Up from the Ashes

New Years Resolutions

2011-01-06T08:02:00.000-08:00

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted

Genesis 14:22
“I have raise my hand to the Lord, God Most high, Creator of heaven and earth and have taken a oath”

It’s that time of the year again! At the start of every New Year we hear the resolutions flow like water. Sometimes we hear of others doing it, and sometimes we do it our selves. We make a little pledge or oath to ourselves, we make our list of New Years resolutions usually addressing those little things that have bugged us in the past or the things that will bug us for the rest of the year. It’s a ritual we go through every January as if by some miracle the start of the year will empower us to be able to do something that we are unable to do through the rest of the year. Like there’s some kind of earth shaking revelation in our life and from now on things will be all better. It’s like all those things that have been there for the past year, the past five, ten or twenty years is about change and starting now our personal history is about to change for the rest of our lives.

I was listening to the radio and they were saying that the most popular New Years Resolutions are 1) loosing weight 2) changing jobs 3) saving money and 4) stop smoking. Okay, just for the heck of it, how many of us have used these resolutions ourselves? … And how successful have they been?

I was working at the same job starting in 1991 until I retired in 2008 and to tell you the truth I was just happy and thanking my Lord for letting me be employed during those years. Now I’m on a new job, full time ministry, and I hope to do this until I’m called home by our Lord. I have no intention of changing jobs in the near future as far as I know so I guess that one doesn’t apply to me. I quit smoking in 1972 so that hasn’t been of any major impact in my life. It does show the power of the human will if you really put your mind to it, and I guess the Holy Spirit was with me even then when I didn’t know him very well. I went from smoking 3 packs a day to zero over night and I’ve never looked back. My lovely wife, Mary used to get upset with me because I would light a cigarette before I would turn off the alarm clock. To give you an idea as to how long ago I quit smoking, cigarettes were going from 30 to 35 cents a pack when I quit and I thought I couldn’t afford to smoke any more back then. What are they now? $6.00 a pack, $50 to $60 a carton? If I did want to smoke now I really couldn’t afford it and I don’t think my Lord would appreciate me burning up the good money he’s provided me with to do ministry by puffing it away in smoke. I don’t think he would appreciate me using his tithe as a burnt offering.

That takes us to the 3rd resolution, loosing weight. Over the years I’ve lost at least 500 pounds… at two or three pounds at a time. I loose it, I gain it, I loose it, and I gain it. It’s an endless cycle. Has anyone noticed any difference in me lately? I didn’t think so. Actually the quit smoking thing got me to where I’m at today. When I first quit I gained 60 pounds in the first year. Prior to that I was a skinny as a rail. Now why I’m still at this weight is my fault, I like to eat as much as I used to like to smoke.

That brings me to the last one, saving money! I never have figured out how this one works. Be honest now, how many people have been real successful at this one? My mother could never figure out why Mary and I had some much trouble making ends meet when our children were teens and they were living at home with us. I can remember asking her how much my dad made when I was a kid and then how much it cost her to feed us and it came out to be 1/5 of their income per week. Then I was able to show her that things had really changed over the years. For me to feed my family with the kids home it now took ½ of my weekly pay. And we weren’t eating near as well as we did when I was a child. When I was a child a new car cost about 1/6 of my fathers yearly income, now a new car is more than my yearly income if I want a nice one and for a average one it’s still just about what I make per year. Cars are so expensive now that they no longer sell them to you, now you get to rent them and then give them back. And they charge you if you drive them too far.

So much for the top four New Years resolutions. Maybe you’ve made a resolution to exercise more or to walk more, that’s a good thing. I know I now park farther away from the store entrances just for those few more steps it takes to get there. I started that trend years ago when my car was new. I didn’t want people to hit it in the parking lots so I parked as far away as I could without leaving the store’s parking lot. It didn’t work; my car has been hit three times, one of those three accidents was by a tractor trailer. But I take those extra steps and I take the stairs if I can over the elevator. There’s darn few of us that don’t need the extra exercise. I’ve read that on an average the remote control of your television adds around 8 pounds to you each year because we no longer walk over and change the channel any more. What do you think of that little tid-bit?

Each of there resolutions is all well and good – if we stick to them. But what I want to offer to you today are a few resolutions for the New Year that can have an effect on your spiritual condition which I think is much more important than your physical condition. And most likely if we work on building up our spiritual condition it will have a positive effect on the physical condition as well.

Resolution #1 … Spend more time in prayer! If you don’t pray on a daily basis try doing just that. Make an extra effort to spend some time talking to God each day. If you’re watching the television, try using that remote that’s increasing our bulk and hit the mute button when they go to a commercial. Spend that minute or minutes in prayer. Most of those commercials are things we don’t need, don’t want and aren’t any good for us anyway. And for many of them you might try shutting your eyes as well, prayer and the stuff on the television don’t mix well.

If you’re one of those that now live out of the microwave oven, spend that three minutes it takes to cook your meal in prayer. Put the food in, hit the start button and pray while it’s spinning your food around in there. And then spend that next two minutes in prayer as well. You know what I’m talking about, that time you need to heat the thing up again after you find that cold spot in the middle.

If you do pray daily … try adding a few extra minutes to your prayer time. There is all kind of ways you can do this. Pray while your driving the car. In today’s society praying while driving really makes sense. Now that we’ve decided that stop signs, red lights and speed limits only apply to the other guy we need all the heavenly assistance we can get. When I was working in the prison system I drove 100 miles a day round trip to get to work and back home again. I know what I’m talking about, driving is a real good time to pray, even if your guardian angel did get out after watching you drive the last time you got in the thing.

I think it was Martin Luther who once said that he wanted to spend at least one hour a day in prayer. And after looking at his schedule and the awesome amount of work he had to do he said he would have to spend two hours in prayer just to get ready for his day.

We read in the Scriptures that we are admonished to pray continually. This was given to the Jews, who to this day continue in this instruction. As they go about their daily tasks and duties they do what is know as a “Breath Prayer”. When they breath in they say a little prayer, something like “Praise you Father” as they inhale and “Bless me Father” as they exhale. Prayer is one of the easiest things we can do for our New Years resolution.

