man and he becomes transfigured in the fire.

Acts 2:1-4: When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

·       We are all called to become “burning bushes.”

·       On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon those hundred and twenty as a flame of fire.

·       Each one had his own flame. It was not one flame… but many flames.

·       He was now bringing those disciples into His experience with power to change their world. Their lives would never be the same.

·       They had purpose. They were transformed. They were burning bushes that the Lord spoke through.

·       We never hear of the disciples being sick, they were protected in the fire until their time was finished. They changed the world.

·       Do you want the fire? It’s available for you! But know this, it’s an all or nothing deal.

The Earth Is Filled With His Glory

The Earth Is Filled With His Glory 

Matthew 5:8: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

·        Jesus told us this important truth on the Sermon on the Mount.

·        For several weeks we’ve been exploring how we are to use our hearts instead of our minds to turn our relationship with the Lord from theology to experience. We must cross into the Promised Land of His manifested presence.

·        Jesus says we must keep our hearts pure. In other words… we must attach our hearts to Him instead of worldly things.

·        It’s like clouds blocking the sun… the sun is still shining but the clouds of our making are keeping us from seeing the sun.

·        A pure heart focuses on eternal things, not temporary things.  

·        A pure heart will be searching for God in all the right places, and a pure heart will see Him there.  An impure heart will miss the moment.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18: Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

·        Paul says, “Don’t lose heart,” don’t get discouraged, (don’t lose focus), difficult things are going to come our way and they can affect our hearts. When we look at these things that “are seen” they seem more real than those things that are unseen; but they are not. 

·        Things like x-rays, bills, debts, etc. are only temporary.

·        We are going to have difficult times, we are going to have tribulation, but we must keep our hearts focused on the eternal things… things that are unseen if we are to overcome the seen!

·        Things that are eternal are more real than the temporary! Temporary things do not last; they’re here today and gone tomorrow! They’re not worth focusing our hearts on them.

·        He has put eternity in our hearts; our hearts are created to attach to eternal things. Look, we’re just passing through here; we’re pilgrims going to a far better place…focus your heart on that.  This is not our home!

·        We cannot be like the unbelievers who believe that the things that are seen are more real than the unseen. They can only believe if they see things with their eyes, therefore, their hearts become dark and hardened, they are unthankful and their thoughts are affected.

·        They cannot know the things of God, spiritual things become foolishness to them, and this affects their destiny.

·        They attach their hearts to worldly things like their possessions, jobs, status, education, etc. Therefore, this is their home.

·        Today, we will see how we can find the Lord in creation and attach our hearts there.

Isaiah 40:21-22: Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

·        Here’s the truth I want to show you today; God has hidden deep truths for us in His creation.  God’s word gives us some “earthly examples” that we “can see” to help us understand “eternal things” we “cannot see” with our eyes.

·        There are things He has put in creation to help us see with our hearts. We can focus our hearts on these truths by faith.

·        The earth, the heavens, the entire creation is working together. None of these things are an accident. He is in charge!

·        Proverbs 25:2: It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

·        The Word of God reveals these truths to us that are hidden in creation, for our benefit. We can learn many deep truths about our Creator and how the kingdom of heaven works if we will look carefully at the creation.

·        I can teach my heart to see the unseen, by looking at the things seen in creation; things that are pointed out to us in His word!

Isaiah 55:8-11: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

·        He tells us His ways and thoughts are higher than ours, therefore we are to learn His ways. The Lord uses the rain, the snow, seeds, and bread to reveal to us His ways.

·        These are created things to teach us about uncreated things.

·        I can look to the rain, the snow, seeds and to understand more about His kingdom and His Word. Every time I see it rain or snow I see His Word coming down and His provision for us. I can attach my heart to it, and my heart is blessed.

·        These scriptures tell us an obvious yet important truth; He is the source of everything.

·        We are not the source; therefore He wants us to be dependent on Him.

·        When we see ourselves as our source we make the same mistake that Adam and Eve made. This will only cause us to be unthankful, futile in thinking, and our hearts will be darkened.

·        His Word comes down from heaven, and His Word always works. We live on every word that comes from His mouth.

·        Romans 10:17: So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

·        And the words of His gospel are still the key to what He is doing on planet earth. 

