Thank you Rev. Marty Varnel.
“The Careful Life Of Transference”
Psalms 100:5
God established covenant with Noah in Gen 6…
He said: “I will establish my covenant with thee…”
A covenant with one man that affected his entire family and ultimately the whole world of humankind!
He further established covenant with Noah in Gen. 9:8…He established His covenant with Noah and His sons…his seed after him…
But God was not yet satisfied…Gen 9:12…this is the token of the covenant…It’s between Me and you and every living creature that is with you…for perpetual generations.
The Second Covenant God established with man was with Abraham. Gen 17:7. He followed the same pattern…Covenant with thee, and then with thy seed after thee…and then in their generations…an everlasting covenant.
Then we see it unfold…from Abraham this covenant passed to Isaac…then from Isaac.
But then when Isaac went to pass this covenant on to his firstborn son Esau something went wrong…there was a failure to transfer the covenant…and with much family destruction and devastation it was finally passed to the second son Jacob.
Then we when track this everlasting covenant in his kids we find ourselves at the end of Genesis with Jacob on his deathbed…there he calls his sons together and by the curses he places on his own sons it becomes painfully obvious that some of his sons do not have the covenant in them or on them…
Jacob used words like: “Unstable as water”…”Thou shall not excel”…and referred to his own sons as instruments of cruelty in their own homes. And he cursed their anger and wrath and he said he would divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel…
These statements he made concerning the next generation were made in Egypt. The only reason Jacob was in Israel was because his sons hated their brother Joseph and had sold him into Egypt.
Looking at the big picture of this story we understand that God did turn the evil intent of those boys into something good…but I want to make the point clear that Jacob did not want to go to Egypt.
Even though there was great famine in Canaan land Jacob required God to give him clear instructions that it would be ok to go down into Egypt for a season! God had to give him a vision to make it known to him.
When Jacob first arrived in Egypt he made it known that this wasn’t where this family was going to dwell forever…he said that they would once again inhabit the land of their fathers and dwell in the covenant of their fathers!!!
And then Jacobs last request is that they not bury his body in Egypt…but that they take his bones back to his covenant inheritance and bury him with his fathers!
I think that one of the reasons that Jacob wanted to go to Egypt was to once again speak to all his sons together…I don’t think it was about escaping the famine…We know that he didn’t want to go in the first place…and certainly he didn’t want to die there…
I believe it was about one last chance to put something in his sons…one last chance to be an example and a voice of covenant to his sons!!!
Oh the places some of our elders have had to go and die to make sure the next generation had something put into them that would pass the covenant to them!
Right near the end of Jacobs life he is weary and worn in body but he wants to try to insure that in his sons and in his sons sons there is a recognition and a realization of who they are and where they were from and the covenant they live under!
So while he is weary in body and mind and he is in a place he really don’t want to be anyway…He summons his remaining strength and leans up on his staff…he doesn’t want Joseph nor Joseph’s children to have forgotten the sound of true worship…and so he presents it to them again…
Not only did Jacob want his sons and his sons sons to remember the song of true worship but he wanted to bless his legacy after him…he wanted to put his hand on their heads and I am convinced that Jacob wanted a spiritual transfer…that is what the laying on of hands is for…and Jacob wanted something spiritual to transfer from his heart into the hearts of his sons and grandsons…
I’m so very thankful for elders who put forth the effort to live a careful life in front of me and put their hands on my life and transferred a love and respect for God and Godly living to me!!!
I’m thankful that I allowed them to teach me what true worship sounded like…what true intercession sounded like…What true living for God was…What the true Apostolic Doctrine is!!!
Even when they were tired…even when they had to muster all that was left of their strength to show me…they showed up and they worshipped and they put their stamp on my life!!! OH what a transfer covenant they gave me!!!
In spite of their weariness…in spite of their physical limitations…they toiled diligently for years to make sure that we knew…we are not from Egypt…we are from a place and a people of covenant!!! They gave all they had to bring us into covenant!!! They refused to settle for a cheap knockoff…they toiled to insure that we had the genuine article…that we knew what it really was to be Apostolic…Oh what a debt we owe!!