Resolution #2 … spend more time in the Word of God. Make it a point to set aside a few minutes each day to study the Bible. Make reading the Bible a daily occurrence. I have talked to many people who quite proudly will tell me that they have been a Christian for many years and yet they admit that they have never read the Bible through. It is not that big of a book. Today we even have Bibles that are set up for reading the complete Bible in a year, they come preset with notations that tell you what to read and how much to read each day to get through this little black book in a year. They come with a daily schedule that is easy to follow and the cost is less than $10.00 in paperback from the Christian book Distributors. When I was teaching a adult Sunday school class I once came in with a hand written copy of the book of Philippians and in a 45 minute period I read it in it’s entirety and we even had room for discussion and conversation. Of course there was a little humor mixed in there, it’s a must in my classes.

I’ve found people that have no problem believing that the wording found in the 22nd chapter of Revelation isn’t just talking about the book of Revelation but that it can be applied to the entire Bible as a whole. And why not? (Revelation 22:19) says, “If anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city which are described in this book”. 2nd Peter tells us that the Spirit is the author of the entire Bible so why not accept that what is found in the beginning of the book of Revelation applies it to the entire Bible as well from start to finish. [Revelation 1:3] says, “Blessed is he who reads the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near”. I don’t know about you but if I can get a blessing from God for doing something as simple as reading … I’m going to take advantage of that. Remember, the entire Bible is just one book made up of several smaller books and the object of the complete Bible is to tell the story of Jesus Christ.

If we skip one hour of watching one of those foolish reality television shows each week and spend that time reading the Bible we might find that the greatest reality of all is that Jesus Christ wants us to have a personal relationship with him. And that my friend will bring on heaps of blessings that the television never gives.

Resolution #3 … you’ve heard it said, “put you money where your mouth is”. I want to change that just a bit and say “put your money where your heart is”. If we can start to pray more and start to read the Scriptures more our hearts will be drawn to God more as well. And believe it or not where the heart goes so goes the wallet. That my friend is a fact of life!

If you’re a tither, and thank God there are many, the church and ministries couldn’t exist without them. But if you are a tither consider being a little more generous in your giving of gifts if you can afford it. When I was the associate pastor of a small country church several years ago they were small in number but the opportunity for blessing others went well above and beyond what you would expect a small church to do. Their generosity really shined like a beacon to the world. They supported the ShoeBox ministry where they could bless children all around the world, the Angel Tree ministries where they blessed the children of inmates that are locked up in the prison system. Those gifts went to people right here in our back yard so to speak, I got a blessing just from going out and delivering the presents to the people in the inner city. They sent Christmas snack food packages to the Wendy Correctional Facility. They worked in the local food bank and there are 90 local families that get blessed by Christian giving every month through that ministry. As I said before, for a small country church their heart for giving was unbelievable. Never forget your missionaries, they take the word of God to the far reaches of the world and they need our support every day in prayers as well as finances.

If you don’t tithe, consider tithing this year as a resolution for the New Year. Do you know that tithing is the only thing in the Bible where God commands us to put him to the test? Everywhere else we are told not to test the lord our God, but in regards to tithing it says in [Malachi 3:10] “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this”, says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it”. Put God to that test; see what he will do with the 90% you keep after he gets his 10% that is rightfully his to begin with. And if you can’t afford to pay a full tithe, try to get a little closer to it, increase by just a little, at least make the effort. And if you really can’t tithe, don’t worry about it. God doesn’t need the money, it’s our sacrifices that we are pleasing to God, he doesn’t keep a running total to see what we give. Besides, if God needs some more money, he can make it. He makes everything else so why not make more money? And since he uses gold for building material I don’t think he’s real interested in how much paper he has, and in his wallet he doesn’t carry cash, he just carried the pictures of his children… all of us.

If you have no money at all to give. That’s fine too. Consider tithing in your time and talents. The church of Jesus Christ will always need your time and talents. Jesus told us that the harvest time is here and the crop is huge but the workers are few. Give of your time and talents as your sacrifice unto the Lord. Do it without looking for a title or tooting your own horn, giving all the praise and glory to God rather than looking for the praise and glory to be given to you. If you have to have your name and title tossed in front of your list of accomplishments all the time, guess what? You just got your blessing. I didn’t say that, Jesus did. Workers will always be needed in the true church of Jesus Christ. If the day ever comes when your time and talents are no longer needed for the ministry of God it means either one of three things.
Number one, Jesus returned and gathered his church, and if you’re still standing here saying “I’ve got a title, what do I do next for the recognition?” Sorry …When the train pulled away from the station your ticket wasn’t validated.
Number two; turn off the light when you leave the building because the church will be dead. A church that doesn’t need or use wisely all of its congregation’s time and talents is a dead church run by dead leaders with no godly vision and I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be in a dead church.
Number three, the option I like best, take a look around you, do things look different, you’ve made it into glory and the harvest is complete.

Resolution #4 … resolve to be a peacemaker. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons [and daughters] of God”. (emphasis mine) Represent Jesus down here on God’s earth to the level you’d like Jesus to represent you up there in heaven. Start the year out by trying to mend any hurt or fractured relationships you may have with another person. Make a concentrated effort to restore any eroded friendships or relationships you may have had crumble in the past. [Romans 12:18] says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone”. The apostle Paul knew when he penned those words so long ago that there would be situations when it just wouldn’t work. That’s why he says, “if it is possible” he knew that there would be times when it just isn’t possible at all. But it’s our responsibility to do what we can to heal the hurt. Notice that he goes on to say, “as far as it depends on you”. We don’t have control over the other person or people, but we do have control over ourselves. Offer the olive branch of peace, if the other party isn’t willing to take it or make amends then so be it, we’ve done what the Lord instructed us to do. We’ve allowed the Holy Spirit to minister to our heart by following the word of the Lord, and then let the Spirit minister to their heart as well. We resolve to do what we can and then we allow God to do the rest.

