Personal Growth for Christian Living
Course Material Presented By
Dr. Ronald E. Shultz
Trinity Valley Baptist Seminary and College
June 17, 18, 2013
Table of Contents
Seclusion – Fellowship/Meditation
Profusion – Praise & Worship
Infusion – Of the Word
Effusion – Prayer
Fusion – Service
Exclusion – Separation
Persecution
Solution – Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Seclusion
In a world of nearly seven billion people getting alone can be a challenge even though there are many lonely people in a small apartment by themselves. Many things as well as people can keep us from the period of seclusion that we need to be alone with God to seek Him and hear from Him.
That is not to say that we are to become ascetic recluses in some sparsely furnished room in monastery or cave as many have done over the centuries. Indeed, God made Adam first and for a period of time it was just Adam and God alone. What a blessed time that had to be as there was no sin to separate them, no job to take up His time to gain material needs or wants and no other person who would want to have some of our time and with whom we would have wanted share our time. In a sense, there was no need to worry about time for at that point it looked like Adam would have eternity to spend with God.
Yet, as glorious as it may have been, God saw that man should have someone like himself to share the world with as well as the presence of God. After all, the animals had mates and Adam was made a little lower than angels and in the image of God so such a person as precious and loved as Adam should have a mate. So God made Eve. Yet, the two were as one and so it was still a blessing to walk with God in the evening as Eve was not a hindrance to the fellowship but a blessed partaker and an addition to that fellowship. It was the Fall that would change things and make such a blessed time of peace and solitude more difficult to achieve though it would be more needed than ever before if man were to make sense of this world and his place in it as well as be the leader for wife and children he was ordained to be.
Nearly six thousand years since the Fall and over two thousand years since the ascension of Christ man needs periods of seclusion with God ,if not more frequent, certainly more consistent and more intensely than ever before. We shall see that it is often that when a man is alone that God seeks him out and speaks to him. As wonderful as fellowship is with the brethren and as invigorating the flurry of ministry can be the soul needs time to be alone so that God can speak and he can hear.
Genesis 6:13-14
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. KJV
While it does not specify here that Noah was alone when God spoke to him, but is it hard to imagine that Noah had to have had some quality time with God to just say yes to build something no one had ever heard of to help his family survive something that no one had ever seen? Obviously God knew Noah well since He is omniscient, but for Noah to just say yes, Lord knowing His neighbors would think him mad and maybe even his family. It appears though that his family trusted him and his walk with God enough to jump in without any mention of doubt or debate. This kind of trust or their part does not develop from the witness of a man who just sort of squeezes God into his day.
Psalms 32:6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. KJV
Those that perished could testify to this passage and how many floods have we endured when we could have been delivered had we only spent more time in solitude with the Ark of our souls?
Psalms 32:6
3:1 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
2 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
5 And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. KJV
Note that it was not when Moses was a prince in Egypt that God called him to do the job he was called to do. It was after the loss of all he had while along on the backside of the desert that he met God and received his commission. As prince of Egypt, he may have relied on his assets and influence to bring about the will of God. That would have been in his strength. God broke him and blessed him even in the desert, but the mission would now have to be carried out in the power of God and Moses' complete reliance upon that power. Without that period of seclusion there would have been no Exodus, no pillar and cloud or parting of the Red Sea. Well, at least with Moses being the leader it would not have happened.
1 Samuel 3:3-10
3 And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep;
4 That the LORD called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I.
5 And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down.
6 And the LORD called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.
7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.
8 And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the LORD had called the child.
9 Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
10 And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth. KJV
Even a child needs such periods of seclusion and because a child's life can be disorganized and chaotic it may be the only time God can speak to him is when he is upon his bed. It might not be wise to rush a child off to bed and demand he be asleep as soon as possible. Let him lie there for in that time before sleep God may speak to him. Also, it would be wise if we would retire before we are ready to collapse so that as we lie there God may also speak to us. O, that we would be as ready to get off our bed to heed His call as Samuel was and that we would know it was Him that was calling us.
Too many times we awake in the middle of the night or we cannot fall off to sleep because God wants us to say, “Speak, Lord for thy servant heareth.” We will not know until Glory how many moments of joy we have missed and how many tidbits of wisdom He sought impart to us in those times or what results our prayers would have had if we had fought the flesh and allowed our spirit to be moved by the Spirit of God. I often wrote my best papers for college after everyone else went to bed and burned some midnight oil. It may also be the best time to receive the oil of gladness from God if we would only allow Him to anoint us with it. How much more would we have been fruitful because of our time with Him when it was inconvenient to the flesh? God sought to be alone with us and we would not.
Psalms 63:5-7
5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:
6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
7 Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. KJV
David speaks about his time he spent with God in bed and through the night. Oh, that he would have stayed in bed and meditated the night he strolled out on his balcony and saw Bathsheba. What pain and sorrow both he and Israel could have been spared. Had he been on the battlefield, where he should have been he would not have seen her. We must take care that we are where we need to be so that when we awake in the night it can lead to prayer and meditation not sin.
1 Samuel17:34-37
34 And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:
35 And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.
36 Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.
37 David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee. KJV
David had great opportunities to spend time alone with God in the fields with the flocks. Because of this time alone he got to mediate on God's glory and greatness as revealed in His creation works both heavenly and earthly. This is where the seeds of so many of the great Psalms were planted in his heart while the daily meditation watered them so that when it came to facing a giant David had already faced some things that were bigger than him.
A lion and a bear are no easy animals to fight and win yet God gave him the victory over both with just a sling and bare hands. A large human was no major feat for the animals only acted out according to their nature and did not defy God or defame His people. Goliath had done both so it was an easy thing to believe that if God protected him from fierce animals a fierce human would go down as well. Faith nurtured in daily solitude handles adversity well for it knows the omnipotent One. What animals and giants are you facing that would be easily defeated if you spent more time alone with Him?
1 Kings 17:1-6
1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
2 And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,
3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
5 So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. KJV
Elijah certainly spent time alone with God long before this, but imagine being alone for three years with no company but ravens who delivered your meals on wings. Is it any wonder this man was so filled with God's Spirit and power to where he could call down fire to consume a drenched sacrifice, the altar and even dry up a moat around it? He could run before a chariot and beat it into the city.
Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. KJV
Clearly, he is a living fulfillment of this verse. How often he must have waited patience before the Lord to last three years at a brook alone. Yet, we know after this he fell into a depression and had to be ministered to by an angel and have God speak to him in a still small voice after seeing the wind and the earthquake where most of us look to find the Lord. If such a great man could experience this after all the time He spent with God why do we think we can be immune with a quick devotional and dropping off to sleep prayer? Yea, my brothers, it is why we are so weak and unfruitful. We neglect spending time at His feet and thus we suffer defeat.
Matthew 14:22-23
22 And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.
23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone. KJV
If even Jesus spent time in solitude in prayer to the Father, then what other example do we need for us to seek a place apart where we may sit at His feet like Mary and tone down our tendency to be in flurry and hurry like Martha? Though Jesus invited the Disciples to pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed alone. We must also see our need, our desperate need, of being alone with Him to prepare us for a day that we may also be called to suffer with Him as well as to believe on Him.
Acts 9:3-7
3 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
7 And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. KJV
It is to the glory of God and a testament of His power and mercy that He can get us alone even in a crowd. Saul, soon to be Paul, may have been in the midst of a conversation with the men he had with him or just finished detailing the plan of attack for Damascus when Jesus broke into the midst of them. They were alone in a crowd for all the others saw was a light and the sound of a voice that they were not able to hear with understanding. Paul was in a spotlight and instead of him being the center of attention that his prowess gained him in public life the center of attention was Jesus Christ. That is how it should always be with us. He should be supreme even when His light shines upon us in our ministry,
Jesus had probably been getting to Saul since the stoning of Stephen. That glorious testimony and that joy in death as he saw Jesus on God's right hand had to work on Saul. The way the others acted that he jailed or how those who died in his presence must also have had some impact on him like cattle prods or pricks, but his zeal and pride caused him to kick against them rather than moving to the conclusion that Y'Shua was truly the Messiah. His heart may have been almost there, but Jesus' plans needed to be put in place as He protected those in Damascus and accomplished His will for Saul in one conversation in a beam of light.
There may come a time in the middle of our ministry where we will become preoccupied with it and maybe even having some great concerns like Isaiah in his work in the temple. It will be a time when Jesus has to break in on us even if we are in the middle of a service or even in the middle of a sermon to tell us what we need to hear be it praise, rebuke or direction. When it happens we may be as awestruck as both Saul and Isaiah until we can say what wilt thou have me do or here am I, send me. It will be better for us if we have had time in seclusion alone with Him before that break in rather than maybe working against Him as we pursue our own goals and not His.
Just as our personal carnal growth flourished in the darkness of this world secluded from the Light of Christ we must now seek periods of seclusion in the Light for our personal Christian growth and so that the Light may shine brightly through us to reach others. Indeed, as we grow in Him the sweeter those secluded moments will become and like the old song we might linger until He bids us go with a voice of woe for those we are called to reach. O Lord, make it so in our lives!!!
Profusion
As we come into that seclusion, we should enter to hear, but before we hear we should learn to be ready to offer a profuse amount of praise and worship as we linger before Him. Indeed, we should be prepared to practice profusion in effusion. Corporate praise and worship is an important thing but as we are in solitude with Him we need to count our blessings and worship Him because we know what He has done for us, not just the Body of Christ. Music is a big part of this, but often it might just be some instrumentals playing softly in the background to help block out any distracting noises we cannot deal with in any other way. Other times we may sing our favorite hymn of praise to Him a Capella if we do not have a soundtrack to sing with as coming from the heart may be all the melody that is needed.
Judges 5:2-3
2 Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.
3 Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel. KJV
Have you ever been hurt or abused and felt there has been no justice or resolution for your pain or loss? Are you still stinging from the welt? Has bitterness taken over your life? Maybe it is because you have not willingly offered yourself to the Lord. Give yourself and the issue over to the Lord and then praise Him for His faithfulness. Praise Him for His compassion and love. Praise Him for what you learned or need to learn from the situation and let Him use it to make your stronger and a better minister to others who are hurting. When He hears the praises and sees your submission to Him then He becomes your avenger. He can handle issues in ways that we cannot imagine and bring about restoration for both parties involved if they will both submit. If the offender does not repent and submit He knows how to handle that as well. Praise Him, for shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Even in the midst of our pain there should be a profusion of praise!
1 Chronicles 16:34-35
34 O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.
35 And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise. KJV
Oh, my Brothers, how often do we say God is good all the time, but it is a habit or something said without true appreciation of the fact? Are we truly thankful for that goodness and in our day-to-day rat race do we see it and appreciate it? His mercy endures forever! Indeed, Jeremiah in Lamentations rejoices that His mercies are new every morning or we would be consumed by His righteous and just anger! That in and of itself is plenty to give thanks for, my Brothers! Maybe you do not need that mercy, but I am so glad that it is fresh every day or else I would be consumed for so often I am foolish and forget that the good God is also the righteous Lord to whom I owe everything I am and have therefore my gratitude should be reflected in my personal holiness and commitment. I would have been long dead if He was not so merciful.
We want Him to save from our enemies and we are glad our souls are saved, but are we willing to thank and praise Him while the battle is on and when we are not feeling especially saved or blessed? Then on the days we sense His presence and our fellowship with Him do we take it for granted? When He solves our problems and defeats those people, things and principalities that are against us are we like the nine lepers who were healed or like the Samaritan who returned and gave thanks? Our lack of praise may be why we remain defeated and we do not sense His presence as oft as we would desire. We lose sight of how holy His name is and do not glory in the precious privilege we have to stand before Him as sons and praise rather than cringe in horrified silence before Him as condemned sinners awaiting our sentence to Hell. Maybe if we got a whiff of Hell from time to time that would bring some profusion to our praise.
1 Chronicles 23:30 And to stand every morning to thank and praise the LORD, and likewise at even; KJV
One of the duties of the priests was to have a twice daily time of praise and thanksgiving. While we are not in the Old Testament, we are now a royal priesthood in a holy nation. How can we do less under grace than they were required to do under Law? Notice that it doesn’t allow for when you feel like it or not? As people who have seen the power of the Cross in our lives, we should be quite lavish in our praise and if we are commanded to rejoice evermore then that rejoicing needs to be expressed in praise for without Him we have nothing to rejoice about and praise is more than due Him.
