Devotion, Dedication, Duty, Defilement Series

Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.

Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

III. DUTY (1 Cor. 15:58; Titus 2:14)

PERHAPS YOU HAVE BEEN NEGLIGENT IN YOUR SERVICE

NOTE: This is developed lightly here because it was touched upon in the “Sins of Omission” (sermon 3).

1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Titus 2:14 [Christ] gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

ILLUS: Hospital Volunteers work for no money. Why? Their work gets them out of the house, resets their thinking, gives exercise, gives social connections and gives a sense of real fulfillment because at the end of the day, someone has been helped. How we need some volunteers here at Calvary!

For I was born to serve the Lord! By Evangelist Bud Chambers

From the dust of the earth

My God created man

His breath gave man a living soul

For God so loved this world

That He gave His only Son

And that is why I love Him so

Chorus

For I was made in His likeness

Created in His image

For I was born to serve the Lord

And I can’t deny Him

And I will always walk beside Him

For I was born to serve the Lord

Tag

Yes I was born to serve the Lord!

Yes, my hands were made

to help my neighbor

My eyes were made

To read God’s word

My feet were made

to walk in His footsteps

My body is the temple of the Lord

IV. DEFILEMENT (Heb. 12:1; Ps. 119:1; Mt. 5:8; Philip. 2:14-15; 1 John 3:3)

PERHAPS YOU ARE PERMITTING SOME KNOWN EVIL.

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

QUOTE: When water is left to stand, the particles of silt betray themselves as they fall one by one to the bottom. So if you are quiet, you may become aware of the presence in your soul of permitted evil. Dare to consider it. Do not avoid the sight as the bankrupt avoids his telltale ledgers, or as the tubercular patient the stethoscope.

[HANDOUT QUOTE BEGINS] Compel yourself quietly to consider whatever evil the Spirit of God discovers to your soul. It may have lurked in the closets and cloisters of your being for years, suspected but unjudged. But whatever it be, and whatever its history, be sure that it has brought the shadow over your life which is your daily sorrow.

• Does your will refuse to relinquish a practice or habit which is alien to the will of God’?

• Do you permit some secret sin to have its unhindered way in the house of your life’?

• Do your affections roam unrestrained after forbidden objects?

• Do you cherish any resentment or hatred toward another, to whom you refuse to be reconciled?

• Is there some injustice which you refuse to forgive, some charge which you refuse to pay, some wrong which you refuse to confess?