So often we allow minor infractions to make major divisions when it really isn’t worth the trouble it causes us in our own personal spirit. And now I’m addressing the church family, our behavior toward our brothers and sisters in the Lord. We all need to try being that “peacemaker” Jesus talked about, that’s everyone on both sides of the dispute, not just one. I’m not talking about looking the other way when we can see that there is a real dividing or destroying spirit in the church. When there is a real teaching of out and out heresy or a total rejection of the sound Biblical teachings of Scripture or the authority of Scripture. Then something has to be done and done quickly to end the cancer before it spreads to far. That’s what the constitution and by-lays of the church are in place for, so that it’s not a personal agenda we are working from but using the wisdom and guidance of the Lord.

Will we ever have a perfect church? No! Not until Jesus returns to rapture his church. But we can strive to make it as peaceful as we can until then. There are many times when giving grace is the more easier task than giving grief and it’s far more rewarding to both parties. The key words are, “if it is possible” and “as often as it depends on you”. Only we know how much grace we have to give and how much it depends on us to give it. Do what we can to feel a holy comfort in our spirit and then let it go. A fire without fuel grows dim in the heart if God’s Spirit is in place. If the other party wants to carry the burning embers around it will only turn to useless ashes at some point.

Resolution #5, number five is kind of a mix of a few of the other resolutions. Resolve to be a better witness to the world as a personal representative of Jesus Christ. To do this we need to have a deeper understanding of His Word. To do this we need to pray more and be more friendly and open to others. When the opportunity arises … be more open and share the Gospel message that brings salvation to the world. Resolve to be bolder this year in your witness. Practice subliminal advertising.

Does everyone know what subliminal advertising is? For those of us a little more advanced in years that some others you may remember when the movie theaters practiced subliminal advertising? Drive-in theaters were really guilty of it. With a movie there is a roll of film that is a fast moving series of pictures, each advancing the action to the next step. Well someone figured out that if you inserted a photo of a snack item, say like popcorn or candy every fifty or so frames. Although the picture wouldn’t actually be there long enough to be seen and recorded as seen with the naked eye, but the human mind being what it is, it did see the thing and it was recorded in your sub-conscious. And with repeated flashes of the image, each being recorded just below our threshold of conscious awareness it didn’t take long before your conscious mind told your body that you wanted the popcorn or candy. We in essence were brainwashed into buying their snacks without really knowing why. This practice was banned years ago by our government and has resurfaced within the past few years in a slower version and under a different name. Now it’s known as phantasmagoria and it’s become the standard of advertising. Our young people in particular have become so used to phantasmagoria that it has inroads into every aspect of our society. Phantasmagoria is a rapidly changing image that is optically visual but we don’t get a clear image of what we are seeing. Not to the point that we can make a good visual observation of the item shown. The biggest users of this style of advertising is seen in car and beer commercials and in the video music industry. When is the last time you saw a good long picture of a car in a television ad? You don’t, the picture changes every few seconds so that you never really get to see the thing clearly before it’s replaced with another picture from a different angle. In the advent of the video generation this is what people have been convinced that they want. For me it just gives me a headache!

It’s even spilling into our churches. Sometimes it’s good; sometimes it’s not so good. During worship or the sermon through power point, images appear on the wall or a screen, most of the time it’s so you can follow along in the song or the sermon, but it’s also being used to amuse or entertain people during a service as well. We’ve become a generation of people that want to be entertained all the time and often the viewer isn’t focusing so much on the message, as they are the entertainment of the images. What was intended to be a form of instruction becomes a distraction from the power of the spoken word because our mind no longer focuses on the words but focuses on the entertainment. The word of God is replaced by a picture and the power of that word is reduced to background noise for the pictures. If you think I’m crazy … think about this …how many vehicles now come with televisions built into the thing to entertain the children because they can’t sit and look out the window any longer? They have to be amused all the time. Look how children behave in a restaurant or even church, they want to be amused or entertained all the time and we give in rather than say no. We give in rather than face the tyrant that will follow that dreaded two character word no longer used with a child. We’re afraid to say “NO” because we know what is going to follow. It’s not politically correct don’t you know. But enough on that subject, that’s a different sermon for a later date.

Going back to the subliminal advertising, we could use a form of this still today in our witness. I like to think of it more as “injected edification”. Use little words or phrases that give glory to God. Inject the image of God in your conversations and letters. When ending a conversation or meeting with someone or a correspondence rather that saying “good-bye”, try saying “Grace and peace!” I do this all the time, if anyone has received a letter from me with-in the past year or so they have seen this salutation used. They may have thought “what an interesting thing to say”, but in your sub-conscious mind it was just recorded that “ this guy just blessed me”. And that was what it was intended to do. It’s a simple witness for my God.

Back in the 70’s and 80’s we went through a phase that when we talked to people in the church setting, in particular the Pentecostal churches, but it wasn’t restricted to them, people would use the term “Praise God” all the time. People would use the term all the time in every situation “Well praise God we got our income tax return today”, or “praise God the car is paid for at last. And eventually it went from the true intended meaning to the crazy “Praise God Alice put her false teeth in today”. People used it to the point that it started to loose it’s intended effect and eventually it started to become blasé. We can resolve to revive this and other little things to be a witness without really shouting, “I’m witnessing for my God”. In our conversations say “praise God” every once in a while where you would really want to praise God for what he’s done. Slip in a God Bless or a Grace and Peace. When we do this we are being a witness to the love and concern of our Lord over his people. It’s not much, it’s not hard and it sure is effective. And no I don’t care if it is politically correct or not, I’m talking up my God and He is the center of my universe, and I don’t care if it does offend someone.