2 Chronicles 20:21-22
21 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever.
22 And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten. KJV
Want some real praise and worship? Sing about the beauty of holiness! We like the fruits of holiness, but we seldom see the beauty of holiness itself and frankly, Brothers, we are thrilled that Jesus’ holiness is imputed into our accounts, but we are not as excited about how it might display itself in our life so that we can walk in the beauty of holiness. God is beautiful beyond our comprehension and part of the beauty is His holiness and we are to be holy as He is holy.
Oh, Brothers, we know that is tall order for us, yet we either do not bother much about seeking to be that holy or we have failed and quit trying willing to live in the muddled morass of mediocre piety and holiness. So many of the Sisters run to Avon and Mary Kay for their beauty often ending up looking more macabre than pretty when if they would seek more to walk in holiness they would be beautiful for there is nothing more beautiful than an holy woman! Indeed, as the Psalmist tells us, though her clothing is made of gold she is all glorious within and it is that inner glory that is exceedingly more glorious than her outward appearance or apparel. (Psalm 45:13) Brothers, I will never be on the cover of GQ here for I am nowhere near what our culture calls handsome, but if I ever get to the holiness of life He desires for me then I will be listed in God’s Quarterly as I will more handsome than any Hollywood heart throb alive. Let’s make that our goal so that we can praise Him for what He has done in our lives!
Again, we see that His mercy endures forever! Yes, we can progress towards holiness because of that mercy and defeat our enemies as we sing and praise Him. Singing needs to be an expression of praise to Him more than it ought to be about us. It is great to sing of His benefits to us, but we tend to be more benefit oriented than God oriented oft times. We also have to be careful about repetition. Repetition is not always bad, but if we are not to be in overly repetitious prayer than our songs should not be musical rosaries or mantras. Spiritual songs are good and we are enjoined to sing Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual songs, but the subject matter should always be more about God and who He is than the goodies He gives us or great we art. Again, for what are we without Him?
See how great a weapon against the enemy that praise and worship can be? Once the people started the praise of Him and His holiness God moved against the enemy! This is why we should not be defeated. We should be kicking down the doors of Hell, but we have no praise or we often have a wrong type of praise going on so that God is not pleased and does not move. He waits for us to understand that if He is indeed Lord of all and has created all things then we should act and believe accordingly.
When we do, that will result in praise and singing rather than whining and moaning in defeat with our heads hanging down then He will move according to our faith. Jesus could not do miracles because of unbelief. Not that He needed the faith or that He did not have the power, but faith is what He requires of us. If we do not trust Him, we will not praise Him and if we do not praise Him then why do we expect anything from Him? How much would you really do if it were you? Thankfully, He does do a lot for us in His mercy, but He will do far more when we are grateful, submissive and expectant.
Psalms 22:22-26
22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
23 Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever. KJV
Testifying of God’s goodness to you is a form of praise. Your word of praise may come at the exact time a member of the congregation needs to hear it for they may be going through the same thing or will be in the near future. So often the people of God get into a rut with corporate worship that your word of praise may be what is needed to pull people out of the rut as they hear that God is still moving among them individually. We like our sermons and music and often we leave as we left because we think all that praise and all that exhortation is going to help someone, but not us. Then one of us stands up and speaks to the mighty moving of God in their life in an area we also are experiencing though we may feel God doesn’t care about it because it is too small or because we are not worthy. Then when we hear another brother, not just the leadership, speak of God moving we are encouraged because if God can do if for Brother Ron, then He may well be doing the same thing in my life or is willing to do it if I will but praise Him!
I have often wondered if God went on vacation or something when there was dead silence when the pastor asked for testimonies. Oh, the hands fly up for prayer, but everyone shuts up when it comes to praise. Has it really been years since God did something for you? Are you that ungrateful or shy? Have you never been afflicted and He came to your need and answered your call? Then it is time you praised Him for His patience with you and that you are still here if He isn’t doing anything for you or maybe you better make your call and election sure. Let there be no confusion about what should be our profusion of praise!
Infusion
Just as we must have great profusion of praise, we must also maintain a great infusion of His Word into our soul and heart/mind. Just as the judgment gets clouded and the body weak when it is dehydrated so also will we be spiritually dehydrated if we do not drink in plenty of the pure water and sincere milk of the Word. We will languish without plenty of protein from animal meat, but even more so if we do not have an abundance of the spiritual meat of the Word.
Most of here have been students of the Word for some years and been in ministry perhaps for decades and we should know this. Trouble is that we do know it and we have allowed many things to divert us from the kind of study we really need to flourish for ourselves and yet we want to pour out profusely what we do not have because we have scrimped on the infusion of the Word. We really do not burn out. We dry up because we are not taking in more than we need so that we have plenty to spill out for others. Our cup runneth over for a while and then it just flat runs out.
Joshua 1:7-8
7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. KJV
Joshua had a great task in this command and he did not even have all of the Old Testament Scriptures. He had the Law and that was more than enough to seek to follow. The Pentateuch had more doctrine and direction than most people want to deal with and he was not to deviate from it to the right or the left.
How in the world can he do that? It takes a lot of time to do it. He had to meditate in in day and night as well as lead approximately three to five million people and run a military campaign. How can we complain that we do not have enough time because of our family and job responsibilities? Ouch! Was he prosperous? Yes he was because he allowed great infusion of the Law or the Word of God. We should take note and match our success against his and his daily habits of infusion to ours and make the appropriate adjustments. Some have drunk so much physical water that it killed them. All that will happen by drinking in massive amounts of the Word will be is that the flesh will die so that the Spirit will be better able to flow through us.
Proverbs 30:5-6
5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. KJV
We are warned to take heed if we think we stand lest we fall. How can we do that? We must shield ourselves in the pure Word of God. Just as a diver's suit shields him from the atmosphere of the seas allowing him to move in it without being wet or lacking oxygen so also will the Word shield use from the dirt of the world as we walk through us and allow us to breathe Heaven's atmosphere. It will keep us from falling in the battle as it increases our trust in Him and makes the oxygen of this world as desirable as smog.
It will also help keep us true to God's Word the more we infuse it because it will keep us from adding to or taking away from it by pulling things out of context or doing “evangelistic” preaching which often gets us into trouble by exaggeration or being enslaved to Kodak theology that makes a picture of everything. We will also become less likely to tweak the Word to our liking as the Pharisees did or denying it as did the Sadducees. It is tough enough when a member points out an honest mistake in your sermon, but if you play fast and loose it will be far worse when God calls you a liar because your great sermon was not what He said in His Word, but rather what you wanted it to say. That is a bad spot to be in and a good reason why we need to be sure we are called to preach/teach since we will indeed stand a stricter judgment.
Luke 4:4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. KJV
I do not know who any of the fifteen that will be in the class as I compose this, but I am probably safe to say that most of us are physically fatter than we are spiritually. Most of need to lose a few pounds, but we need to take care that our souls are not anorexic. We work many hours to ensure that our bodies are well fed and overfed, but what if we spent even half as much effort feasting on the bread of life? How spiritually strong could we be and what healthy changes would we see in our ministry? Brethren, let us strive to find out!
Luke 11:27-30
27 And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.
28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
29 And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.
30 For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. KJV
Many of us have some folks in our family tree that we are proud of or proud of our heritage in some way. We may have sons and daughters who have risen above our status and we are proud of their success. We may envy someone else just as this lady would have been proud to be the mother of Jesus and thus praised her. Yet, Jesus says that if you really want to be blessed you have to hear the Word and keep it. Often our infusion of the Word is by sight, but also by the ear and then we must hear as in heeding it as well.
If this is not an evil generation, I don't want to see one that is and yet we are a generation of sign seekers. If we were taking in more of the Word it would be easier to debunk false prophets and to have sound doctrine instead of being tossed to and from by every wind of doctrine and sleight of hand by cunning men. We would avoid foolish fads to attract people and instead concentrate on sound doctrine and holy living. If you are going to put out wildfire you have to have plenty of the Word's holy water to immerse it.
Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. KJV
Here is the balance between dead Orthodoxy and wildfire piety. Dead Orthodoxy may indeed have sound doctrine, but without the Holy Spirit to set them aflame they are just useless scholars sitting about discussing how many angels can stand on a pin. Wildfire piety gets emotional and active, but resists sound doctrine because it seems to dampens down their flame when in reality it focuses the flame into the blue flame of a blowtorch able to break through the hardest of hearts. Thus in our infusion let us ask for the Spirit to fill us in such a way that we preach the Word with boldness without dumping the doctrine. Boldness does not mean in a rude and crude fashion, but rather in clarity, conviction and without fear.
Acts 6:2-4
2 Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.
3 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
4 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. KJV
If you are going to properly infuse yourself and be the minister of the Word as you are called to do you will have to learn to delegate, delegate, and delegate! God did not call you to be a CEO, CFO or CIO. You are called to pastor. So many men are bound up in the earthly mundane functions of church that they do not have the needed time to give themselves to the duties of verse four.
I understand that good men are hard to find and in many a small church nonexistent. I basically had two men who ran everything and a third that usually just agreed with whatever the other two said. I stayed out of the mundane as much as possible. Yes, I attended the meetings to ensure they did not decide to something untoward, but as long as they did not do anything illegal or immoral I did not worry about it. Moses delegated according the wise advice of his father-in-law, Jethro, and we should follow that principle as much as we can. It is very hard to hear the Lord speak when you are preoccupied with how you are going to get the fellowship hall decorated for the Father’s Day banquet or which company should take out the garbage. Be informed, but let others perform and have a chance to conform to the servant or minister they are called to be. A person involved and invested is less likely to leave then a person has only shown up and rested or nested.
Acts 13:46-47
46 Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
47 For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. KJV
The Church has been guilty for centuries of not only neglecting ministry to the Jews, but also false brethren and those who say they are Jews and are not have actually persecuted the Jews driving them away from their Messiah. We need to be very aware of what group of people that we need to be sensitive to their needs and woo them to Heaven, not curse them. The Abrahamic covenant has not been broken or removed.
While we may never encounter a Jewish person, we can use this as a reminder that God has called us to win and disciple all people, not just the ones like us. It can be hard to cross a cultural divide, but as we allow the Word to show us that only eight people left the ark and we are all genetic kinsmen the divide is not as great. Using carnal evolutionary terms like race we create an artificial chasm that we cannot truly cross since it does not really exist and we frustrate ourselves with folly.
This passage also affirms that even when we are filled with the Word and the Spirit there are times when we must turn away from a person or group and let God send another. When Paul turned to the Gentiles, the Jews were not cut off. They had Peter and the rest of the boys. God allowed Paul to speak to his own people and share his heart and knowledge of the Word with them, but his calling was to the Gentiles. God may allow you to serve in a specific area or group of people that you have strong ties to for a season, but then yank you out of your comfort zone and call you to something almost alien to your sense of reality. That is why you must be infused with the Word so that when that happens you will not be confused but rather enthused with the prospect.
Rom 10:16-17
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. KJV
Brethren, if we are not infused with the Word how can we bring people to faith if we have nothing to give them since faith comes by hearing. Indeed, we also suffer for not just faith for salvation comes by hearing but also faith for the fight. Even pastors can become defeated because they are living on the Word they heard years ago and their memory is slipping. The once bright vision is fading for it is not recharged by new infusion of the Word that affirms the vision and causes up to press on towards the mark rather than giving up and spending our days in the park. How is your faith? What have you heard from the Word lately? Do you still believe God’s report or the retort of the world?
We do not have time to cover many of the wonderful verses that relate to this facet of our Christian life, but I have included some for your study. The Word is very important to our growth. The Spirit does not grow you apart from the Word of God. Anyone who tries to tell you that they have matured and no longer need study the Word is deceived. Anyone who says they have received Spirit revelation or illumination that runs contrary to the Word is a liar and false prophet.
