Followers Blessings

Followers Blessings – 1st February 2009 pm

Imagine for a moment that a highly respected corporate executive has phoned you and asked you to be his personal assistant. He has decided you would be the best choice to handle his business, you would probably feel honoured by such a privileged offer. Wouldn’t you

Most people would jump at chance to work for and serve Alan Sugar. They line up to get on his show, The Apprentice. Maybe it would be a privileged honour to work for a business executive like Alan Sugar.

But today I want to remind you that we have been called by Someone far greater than any business executive, God has given every Christian the job of serving him. There are certain spiritual blessings for followers of the Lord Jesus Christ

I. Spiritual Wisdom – Proverbs 9:10

Wisdom is God given. Knowledge is acquired by us. Wisdom is the ability to rightly apply the knowledge that we’ve gained to a situation.

You can have all the knowledge in the world – all the qualifications etc… But that doesn’t make us wise.

We increase our knowledge of the Scripture and then God gives us the wisdom to apply those Scriptures to our every day lives.

II. Spiritual Light – John 8:12

In the court of the women where Jesus was speaking stood a huge candelabra, the lamps would be lit on the night of the Feast of Tabernacles. It symbolised the Shekinah glory which had guided Israel during their wanderings in the wilderness. The Shekinah glory had also shone for centuries in Solomon’s temple, but it left the city before the Babylonians invaded and had never lighted the second temple.

Like the copper shields made by King Rehoboam to replace the golden ones that had once shone in the temple and were stolen by the Egyptians, the Jews tried to keep up appearances with a make believe Shekinah.

It is against this background that the Lord Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the Light of the world. A glory and a light far greater than the one that had shone in the first temple was now here. However, this was another light that was removed from Judea and Jerusalem when the Jews rejected their Messiah (Matthew 23:38)

Haggai 2 6-7 tells us that this light will one day be restored to Israel but at this present time and in this dispensation this light shines in splendour in the church.

Light is a characteristic of God 1 John 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

It was the first thing that God Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Jesus said, He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life. Those who followed the Pharisees, the priests, and the scribes walked in darkness. Those who follow Confucius or Buddha or Krishna or Mohammad walk in darkness. The end of their road is the darkness of death.

The person who follows Jesus walks in the light, and the end of that road is the light of life.

III. Spiritual Guidance – John 10:27

The Bible reveals that there are many voices in the world clamouring for our attention:

The voice of man is easy to recognize. It is the audible voice of another human being, but be careful listening to this voice Acts 5:29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. Sometimes the voice of man may give wise advice, but anytime the voice of man conflicts with the voice of God, you must obey God.

The voice of Satan was first heard by man when he spoke to Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:4-5). Satan’s voice lies, deceives, and always attempts to lead man into sin away from God. You can easily recognize this when you read of the temptation of Jesus by Satan in Matthew 4:1-13. You can read of the type of conversations Satan has with God in Job 1:7-12 and 2:1-6.

The voice of self is man talking to himself - have you ever done that? We can convince ourselves to do anything… The Bible warns concerning this voice of self: Jeremiah 10:23 O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

The Voice of God. Jesus said believers could know the voice of God and distinguish it from "strange" voices that give wrong guidance: (See John 10:3-5) We are compared to sheep. It is the characteristic of sheep not to know where they are going. They must be led. Jesus said He was the shepherd or leader of the sheep. He said His sheep would know His voice and follow Him instead of the "strange" voices of man, self, or Satan.