My friend we are entering a New Year and with it a new list of resolutions. We can use the old favorites if we want. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t, and they aren’t bad. But we can also add a few of the things we’ve just listened to as well. Each of us today is starting out on the rest of our life one step at a time as we walk out this life. Where we walk and how we act is up to us. The Holy Spirit is there and willing to be of service, Jesus gave us a mandate and he gave us his Spirit to assist us. What we do with this is totally up to us. You don’t have to make a decision this second but give it some thought. What New Years resolutions are you going to make this year? And how much are you willing to stick to it? The choice is up to each of us independently, don’t look to someone else to tell you what you need to do, I can’t tell you, your pastor can’t tell you. No one can be your voice; no one can be your will, because in the final analyses when we stand before the Lord there isn’t going to be anyone else there but you and Jesus. And you may hear either of these two things, “why didn’t you tell them about me” or “ well done my good and faithful servant”. Why not make hearing “well done my good and faithful servant” your resolution for this year.
Grace & peace

Better Than A Craftsman

2010-12-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

Better than Craftsman
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted

(2nd Timothy 3:16) “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man (and woman) of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (emphasis Mine)

When I became a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ I had to take a good, long and hard look at what is known as the Pastoral Epistles of the Apostle Paul, in particular 2nd Timothy. Paul’s letter to Timothy is a beautiful letter filled with instruction and I had to read it over and over to really get a grasp of the significance of those words. My favorite reading is from the fourth chapter, verses 1 through 5 and I feel it is one of the most useful portions of Scripture a minister can find. (2nd Timothy 4:1-5) “1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”

The Scriptures are telling me that as a minister I’m to preach the Word of God in season or out, in essence when it’s popular and when it’s not. To correct, (offer the people correction when I see or hear them misreading or misusing God’s word, taking it out of context or trying to force it to say what it doesn’t say, whether intentionally or not). I’m to rebuke, (let them know they are wrong). Encourage, (lift up, build up and edify) and to do all of this with great patience and careful instruction. Not a real tall order for the man of God is it? That last part, the encouragement with great patience and careful instruction or loving instruction comes from listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit. If done in my flesh its going to turn out to be a disaster believe me. There was a time to be sure when I was not a gentle and loving person filled with patience. Before I came to know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, before I came to know Jesus in an intimate and personal way, before I developed a personal relationship with our Lord I was anything but a patient and gentle person. Over the years I’ve learned to walk in stride with my Lord, I no longer run ahead or lag behind, now I’m trying to walk with him. I try to listen to his voice and always maintain a good talking/listening relationship where we both get to talk and listen to each other. And in trying to remain in union and fellowship with him his attributes are starting to rub off on me. Have I found perfection yet? Not even close, but I’m constantly working on it and as each day passes and the days go into weeks and then months and then years I find myself getting closer and closer. Each day I have to look up to his cross and deny self or self will and self desire. Each day I have to seek his nature over mine and remember to give all the glory to God for whatever transformation that may occur as I pass through this journey we call life.

To assist me in this journey through life as a minister, God has provided me with a holy toolbox and it’s a wonderful thing to behold. It’s actually quite small and easy to transport; I can go from job to job, task to task and day to day without a problem, my toolbox by my side. And the tools in my toolbox that God has given me are even better than the best Sears has to offer in their Craftsman line. The Craftsman tools are warranted forever, break one and take it back to the store and it’s replaced no questions asked, and that’s a good thing. But God’s tools will never break, they will last forever and they will always fit regardless of the situation. I don’t know about anyone else but for me if I need a socket or a wrench I always get the wrong size when I reach into the tool box. I’ve leaned that if I’m working on anything I just grab all the sizes and go through the process of elimination until I find the one that fits. And if that doesn’t work I then look of the adjustable wrench as my last resort. Praise God I don’t have to go through all that with the tools of God because they always fit and they are always handy. Amen! My toolbox from God is assembled out of only three things and yet it always works. The first element that makes up my box is my Bible, the Holy Word of God. Then there’s my prayer language, always available and 100 % effective when offered in the will of the Father. And the third element is the guidance and assistance of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter promised by Jesus and God’s promises always come to be.

One of the things I hope to encourage you with today is the fact that you don’t have to be a minister to get this toolbox from God. This heavenly toolbox is given to all believers, it’s free for the asking and there are no strings attached, no coupons required, never a back order, always in stock and Jesus already paid the cost. Actually with these toolboxes there is only one restriction that applies and it’s the overlooking or willfully ignoring this restriction that gets most of us in trouble.

You see with every toolbox that is given out, included with the tools is a set of instructions, given by God’s Holy Spirit. And if we don’t read the instructions and follow them then the tools don’t work as good as they should. We may be able to force them to work but it’s a task that requires many hours of additional work and the job just doesn’t come out as it should. Every toolbox is made of the same three things, God’s Word as found in the Bible, our prayer life or language and the Holy Spirit’s assistance. And even though the boxes look identical there is a difference in how they work because the tools inside are custom-built by the Holy Spirit to work differently in the hands of the person that gets the box. Each basis toolbox looks the same, feels the same, weighs the same and if used correctly will be as effective as the others but the difference lies in the tools that are put in them by the Spirit. Each box is custom made and custom filled by the Spirit with specially designed tools made just for you the toolbox holder and only you the toolbox owner can use those tools to their most effectual best. Your tools were designed for you with you in mind and they are perfect in every detail.

Where we get in trouble is when we start to look beyond our toolbox, the one build just for us, and start to put our hands in the toolbox of someone else. You see the tools in our box fit only our hands and not theirs and the same holds true for theirs as well. There tools don’t fit our hands but they fit their hands with a perfect match. And if we read the Spirit’s instructions we will see that we aren’t supposed to be borrowing or taking the tools from someone else’s toolbox. The tools in someone else’s toolbox weren’t made for us, they don’t fit right, they won’t work as well and they won’t be as effective as they should if we try to use them. If we get our hands in someone else’s toolbox we may be able to force their tools to work to some degree but they will never work as good as they could or as good as they should if used by the rightful owner.

To make this concept easier to grasp, allow if you will a few examples taken from life I think we can all understand. If you’ve ever worked with wood you’ll understand what I’m talking about. You have a piece of wood and you want to cut it, so you go and grab a handsaw. Any saw will do right? A saw is a saw, there is no distinction between saws right? Ah here is where the problem lies, you see one saw is made for cutting across the grain of the wood and another is made for cutting with the grain of the wood. Each saw is made with teeth specially designed and sharpened to work in only one manner. If you try hard enough you can get a cross cut saw to rip lengthwise with the grain but it is a lot of work, it usually screws up the saw and the cut isn’t very fine. You’ll get a finished product but it won’t be what you’re after. Some saws are made for cross cutting across the grain of the wood and some are made to rip the grain lengthwise, you see not all saws will work the same.