2 Cor 2:14-17
14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
16 To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?
17 For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. KJV
2 Cor 4:1-2
1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. KJV
Eph 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: KJV
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. KJV
1 John 2:14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. KJV
Rev 6:9-10
9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were 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, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? KJV
Rev 19:13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
KJV
Rev 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. KJV
Matt 22:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. KJV
Luke 24:44-45
44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, KJV
John 5:39-40
39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. KJV
Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. KJV
1 Cor 15:3-4
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: KJV
2 Tim 3:14-17
14 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;
15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. KJV
2 Peter 3:15-18
15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. KJV
Ps 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. KJV
Ps 119:15-17
15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.
16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
17 Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word. KJV
Ps 119:104-105
104 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.
105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. KJV
Ps 119:147-148
147 I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word.
148 Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word. KJV
Ps 119:160 Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever. KJV
Ps 119:162 I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil. KJV
John 17:6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. KJV
John 17:14-17
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. KJV
Effusion – Prayer
We should be extremely effusive in our prayer life. After we have infused the Word will be increased in faith and have many reasons to pour forth all that is in our emotionally, mentally and spiritually. I suspect there will be plenty of opportunity to include a profusion of praise as well.
Adoration
Many have said that a good prayer outline is A C T S, adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. First we will look at adoration. Adoration involves declaring the glories of the Lord, which should evoke praise in the individual as well as inspire intense devotion to God.
We know that the divisions in Scripture were made by man to ease the reading of the Word and I think these three Psalms go well together to show the idea of adoration.
Ps 148
1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights.
2 Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.
3 Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.
4 Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.
5 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.
6 He hath also stablished them forever and ever: he hath made a decree, which shall not pass.
7 Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
8 Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:
9 Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:
10 Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:
This is recognition of God as creator. This is something we take for granted and many even deny. We get so wrapped up in "our world" that we forget whose world it really is and who in His sovereignty controls it. We can understand the how the angels can praise the Lord, but creation itself? While definitely poetic, do not forget that Christ said that if the people stopped praising Him then God would raise up children of Abraham from the stones themselves. (Luke 3:8) I recently saw a program where the scientists stretched out the chirping of the cricket equal to a human’s life span thus slowing it down. It sounded like a symphony by Mozart. Indeed, the creation may be praising God in songs that we cannot hear, but He certainly can hear them.
11 Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth:
12 Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:
13 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.
Now, David enjoins the crown of God’s creation, mankind, to praise and adore Him. All people regardless of human ranking are still the creation of God and need to praise Him. His name is above all names. His power is above all earthly powers and He is the mighty King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It helps to shrink our egos when we consider where we stand in the midst of God’s universal glory.
14 He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the LORD. (KJV)
We go from angels and general creation to mankind to the people near unto Him, His saints. We of all people should adore and praise because we know more about Him and have experienced more of Him and His grace in our lives than anyone else on the planet. This God of this awesome creation saved us from sin’s penalty! This perfect and holy God that could take us all away and create a new race chose instead to send His Son to die and redeem us. He has exalted the horn or power of His people for we had no power. We were lost and undone and yet one day we shall judge angels. Does it seem necessary to exhort us to adore and praise Him?
Ps 149:1-9
1 Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.
Adoration and praise will make you break out into a new song. The word sing conveys the idea of a traveling minstrel who would go about singing hoping for his daily bread. We should be about the world singing because He has given us our daily bread and Living Bread. The new means freshness and as His mercies are new every morning so also should be our songs to Him not vain repetitions. We should especially sing in testimony in church and even at our fellowships to exhort and strengthen each other with His praise.
2 Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
Again, we see the exhortation to rejoice in our creation and that He is our king. Both should be blessings and worthy of praise. They are only a source of sadness when we are disobedient for we then know that we are responsible and accountable before Him. Yet we should praise Him for that as well since His conviction is to heal us and restore us to fellowship and not to our condemnation.
3 Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.
OOPS and all the Baptists paled at this verse. Yes, we can praise and worship Him in dance. Not a sultry hootchie-coo, but much like the way children dance and twirl about when they are happy. It is an expression of joy and not sensuality. He likes instruments, though He will be pleased if we sing with them or without them as long as we sing in praise and love!
4 For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.
Have you ever really taken it in that the Lord takes pleasure in you and your praise? I mean yours, not somebody else’s, not the church’s, but your praise! He delights in you! That is something to be happy and praise Him about!! Ladies, how about loving the Lord’s beauty treatment? He beautifies or causes to gleam the ones who are meek, selfless and ’umble! He beautifies them with salvation, even spiritual health and prosperity. At times, the beauty treatment is intensive and shows best in physical illness and poverty. How beautiful we will be in His presence now and then! Praise Him for He makes all things beautiful in His time and even creates beauty out of ashes! (Ecc 3:11, Isa 61:3)
5 Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds.
We adore Him and praise Him when we are joyful! The glory means we are overflowing in joy! Singing aloud is literally shouting! Our beds may be where we are about to sleep or beds of illness and death, but we can still shout our songs of praise in glory for He shall raise us up here or in Heaven!
6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand;
7 To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people;
8 To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron;
9 To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD. (KJV)
Want to win a war, either spiritual or earthly? Let His praise be in your mouth as you take your weapon into battle. In an earthly war, it may be a sword, M16A2 or a smart bomb, but they will only be effective if God is on your side. In a spiritual war, you take the praises of your God and the Sword of the Spirit to win souls to Him.
God used the Children of Israel to be the hands of His vengeance on the wicked nations around them, but He also used the wicked to chastise His people when they strayed away from Him. The US has been used by God to keep the world free from tyrants like Hitler, but she has turned away from Him and has allowed great wickedness to run free within her. God was on our side, but we may have seen a sign of Him moving away from us to get our attention and I am afraid we have turned a blind eye and a deaf ear. It is the honor of His saints to defeat wickedness in this war whether they are national or spiritual principalities and powers. Let us not lose that privilege and become the ones to be chastised. Let us return to Him in revival and obedience. Only then can we praise Him and serve Him as we should and exercise our privileges.
Ps 150:1-6
1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
While I am in agreement that we should praise Him as a body in the church house, this passage speaks more to praising Him because He is in His sanctuary or Heaven. Praise Him that He is on the throne and is above all things and thus sees all things and is in control of all things. There is great peace and security in praising Him for this. As we consider the firmament, which He created in His power and is a testimony of His power, we can rejoice and praise Him because that power protects us.
2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Not only can we gaze upon the mighty acts of His creation. We read what God has done for His people from Genesis through Revelation, we can rejoice in the fact that these mighty acts were done that we might know Whom we serve and what He is capable of doing for His people. This again brings us great peace as we reflect upon them and Him. We think of excellence in quality, but the Hebrew carries the connotation of abundance. His greatness is not only in quality, but it is abundant in His word and in our life if we are in fellowship with Him and in His mercy, even when we are not.
3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
I am a preacher and of course, I believe that the primary purpose of coming to church is to hear the Word preached and music programs can go overboard and hinder the preaching of the Word rather than enhance it and prepare the people for worship. However, God loves music and instruments. In their right balance they are a sweet sound in His ears. Why some want to cut out the instruments I really do not know. Praise and worship in song and dance accompanied by instruments is clearly a part of the Bible. Let us rejoice in all that He has given us to praise Him!
6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD. (KJV)
And here is the grand finale! If you are breathing, praise Him and then praise Him again!! In your prayers do you adore Him? Are you praising Him? Are you remembering out loud to Him all the wonderful things He has done in His Word and for you? If not, you are missing out some of the sweetness of the hour of prayer and even sweetness in your life! Put some honey in your prayer and praise Him in adoration!!
Confession
The second letter in the ACTS acronym stands for confession. We are thrilled to have 1 John 1:9 in the Scripture. We rest in the fact that we can have our sins forgiven if we confess. However, many do not understand what confession really means. It is not just admitting that we did or did not do something. We are guilty whether we admit it or not. Admitting is a good sign of personal responsibility, but it is not confession as John taught.
To confess is to homologeo, which while it does mean to assent as in confessing Jesus to be Lord the word is made up of the Greek words homo - same and logeo - to say. Literally it is to say the same thing. We come to God and say the same thing about our sin that He does. Our sin is wicked and damnable and needs to be forsaken. We have no peace because we only assent that we did it and that it is wrong, but we do not hate it as God does and we do not seek His power to be released from it.
Repent literally means to change your mind. We need to change our minds and get a hold of His and see sin and react to sin as He does. He abhors it and judged it on the Cross. We need to develop that kind of mind that will set us free from our sin not just admit that it exists. Admitting is easy. Agreeing is easy. Forsaking requires the power of God.
I have chosen as my example prayer of confession Psalm 51. It is the best known and since David is confessing the two sins in the Old Testament that had no sacrifice for forgiveness it gives us great hope in the mercy of God. David should have died, as he was guilty of two capital offenses, yet God allowed him to live. So also we, because the blood of the Son of God has bought us that are saved or born again are freed from the death sentence of sin. However, we suffer from the consequences of our sins here and lose reward in Heaven. Confession is made to return to fellowship with God and there is no joy in the Christian life without that fellowship. Let us listen to David confess and receive restoration that we might do the same.
Ps 51:1-19
1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
David is asking the almighty God to bend down in kindness to Him. Mercy is often described as not getting what we deserved, but the idea here is someone bending down in kindness to an inferior and indeed we are inferior to God. David also said, "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" We are so undeserving of His favor and yet David appeals to God’s lovingkindness not to justice or righteousness, but to His love. Justice and righteousness would only merit us death and damnation. Jeremiah in Lamentations said that God’s mercies are new every morning. Therefore there is a multitude or abundance of mercy in God.
It is through God’s lovingkindness and mercy that our sins are blotted out or literally erased from our account and God’s memory. David did not count on his works, for he said, "If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" (Psalm 130:3) If salvation were by our works then none would be saved. The blood of Christ blots out our transgressions from birth until death if we are born again. Yet we need to be washed to maintain our blessing of fellowship.
Jesus said that the disciples, soon to be apostles, were clean, but needed to keep their feet clean. (John 13:10) As we walk through this dirty world we will get dirty feet, but confession cleanses us thoroughly from our perversity or iniquity. We are cleansed from our sin and made as one that is innocent and are morally clean and able to approach unto our holy God and His throne of grace.
3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
He acknowledges or is absolutely aware of his transgressions, which are actually rebellion against God. Each time we sin, we become traitors to the Kingdom and aid and abet our adversary the devil. It is more than disobedience, it is rebellion and we need to see it as such to develop the hatred for sin that we must have to forsake it. James says that to love the world or to be its friend is to hate God and give Him a reason to oppose us. (James 4:4)
God forgives and forgets, but we may not. The devil will remind us and in David’s case each time he saw Bathsheba, he would remember his sin and the son he lost because of it. Sin forgiven is not without consequence. Nathan may not have left David’s life either, so each time Nathan walked by he would hear, "Thou art the man!" Interestingly, we praise someone by saying, "You’re the man!" David would never hear that phrase as praise.
4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
When you take into account that Uriah died, Bathsheba became an adulteress and her name associated with adultery throughout time, she surely felt guilt once she realized she aided in the murder of her husband, the child died and the children of David felt the effects of his sin it looks like David sinned against a lot of people, but he says that only against God did He sin.
To a great degree, this is logical though we are told to confess our faults/sins to one another. God is the ultimate lawgiver and to whom we are responsible. Our sin against Him often collides with people and affects their lives, but since He establishes the moral laws of the universe He is the one we are sinning against. People may be the recipient of the outflow of our sin, but the sin started in the heart as rebellion against God’s decrees.
What people experience is the fruit of our sin once conceived in our hearts and then expressed by whatever activity or lack of activity on our part. In cowboy terms, the gun was fired against God and the ricochet hit others. The rebellion was against Him and others were collateral damage for a modern analogy. Thus when we confess our sins to one another, we are truly confessing the sin against God that they were hit by and seeking their forgiveness for the damage caused by our rebellion against God.
The crazy thing is that we do it in God’s sight. We cannot escape the watchful eye of God and yet we sin with impunity as if He will never know it like He was the false god of Baal that might not be aware of what we do because he is asleep or on a journey.
Being an eyewitness to our sin or crime makes Him an even more capable judge. There are no mitigating circumstances, no botched evidence, or missing evidence. Indeed, the word justified means to be right in a moral or forensic sense. He has all our genetic material and fibers needed to convict us. When He speaks, we cannot contest His testimony for He has it on better than videotape for He is the eyewitness, the prosecuting attorney and the judge in this case yet it is not a kangaroo court for all is in order and we are condemned without excuse. His judgment is clear and pure. Unless, we have Jesus as our Savior and the Holy Spirit as our paraclete/advocate we are doomed for eternity.
