KNOCKED DOWN! STAY DOWN? OR GET UP?
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
TEXT:
Luke 15:18 I WILL ARISE AND GO to my Father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee.
Jeremiah 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.
Rev. 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: BE ZEALOUS THEREFORE, AND REPENT!
I. CAN WE SEE DANGERS IN OUR ATTITUDES?
A. I have been pondering a question, I need you to
help me with this question.
Which is the most dangerous to a person or a church:
B. Zeal without wisdom?
C. Or Wisdom without zeal?
D. I have seen a new convert with great zeal take an
approach to a problem and do harm.
E. But I will tell you we can develop an attitude to
life and ministry where dread and bitterness grow and
we lose all our zeal and enthusiasm for what God
has called us to do. This ministry without excitement
and zeal can lead to a downward spiral and lead to
extinction!
F. In my opinion, wisdom without zeal can kill any
church.
II. CAN WE STAY FULL OF ZEAL AND EXCITEMENT IN OUR DAILY MENIAL WORK?
A. I was just in my office praying and thinking
about ministry and God’s mercy.
If I were God, I guess I would have never called me
to be a preacher.
B. I would have searched out an angel, but God gave
me a chance to love and serve Him and His people.
C. I guess at times it is easier to serve God than
it is to serve His people.
Seems some people fly in circles and never reach out
to victory, but it is for these that we have been
called.
III. DO YOU EVER FEEL TRAPPED IN AN AIMLESS PLAN?
A. The older I get the more my dreams seem to fade
into seemingly endless daily menial nothingness.
B. It would be easy to compromise my hopes because
of my weaknesses and failures.
C. Another battle, another contest, and still no
trophies.
D. Well, I don’t care about trophies for me, but I
would sure like a few, just one to lay down at
Jesus’ feet.
E. I guess I am saying I tend to see my littleness
much more than I see HIS GREATNESS!
This is not wise? Why do we do this?
IV. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHARMED AND CHANGED?
A. Are the people I serve charmed and not changed?
B. Am I charmed and not changed?
Luke 15:18 I WILL ARISE AND GO to my Father, and
will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against
heaven, and before thee.
C. This young man lost all his zeal and love for
home, and he could not wait to
"GET AWAY" FROM IT ALL.
D. This verse tells us in one day, just one day, the
young man made a choice that changed the rest of his
life.
E. On this day, the prodigal son gets up and takes
a bath and says, I WILL ARISE AND GO...
V. WHAT DO WE DO WHEN WE ARE KNOCKED DOWN?
A. I guess that we tend to want to stay down, blame
others, palliate, or whatever, instead of change.
B. It is easier to move, divorce, run away, or quit
than it is to change.
C. It is easier to see greener pastures elsewhere
than to grow the potential where we currently are.
D. The prodigal son’s life will be forever changed
at the declaration, I WILL ARISE!
I will not stay where I have been.
E. The son saw and smelled the pig pen where he had
been, and made a willful decision: there is more to
life than this!
VI. TWO STICKS IN THE HAND OF A MAN? GOD’S MAN?
A. There are two wonder stories in Ezekiel 37, one
we all know --- the valley of very dry bones?
B. What is the other story? TWO STICKS? What is this
two stick story?
C. The nation, the church had been divided, God told
the preacher to get two sticks, write on one
FOR JOSEPH and the other FOR JUDAH.
D. The division was so long that it had been
accepted as fact. We must go way back in history,
back to Rehoabom and Jeroabom the division of
brethren stood.
E. God told the preacher to take the two sticks in
his hand?
Well, so what are two sticks in a man’s hand? Two
sticks?
F. Naw, it is not just a man’s hand, it is a man of
God’s hand.
G. When the preacher submitted and quit accepting
status quo God did something, the two sticks became
one.
VII. ONE MORE NIGHT WITH THE FROGS?
A. Remember when Moses asked Pharaoh, when do you
want the frogs to be gone?
Pharaoh replied in the morning let them be gone?
Why? Why spend one more night with the frogs? The
deliverance could have been instant?
B. Often times we leaders stay at the pig’s troff
instead of the green pastures God has before us.
C. All a rut is ??? An open ended grave, God how do
I get out of this rut?
VIII. MANY SEE THE FREE CHEESE, FEW SEEM TO SEE THE TRAP THAT IS HIDDEN?
A. There are many traps set around you, can you see
them? Can you see the danger of living daily with
little to no joy, no zeal, no excitement, no
enthusiasm? This is a trap.
