The House of Faith
Part 5 – The Acting Pillar
† SCRIPTURE READING
James 1:22-25
“22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it–he will be blessed in what he does.”
PRAYER
† Our protection and benefits in this world are from God.
He is our shield, and our protector, our mighty fortress.
He has given believers the ability to use His spiritual armor to protect ourselves and our families.
† But to be able to use this protection, we must have the foundation of Christ and His teachings. Our lives MUST be founded on the rock, Jesus Christ.
To hold up our protection so it works to the fullest, we must have pillars upon this foundation in our lives.
† The first pillar we must have is our thinking pillar.
Our thoughts and thinking must be filtered so we can avoid the corruption and pollution of worldly thinking.
Thinking on what is holy and pure, meditating on God’s word.
† As we study and fill our minds with God’s word, He writes His word upon our hearts and it begins to fill our hearts like a file cabinet, filled with goodness at our immediate grasp. This next pillar, our believing pillar, is our heart. This pillar is a direct RESULT of the first pillars operation.
As we continue to read God’s word He fills us with it and with His Holy Spirit which in turn over flows from us.
This overflow becomes evident first in our speech.
This overflow is the Holy Spirit flowing like a river of life from us and into this world through us.
† And as a RESULT we come to the next pillar, our confession or speaking.
Speaking goodness and the word of God, through our confessions, speaking those things as if they were and believing in them, we begin to see miracles in our lives and those we pray for.
† This brings us to the last of our 4 pillars, the Acting Pillar.
Unfortunately, in the world of Christianity, what you see is not always what you get.
We read in James a moment ago, that we must be DOERS of the word and not just hearers.
Otherwise we are deceiving ourselves.
A child can HEAR his parents tell him to do something, but if that child does not DO IT, he is disobeying his parents. Living in disobedience ties God’s hands in our lives.
The child must not only HEAR what the parents are saying, but DO what they are telling him.
How many of us would last more than a day at work if we heard instruction from our boss, but didn’t follow them?
Could you sit back comfortably relaxed and say, “I heard what he said!”
Would you feel secure in your job because you can say, “I read the instructions!”
Would it please your boss if you could recite those instructions to others while you sat there, not doing them yourself?
This is Christian mentality today.
“I know what God wants”, but you don’t do it.
“I read my Bible everyday”, but you don’t live it.
“I tell people all the time what they are doing wrong according to God’s word”, what about what you’re doing wrong according to God’s word?
Telling others, but not doing yourself. You just defined a hypocrite.
These instructions in the Bible were written for YOU, not everyone else.
Stop looking at everyone else’s splinters and start dealing with the plank in your own eye! Or barn as the case may be.
You can tell everyone how many times you’ve read the Bible, you could memorize it if you want from cover to cover!
You don’t impress God.
You may be able to impress men with your feats of hay and straw, but in the end, all of that will be burned away before the judgment seat of Christ.
Even the devil has the word of God memorized, do you still think just knowing God’s word does you any good?
What does Jesus say about it?
† Matthew 7:24-27
“24Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
We must not only hear God’s word, but we must do God’s word.
There are a lot of fake Christians today.
They have heard God’s word, but they don’t do it.
They know what they are supposed to do, but they do what they WANT to do.
They put themselves BEFORE the word of God.
They exalt themselves and what they want above God’s word.
They know what is right and good, but they don’t choose it.
The scriptures tell us to cast down ALL imaginations, or thoughts, that exalt themselves against the Lord. Anything that exalts itself against the word of God is SIN and will lead to destruction.
Anyone who puts themselves and what they want above God’s word is doing the same thing the devil did that got him kicked out of heaven!
He wanted HIS word to be law.
He wanted what he wanted instead of what God wanted.
These fake Christians are nothing new.
They have been around since the 1st Century.
In fact, they are often referred to as carnal because they know the truth and word of God, but don’t do it. Their flesh rules them.
A lot of Pagans who adopted Christianity didn’t actually convert during the 1st century; instead they added the one true God to their long list of other God’s they worshipped.
But this isn’t how God works.
“You shall have NO other God’s before me!” THAT’S LAW #1
Do you think you can impress God just because you can deceive man?
Could the Sadducees and Pharisees impress God?
They tried.
Jesus called them the synagogue of Satan, a brood of vipers, an evil generation.
Do you know what you’re doing when you try to impress God?
When you try to impress someone, whether it be God or another person, you think you are something, and you want them to think you are something as well.
That’s PRIDE.
We are nothing without God, and until we recognize that within ourselves and humble ourselves to the Lord, He has no use for us.
God seeks the humble, not the prideful.
God works through our humility, not our pride.
We must be DOERS of the word, not just hearers.
† 2 Chronicles 7:13 – 15
“13 "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.”
We must be humble, prayerful, seeking God, and repent.
Men, God has placed us as the spiritual head of the house. We need to start realizing the severity and weight of our responsibilities.
Sin came into this world by one man, Adam.
If you’re saying, “Wait! Eve was beguiled by the devil, she ate the apple first, she took it to Adam and she got him to eat it too! What about Eve!”
Romans 5:12
“12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned–“
Sin entered through ONE MAN.
Why is the fall on Adam and not Eve?
Because, God placed Adam as the spiritual head not Eve.
† Genesis 2:15 – 18
“15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
God commanded or gave the word to Adam. He was placed as the spiritual head. The command was not given to Eve.
This is why the devil used that loop hole to trick Eve, “Did God really say you could not eat of this tree?”
Adam failed as a spiritual head because he did not lead Eve in the word of God.
He wasn’t a DOER of God’s word himself, obviously he proved that when he ate of the fruit. So why would his family be doers?
We as men are to lead our families through EXAMPLE by being DOERS of the word of God.
Do you realize what it does to your wives and children when you play Christian on Sunday, but you’re carnal man the other 6 days of the week?
How does your family see you?
As the man you are for one hour every Sunday morning, or the man you are for the other 167 hours that week?
Which do you think leaves the bigger impression on them?
Or rather, which man are you? Which man do you want to be?
And when you act one way in front of the church, and another at home, what values are you teaching your family?
We are told in the word you can’t serve two masters.
This carnal Christian behavior has to end.
You can’t go on in your life PLAYING church for one hour each week.
Well, you can.
But you are not impressing God with your act, and though you may fool man, you are not fooling God.
† Revelation 3:15 – 17
“15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”
† We are to be “on fire” for God.
Lukewarm means, you know the Lord and His ways, but you are not DOERS of His word.
PRAYER
Lord, thank you for your word.
Make us humble Lord so that you may use us.
I pray that we become doers of your word Lord not just hearers.
May we be pleasing to you Lord and faithful in our works.
May your word continue to grow in us.
Give us your Holy Spirit and your Spiritual Armor Lord.
Change us and our thinking so that we may fill our self with your goodness and word Lord.
Overflow from us Holy Spirit so that we continuously confess you Lord.
I pray each one of us here be on FIRE for you Lord. I pray this church becomes on fire for you Lord, and we don’t become lukewarm.
Those who need to change, give themselves to you right now.