5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
This speaks to our fallen nature and not to any concept of David’s mother conceiving him in fornication or adultery. We are sinners from birth. This is the Old Testament version of Paul’s "I know that in me dwelleth no good thing." (Roman 7:18) We are born with the Adamic nature and tend towards evil not towards righteousness. The image of God within us is tainted by sin so that even what good we do is colored by sin. That is why David can say that man at is best is vanity or useless and Isaiah can say that all our righteous acts are as menstrual clothes. (Psalm 39:5; Isaiah 64:6)
6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Here is where the wisdom kicks in. Man looks on the outside, but God looks on the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) Too many times we compare ourselves with others and think we are pretty good when inside we are not right with God. (2 Cor 10:12) This is not to say that outward things are not important for we are to do good works and to avoid all forms of evil. (Titus 3:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:22)
The problem is that it is easy to affect a form of godliness and yet deny the power thereof and look lean and clean like a holy machine but inwardly be full of rottenness. (2 Timothy 3:5; Matthew 23:27) James demands us to show our faith by our works for indeed that is the only way that men can see our living faith. (James 2:18) Yet, works are not complete proof of faith for many shall claim to be working for God and He will deny that He knew them. (Matthew 7:21-23)
In fact, the word truth conveys the idea of stability and trustworthiness, which is more than just assent or possession of the truth. If, as a doctor, I knew that you had a disease and that the disease was terminal unless treated yet did not tell you nor treat you I would know the truth in my mind, but would not have truth as my character for I was not trustworthy of that truth nor possessed the stability to act upon that truth. Suppose you die and your survivors found out that I had not acted, as I should have. I would be then be sued for malpractice and wrongful death. We also are guilty if we have head knowledge, but not heart knowledge of truth and that truth is Jesus Christ, Who is the Truth. (John 14:6)
Wisdom is proper application of the truth. Knowledge makes you proud and useless unless you have the ability to apply that knowledge in your life and the lives of others in love of God, the truth and others. (I Corinthians 8:1) Many know the theory of Christianity, but do not have the practical application of it in their life. They are smart in the abstracts of Biblical principles yet cannot discern the concrete applications of those principles. That is why some can call themselves Christians and not be saved or be saved and not victorious in their lives. They can create a recipe for a cake and bake and decorate it, but they are unable to partake of it and make it a part of themselves and benefit from it.
Many can describe Christ, quote His principles and yet not eat and drink of His blood making Him a part of them and receive the spiritual nourishment they need. (John 6:53-58) That partaking and nourishment is what God desires of us because that is how we grow and the image of Christ is formed in us. All else is flesh and is sin. The Spirit must indwell and put this truth and the trustworthiness of it in our soul and spirit to be revealed by the body unto the world.
7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Cleansing and purging is what we need both as lost sinners and saved ones. The first cleansing saves us from Hell as we receive what has been done on the Cross for us. The continual cleansing of confession and repentance keeps us in fellowship with the Father and the Son and allows the Holy Spirit to perfect us.
Hyssop was used in applying the blood on the doorposts of the Jews in Egypt to protect them from the death angel. (Exodus 12:22) It was used in ceremonial cleansing of a leper and leprosy is used to picture sin and its consequences. It was also used to quench Jesus’ thirst on the Cross. (Leviticus 14:4, 6, 51-2; John 19:29) It is a mint. We use mint to freshen our breath and often to soothe stomach problems, both are inward troubles. It was an instrument of applying the blood.
This may well be prophetic as David is asking God to cleanse him. God used His Son’s body as the tool to apply the cleansing power of His blood to those who are saved. He was covered in blood and then applied that blood to the Heavenly mercy seat as the once for all sacrifice for sin that paid for the sin and not just covered/hid sins, as did the blood of bulls and goats in the Old Testament. As the mint is a sweet smelling savor, so also is the sacrifice of Christ pleasing to the Father! While hyssop applied the blood for acts of sin and was effective until another sin was committed, Christ applied the blood for all sins and once applied to the sinner is efficacious forever!
David wanted to be washed clean and in those days, they washed in the river by stomping their feet on the clothes against rocks. Sometimes it is only by trials and tribulations that we seek cleansing. God has to work us or put us under pressure between the rock, which is Jesus, and the water of His Word to get us clean. We are all baptized and washed by the Spirit into Christ when we are saved (I Cor 12:13; Titus 3:5) Once we and Jesus have reasoned together and we have confessed our sins and received Him as Lord and Savior we enter into that state of being white as snow though our sins were as scarlet and impossible to cleanse without His blood. (Isaiah 1:18)
8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones, which thou hast broken may rejoice.
As a shepherd, David would understand the occasional need to break the leg of a wandering sheep. The sling would be used to send stones to direct the sheep to the right or left or to turn him around to keep him in the fold and out of trouble. If the sheep persisted in going astray, the sling would be used to break his leg. The sheep would then be tended to and carried about on the shoulders of the shepherd until the leg healed. This close attention and care usually resulted in the sheep never straying far from the shepherd again. It found peace and joy in being near the one it had grown to know during a time of pain.
David had a few broken bones and he was seeking the healing of the Shepherd of his soul for he knew that is when he could find joy and gladness again and would rejoice over what the Shepherd had done for him. So, often we also must have our leg broken because we misunderstand the warning rocks of guidance landing around us frustrating our way. Only when our leg is broken and we can do nothing but spend time in the love and care of the Shepherd can we learn to rejoice in that guidance and look for it and rest in it.
9. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
God cannot look upon sin and do nothing about it. He must either act in judgment or in mercy. How He acts depends upon the one who committed the sin. If he is arrogant or frivolous about sin then God must act in judgment, but even in wrath He remembers mercy and will in the judgment seek to restore the sinner unless he dies in unbelief and then there is no hope of restoration. If, as David, the sinner cries out for mercy than God can blot out or erase all iniquities or sins. David wanted forgiveness and recognized he had heart trouble.
10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
David knew because of the sin nature that only God could create a clean heart in him. You cannot get anything pure and clean out of what is impure and unclean. God did this for David because it was within the desire of God to remove a heart of stone from His people and to give them a heart of flesh with His commandments written upon that heart. (Ezekiel 11:9; Jeremiah 31:33) That was fulfilled in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit came to indwell and put a right Spirit within His people.
11. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Until Acts 2, the Holy Spirit only came upon people to perform special acts or to give them the ability to prophesy and then He left them. David had been blessed with a continual anointing of the Spirit, as He is a type of Christ who is Prophet, Priest and King. The Spirit never departed from Christ. The presence of God was the blessing and fellowship with Him.
David’s sins had cut off that presence of God and the Holy Spirit was not active in David’s life and hence the feeling of separation from God and His Spirit. He felt as if he was cast away like satan was cast down from heaven when he sinned. Our sins also grieve the Spirit and though He still indwells us He is quenched and in a sense inoperative in our life except as a convicter rather than a comforter and we feel as if He and God have left us. That is good as it drives us to conviction, confession and restoration!
12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Note that David asked for the restoration of the joy of his salvation, not to be saved again. While he felt cut off from the blessings and presence of God, He did not doubt God’s love for Him nor fear that restoration was impossible or that he would die and go to Hell. It was the joy of that salvation that he longed for and he knew that confession was the only way to get it.
He also knew that it was the free spirit of God that held him up and allowed David to walk in righteousness. He needed to lean upon God for strength. Unbelievers often taunt us and say that God is just a crutch. How little they realize that is the truth for we cannot walk without Him like a cripple cannot walk without a cane or crutch. The unbeliever lies on the ground cursing us who walk with our God given crutch. We shall one day walk into Glory while the ground they cling to will open up and swallow them depositing them into Hell. Hallelujah for the Cross, for it is the crutch that gets me home!!! Without the Cross, I would be flat on my face in unpardoned sin never to know love and forgiveness, so let me walk with my crutch while I praise Jesus for it!
13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
Many times when we sin we get busy to "pay" for our sins or as some form of self-flagellation. Note that David knew that it would not be until he was forgiven and his joy restored unto him that he could serve. Then he would teach transgressors and they would respond and be converted. Going on a tract-passing binge will not be very fruitful or at least you will not know about it. God may use His Word in the tracts to get them saved, but they may end up in another church and you will not know it lest you see it as God blessing you rather than His Word. You can do all sorts of good deeds, but it will not solve your problem. Only confession and restoration will bring you joy and fruit.
Ever notice folks that are not singing in the service? Some may be afraid of their voices sounding bad, but others are not able to sing aloud of God’s righteousness because they are convicted. They are guilty of a sin that they have not confessed and gotten under the blood to regain their fellowship and they cannot sing the songs of Zion while they are in the captivity of sin. (Psalm 137:3, 4) Sin has closed their lips and has muzzled them. Only God can open them again by restoration! Then their mouth can show His praise. The word praise means literally a hymn. Hymns are a blessing and even if we are not gifted singers our hearts pour forth in songs of praise that are a blessing to His ears.
16. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Those works of penance we try and do are sacrifices of flesh and offerings like Cain’s and they cannot be blessed or accepted by the Lord. Obedience is better than sacrifice and when our obedience fails we can only turn to the One Whose sacrifice has been accepted and receive the cleansing of His blood.
When we come to Him with a broken and literally collapsed spirit then He can believe our confession. I do not mean that we need to weep and wail though some may do that nor beat our chest for that may only be custom and show. When we finally come to Him sick of our sin and tired of exercising that sin with a spirit that knows its weakness and is deflated of pride we can expect the cleansing of God and restoration of our joy and service opportunities to spare. Arrogance or half-heartedness will get us nowhere and leave us in our stench. God will despise that confession like He did the Pharisee, but the humble confession of the Publican will bring joy.
18. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
19. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. (KJV)
When you find your peace than you can pray for others and for God’s will. You will be glad to see God exercise His will in your life and that of your home, church and nation. You will see Him as the primary defense of your nation, not government nor military might. He builds the walls and He can tear them down. When a people confess and repent, they are safe in God’s arms no matter what foes may amass themselves against them for the Lord will protect His own.
Then those people can offer up sacrifices that are pleasing to the Lord for they are offering them in the right heart and spirit. Friend, if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you cannot offer up any sacrifices. None are good enough to get you into Heaven. Jesus has offered up Himself as the perfect sacrifice. Call unto Him for forgiveness of sin and for deliverance from Hell and He will cleanse your soul and grant you great joy as you serve and love Him. Brethren, we need to confess. We cannot live the abundant life that He died to give us unless we are ’fessed up and have that joy of our salvation restored to us. Oh, may saint and sinner alike pray
…God be merciful to me a sinner. Luke 18:13 (KJV)
Thanksgiving
The third letter in our acronym ACTS stands for Thanks or Thanksgiving. The reason for many Christians being so ungrateful may relate back to the first two letters. If we are not confessing and adoring God we are not going to be thankful for what we have received and will not receive the fullness of God’s blessings thus missing more things about which to give thanks to God
In preparing this study, it was interesting to note that one of the Hebrew words for thanks, towdah, means an extension of the hand and if you go back through the derivatives to the root word it means the cupped open hollow palm of the hand indicating power, means, and direction. The main root can also mean to bow down. In that one word we can see worship.
The word worship means to prostrate yourself or literally kiss the ground so the Hebrews would bow and then would lift up their hands in the manner described. The symbolism is rich when you see that by lifting up the open palm they not only surrender their power, means and direction unto the Lord but also expect to receive those things from Him. This also helps us understand the New Testament injunction to lift up holy or sanctified hands that have surrendered these things to Him that we might receive His power, means and direction in our life. (1 Tim 2:8)
Therefore, true thanksgiving includes worship, surrender, humility, expectation, holiness and gratitude. True gratitude for the blessings of God expresses itself in the other actions not just in words of gratitude. We show our gratitude like we show our faith with actions not just words. (James 2:18)
The Greek word in the New Testament for thanks is eucharistia. This is where the Catholics get their word for the Lord’s Supper that they call the Eucharist. However, there is a great difference between their practice of the Mass and the biblical Lord’s Supper, but that is not our topic here. Eucharista means gratitude and come from the words eu or good and charizomai that means to grant as a favor. That favor may mean doing a kindness, but also can mean giving a pardon or delivering/saving someone. At the Lord’s Supper, we do actively remember what He has done for us and give thanks for that.