Somehow Jacob wanted to look one last time into the eyes of his boys and tell them who they were…where they were from…whom they were to serve…what they were to stay away from…and to instill in them a desire for their homeland and their God Covenant!!!
The bible tells us…that when Jacob finished talking to his sons he laid back into bed and gathered his feet into his bed and there he died…The only thing keeping him alive was the wish to transfer a love for living for God and a Carefulness in walking with God that would insure that future generations would have the same knowledge and the same privilege!!!
Thank God for elders that lived life carefully…always thinking about being an example for the next generation coming on…they made sure that they were faithful…so I would know to be faithful…they made sure to sacrifice to insure that I would sacrifice…they made sure to worship so I would know to worship!!! They lived carefully for their own soul and for a transfer of covenant to the next generation!!
It matters to me that the next generation get this!!!
It matters to me that the next generation of Varnells and the next generation of Varnell’s and the next generation of Varnell’s has a love for this truth and this way of life and this worship that God calls the Church!!!
From Jacob to his sons the covenant was established only in part…We find that Joseph is the only one of Jacobs sons that is mentioned in the list of the heroes of faith…And Joseph too died in Egypt but he like his father requested that his bones be buried with his fathers in Canaan!
Joseph was different from his brothers…although he was sold into Egypt…he never lost his identity to Egypt!!! He was always a child of covenant!!! He was always an Israelite in Egypt…
Jacob never lost his appreciation for the covenant that was started with his great great grandfather and was passed on to him…all the while 10 other boys that were raised in Canaan…and never had to go to Potiphars house and never went to prison struggled to find their identity and they never seemed to get it!!! Dear Lord…they were raised in Canaan but they never caught the value of that careful covenant raising!!!
God help some of us who were raised on Apostolic church pews and cut our teeth in the house of God…Help us to see the value of that Careful Life Of Transference!!!
Hear me Zachary…Hear me Kade…your mother and I have made choices with care…we have lived our lives in hopes that you would see it’s benefits and catch on…and start fashioning your life after your Grandpa and your great grandpas and your great great grandpas…This was all done for your benefit and the benefit of your kids and grandkids…!!! This is how we live for God!!! This is our covenant with the King!!!
But hear me boys…You have had the benefit of the finest teaching and preaching…the benefit of the finest examples in the elders of the church…but Oh God…I’ve got one more request of you…don’t just watch us…get a love for this thing down deep in your souls…get an appreciation for the hard work and labor of love and the sacrifice that has gone into crafting these careful lives so that you can know what being an Apostolic really is!!!
Hear me Zach…hear me Kade…You are not an Egyptian…you are a child of covenant!!! And every day until I die…I want to start transferring this spirit to you!!!
You must understand that it’s not given to you because you are my sons…it’s a covenant relationship of blessing…but this covenant requires that you take it up and live according to it’s laws!!!
You cannot just go through the motions because you are born into this family…but you have to be keenly aware that this is not a birthright alone…it’s a covenant…it is based upon it being carried on to you and your kids and their kids…You must recognize this is an opportunity…not a permanent promise based on genetics!!! Oh I want to live that careful life of transference…I have future generations depending on my to overcome my mess and get better and get over myself and build a careful life for the sake of the future generations of my family!!!
Don’t you recognize that you are going to raise children that are going to see your life and derive their values from your level of commitment!!! Just bringing them to church isn’t enough…you gotta show them the level of commitment that will insure that they see it’s value…you gotta do it to a level that will make their election as sure as you can…
Let me preach on a little bit here…
Exodus 19…Sanai…God established the first Pentecostal Covenant with an entire nation…and he also established something called Memorials with the people of God!
These memorials were not just to a single individual…but they were memorials established with and for the whole nation of believer and for perpetual generations!!!
But God also established THEM as a memorial for all future generations to look to!!!
I should be able with this biblically educated congregation…to make a jump and not read each of these scriptures and make the Spiritual Application and preach the type and shadows of these memorials and them being a memorial!!!
