THE LORD IS READY
ISAIAH 38.20A
A day is coming in every person¡¦s life when we will face death. If Christ does not return to gather His church, all of us here will eventually die. Ecclesiastes 11.3 where a tree falls there it shall be. So too is the condition of man. When we face death, all of our decisions concerning eternity are settled. There will be things we remember, there will be things we regret, but nothing about what we have done here on earth can ever be changed.
As we consider the thought of eternity, there is something else we must consider: out eternal state. There are only two options. There is Heaven, & then there is hell. Each person chooses where he or she will spend eternity. Each person makes that decision for themselves. I cannot make it, your parents cannot make it, your children cannot make it. We choose for ourselves.
We also choose how we will live our lives here on earth. What ever our choice is, if we choose to live a miserable, bitter, downtrodden life, if we choose to not allow God to do all for us He desires to do, or if we choose to remain lost & spend eternity in a hell prepared for Satan & his wicked crowd, we will be forced to look back & say, ¡§The Lord was ready, but I was unwilling.¡¨
1) TO SAVE.
„³ Isaiah said the Lord was ready to save Him therefore He would sing God’s praises His whole life. The Lord is ready to save all of us, if we would but allow Him to save us. We must relinquish control of our lives to Him, we must relinquish our right to ourselves & allow Him to have complete control.
„³ Felix told Paul he would call Him again when he had a more convenient season to hear about this matter of salvation. Agrippa said almost thou hast persuaded me to be a Christian. As far as we know, neither was ever saved. They will spend all of eternity with the remembrance that the Lord was ready to save them & give them an eternal home in Heaven instead of eternal torment in hell.
„³ I remember a time when I was unwilling to be saved. I thought everything was alright, I thought going to church, being in the choir, going to ss, being in the Christmas plays was enough. But, it wasn¡¦t. Christ died to provide for me a salvation I could never earn. God was willing to save me, God was ready to save me, even though I did not admit I wanted to be saved.
„³ There is not one person who can honestly say they want to spend eternity in hell. There are many who will admit they deserve eternal torment b/c of their lives, but not one who can honestly say they desire it. I must admit I was a hell-deserving sinner, but the Lord was ready to save me anyway.
„³ There are no pre-requisites to salvation. You do not have to do anything, attend anything, you must only admit the condition you are already in. You must admit you are lost, you must admit you are w/out God, & allow Him to save you.
„³ This matter of salvation is the most important thing in your life. It is something you must be absolutely certain about. Facing death w/out the assurance of the Spirit of God in your life is so sad, it grieves the heart of God. He provided a way for you to go to Heaven, to be restored to Him, if you would only accept it.
„³ Felix, Agrippa, & all who reject Christ will spend eternity w/ the cry, ¡§the Lord was ready to save me, but I was unwilling to receive it.¡¨
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2) TO BLESS.
„³ God wants to bless His children, but so often, we do not want to be blessed. We hold bitterness in our hearts, we are judgmental, envious, prideful, unloving, selfish, stubborn, & many, countless other things that hinder God’s blessing in our lives.
„³ Not only does our selfish, prideful behavior hinder God’s blessings in our lives, but it hinders it in our church. When we allow our petty feelings to get in the way of what God is doing, we are accountable for that. Just b/c I didn¡¦t get things my way, didn¡¦t get credit for something, or whatever the case may be, & I get a scowl on my face & in my heart, I have become a hindrance to the work of God in the church. This kind of behavior may be exactly what is hindering the spiritual growth in the church.
„³ It is time we get past these things, time we confess them, & allow God to begin to bless us.
„³ We get mad at something or someone, & we stop giving to the church. That is not hurting the church, God will always provide for the things needed, but it is hurting the person who stops giving. We don¡¦t give to God & God’s work in order to be recognized, in order to get our way, or b/c we are happy w/ the way things are going, we give b/c we love God. We give b/c we are being faithful to God’s command.
„³ Many are missing countless blessings b/c they don¡¦t come to church. It is many of us that are missing blessings. If you missed Wednesday night, you missed a blessing. You missed a move of God in His children. It seems strange that we can find a way to go out to dinner any night of the week, but we cannot seem to make it to church on Sunday night & Wednesday night b/c we are too tired.
„³ Our lack of faithfulness is allowing Satan to rob us of blessings. Some can¡¦t make it b/c of whatever legitimate reason, but there are many who simply don¡¦t make it.
„³ We miss blessings b/c we don¡¦t read the Bible & pray. These are the ways in which God speaks to us. As we pray, we get our hearts in condition to allow God to speak to us. As we read, the Bible speaks to us from God’s own heart.
„³ I would hate to go into tomorrow knowing the Lord was ready to bless me, & I missed it b/c of unfaithfulness, pride, selfishness, the harboring of a broken relationship, bitterness, or whatever reason.
„³ God is ready to restore a broken relationship, ready to heal a broken marriage, ready to remove a bitter spirit, ready to break the yoke of selfish pride, ready to bless you in ways you cannot even imagine. The question is are you willing for God to bless you?
3) TO DELIVER.
„³ Is 61.1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; b/c the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, & the opening of the prison to them that are bound.
„³ The Lord is ready to deliver us. If we are bound by sin, if we are bound by addiction, if we are bound by the flesh, the Lord is ready to deliver us. We relate these things to the lost world, & that is true, but it also happens to Christians. We get bound by addictions to certain things. For some it is alcohol, some it is prescription drugs, some it is other kinds of drugs, some it is hobbies, some it is thrill-seeking, but these things rob us of spiritual well-being, & spiritual blessings.
„³ The Lord is ready to deliver us, if we are willing to be delivered. We must simply turn it all over to Him, & allow Him to have it. I truly believe in physically placing it on the altar & leaving it there. Some do not, but I do. There is something different about it when we lay it on the altar & leave it there, don¡¦t worry about it, we have some excellent custodians who will take care of throwing it away.
How sad for someone to stand before the Lord & hear the words, I was ready to save you, bless you, or deliver you, but you were not willing to receive it.