Looking at what all the Hebrew word entails we may have some insight on what eating and drinking unworthily really means at the Lord’s Supper. Note that the warning against this came to a Gentile Church (Corinth), which would not have all the history and understanding that a Jewish Church would have in this area. They appeared to consider the Lord’s Supper as a party or celebration and practiced it like they did any other party in that culture and got drunk. They also were uncharitable in distribution of food and some that had no pot were out of luck. Some may have also practiced gluttony in that they would stuff themselves and then regurgitate so that they could go and eat at another party or a Lord’s Supper at another home. They missed the boat entirely and needed the warning and education that Paul gave in I Corinthians 11. We are to celebrate our anticipation of His return and give thanks for what He has done, but in a holy way.
Let us look at some verses that show what thanksgiving includes.
2 Sam 22:50 Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name. (KJV)
Look at the action involved as well as the location. Thanksgiving is to be given among the heathen. How often do the unsaved hear us give thanks among them? More often than not, we are cranky moaners and groaners that are depressing to be around. That kind of lure will not catch many fish. Many of my dark brown friends answer, "How are you?" with "Blessed!" That is good, but most folks have no clue as to what blessed means anymore. You can buy blessed air fresheners for your car and blessed candles and the like. We need to share more with the unsaved the things that God does for us spiritually as well as materially. If we emphasize only the material, they may see God as the cosmic slot machine that just gives us money and prizes rather than the God who loves us and molds us into His image.
Again we see adoration or worship here as we are to sing praises unto His name!! The phrase, sing praises, in Hebrew gives the idea of striking strings to include instruments with the singing, but not all of us can pick guitar. I play radio well, but that is it. However, we do have vocal chords and we speak of heart strings so when we have hearts full of praise and thanksgiving, the fingers of our soul do play both those sets of strings when we sing of all that He has done for us.
1 Chronicles 16:8 Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. (KJV)
We are to give thanks for what He has done for us and continue call upon His name for all that we need. We need daily bread. Again, we are to make known His deeds among the people. We share so many things with folks, but we hesitate at times to share what God has done for us in a spirit of humility and thankfulness. You do not know what person, saved or lost, needs to hear what God has done for you as an encouragement to seek Him for their own needs. Make known means to ascertain by seeing. People need to see what the Lord is doing now in your life, not just to hear of what He has done. If we are silent, they may think that He does not do great things for His people anymore. It may take calling upon Him for the power to do this, but we need to do it.
1 Chronicles 16:34-36
34 O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever.
35 And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise.
36 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel forever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and praised the LORD. (KJV)
Our God is good. What if He were not? Many of the pagans worshiped Gods that were whimsical and hard to please. Some were even considered evil and the people worshiped them out of fear alone. To tell them that God loves them would bring a laugh and expressions indicating our insanity. Our God is good in essence. He is a God that wants to do us good and has good thoughts toward us that the end of our abundant life may be good.
His mercy endureth forever. This theme is throughout the Old Testament and is repeated 26 times in Psalms 136. This is something we must be very thankful about. We need His kindness and it is good for us that His mercies are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:22, 23) We define mercy as not getting what we deserved. We deserve Hell and a miserable life and yet He does everything possible to keep us from both. Our lives are only miserable and end in Hell because we do not seek His mercy and what His mercy has provided for us.
He is the God of our salvation or deliverance. He saves us from Hell, our enemies and our greatest enemy, ourselves. When we walk in His will, He will deliver us from our enemies, but when we are in rebellion and sin He can also deliver us into the hands of our enemies. When we refuse to forgive others He can hand us over to tormenters that we might learn to have mercy as we have received it. (Matthew 18:34) We can sin a sin unto death. (I John 5:16) Nationally, our enemies no matter how strong we are militarily can overtake us. (II Chronicles 36:5, 6) Americans need to remember that and seek the mercy of God. Christians especially need to remember this as we are the salt of this country and responsible for its healing. (2 Chronicles 7:14)
We need to remember that we worship and thank a holy God and we are commanded to be holy as He is holy. The word holy can also be translated as dedicated and sanctified or set apart. It also carries the idea of separation and we are to be separate from the world and totally set apart for God.
A name once meant character as well as just something we call each other. We once told our children to live up to their name or to not shame the family name. God gave us many names for Himself that told us of His character. He is the Lord our righteousness, the Lord our helper, the Lord our peace and so on. So we give thanks to His holy character when we give thanks to His holy name. We are called by His name and we are to live up to that name and seek to not shame it by giving the heathen a reason to blaspheme it. That is true thankfulness. We bless Him when we give Him thanks and adoration. We are able to shout or glory in His praise when we have a heart of thankfulness. We have another reference to singing for the word praise speaks again to a hymn. A heart of thankfulness praises Him in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. (Colossians 3:16)
Col 1:3 We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, (KJV)
We are not only to give thanks to God for what He does for us, but in what He does for others as well. Elijah thought he was all alone in serving God and at times so do we. We should give thanks to God for the Brethren. It is good to know that there are others in the family. It is good that God is working in these other folks and they are there to encourage us, as we are there to encourage them. Praying for others is a part of our thankfulness to God.
Heb 13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (KJV)
Eph 5:4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. (KJV)
We no longer offer up sacrifices for sins anymore since Christ is the only sacrifice needed for sins. However, we can offer up a sacrifice of praise. That is a sweet smelling savor to God! The fruit of our lips should be thanksgiving again for His name or character! Note that our lips take on a different mission when we are walking in His will and giving thanks. We no longer tell obscene stories or dirty jokes or act like fools because they are not proper or convenient. Instead we use our mouths to praise God and this not only pleases Him and edifies us, but also those around us.
Col 3:17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. (KJV)
Our sincere thankfulness to God will reflect itself in all areas of our life. We will do all things in His name, which also gives the world a reason to seek Him and be thankful as they see fruit in our lives.
1Thessalonians 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. (KJV)
Ephesians 5:20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; (KJV)
We usually are able to give thanks in the good times when everything is going our way and God just seems to be unloading the whole truck of blessings onto us. James says to count in all joy when we fall into various temptations or trials. (James 1:2) Are these not a part of all things or everything? Then we are to be thankful when it looks like God has cut off all blessings and even seems to have deserted us. I used looks like and seems because God has promised to never leave or forsake us so we must realize that what appears to be desertion by God is only an appearance and we are not to judge by appearances but to judge righteous judgment. Righteous judgment is believing and acting upon the Word of God regardless of our circumstances or feelings.
Ps 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. (KJV)
David is speaking of entering the temple or in our case the church building. Do you come to church with an attitude of thankfulness? Some are not very thankful as they seldom, if at all, enter into the church and I mean believers. Do we come with thanks or to enjoy the music or just to get something else from God? If we are not thankful for that which we have already received why do we think anything else He gives will make us thankful or happy? We need to come blessing His name and be thankful as we exhort one another and then we can receive great blessings and joy. Coming to church now and then or not at all is disobedience and a sign of ingratitude. (Hebrews 10:25)
So have you been turning your power, means, and direction over to God thankful that His ways are better than yours? Are worship, surrender, humility, expectation, and holiness parts of your gratitude towards God or are you lacking in these areas?
Lost friend, you have much to be thankful to God for even though you may not believe in Him. He gives you many blessings that we call common graces. He gives you the same sunshine, health and ability to love and be loved as He does saved people. Your life may have been spared many times and you surely have received from Him much more than you deserve. Why not turn to Him now in gratitude for those things and accept the forgiveness of your sins in Christ? When you are born again you will come to know many more things for which you can thank God. Do it now. He loves you beyond your comprehension.
Brethren, have you gotten slack in your thankfulness? Do you take God’s many blessings for granted? Do you worry about so many needless things when he has already supplied so much for you over the years? If so, it is time that you turn back to Him
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Col 3:15 (KJV)
Supplication
We now come to the last letter of our acronym - ACTS. We are at Supplication. Dr. John R. Rice wrote a fairly thick book basically saying that prayer is asking or what we think of as supplication. I agree with this premise. However, in study for this message I found it interesting that one of the Hebrew words translated supplication, chalah, comes from a root that also can mean to be rubbed or worn, weak, sick, afflicted, grieved, to stroke in flattery as well as entreat. I strongly urge you to word studies because as you see this gives not only the concept of asking, but also an idea as to what state of being or emotion we can be in to make supplication to God.
Why do I come to God in supplication? Because life has consistently rubbed me so hard that I am feeling worn. Temptations are all around me and I feel weak. I am sick and maybe troubled or afflicted over what the diagnoses might be. Enemies and false brethren might also afflict us. I am grieved over a divorce or death of a loved one. I may have a special desire that I want to entreat the Lord to fulfill it.
While flattery is not good, I may just want to be humble and come before the Lord asking Him for something but adding a few more words of adoration or appeal to His mercy or other part of His character as the reason for His granting it versus my own righteousness. Just in this one word and its meaning I can see many types of supplication. This is why study is so important for a Christian. There is so much to be found in His Word that will get us through the nasty now and now and prepare our hearts to live with Him in the sweet by and by. Let’s see what else the Word has for us on this subject.
1 Tim 2:1-3
1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; (KJV)
As you can see from this passage, there are more types of prayers than what we used to spell ACTS. We shall do a word study of those other prayers next. I think it is good to start with this group of verses to show that supplications and prayers are not all about us. They are to be made for all men. We tend to pray too much for ourselves and not much for others. We have religious freedom in this country, but it is slowly being taken away from us and we are not being allowed to live quietly and peacefully.
According to this passage, that might be for two reasons. First, we are more involved with politics than we are praying for those in authority. To be honest, I probably prayed more that God would remove the previous President than I did for him to do right. That was hard to do, but I, and the rest of us, should have done more of it.
Secondly, we are not living in godliness and honesty. Often, we get a leader representative of our nation rather than what we need. We have many liars and immoral people who have a form of religion or godliness that enjoy power and what opportunities it brings. Hence, our administrations become a shining example of who we are as a nation. Even true Christians are too wrapped up in materialism and worldly things and stretch the truth.
Our goals as Christians are not to be in political power, but to be in resurrection power and live a Christian life. As that life makes an impact upon individuals and families we will eventually make an impact on the government not through the polls, but through the heart. Should we vote? Yes, but the ballot will not be the salvation of this nation.
As I surf the net I come across individuals who want to trust in the gun to gain them freedom. That is ridiculous. We need only look around the world and see that all guns do is assure continual revolt and needless pain and death. The weapons of our warfare are spiritual and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. We need to fight the good fight of faith and pray for more intervention of the Spirit in the lives of leader and average citizen alike. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God.
1 Tim 5:5 Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day. (KJV)
The Greek word for supplications is deeis meaning a petition or a request. I chose this passage because it not only affirms the command to pray without ceasing, but also shows that there is a place for people to serve even when they are old and seemingly helpless. (I Thessalonians 5:17)
The practice was to have the church provide the needs of a widow sixty and above who had no kin to care for her.
We have turned that over to Social Security and nursing homes and have missed a great blessing as well as shutting down a source of power in the Church. Her needs being met, she would have time to pray for the church and the congregation day and night. Folks who are home living off of Social Security or living in a nursing home can still do this, but it would have been better had we followed the Scripture’s pattern. There is power in obedience and we may be losing some of that power by failure to be their primary caregiver.
These ladies would be the strongest link in the prayer chain. If you understand anything about aging, you know that often sleep patterns are different. Some go to bed with the chickens but are up before the rooster whereas others stay up to two and three in the morning. Most of us rush our prayers in somewhere between 8-5 with a short one upon rising and right before we collapse into bed. These ladies have time and are not rushed. When Mrs. Henderson, the lady who prayed for me while I was in college passed away I lost a lot. It took me years to find another lady, Mrs. Alma Trimble, who prayed for me at times even at 4AM and now I have lost her. The Church needs ladies like this who will take up the ministry of supplication. Thy may not have great wealth or health, but they have the ability to be the source of great power in the kingdom. Oh, that we would make supplication for women to take on this ministry.