“He established His Name as a memorial in them unto all generations!
He established the Passover as a Memorial among them unto all generations.
He established a Pot Full of Manna…for a memorial unto all genertions…
The Lampstand…A Memorial before the Lord…
The Incense was to be maintained as a memorial…
The Altar was to have an atonement made there and it was to be maintained as a memorial…Forever!!!
The Laver was to be a memorial…to wash every succeeding generation…
The Holy Anointing Oil was to be a memorial throughout their generations…
The Sabbath was to be observed as a memorial throughout their generations!!! Our Sabbath is not a particular day…it is an experience celebrated in our reception of and walking in the Holy Ghost…when you get the Holy Ghost you have the REST wherewith you cause the weary ones to rest…
The Sound of the Trumpet was to be an ordinance and a memorial forever throughout their generation…
The Feast of Tabernacles were to be memorials throughout their generations…that the generations shall know and remember that God brought Israel out of Egypt land by a miraculous hand!!!
The Commandments…on and on I can go…but for 128 years after the first covenant was made…even after Jacob and Joseph’s death…God kept reminding Israel of His covenants…He spoke His covenants….He had his covenants written…He memorialized them with physical objects…Please understand that this was God’s idea…this was God’s plan…this is what God wanted…He wanted His covenants to continue perpetually throughout every succeeding generation!!!
God said: “But my righteousness shall be forever and My salvation from generation to generation”!!!
The Psalmist said: “Thy faithfulness is unto all generations”.
The bible said of God: “Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom…unto all generations”!!!
I am not preaching to you today what I feel might be a good idea…I am preaching the plan of God…the purpose of God!!!
This is what God wants…for their to be a perpetuation of this Truth, this lifestyle, this Careful Life of Transference to continue until He comes again to take his bride out of this world!
He wants this covenant relationship to continue throughout all generations!!!
Moses prayed and said “Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations”.
The Psalmist said: “Now also when I am old and grey headed, oh God forsake me not until I have showed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to everyone that is to come”!!!
“One generation shall praise thy works to another”!!!
Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua…All the elders…it was their heartbeat, their drive, their purpose…to pass this on with a Careful Life of Transference to the next generation!!!
We must instill it…we must impart it…they’ve got to love it…Want it…hunger for it…this is our task!!! This is our purpose for living on this earth!!!
But God continually reminded Israel of His covenants…until finally before the Kings he made one final plea for a Careful Lifestyle of Transference…And after this final plea for 19 years the voice of God is silent…
And Judges 2 says: “when that generation were gathered unto their fathers there arose another generation after them that knew not the Lord nor yet the works that He had done for Israel”!!!
What a digression: They forgot the covenant…then they forgot the God of the covenant…they did not know the Lord!!!
It only takes one generation of careless living to destroy the heritage of the Lord!!!
Then the bible said: “God looked down upon man to see if there was one among all mankind that still maintained this covenant and he couldn’t find any.”
Somehow one generation of careless living had failed to transfer the covenant relationship to the next generation…
Somehow the love for truth had failed to transfer because of careless living…The statutes and the memorials had been ignored and they had lost an entire generation of covenant believers!!!
The Baton Of Truth failed to be passed from one generation to the next…!!!
The writer of Proverbs asks a question that I want to ask you…”Doth the crown endure unto every generation?”
Let me ask a question…if we took everyone out of this service that was 40 or older…what kind of service would we have…what kind of preaching, what kind of altar service…what kind of anointed prayer before church, what kind of altar service would we have…who would pray the lost through to the Holy Ghost…!!!!???
I am not gonna focus on the negative nature of this transference…I am going to say this...The crown will endure…the truth will go on…the church will prosper! I believe in our young people…
But we still have a responsibility to live a careful life of transference until they’ve got it all…every drop of it!!! We owe them that!!! We have a responsibility…not just to this next generation….but to EVERY GENERATION!!! This is eternal business we are engaged in!!!