Don’t have much experience with wood you say? How about baking then? You want to make a nice two-layer chocolate cake, you preheat the oven, mix the batter and now it’s time to put it in the pans for baking. Oh no! You have two pans but one is a 9 inch round pan and the other is a 9 by 12 rectangle pan. Not a problem, you can put the batter in both pans and they will cook, but to get a nice round cake you have to take the 9 by 12 cake, place the round one on top and trim off the parts that stick out. In the end you will have a round 9 inch cake but to get there you had to waste a lot of cake, use more time than needed and it will be harder to decorate because you’re trying to cover the edges that were cut which don’t hold us as well as the edges that were formed by baking against the cake pan. You’re hearing the voice of experience here friends, for the cake and the wood.

You’ve got a good pair of scissors, made for cutting fabric and someone uses them for cutting paper, will they work? Sure … but it screws up the scissors, they become dull quicker. How about those who have tried to take off the electric outlet covers in your house with a butter knife, one little slip and the whole place gets dark real fast doesn’t it? And that’s only if you’re lucky, with no insulated handle like a screwdriver you might find yourself sitting on you bottom and your hair standing straight up, again the voice of experience.

At times I carry a .357 Magnum pistol for my own personal use and at work I carry a 38 caliber pistol. Can I put 38 caliber rounds in both my personal weapon and the one I carry in my line of employment as a state peace officer? Sure I can, and it will fire, but I won’t get the hitting power it was designed for, the 38 caliber rounds don’t have the punch the 357 rounds have. And if you try to go the other way you can get the 357 rounds in the 38 caliber pistol but you can’t fire it because the cylinder won’t close and if it did the barrel would most likely explode from the extra power of the shells. At first glance both guns look the same but they sure don’t work the same, each was designed for a special use and it’s that special use that makes them work the best. That’s the way it is with our God given toolboxes. They may look the same but they aren’t, the toolboxes are the same but the tools inside are different. God didn’t make a mistake when he designed our tools; he intended it to be like that. Go to (1st Corinthians chapter 12: 4-11) “4There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. 7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.”

A variety of gifts for a variety of people, the Spirit of Jesus knew what he was doing when he came with the gifts and the Spirit knows what he’s doing when he distributes them. We all have the same toolbox but we don’t all have the same tools, we don’t all have the same gifts.

When Jesus set up his church he knew exactly what he was doing and he revealed this truth to the Apostle Paul so that Paul could write it down in his Epistles with Christ knowing that his words would be there for the church to read whenever they needed it. God knew what he was doing when he led me to this sermon just in case you hadn’t read this for yourself or maybe you didn’t really give it much thought if you did read it. Jesus working through his Spirit, gave the message to Paul, this same Spirit led me to study it and now I give it to you to be shared with whoever you are led by the Spirit to witness to and maybe share this simple message.

At this point I have to remind you that this isn’t a new revelation given me or something I got by special appointment for God. There are no new revelations given to anyone. All of Gods word is there for all to read, the only new thing here is the revelation of how to deliver God’s message. If anyone at any time comes and tells you that they have a new revelation from God that came to them and no one else they are not hearing from the same God we serve. Let me say this one more time, there will never be a new message from God given to only one person or one group of people, when he closed his book he did so for a purpose, he had already given us all we needed to find him, anything else is not from God. That’s not to say that we don’t receive new revelation of what the scriptures say, we call that the hermeneutics or the way we interpret the word of God. God can and does on a regular basis give men and women a new style of delivery for his message with each passing generation. But remember, the message can not and will not change. What I give you today is a new way of delivering a message that has been there for many ages. It’s always been there in the pages of the Bible; it’s only been waiting for me to elaborate it in a new form. And I’ll bet right now someplace in the world the Holy Spirit is giving someone else a different way of saying the very same thing custom designed in a different form for a new body of believers to hear. Go to (1st Corinthians chapter 12: 27-31) “27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.”

Friends I’m not making this up, but I am being led by the Spirit. And when the Spirit talks I listen! Different tools for different people, we all get the same toolbox but each toolbox comes with different tools inside. Right now I’m using my toolbox and I’m using my tools, these are the tools God has given me. I’m doing my job, I’m preaching His Word in season and out because there may be someone out there that doesn’t like this message but that’s okay. My motivation comes from my God and He allows it to flow from my heart and although I know you will be blessed by this in time, if it ruffles some feathers now; that’s okay as well. Sometime we have to let something season in our heart for a time before we can taste the sweetness of the words. I have to do what God tells me and I have to do it when he tells me. (Galatians 1:10) says; “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ”. It’s my desire to be Christ’s servant; I just pray that you’re blessed by hearing His word preached without fear, hesitation or question on my part. I would rather be a blind servant of Jesus Christ than see the world through rose colored glasses and try to present you the same distorted image. (2nd Timothy 1:7) says, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline”. My toolbox as a preacher comes with all the tools I need to read a verse, pray to God for His revelation and guidance in preparing the sermon, wait upon the leading of the Spirit, and then present to you the hearer or reader what the Spirit has given me. Why do I do this? Because I have to, I’ve got a Holy Ghost fire that burns inside me and the flames come forward from my heart to my head, from my head to my hand and I write down what the Spirit gives me. When I started Eternal Truth Ministries our Lord told me to use the words “All the Truth All the Time” as my motto and my rule. I’ve stayed with that and as long as I’m speaking with that motto in mind I will never apologize for anything I say as long as I’m speaking under the anointing of the Spirit. I endeavor to follow the same principle in the ministry “Up from the Ashes” as well, it is still all the truth all the time, and I pray by the leading of the Holy Spirit. I wish I could say the same for when I’m just speaking. But to my regret I have had times when I had to apologize for things I’ve said when I was talking without the anointing. But that’s a different sermon.