Dan 9:17-18
17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.
18 O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. (KJV)
We need to make supplications for our church and the Church in general for it is pretty desolate. There are pockets of folks that are in God’s will and seeing him work mightily among them, but these are rare. Many churches see numbers and money as signs of God’s blessing, but they forget that the dead church of Laodicea was rich. (Rev 3:14-18) When the Church is right with God it turns the world upside down as in Acts and the culture changes. Today, we see culture changing the Church so much that many are churches in name, but no longer part of the true Church.
Our cities are desolate when it comes to strong families and neighborhoods. Business people have no integrity and neglect the warning of James in regards to caring for their employees. (James 5:1-6) It is more common for our leaders to lie than speak the truth. Kids not only disrespect their parents and authority, but also disrespect themselves by doing drugs and getting involved with gangs. They practice promiscuity and even prostitute themselves at an early age. Baby killing is rampant and mothers even throw their newborns in dumpsters. Child molesters steal and kill five-year-olds.
Yes, we need to make many supplications to God for our churches and cities not for our righteousness, but for His great mercies and His sake. We have no righteousness. That is one thing common among all men. We need His mercies. This country was founded upon the Bible and His name and thus we can ask the Lord to fix our mess for His name’s sake. This country is considered a Christian nation by the world and this country gives many reasons for the heathen to blaspheme His name. He can heal this land, but since we are near Him with our lips and far from Him in our hearts, it is more likely that He will judge it. We do not know how close that judgment is, but we need to make supplications to His mercy in hopes that He might still heal.
Ps 31:22-24
22 For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.
23 O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.
24 Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD. (KJV)
Here the Hebrew word translated as supplications means earnest or serious prayer and that is the only way to get a prayer or petition answered is to be serious about it. Double minded people do not get anything from Him. (James 1:6-8) We need to make earnest prayer to the Lord because when He answers them it gives us great hope in Him. As David, we may think that we are cut off from Him because He does not answer our petitions according to our time frame, but He answers on time. His answer assures us of His promise to preserve the faithful and allows us to rest in Him. However, those answers to us also are a warning to the proud or wicked that He will deal with them as well. His answer gives us to courage and strengthens our inner man or heart to stand for Him and increases our love for Him that we might walk in His ways and rejoice in His statutes.
Ps 143:1-2
1 Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.
2 And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. (KJV)
Again we see that it is the faithfulness and righteousness of God that gets us anything from Him. If we try to ask for something because of our goodness we are asking God to judge us. If He analyzes us we will come up way short. We cannot be justified or declared morally right by our works.
Besides that we do not always see the big picture. God may not want to give us something because we have been disobedient, but rather because it is no good for us. At times, He gives us things in His mercy to cause us to repent and return to Him. If my mother would have only fed and clothed me when I was good, I would have been an emaciated naked boy.
Hezekiah asked God to spare his life because of his practical righteousness. Indeed, Hezekiah was a very good king and he was very young and did not have an heir. From Hezekiah’s viewpoint, he was being punished or at least not being very blessed for being a good king. God heard his reasoning and granted him fifteen more years and an heir.
I do not know if knowing exactly when you are going to die is a good thing or not. It might help you live more circumspectly, but what about that last day? Watching the clock all day wondering when the exact hour might be could be maddening, but then again if you knew you were right with God you might just sit down with your family and sing songs of praise until you pass.
Even with that, there was a major problem. Hezekiah’s son Manasseh was to be a very wicked king. From Hezekiah’s viewpoint, it did not look like being a good king was paying off. However, God wanted to spare him from the shame of having such an offspring and wanted to spare Israel as well. His son wiped out all the good that Hezekiah did. He could have had a great epitaph, but now it was marred for every time the wicked Manasseh would be mentioned he would be remembered as the son of Hezekiah.
We need to make our petitions and allow God to answer in His faithfulness and righteousness because then we will know that all will be well. He only is omniscient. We only see the present, but He sees the future and knows the ramifications of what we are asking. Many of us ask God to make us rich, but He knows that most of us could not handle it well or that the inheritance may cause our kids to forget God and live wasted lives. Let Him be God and rejoice in that rather than trying to twist His arm by our right as a "good" servant. (Luke 17:7-10)
Phil 4:6-7
6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (KJV)
We need to quit worrying. We worry about so many things that we have no control over. (Matt 6:25-34; 10:28-31) We are to take everything to God with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving before the prayer is answered? Absolutely!!! God wants us to trust Him. We thank Him no matter what answer may come for we know that the Judge of all the earth shall do right!!!
When we can really come to grips with that and fall down before Him in absolute faith and thanksgiving we will start to know true peace. When your world seems to be a nuclear wasteland you can be at peace because though the world, flesh or the devil split the atoms of your world, you serve the God Who made the atom and by Whom all things are held together and He will give you beauty for ashes!!!
Phil 4:8-9
8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you. (KJV)
If we think are thinking on these things, then we can pray with Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and making the right Supplications. We will see our prayers answered and have joyful spirits of power, love and a sound mind. This is what the brethren and the unbelieving need to see in us. When they see God working among His people they will be drawn to Him by the love they see in us for Him, for each other and the lost!
Other Types of Prayer
Matthew 6:6-7
6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
It has been said that Bible Study is God talking to us and in prayer we are talking to God. This has also been likened to breathing. Bible Study is inhaling and prayer is exhaling. We have talked in this series about the acronym ACTS. There are many other types of prayers in the Scripture. Let us look at some of the Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic words we translate as pray or prayer. These definitions come from Strong’s Concordance. The number in front of them is Strong’s number so that you can do further research and see what verse uses these specific words. A Young’s Analytic Concordance is also very good for this. Both should be in your library. Again, I strongly encourage you to get into doing word studies. These will greatly enhance your understanding of the Word.
3908 lachash (lakh’-ash); from 3907; properly, a whisper, i.e. by implication, (in a good sense) a private prayer, (in a bad one) an incantation; concretely, an amulet: KJV-- charmed, earring, enchantment, orator, prayer.
Compare that to repeating Buddhist prayer wheel prayers or rosaries which Jesus calls vain repetition. (Matthew 6:7) It is also the opposite of flowing public prayers, which bring no reward to the prayer except from men. (Matthew 6:6)
7879 siyach (see’-akh); from 7878; a contemplation; by implication, an utterance: KJV-- babbling, communication, complaint, meditation, prayer, talk.
Ever talk your thoughts aloud to yourself? Although to someone walking in on you it may seem like babbling, you are contemplating issues and trying to find a solution or mediation to a problem. When we take our cares to Jesus we sometimes sound like we are babbling, but we are communicating our heart’s cares to Him. Samuel’s mother was involved in this kind of prayer to have a child and the priest thought she was drunk because only her lips were moving. He thought she was just babbling, but she was pouring out her complaint of her barren womb to God. Praise Him that He heard even if the priest did not. Hmm, what does that say about auricular confession? (I Samuel 1:9-18)
1162 deesis (deh’-ay-sis); from 1189; a petition: KJV-- prayer, request, supplication.
This is simple enough. You are asking for something, but as our study on this one shows much is entailed in our asking.
1783 enteuxis (ent’-yook-sis); from 1793; an interview, i.e. (specially) supplication: KJV-- intercession, prayer.
Here we are interceding for someone and in a sense interviewing God about what He is going to do about the situation.
2171 euche (yoo-khay’); from 2172; properly, a wish, expressed as a petition to God, or in votive obligation: KJV-- prayer, vow.
We are making our petition or plea and at the same time entering into a vow. We need to do this carefully because it is better not to ever vow than to vow and not live up to it. (Ecclesiastes 5:5)
4335 proseuche (pros-yoo-khay’); from 4336; prayer (worship); by implication, an oratory (chapel): KJV-- X pray earnestly, prayer.
This is the prayer we make we are just worshiping God for who He is without wanting anything. We are praising Him. We do not pray in this way often enough.
4336 proseuchomai (pros-yoo’-khom-ahee); from 4314 and 2172; to pray to God, i.e. supplicate, worship: KJV-- pray (X earnestly, for), make prayer.
As earnestly as we pray in worship of who He is, we can also pray for our needs in the same sense worship and earnestness because of who He is.
2470 chalah (khaw-law’); a primitive root [compare 2342, 2470, 2490]; properly, to be rubbed or worn; hence (figuratively) to be weak, sick, afflicted; or (causatively) to grieve, make sick; also to stroke (in flattering), entreat: KJV-- beseech, (be) diseased, (put to) grief, be grieved, (be) grievous, infirmity, intreat, lay to, put to pain, X pray, make prayer, be (fall, make) sick, sore, be sorry, make suit (X supplication), woman in travail, be (become) weak, be wounded.
"Are we weak and heavy laden? Take it to the Lord in prayer." It may be an illness or a spiritual weakness or wound that we are praying about, but we are in grief and beseeching the Lord in sorrow.
6279 `athar (aw-thar’); a primitive root [rather denominative from 6281]; to burn incense in worship, i.e. intercede (reciprocally, listen to prayer): KJV-- intreat, (make) pray (-er).
This can be asking others to pray for us or to intercede for us, or when we listen to someone’s prayer request and go to the Lord on their behalf. Praying is primarily an asking concept. When we say, "Pray tell me what is the secret," we are not worshiping the person. We are asking them to tell us what is going on. "Pray tell me" would be modernized to "I ask you to tell me."
6419 palal (paw-lal’); a primitive root; to judge (officially or mentally); by extension, to intercede, pray: KJV-- intreat, judge (-ment), (make) pray (-er, -ing), make supplication.
We go to God in intercession for ourselves or someone else. We are assessing a situation and asking God to move in a certain direction based upon that assessment. We often get frustrated because God’s answer is the opposite of our desire or it takes longer in coming than we wish. It is because we have asked in the wrong spirit or our judgment is incorrect. (James 4:3; John 7:24) We need to incorporate Abraham’s attitude of "Shall not the judge of the earth do right?" We will have more peace in our prayer life knowing that God’s answer or timing is right. (Genesis 18:25)
This is not an exhaustive study. We could have discussed at least ten other words just from prayer and pray.We need to do word studies to get some of the juicy and tender meat of the Word. We are to mine it for gold, not skim it like milk. We all know the Lord’s Prayer. (Matthew 6:9; Luke 11:2) Actually, it is more accurately called the Disciple’s Prayer because Jesus was teaching them how to pray. Jesus’ Priestly Prayer is in John 17. If you need an order to your prayer, then follow this example. You can pray extemporaneously or from your heart. He did not give us this to repeat mindlessly as we doze off, but rather to show the topics we should consider in our prayer. He does not want robots, but children coming to Him in love.
We studied the pattern of:
A - Adoration
C - Confession
T - Thanksgiving
S - Supplication
I think you will find all of these in the Disciple’s Prayer. I believe this is the proper order for any prayer, and we should spend most of our time in the first three areas rather than the fourth. I would challenge you to do pray more. If you do these this, you will have learned from this session. All that remains is to be active in it for the rest of your life. Your faithfulness, your fruit and fullness of joy depend on it.
Fusion – Service
In physics when two atom nuclei fuse together they release a tremendous amount of energy that consists of heat and light unable to be hidden. Its effect on the world is massive and lasting. It cannot help itself. It must happen. How much more so does service have to happen after a man has been infused with the Word of God merging with an indwelling Holy Spirit?
Ps 39:3 My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,
KJV
David in his meditations developed a fire in his heart and he did not even have the Spirit indwelling Him as we do. That fire caused by the infusion of the Word and the profusion of the Psalmist's praise made his tongue speak. I am sure it along with the Spirit was what caused the explosion of his Psalms and his zeal for the house of the Lord.
Jer 20:9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. KJV
Even in persecution, when it seems that the best thing would be is to keep quiet and not give testimony to God; the Word being infused into the heart creates that nuclear fission that cannot allow the mouth to be silent. It has to break forth for the body cannot contain it forever. Oh, my Brothers! May God make us consistently explode into service in a way that make the effects of the bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima look like the effects of a match on a redwood!
John 7:37-39
37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
39(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) KJV
The world is dying of thirst and seeking to quench the thirst in all the wrongs ways. In various ways they are killing themselves with cyanide and Kool-Aid as real as that in Jonestown. Many have just given up and are dying of the thirst.