But I am troubled…I am seeing a dangerous spirit…a profane spirit…begin to creep into the church…
Modern Pentecostalism, as a whole, seems to enjoy flaunting its perceived new liberties in the face of all caution. To them who have lived their whole lives in spiritual carefulness before God, this mindset is repulsive, dangerous and scary.
To us as pastors it has made an already difficult task almost impossible! I pray often that God would make people as concerned for their spiritual direction and well being as I am for them…!
There is a nonchalance that has overtaken the church about being saved and living our lives for God!!! I can remember when it was preached and taught that living for God was the most important thing in our lives!!! What happened to this generation??
We used to sing: Above all else I must be saved…
Hear these words…ABOVE ALL ELSE!!!
OH WE NEED A RESTORATION OF THAT SENTIMENT TO BE TAKEN TO HEART TODAY!!!
THE HARDEST THING FOR ME IN PASTORING PEOPLE IS WATCHING THEM GRADUALLY SLIP AWAY FROM GOD AND THE CHURCH AND DESPITE THE WARNINGS THEY JUST KEEP DRIFTING AWAY!!!
NOBODY BACKSLIDES OVERNIGHT!!! IT IS GRADUAL…IT STARTS WITH THE SMALLEST DECISION TO MISS CHURCH OR GROUP…IT ENDS UP WITH THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF ALL THAT IS PRECIOUS TO THEM!!!
Why Does One Generation Feel Freer And Less Cautious Than Another?
• Are they more enlightened in the Word?
• Is this a New Day in the Kingdom of God?
• Has God waited nearly 2,000 years to remove every Biblical principle and restriction so that their sin is ok now?
• Why are things considered right today that were wrong yesterday?
• Are they backslidden in heart?
• Why is there an absence of Holiness and things HOLY among those who profess the HOLY Ghost?
• Why is it that carnality is now considered to be a normal way to live in the church?
• Why are people now totally oblivious to the damage that their choices are doing to their Holy Ghost WITNESS among the church and among the lost?
I believe that problem can be summed up this way: We are experiencing “Generational Drift”!! A lack of Carefulness in Living For God!!!
Oh the danger of this gradual drift…If each generation believes a little less than the prior generation then it wont be long till we are a mere shell of the Apostolic Church that Christ established on a cross!
What is the answer to this drift…We need to be careful that we live it by the book!!! Not just standards…but commitment and Consecration…!
You better believe me today when I tell you that whatever you allow…whatever you do daily…or whatever you don’t do that you should be doing for God will be magnified in your kids…
They will do more with sin and they will do less for commitment than you did if you don’t live that careful life of transference…and if we are not careful our LIBERTIES will become their bondage!!!
I beg you to hear me today…just a little matter for you can become the stumbling block for your family!!!
There is a horrible price to pay…
Old school preachers said things like: “When you lose your revelation of Holiness, it won’t be long before you lose your revelation of the Oneness of the Godhead.” That dear friends is a very fearful thing.
It appears as if the spirit of the age is one that wants to see how much one can do and still feel saved and justified. Or how little one can be committed and still be considered saved!!!
Too many church folks have been influenced by the style and fads of this present world. Sadly, whatever the new style of the world is on display, it soon will be seen in some churches. It quickly appears in:
• Men’s clothing
• Men’s hairstyles
• Women’s clothing
• Women’s hairstyles
• And even now it shows up in sexual depravity…
1. Can anyone else remember when it was uncommon to see Pentecostal women wearing form-fitting and revealing attire?
2. Can anyone else remember new converts changing how they dressed and lived soon after they got saved?
3. Can anyone else remember when makeup was not acceptable?
4. Can anyone else remember when women considered long hair their glory?
5. Can anyone else remember when men didn’t dress in a manner that questioned their masculinity?
6. Can anyone else remember the day when Consecration services were not uncommon?
7. Can anyone else remember when no one who claimed to be in church wanted to look like or dress like they were in the world?
8. Can anyone else remember when there was an absence of facial hair on the men that were in the church because they didn’t want to identify with a rebellious subculture?