I don’t take my calling lightly, I can’t. (James 3:1) says; “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because we who teach will be judged more strictly”. If I’m to be held to a higher measure of judgment because of my calling you can be sure that I will be sure to use every tool in my toolbox to the best of my ability and I’m also going to make sure that I am never caught with my hand in someone else’s toolbox. I play the guitar a bit, I could lead you through a few songs and we could praise God with our music … but I won’t … its not where my gifts and talents lie. That’s someone else’s toolbox. I sing a bit and I could lead worship if there were no one else to do it …but I won’t … it’s someone else’s toolbox. That’s not the gifts the Lord has given me to use. I won’t put my hand in someone else’s toolbox.

I served in a church once that had everything needed to be a great house of worship. The building was beautiful, the facility had all that was needed for meaningful ministry, nice classrooms, a dining hall, more than enough parking for any event. They had tremendously talented people, people with music skills, people that were gifted as organizers, teachers, workers, they had it all. The perfect assortment of gifted people, the perfect building, the perfect location and yet for all their gifts and talents they might as well be dead! What they didn’t have was the ability to follow biblical principles. They couldn’t surrender their all and all to Jesus; they couldn’t relinquish their hold on the throne and allow Jesus his rightful place on his throne. They couldn’t follow the biblical idea that everyone had a different gift and talent for the Lords use. Instead, a select few constantly had a hand in the other person’s toolbox and were constantly butting heads over who was to do what task. For every task presented to the church there were at least four people trying to do everything on their own. They side stepped the order of biblical authority with each claiming the rights to the throne that didn’t belong to anyone but Jesus.

Everyone claimed to be working for the Lord but the sad reality of it all was that they couldn’t stop squabbling long enough to see that the individual talents of each person in the church wasn’t being used but rather the misguided talents of a few was suffocating the talents of the many. A beautiful church building with all the things needed for ministry and over the course of 6 years they added no new members, the number of members actually dropped lower each year as people left and saddest of all. With all the talents, with the beautiful facilities there were no new believers that came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Not one new person accepted the Lord in 6 years. The only change in membership they experienced was when a child of one of the families grew old enough to be moved into a different lever of membership and then they said “look how we’re growing”. They couldn’t see that if you have a pound of jellybeans it doesn’t matter how far you spread them across the floor you still only have a pound of jellybeans. Christ didn’t sit on the throne, the people did and each one was constantly reaching into the other person’s toolbox and trying to make a tool work that didn’t fit their hand.

They couldn’t see that the same Holy Spirit of 1st Corinthians 12, the Spirit that gives gifts to the people as he desires didn’t abide there, they couldn’t see that his tools were misused so he removed them. They couldn’t see that the Holy Spirit doesn’t give all his tools to just one or two people and that it takes more than one or two people to run Christ’s church. The Spirit gives many gifts to many people because a church isn’t one or two people who do it all while the rest are just bystanders who have no function other than being bodies to warm a seat. The whole church needs to be alive; the whole church needs to feel the lifeblood flowing through it. The whole church needs to feel the blessing of exercising its power by working through its gifted people to reach the unsaved and the lost.

The Apostle Paul uses the analogy of a body and how the church has to function as a body with all the parts working together for the welfare of the body as a whole. Do you know what atrophy is? When a body part isn’t used, when it isn’t given any exercise, atrophy sets in, blood stops flowing to that part and eventually that body part shrivels up or dies from lack of use. It’s the same thing in a church. If a person or a small group of people try to control or dominate in a church, if a person or small group of people try to use everyone else’s tools and not allow others to use their God given tools atrophy sets in with the unused person or people and eventually they shrivel up and die. They don’t die in the physical but they die in the spirit, their spirit stops functioning and their options are to stay where they are and continue to die in the spirit or they leave and seek new life elsewhere. And when atrophy sets in it doesn’t affect just the one person, it spreads like a cancer throughout the church and eventually the entire church starts to die. It may not die for a long time but the sickness is there and it’s felt by the entire church body. There’s no new growth, there is no new blood to carry life through the veins of the church.

Think about this for a moment. Why would the Holy Spirit lead new sheep to a pasture where they aren’t allowed to reach the food or water? Why would the Holy Spirit lead new people to a church, people filled with gifts and talents, and then watch them become stagnant in the spirit and spiritually develop atrophy and wither or die? The Holy Spirit is going to lead those people to a church where there’s life and there’s blood flowing through the veins of the church. The Holy Spirit is going to lead them to a place where they can use the tools he’s put in their toolbox because it’s the Spirit’s job to grow a church of believers for the kingdom of the Father. He’s going to lead them to a church that is alive and healthy drawing life through the atoning blood of the Son.

And this is the church I see when I come here, a church that is going to be filled with a variety of people, all coming in with a toolbox filled with the tools of the Spirit. A church that is filled with believers carried up to the heavens in worship and fellowship with our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. A church that dances for their Lord, a church that teaches the whole message of salvation and shares the Gospel with it’s neighbors. A church that has an entire congregation of believers all equipped with their toolboxes and every tool put to use for the kingdom of God the Father in heaven. Are you ready for that church? If you are give the Lord a praise offering.

I want to close with a reading that really says it all. If you have any questions as to what I’ve said this morning, whether you think it true or untrue, I want you to go home, look at this passage and pray about it. Pray that the Holy Spirit would talk to your spirit and see if he doesn’t have something to say to you. See if the Spirit of God doesn’t have a message for you and is speaking to you through his word. (Ephesians 4:16) “From him the body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does it’s work.” Let that verse sink in for a minute.

“From him (who? Jesus Christ of course!) the body (who is the body Paul is referring to here? It’s us, the believers assembled in this place of worship, the body is the church of Christ, alive and well on the earth today regardless of what some may say). Joined and held together by every supporting ligament (what are the ligaments in Paul’s thoughts? The very gifts or skills the Holy Spirit has given us. The gift of music, the gift of helps, the gift of love, the gift of teaching, the gift of preaching, the gift of singing, the gift of giving, the gift of caring, the gift of listening to another in pain, the gift of wisdom, and the gift of knowing when we are stepping into someone else’s area of ministry.)