·        This is true with His Word becoming flesh and dwelling amongst us. Jesus, as the Word accomplished His purpose and returned in glory. And so we are to accomplish His purposes and return in glory.

·        Jesus teaches us many of these same truths but in a New Covenant context.

Mark 4:10-14: But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. 11 And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables. And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?  The sower sows the word.

·        The parable of the sower compares our hearts to soil. Some hard, some shallow, some full of thorns, but some is good soil able to receive and produce a large crop from the Word of God. The Lord wants us to be fruitful. We cannot be fruitful unless our hearts are pure.

·        We have been called to be “sowers of the word of God.”  God’s word is perfect seed, it never fails… we just fail to use it properly, or not use it at all.

·        We must learn how the His Word works in the kingdom of heaven in our hearts on this earth, or we will completely miss out on all that the Lord has for us in this life as well as the next.

·        Jesus is using this parable in the context of the gospel, but it is also true in how our own hearts operate. If we plant the promises of His Word in our hearts, it will grow if our hearts are good (pure) soil, and come to fruition in the manifestation of the promise.

·        If our hearts become hardened, shallow, and filled with weeds, we will not be able to connect with kingdom things. It’s the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom, but we have a part to play in cultivating the soil in our hearts.

Matthew 6:25-26: “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

·        Jesus is addressing our fears and worries that are directly related to our independent ways of thinking. Our worries and fears lead to unbelief, they contaminate our hearts, and we stay miserable. They create a wall of worry between us and our God.

·        Jesus tells us to look at the birds of the field. He points us to these truths in nature to reveal to us “kingdom truths.” We are continually trying to store up worldly things because of our fears, but our Heavenly Father wants to take care of us.

·        It’s pretty rare to see skinny birds of the field; they’re pretty fat and happy. Do you look at the birds and let your heart thank the Lord?

Matthew 6:31-33: “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

·        Seeking the kingdom means forsaking other things like the worries and fears over worldly things that contaminate our hearts.

·        Those things we’re seeking we attach our hearts to; and may miss the kingdom.

·        The worries of this world, shipwreck our faith, contaminate our hearts and keep us from operating supernaturally in the kingdom.

·        But the promise here is to seek the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and the Father will take care of our earthly needs. So we need not focus our hearts on earthly needs.

·        I think it’s interesting that Jesus includes “His righteousness.” Our tendency is towards “self-righteousness.” It’s depending again on self rather than the Lord. That’s depending on our fallen nature. We rely on our own goodness rather than God’s goodness.

·        Everything I receive from the Lord is by grace through faith; from my salvation to my provision.

John 15:1-5: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

·        Jesus returns to earthly things to explain heavenly things.

·        He uses vines, branches and fruit to explain these principles to us. He says that if we connect our hearts to Him and Him alone like a branch to a vine…we will be very fruitful.

·        But if we do not we are useless to the Father.

·        I must so attach my heart to Jesus so that my home is in Him, my ears and my eyes are on Him.

·        I’m following so close I’m abiding in His shadow. In other words, I am following Him wherever He leads me because I trust Him.

·        Unfortunately too many Christians are still seeking their own independence and their own ways of doing things. It’s as if the branch doesn’t need the vine.

John 15:5-8: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

·        Without the vine the branches will wither.

·        There are many withered Christians, unfortunately they don’t even know they are withered because their hearts are not abiding.

·        Their hearts are abiding here, they’re abiding over there, they’re abiding anywhere the wind blows because they are still unwilling to submit to the vine!

·        But if we’re abiding in the vine and producing much fruit, our Father is glorified, and our prayers will be answered because we trust Him and He will trust our hearts…that’s relationship!

Hebrews 11:1-3: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained good testimony. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

·        My faith and your faith are effective… only if we believe with our hearts by focusing on the unseen. Here, the word attaches our hearts to the creation again.

·        Therefore guard your hearts against worldly concerns, they are thorns and weeds that pollute your heart.

·        My heart was made to focus on Jesus, therefore that is where my focus should be, the king of the kingdom. Seek first the kingdom!

·        Next time you are looking up into the sky, the stars, the moon, the sun and clouds, or at the rivers of flowing water, or at the mountains reaching to the sky, or the oceans deep and wide, or the birds and flowers, let them speak to you the deep truths of the Word of God.