9. Can anyone else remember when no one heard of young girls kissing other young girls?
10. Can anyone else remember when the saints lived their lives carefully, lest they displease the Lord?
11. Can anyone else remember when saints were not addicted to prescription drugs?
12. Can anyone else remember when TV was a bad word?
13. Can anyone else remember when saints didn’t go to movies?
14. Can anyone else remember when jewelry was not seen on church folks?
15. Can anyone else remember when church services times were not scheduled around a Super Bowl Sunday or the ball schedule?
16. Can anyone else remember saints being careful about what they read, what they listened to, where they went and whom they went with?
17. Can anyone else remember when folks repented to each other and before God because they wanted to be saved?
18. Can anyone else remember hearing sermons on Hell and Judgment?
• What changed?
• Did God change?
• If God changed, not everyone got the memo.
If you can remember this then surely you must see clearly how far we have drifted from our original moorings!!! The church needs to be getting stronger…not weaker…!!!
I remember my mother telling me that we don’t do certain things…when asked was it a sin she would say: “Probably not…but the lost souls of the world are watching us…we have what they must have to be saved…we owe them a witness that is above reproach!!!”
Seems to me that we don’t hear much preaching on our witness and how much that means to a lost soul that is watching us…
Seems to me that we live our lives so carelessly for God that it would be really really difficult to even tell some of us were any different from the world around us that we are responsible for!!!
Seems to me that God has done much for us…and we are repaying Him by doing as little as we possibly can to get by…
Oh were is our carefulness…Where is our passion for our purpose?
When was the last time that you denied yourself something for the sake of living an exemplary life so that you could maintain a Godly example that was above reproach for the sake of a lost soul??
“Let not your good be evil spoken of…”!!!
Carefulness Is Produced By Repentance.
That’s The First Thing True Repentance Does. It Makes You Careful.
2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
2 Corinthians 7:11 For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.
Man that sounds like repentance produces carefulness and passion and zeal and desire to fulfill our purpose!!!
Why are we even talking about a sacrifice Sunday?? Because we are prodded by our purpose…to reach the lost…to build a bigger facility to house our new members!!!
1. Too many are not careful about giving God the tithe of their increase. (the lie and cheat God)
2. Too many are not careful to manifest the Fruits of the Spirit.
3. Too many are not careful about what they say, or whom they say it to.
4. Too many are not careful about what comes into their homes.
5. Too many are not careful to honor their parents.
6. Too many are not careful to honor their pastor.
7. Too many are not careful about their attendance to the House of God.
8. Too many are not careful about their attitude.
9. Too many are not careful to keep their marriage vows.
10. Too many are not careful about their friend’s negative influences.
11. Too many are not careful about where they allow themselves to go visit.
12. Too many are not careful about the necessity of the Acts 2:38 Doctrine.
13. Too many are not careful about choosing stupid worldly pursuits over time with God in prayer and study of the Word!!
Sadly, We Have Gone From Carefulness To Carelessness.
I will have to answer to God some day. So, when I read verses such as these I feel cautioned to be careful.
Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
Ephesians 5:15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
1 Timothy 4:16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them:
The Holy Spirit Warns Us All About The World’s Influence Upon The Church.
1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Peter 3:1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
2 Peter 3:2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
2 Peter 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
As For Me, I Choose To Finish My Days Walking Before The Lord As Carefully As I Can.
Hear me today…although Jacobs sons did not appreciate their covenant with God…God did not forget His covenant with them…He continued to try to establish His covenant with Israel in Jacobs sons…
Exodus 2:24 God heard their groaning and He remembered His covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and God looked upon the children of Israel and God had respect unto them.
God is here today to do it again…Although you have forgotten your covenant with God…He has not forgotten His part of the covenant with you!!! He is back again to attempt a reconciliation with you…He is still standing at the door and knocking!!!
I am pleading with you…Don’t live your life carelessly and break the continuum of covenant in your life and damn your children to a future without God…
Don’t let carelessness steal your covenant relationship with God…
Save yourself, Save your family, Save future generations of your grandchildren that are yet unborn!!!
Repent!!! Determine that you will start to live a Careful Life Of Transference!!!