And what is the result of this body of believers, gathered together, each one using the ligaments of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, putting God’s agenda before our own agenda. Seeking to serve His kingdom and not seeking to develop our kingdom under the false pretense of using His name to make ourselves look good or as Paul says "Puffed up"). The body grows and builds itself up in love (and what is the key to this growth and building that is going to take place? As each part (that’s each person working in their area of gifting) does it’s work. (Denying self, taking up His cross and going foreword into the world).

I pray that this message is well received by you the hearer or reader and that it ministers to your heart. Each of us has a place in ministry, each of us has a place in the work of the Lord Jesus as he has called us to do. Pray about what this message has to say to you and then follow your heart and remember, in all things, give God the glory.

Grace & peace

Life, the NFL & Jesus

2010-11-04T06:15:00.000-07:00

Life, the NFL, & Jesus
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted

I want you to realize that there isn’t one person on either of the teams, not one player, one coach, one trained, one medical person, one equipment person, one assistant of any kind, not one person connected with any team in the NFL that is there in his or her position that is there without intensive training in their field of expertise. Be it a player who knows and runs the routes his position calls for or a coach that decided what play to run. Every person is a well-trained professional. And yes that includes the Buffalo Bills and every other team in the league that didn’t do so good this year. Every single person you see on the television connected with a team has practiced their profession for many long hours, read books, studied films, learned plays, spent hours in a classroom, hours in a gym working with weights, running lifting and sweating. And all for the right to call themselves an NFL player or a team member. And should that team make it to the Super Bowl and win the game, they all get a ring, not just the players.

This is what we have to do in life as well. For the most part, in this country, just about every person has to train long hard hours getting some kind of education if they are to rise to be any level of self sufficient, productive and mature adult. Granted there are many places in the world where education isn’t as important in their culture or as easy to obtain as it is in our country. But for the most part in the great United States of America, we educate our children and adults at least in the basics to enable them to compete in life. And when looking at all the people in juxtapose to the NFL players, the NFL players making up the entire NFL and the people making up our society, we can see that just as they are one cut above the average in their field of sports, we are one cut above the rest of society as Christians. As the NFL player has to take it to a higher level to go to the top of his game likewise we, as Christians have to take it to a higher level to be Christians.

In the NFL, most of the players get to play in the games throughout the season be it a starter or a backup who gets the call in the event of an injury. But once they start the playoff games many teams and many players fall by the wayside. They no longer get to play and they are like the rest of us, they are watchers, no longer are they participants but just viewers. Once they get to the playoff games the starters are actually able to take their game to yet another level and many of them put out so much extra effort that they play through many an injury. They play through something that in the regular season would have put them on the sidelines for a play or a game. When they get to the playoff games they turn into super players. And throughout the playoffs as each team looses they are dropped to the level of viewer and only the winners advance to the next level or play. They continue to follow this pattern until they come to the division championship game. And then from the ranks of what was once many, only one team from each side gains the right to go to the Super Bowl and try to win that coveted title of world champion and walk away with a super bowl ring on their finger.

And who is the winner? Why they are the one’s who usually work the hardest, practice the hardest, put the most into their game and are the most hungry for that title and ring. While all of them worked really hard to reach that one elusive game, it is usually the ones that put the most extra effort into it that walk away the winner. The ones who win are the ones who execute the plays just a little better than the other guys. They’re the ones who ran just a bit faster, turned just a little sharper, stopped just a fraction quicker and over all preformed just a little better than the other guys. And it’s this special group who did just a little better that gets to have the bragging rights for the next year and who get to wear that super bowl ring for life. While all the players in the league can say, “I’m a NFL player” only a few can say, “I’m a super bowl winner and here’s my ring to prove it”.

Now how do we tie this into the Christian experience? How do we make that leap from NFL player to the everyday person that is walking the street and how do we apply this to us today?

The world is filled with people. Just about anyplace you go you are going to run into people. Red, yellow, white or black, there are going to be people of some kind, of some color, just about anyplace you go. I think with the exception of Antarctica there are people just about anyplace you look. And the only reason they aren’t all over Antarctica is that the climate is so harsh it’s really super hard to live there. And even in that, there are people going there, I have an aunt who went there on vacation, she went in the summer because then it’s only 20 below zero rather than the 90 below in the winter. She stayed in an “Ice Hotel”! Somehow that doesn’t sound like a great vacation to me. Usually I’d say “Oh cool” but that is just to cool to suite me.

And out of all these people in the world there is a select group known as Christians. Again in looking at us the people in juxtapose to the rest of society we, the Christian, are to be the cut above who have advanced to the higher level. We are the ones who have risen above the rest to claim that title that eludes the rest of the world. We’re the ones who are set apart from the rest and for this we have to give the glory to God because it sure isn’t anything we’ve done on our own. (1st Peter 2:9) “9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Or perhaps it is better stated in the Amplified Bible as
“9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God's] own]purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Either way what it says is that God chose each of us and he’s made us a special people. By the standards of God we are the ones who can say we are Christians much like the football players say I play in the NFL. And as they get the ring to show and proudly display we have the cross of Jesus.

And just who are these Christians? What makes us so special? How did we become so special? We’re the ones who have bent the knee and acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord of lords and King of kings. We’re the ones who acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God and he is God. That’s the only difference between us and them, the rest of the people in the world. For the most part we all walk the same, look the same {taking into consideration some obvious differences}. We all use a form of communication known as language, we reproduce the same, eat the same way if not the same kinds of food. We try to get comfortable in the same ways, we try to keep warm or keep cool seeking to keep our bodies in about the same range of temperature. In short we all pretty much act the same as everyone else. It’s not until we become followers of Jesus Christ and acknowledge Him as our Lord do we show or exhibit behavior any different than everyone else. Like the football players who are all members of the NFL, we are all members of the human race, people created in the image of God and loved by God. But we the Christian have been set apart, we’ve gone to the next level solely by our belief in Jesus, and that only by the grace of God.