B. Am I trapped?
IX. WRONG QUESTION? RIGHT QUESTION?
A. Where is the God of Elijah? This is a wrong
question?
B. Where are the Elijah’s of God is the proper
question.
C. CAN GOD? vs. GOD CAN!
D. WILL WE LET GOD?
E. Are we an agent of revival and change? Where is
the zeal?
X. IS THERE SMOKE OR A FIRE IN YOUR BONES?
Jeremiah 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.
A. The preacher was tired and burned out, but there
was A FIRE BURNING!
B. Is there a fire burning in our bones? Is it just
smoke? Everything is smoke?
XI. FIRE DEMANDS ACTION NOW!
A. Exodus 35 has a great lesson, in this chapter the
Spirit of God stirs up God’s people.
Maybe there had been a lot of smoke? But a stirring
came, and the fire returned.
B. Exo. 35:21 Everyone that’s heart was stirred
brought an offering ... and God’s work was
accomplished.
C. Are we trying to pastor without the stirring of
the spirit?
D. Am I a pastor or am I a pester?
XII. CAN YOU HAVE A FIRE IN DOING LITTLE NOTHINGNESS THINGS FOR GOD?
A. I love Exodus 35:26 The women gather in unity and
work with goats hair? Goat’s hair?
B. How can people see goats hair as ministry?
C. Easy they were stirred, their hearts were stirred?
D. Look at Exodus 36:2 Several wise men gather to do
menial work for God, but what wrought the
expeditious work was their hearts were stirred.
XIII. STIR UP THE SPIRIT OF GOD, AND RELEASE DELIVERANCE.
A. Caleb in Numbers 13:30 said, Come on boys, let’s
go, we can do it, God can do it...
B. Well, what are you going to do? Nothing?
Something?
C. Can you weave goat’s hair in excitement?
D. Well, what we do will depend upon us submitting
our hearts to the stirring on the Most High.
E. We are either little nothingness in little nobody
places, or we are stirred to weave goats hair
with great expectations?
F. Numbers 14:24 But MY servant Caleb, because he
hath another spirit with him,
and hath follow me fully --- (a stirred heart)
G. Numbers 32:12 But Caleb and Joshua --- for they
have wholly followed the Lord...
XIV. I ENJOY THE PIT, LET ME STAY DOWN HERE DEPRESSED?
A. Have you ever seen someone so sick for so long
that they kind of learn to enjoy sickness?
B. We cannot allow this attitude to grow and develop
in our hearts.
C. Laziness? Apathy? The Blame Game? If you were
different, I would be different?
D. Where is our heart in ministry? Where is our
desire?
E. Somewhere over the rainbow, we will find love and
a pot of gold?
Naw, the pot of gold is right where we are at?? !! ??
XV. WHERE IS OUR TRUST? ARE WE EXCITED? FULL OF JOY?
A. Can we say we trust God with all our heart? Or do
we need a stirring?
B. If we refuse to change, God will have to move us
or move others?
Prov. 3:5 Trust in the Lord with ALL THINE HEART, and lean not to thine own understanding.
C. God I don’t understand this? I don’t understand
what is going on around me?
D. God says, I understand, ARISE! STIR WHAT YOU HAVE?
XVI. WHY DO PEOPLE STIR FIRES? WHY DO THEY STIR FOOD COOKING?
A. Why do we need the stirring of God within the
camp of God?
2 Tim. 1:6 Stir up the gift of God ... note it is up to us to stir?
2 Peter 1:13 Stir up your remembrance --- see where you have been, see where God has grown you. At times you are like a rubber band and God stretches you beyond your comfort level.
2 Peter 3:1 Stir up your pure minds, forgive, let go, bitterness backfires and hinders.
I will trust the Holy Spirit to use something I have penned to reach into your heart and ignite in
your heart a great zeal and love for the cross. BE AN IGNITOR.
Rev. 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: BE ZEALOUS THEREFORE, AND REPENT!
God bring a new hope, a new expectation, a new dream and a new vision to my little brother.
Great is the yield of a fertile field! They that wait upon the Lord shall renew ---
Renew us O, Lord. If I have written something hurtful or mean forgive me, I mean well,
and I see what God desires for you and your family. Just write it off to my ignorance.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