They need a strong flowing river to drink from and Christ said that we who believe on Him would have that river flowing out of us. Nuclear fission causes destruction, but when the Word and the Spirit fuse within us it create a river that flows out of us. It is not an Artesian well for that well must be drilled by man before it flows profusely. The river of living water bursts the dams of our flesh, fears, doubts and insecurities because its source is God. So why is the world still so thirsty? It is because we have not been allowing the fusion of the Living Word and Written Word to create the fission that will create the pressure in our souls that will bring about breaking down of the flesh to allow the bursting forth of that river to quench their thirst. May that change today!
Rom 12:1-13:1
12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;
8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.
9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
16 Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
This is not an unfamiliar passage. Many of you may have expounded on this passage from your pulpit. Yet, sometimes we miss much in the familiar. Look at what a living sacrifice does? We often emphasize about what a dead sacrifice does not do or care about and speak to being dead to this world, but alive unto God. We say that God has better purposes for our lives if we will sacrifice our goals and desires for His.
However, look how that fusion of God and a living sacrifice explodes into service for the gifts are all about service. No gift was given just to admire or even for our benefit. They are given to a dead man walking to benefit the Body and win the unbelieving soul to Christ. Such a fusion has to lead to fission or something is totally wrong.
Anyone that has to be constantly called to serve and exercise their gift may not have one as they may not be saved. A newborn may have some issues because they are a newborn, but a supposedly mature Christian should really have more trouble saying no in a limiting way because he/she is already very active and wants to participate in every opportunity rather than having an excuse not serve every time the call is given or he/she is approached specifically because someone sensed they had the gift needed for some place of service. A person who feels no inner pang to serve may not be saved. If they think they have no gifts they may need education, but if they have no desire to find what God gifted them to do it may because He has not because they are not in the Body.
I probably irritate people because I constantly exhort them to find their gifts. I know that every saved person has at least one gift and maybe more and they will never be happy or fulfilled until they start using it. Often, a person may be called to serve in something they are not especially gifted in. Paul told Timothy to the work of an evangelist though it does not appear to be his gift. Maybe there were none available with the gift so Timothy was to serve as one until one with that gift was supplied by the Lord to that body at Ephesus.
I have had to do wood putty ministry often. I was asked to fill in or I volunteered to fill in a ministry where there was a need. Those times did help me figure out what my gift/gifts were and what they were not. Sometimes, like the jail ministry, it was supposed to be for a short time and then it turned into I was the one to do it not just until someone else was found. Sometimes, I started out only thinking I helping out or observing as part of my role as an Associate Pastor only to become the main speaker and the others became the support personnel.
As best as best I have been able to do I have served in whatever ministry presented itself. I surrendered to preach thinking that meant the pastorate and though I have had a few titles with pastor in them I have served in far more capacities than a traditional pastoral role. Since I seldom meet people's requirements for a pastoral position had I not been flexible I would have not served near as much as I have been blessed to do.
I have attached my resume at the end of this course so that you can see what God can do with a person willing to serve regardless of title or even the approval of men. I have often been victim of the Goldilocks Syndrome. I have been too hot, too cold, too young, too old, etc. etc. and seldom just right for pulpit committees or other reviewing parties. Yet, in the grace of God, I have had quite a life doing what I sometimes call guerrilla warfare because I come in and do what ministry I can and then move on to the next place or objective. Would I have rather found a church early in my life and still be there celebrating my thirty-fifth anniversary as their pastor? Absolutely! Would I have missed out on a lot of learning experiences and opportunities had I gotten my way? Absolutely²!! While I have been often disappointed and tried to quit the fire always came back to burn within me and I did whatever I could do. The key is to serve. Allow God to create the fusion and fission within you and whatever comes of that explosion and release of energy rejoice in it and serve!
1 Cor 14:1-12
14:1 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
2 For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
4 He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.
5 I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.
6 Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?
7 And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?
8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.
10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.
11 Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.
12 Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. KJV
When God provides the gift be sure you value it and make sure you have really have the gift you think you have before you go off to use something and get discouraged. Make sure somewhere people affirm the gift in you. Ask a pastor you respect to give you the opportunity to exercise the gift so he can give you a fair evaluation especially if you think you have the gift of evangelism or want to be a missionary. Do that kind of work in your local church and if people who love you share and say that you may wish to rethink or pray again about your gifts then do so.
The story is told of a young man who got up to preach in his home church and did a very bad job at it worse than just first time nerves and such. An old deacon asked him afterward how he knew he was called to preach. The young man said “I looked up in the sky and two clouds formed a P and a C and I took that as meaning preach Christ.” The old man said, “Son, in your case it meant plant corn.”
Harsh, but better than the young man running from church to church getting discouraged and maybe quitting church completely. Many men have sought to exercise gifts they did not have or jump out somewhere before they are ready. That is partly way so many preachers quite the ministry each month. Some were never gifted and others were in too big of a hurry to get their own pulpit. They needed more mentoring or growth time and it so it did not go well and then they quit. Be careful.
Many of you here will be pastors. Do not be quick to throw someone into a position because you need a hole filled. Do you want a spirited person filling a position or a spirit filled person in a position to serve? Be kind, but truthful. If the person does not have the gift they do have the gift. How many people have been told they have had a wonderful singing voice by family and friends because no one wanted to break it to them that they are tone deaf and fingernails scraping a chalkboard has a more appealing sound. So they get themselves signed up for a talent show and are humiliated and maybe scarred for life. There is no love in giving people false hope.
Do not just look for talent. Look at the attitude. Note the passage warns about doing things that just edify yourself in church. You are there to edify the church. If the person has a lot of swagger when they minister they may be exercising a gift in the flesh and need to sit down until they get their heart right and spirit filled or the devil will use that pride to defeat and possibly destroy both the person and the church. That is not fusion. That is confusion and delusion. Watch closely for it.
There is far too much hoopla over tongues today and even if there were genuine manifestations of that gift it would still be very easy to see that it is abused and elevated from the least of the gifts to a place of a mandatory evidence of salvation. We know that not all had that gift any more than everyone had any of the gifts. They were dispersed as the Spirit deemed them necessary and no one is just an eye, mouth, hand or foot and the Body of Christ also has a need of more than just one thing to survive.
There has been too much infusion of New Age mysticism, emotionalism and other isms that have taken the balance out of the Body much like an ear infection. People have itching ears and listen to practically anything and they have no sense of balance and are tossed about by every sleight of man's hand and wind of doctrine. Their malleus, incus and stapes are either fused or broken so that they cannot hear the Lord clearly. He is muffled, but someone error is amplified.
Gentlemen, you must seek the prophetic gift if you are going to pastor, evangelize, teach or do mission work. Now, more than ever we need solid expositors of the Word. There are far too many motivation speakers and charlatans teaching heresy and hoo-ha. We must dispense solid doctrine to overcome the epidemic of error. It will not be entertaining. You may never build a mega-church, but you will be faithful to the text and to the Lord. He will add to your local Body as He deems of both numbers and gifts. He will infuse and set the fuse and cause the fusion you and your Body needs if you allow the Spirit and the Word to do their work.
Exclusion – Separation
2 Cor 6:14-18
14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. KJV
Separation is a dirty word even among many Baptists. It is also hard to determine where to draw lines from time to time, but lines must be drawn. I have done a sermon on drawing lines and little boxes. It is tough for some of us to not glad hand and accept as brethren everyone who calls themselves a Christian. Few of us are normally into excluding people. I am a joiner and love friends. I wish that every group that claims to be under Christ's umbrella was truly there, but sadly it is not so.
That makes life tricky as discerning between upfront unbelievers and tares is tough. The upfront are easy because they tell you they want nothing to do with Christ or are not sure or whatever. The tares are tough as it is reasonable to assume that there are some in every church. They look good and talk the talk. In that case, we have to ask God for discernment and love them and hope that through that love and the preaching they hear that at some point they will become real wheat. It has happened often that someone was a pastor, deacon, teacher or musician get saved having been in their capacity for many years.
In Church, we have to allow the Spirit to discern and work with the person as we cannot see the soul. Later, I will speak to brethren who are less than well-behaved. Outside of our local Church, we have to look not only at lifestyle because many cults lead a clean lifestyle and from the outside look like people we can fellowship with as brethren. We have to go past the appearance and judge righteous judgment as Christ enjoined us in John's epistle.
Doctrine, doctrine, doctrine is very important. We can tolerate doctrinal differences in the culture as we live in a free society. Yet, as seekers of the truth we need to split hairs from time to time or at least splitting hairs in the view of other people. While we can tolerate many things we have to take care that our tolerance is not misunderstood as condolence.
We often hear that as long as it is not a salvation issue or as some say a non-essential doctrine we are told we should just love and seek unity. Frankly, I do not see that in Scripture. Hymaneaus and Philetus were only off kilter in one doctrine; the timing of the resurrection of the dead. It was a big deal and may have been a secondary issue caused by their blasphemy or the primary cause of it, but either way Paul turned them over to satan to be buffeted and if they did not repent killed like he did the couple living in the sin of incest in Corinth.
How many things did Jesus correct in the teachings of the Pharisees and the Sadducees? Some were salvation related in that they were rejecting Christ as Messiah based upon their exegesis or more often eiegesis of the Scriptures. Others like the traditions of washings or how they handled the Sabbath day journey were not directly related to salvation, but they were errors. He corrected them on all points.
The Holy Spirit came to lead us into ALL truth, not just some truths or just the non-essential, but all truth. So, is the mode of baptism a salvation issue? No, a person can be saved by faith in Christ and in their ignorance as a new babe in Christ be led to have a rite called baptism that uses affusion/pouring or aspersion/sprinkling. Did they lose their salvation? No. Were they correctly baptized? No. If they come to our church should we encourage them to baptized by immersion? Definitely.
This where the ecumenical movement becomes a real problem. They hook up with everyone. Amos asks how we can walk together unless we be agreed. You cannot. It only creates confusion and delusion by trying to mix a myriad of doctrines together. Would you admit a person who claims to be a mathematician into your school if he believed that two and two are five or that you can multiply by zero? No, because he is wrong. I cannot be a member of a group of saved people who baptize babies or sprinkle or pour because they are wrong. Can I love them as a person? Yes. I just cannot plow in the same field with them. It may be a sincere belief and error, but error is to be corrected, not overlooked or ignored in the name of anything. Love, grace and truth are a trinity as you cannot truly have any of those if they are not all present. Truth without love or grace is not truth. Love or grace with truth is not love or grace. Thus we must strive to know the truth in all arenas. It is a bit of a tightrope at times, but we need to walk that tightrope well or what we think is a safety net under us will really be a snare.
We would have no problem saying that we cannot be yoked with someone who drastically departs from the Word of God on the deity of Christ, the purpose of the Cross or denies the resurrection. We would rebuke them soundly and pray for their salvation. We must be very careful in other doctrinal areas as well. If they are saved, part peaceably and each plow their field, but to plow together would only create undue tension and confuse both the new converts and the unbelievers.
I saved the obvious for last. We all know we should not marry an unbeliever or form a joint business venture with one. We all know that, but so many Christians will marry an unbeliever thinking they will win them and that almost always goes badly. Some even say that God told them to marry and we know that is not true as He would not overrule what is in this passage for one person. Business partnerships end up with the believer broke or even in jail because the partner does something illegal or runs off with the money. It is obvious, but we fail so often to do the obvious.
Rev 18:1-5
1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. KJV
Is it important to come out from among the unbelievers or the world? In the previous passage, it was a prerequisite for God to treat us as sons and daughters. In this passage we are in danger of partaking of the sins of the ones we associate with and can receive the same plagues.
While we are allowed to dine with an unbeliever, we must be careful where we do that. Think of it. What if some Jews were friends with the Philistines and attended the banquet when Samson brought down the house? They would be just as dead as the sinners. Attend a party at someone's house and the police break in because the host has crack smoking and prostitution going on in the garage or another part of the house. You were just there for a meal and end up in jail. Make sure the party or meal is at Luby's or somewhere that there is a fair chance of no illegal activity going on.
We need to be careful who we associate with and it can be difficult at times. Many times we just do not know what a person may be doing or what they have done, but if you are going to bring them on staff you better at least do a background check. Safety of yourself and your members should be paramount.
1 Cor 5:9-13
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. KJV
A sinner is a sinner and you expect one to act like one and the only way you can witness to them is to interact with them so eating with them is not a real problem. When I was in college I worked as a dockworker for a trucking company and lunch with the elect was not very profitable so I started sitting with guys I knew were not Christians so that maybe I could witness to them and win one. Never won any, but the guy who said grace for everyone out loud did not help. He only annoyed and angered the men making my task harder. We cannot escape interacting with unbelievers unless we can leave the earth. So make the most of the interaction for Christ.
However, when it comes to men that claim to be a Christian it is a different story. The Amish and the Mennonites call it shunning. Since they are openly living in sin and bringing a reproach to themselves and the Church as well as giving the enemies of Christ reason to blaspheme we are not to fellowship with them. Breaking bread as a part of fellowship was a part of the 1st Century Church and even today when Baptists meet they eat.
We should not associate with them as to do so would indicate to the unbelieving that we condone or even sanction their activities and we and the church will be labeled hypocrites or actors. We all have some sins that easily beset us and often they are not something that is open to the public. We need to deal with those as well and be humble when dealing with those in open sin recognizing that we are not perfect. Yet, we need to be firm in reproving them and if necessary strongly rebuke them.
A heretic is to be avoided after the first or second admonition. Since heresy involves doctrinal error and an unnecessary divisiveness we can apply the same concept to an unruly brother/sister who will not heed us. If he repents, then we are to forgive. If not, we are to shun. The hope is that he will become ashamed and miss the fellowship of the saints and Church bringing him to repentance. If not, worse than shunning may happen to him.
1 Cor 5:1-5
1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.
2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. KJV
When your sin is so bad that not even the other sinners want to hang out with you then you have really gone over the edge. There was every imaginable sin committed in Corinth, but still this was one thing no one did, not even the vilest of the Gentiles. Whether it was his actual mother or his step-mother some will debate, but either way it was an unheard of sin among the sinners. Even today if you really want to insult someone you accuse them of practicing maternal fornication.
These folks were Christians. We are not told if they were already practicing this sin before they were saved or after, but they freely moved among the church folks and activities. No one called them on it. They were perhaps tolerated under the flag of grace or love. This is what is prevalent today. We do not want to judge and we are under grace so we do not practice church discipline or shun those who are not walking circumspectly. We let preachers get away with abuse and heresy without saying anything because of a false concept or grace, love and judgment. This is why we are in such disrepute among the unbelieving culture. We should openly rebuke, shun and if possible remove such folks from public ministry. Since we tolerate it the world believes we condone it and share the labels and slurs they pour upon the church.
Notice in verse five that Paul turned them over to satan if need be to take their life while their soul is still saved. That is a great verse for eternal security, but it should be a sobering one for both the Church and the backsliding or rebellious child of God. He can take us home early in disgrace or shame if we have no desire to get right with Him to be a faithful witness of our salvation in our lifestyle.
If some were weak, sickly and dead because they did not practice the Lord's Supper with correct respect for its purpose how much more so would this couple and the others listed in verses 9-13 be in danger of an early departure from this life? We need to develop a more healthy fear of God than what we have. We have gotten into a form of sloppy agape even among Baptists. Thank God that we are saved by faith through grace and are eternally secure, but there is a possibility that we could show up in the throne room much earlier than we should have and be saved by fire.
We will get better at understanding and practicing exclusion as we practice the previous points. Doing so will bring us to the next phase of spiritual growth.
Persecution
You might conclude after we have spent our time in seclusion, offering our profusion, getting our infusion, practicing our effusion receiving fusion and acting with biblical exclusion that we would be living the health and prosperity gospel that is so prominent today. Nay, brethren, for few of the prophets and none of the apostles have known such a life.
2 Tim 3:10-12
10 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,
11 Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. KJV
I have yet been able to reconcile prosperity and persecution. They are not exactly a proper pairing like bread and butter or salt and pepper. They are not exactly complimentary. While it is possible to have both at the same time it tends to be a bit unlikely.
We are told that the ones who would live godly SHALL suffer persecution, not maybe. Menno Simons said that the true Church would always suffer persecution. He would be one to know as he lived during the Inquisition period where all who sought truth and the freedom it brings were imprisoned, tortured and murdered by the ones who put men before God and traditions of men before the Word of God. It is the same today. Much of established religion has left the tenets of their Founders let alone the Word of God and they sneer in contempt at those who would seek follow the fundamentals of the faith and hold to a proper exegesis of the Word based upon an historical-grammatical interpretation of the verbal-plenary inspired Word that is not to be changed to suit any man or culture. We must expect it and not reject it.
Matt 5:11-12
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. KJV
Persecution is cause for rejoicing as long as it is for the sake of Christ and truth. Peter warns us of the folly of enduring suffering patiently that was caused by our own sin or stupidity. Yet, if we suffer for Christ it is a crown of glory. We are in the same league as the prophets of old if we are living godly.
Phil 1:27-30
27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
28 And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.
29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;
30 Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me. KJV
Paul also ties the way we live to the promise of rewards if we suffer persecution. Our life has to be that of one that becomes or beautifies the gospel, not a life of hypocrisy and arrogance. If you are a loud mouthed crude person you are not being persecuted or buffeted for Christ's sake. It is because you are a loud mouthed crude person.
If you are doing the best you can to walk in the Spirit and follow Christ's example and the Word's instructions and are hated and abused then it proves you are saved and the abusers are lost and on their way to Hell. Some abuse can be just an annoyance, but it can be far, far worse.
Luke 21:12-17
12 But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.
13 And it shall turn to you for a testimony.
14 Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:
15 For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
16 And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
17 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. KJV
There have been many seasons of this prediction of Christ over the centuries. Many of our brethren suffer such things on a daily basis and have done so for many years. We have been spared much, but the signs of a coming persecution like theirs are manifest.
The Holocaust did not happen overnight. It started with many laws of restriction or exclusion and escalated to the ovens at the camps. We can see some similarities in the Western world as God and Christianity are being pushed out of the public area by laws banning the Cross and other symbols, removal of the Ten Commandments, restrictions on prayer and bible reading, preaching, etc. etc. Just watch the world news and you can see the growing hostility to all things Christian and Jewish.
Will there be a Christian Holocaust in the Western world before Christ returns? Only He knows, but we can expect to see more of a disdain for Christians as evil men wax worse and worse and we stampede towards the Last Days. We are not appointed unto the wrath of God, but that does not mean that God will not allow men to pour their wrath on us and use it as a means to purify the Saved and separate the wheat from the chaff.
John 15:19-21
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. KJV
You might wonder why this hatred is so strong. After all, a good Christian is a good citizen, friend and neighbor. The precepts of the Word make the society strong and good. What is the problem? I just stated the problem. The World does not even like God though they have many religions and gods. They want a god fashioned after themselves as we are told in Romans. They want to define good in their own views and terms and what God calls good they call evil and they call their evil good.
Do you still wonder why they hate us? They killed the prophets and the apostles. They crucified Christ, who is our Lord. He said as they treated Him they will treat us. It is a given As the sun rises and sets every day they will persecute us because we are not of them and they hate if we are meek and mild or if we are loud and wild. We can pipe and they will not dance. We can mourn and they will not weep. We cannot placate them for it is not our calling to so.
Gal 6:12 As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. KJV
Some of you might say, but there are many churches throughout the land and some extremely large. Look at all the media ministers. Where is their persecution? Remember those that live godly shall suffer persecution.
While we cannot placate the World many try and may even appear to be successful. Yet, often it is because they offer a message that is not the message of the Word of God. They can be smiling motivational speakers. They can be dynamic entertainers and attract folks for the entertainment. There are a few places where God is blessing some ministers that are true to the Word as He will always have a remnant even in an adulterous age of apostasy as this.
Water down the message or avoid the hard sayings and you can get a crowd. Jesus had large crowds until He stopped the meals and miracles and preached the hard doctrines. In the end, he had a very small crowd in the upper room on the day of Pentecost.
The Judaizers knew how to attract a crowd as well as avoid persecution by the Jews. They played both sides of the fence. Yes, accept Christ, but you have to be circumcised and keep the Law. Paul fought them tooth and nail all through his epistles. The names changed over the years, but the concision has been with us ever since and we even have some with us among the IFB groups. Yes, be saved by grace through faith in Christ, but keep our list of dirty dozen things, go to our schools and be in our camp if you want to be a super Christian.
Much of the infighting among us is between us is because of Judaizers, pride and a need to control. We cuss the Pope, but have hundreds of men and women who want to be Pope. Paul suffered persecution by false brethren and so will you.
Luke 6:26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
Remember, it is not the praise that counts, but from whence it comes. If the World loves you then check your salvation and check your life making the appropriate corrections.
Rom 8:35-36
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. KJV
Hebrews Chapter 11 is known as the Hall of Faith and we love to quote, as do the prosperity lads, the first thirty-five verses. Good always wins in those verses, but the rest of the story starts in the second half of thirty-five through the end of the chapter. Reading that helps us understand this passage.
We may suffer greatly in this life and even lose our life, but we cannot lose the love of God! Every category you can imagine is listed here and through all of that trouble and loss the love of God remains strong and true.
I am no lover of pain. I can only hope that if we see persecution such as the Church has experienced at the hand of Roman emperors and apostates who call themselves Christians, but are not, that the Holy Spirit will cover me in such a way that I will kiss the stake they may burn me at or the knife that will sever my head like so many saints of old. I pray I will rejoice as the Romanian pastor when he was beaten during the time of Resurrection celebration that he was able to suffer for His Savior at such a time and apologized to the guard who did the beating because he had cried out in pain. Oh, that such a mantle would fall on me so that I can enter into His presence witnessing until my last breath.
Rom 12:14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. KJV
Luke 6:27-29
27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
29 And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. KJV
Matt 5:43-45
43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. KJV
Persecution is no fun. Betrayal by friends and family hurts. Yet, through all of it we must forgive and bless those who do it. As Paul persecuted the Christians thinking he was doing the will of God our persecutors are driven by demons and ideologies of men and Hell. They are not our enemies.
Eph 6:10-13
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. KJV
When you are being tormented and persecuted by someone do not look at them with hate and bitterness for they are only pawns. They may think they are high and mighty and powerful, but they are just dupes of the devil such as were we before our salvation. Therefore fight the right fight with the right enemy.
2 Cor 10:3-6
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. KJV
Those who promote uprisings and rebellion as retribution to their persecutors do not understand what spirit they are of and that they are no better than their persecutors when they adopt their methods. We overcome evil with love and by our faith in the Christ who went like a sheep to the slaughter for our sins. Many people came to Christ during times of persecution.
It has been said that the blood of the saints is the seed of the Church. Indeed, Christ bought the Church with His blood so why should we shrink from a martyr's crown if it will win souls to Christ. A Romanian pastor who had spread many tapes around the country during the Russian occupation was threatened with death. He replied that with his blood he won. The guard was puzzled and he explained that everyone in Romania would know that he died for his faith and that would just increase the faith of the other Christians and win others to Christ. The idea must have caused them some concern so they released him as they did not want him to have that victory. What they missed is that his courageous willing to die was also a victory. The preacher could not lose and the persecutors could not win and it is always thus.
Let all that God has given us in the other areas of this lesson prepare us to give Him praise in persecution. Glory!
Solution - Conclusion
There are so many Christians and churches literally bedeviled and fraught with problems. This is not what Christ promised to His Church. He promised life and life more abundantly! He promised us victory over the World, the flesh and the devil. He promised peace in the middle of turmoil and He promised tribulation.
In this treatise we have looked at some of the basic principles for us to latch on to what He has promised and see it active in our life. There were no new revelations as none are needed. He has given us all we need. It is not what we do not know that hinders us. It is what we know and do not practice that hinders us.
The true test of this material presented to you is not the one you will be given for a grade. The test will be in how you apply this material to your life and how you convey these principles to the lives of your congregation and family.
Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your life and ministry. May God place a hedge of protection around you and grant you great power, discernment and wisdom through the Holy Spirit as you continue to seek His will through His Word! Maranatha!!
Acknowledgements
All Scripture references are from the King James Version
All Greek references came from (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