But here we see the juxtapose between the NFL and the Christian take a far different turn of events. You see in the NFL the object of the game is for only one team to make it to the Super Bowl. Only one group is to earn that title and wear the ring. In the Christian faith we want to see everyone get to the big game, we want to see everyone make it to what we call heaven or eternity with God. While the football player wants his team and only his team to be the winner, we want everyone to be a winner right along side of us because we would like to see everyone on the same team as we are. We want to see every person in the world right there with us in glory, right there in Beulah land standing shoulder to shoulder with us. We want to see everyone with the title of Champion, we want to see them all wearing the title of Christian and go to the cross to be covered by the blood of Jesus where all sin and iniquity is washed away by that blood. We don’t want to see anyone left behind or missing the boat.

In Matthew 28 we read the words of Jesus. “I have been given all authority in heaven and earth. Therefore go and make disciples in all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teach these new disciples to obey the commandments I have given you”.

If we were to paraphrase what Jesus said in that verse it could come out like this. “Go get all the players on earth, bring them into my Christian faith, get them to my Super Bowl and my father and I and my Holy Spirit will make all of them winners. You bring them in and we’ll make them champions”.

How are we going to do this? Just like the NFL players. Preparation, preparation and more preparation. The NFL uses a game plan and a play- book; we use God’s game plan and His Bible. What’s one of our main plays as Christians? Number 1, Prayer! The Bible instructs us to pray.

• Ephesians 6: 18 … “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests”.

• Philippians 4: 6 … “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God”.
Do you realize that we can pray anywhere and anytime? We can pray anywhere and anytime even in this slightly off center world in which we live. Prayer is one thing we can all do inside our own mind and no one else need know that we are doing it. We don’t have to be vocal to pray, prayer can be a shout or a whisper but it can also be a mental conversation that is only heard between us and God. Mental prayer is great; it’s as good as speaking in tongues. Mental prayer and tongues are like a person to person telephone call directly to God and Satan can’t listen in.

Another part of our game plan and playbook from God is number 2, Study! We need to study God’s word on a regular basis.

• 2nd Timothy 2: 15 … “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”. That’s from the KJV, the NIV translates it as; “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, an workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth”.
Unless you are one of the few that are truly gifted to have a photographic memory knowing and understanding the scriptures will require study on your behalf. Allow me to make one thing perfectly clear though, there is nothing in the scriptures that is beyond the grasp and comprehension of anyone unless there is a server learning disability. And even then the power of the Spirit can come upon the person and endow them with a gift of learning that exceeds many others. Remember we are dealing with a God of miracles and nothing is beyond his scope or range of doing. There are no hidden messages in the scriptures, there is no secret codes that need to be unlocked, there is nothing but the pure word of God and in his infinite wisdom God has put foreword his word in a book that anyone can use. Granted it may take some diligence on behalf of the reader, it may take some searching to find the meaning of some of the beautiful jewels of wisdom to be found. But with the ample supply of resource materials available finding the meaning, the knowledge and beauty of the Bible will be a pure pleasure for you.

Game plan and playbook rule number 3, Commitment! We need to commit our work to God.

• Proverbs 16: 3 … “Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed”.
{A word of caution here … if we want success in our plans then our plans need to be done in God’s way and in His will.} No one is ever successful at anything if they aren’t committed to what they are doing. We’ve been comparing the Christian to the NFL player; neither will be where they want to be unless there is a level of commitment involved. The football player must commit time and energy to the game plan; the Christian must commit the same to their faith. If we commit the entire Bible to memory and never use any of it in life it is of no use at all. Whether we know the Bible or not has no effect on our salvation, salvation comes through belief in Jesus Christ and without exception there is no other way. But the Bible, God’s instruction manual for our walk through life is a key element for that walk. The Bible instructs us in how to behave, how to talk, how to pray; how to witness for Christ, how to do just about everything there is to be done and we need to commitment in our use of this wonderful book. But please remember what I said at the start of this segment, our commitment needs to be within the guidelines of God’s desires for us. And to know what God’s desires for us are we need to know what his word says to and about us. And in order to know the answer to what the desires of God are we need to know the Bible and to know the Bible brings us back to commitment.

• Proverbs 16: 9 … “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps”. We can make all the plans we want, but in the final analysis under the divine providence of God it’s God who determines the outcome of our plans. If our plans don’t come to fulfillment it’s because God allowed them to fail for whatever reason He deems to have and He doesn’t always let us know why. We have to remember … He’s God and we aren’t.

Game plan and playbook rule number 4, fellowship! We need to regular fellowship with like believers. We need to make it our habit to have regular fellowship with other Christians. Regular attendance at church is nice, attending Sunday school, attend a Bible study, in the church or in a home. Host a Bible study and have fellowship with other Christians. Do whatever it is to gain knowledge of God’s word. Surround yourself with knowledgeable people, people that can assist you in learning God’s word. We need to seek out people of Godly knowledge and having a Godly spirit, people who are spiritually mature.

• Proverbs 15: 22 … “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed”.

Friend all of this is known as preparation. We need to be prepared for what we have been called to do, no not just called but directed or commanded to do by our Lord. If we are to bring the unsaved into the knowledge of Jesus Christ we need to be prepared for the task that lies ahead of us. Like a football player we need to be fully equipped both physically and mentally but we also need to carry it one additional step that the football player isn’t concerned with. We need to be fully equipped in the spiritual realm as well. Our spirit needs to be prepared because the opponent we are going against is equally ready to wage a war against us. Satan has been playing in this game for a long long time, he’s studied his game plan, he’s studied his playbook and he’s fully assured that he can win the game, and he can if we allow him. Although Jesus has already gained us the victory of that final Super Bowl in the heavens we can loose a game or two down here on earth if we aren’t prepared. The championship is ours to be had, Jesus has already assured us the victory, he’s already guaranteed us the ring of a champion and accepted us as members of his team, but it’s up to us to take up the preparation. As a member of the winning team of Christ we’ve looked at what it’s going to take to make it through the final game and on to glory. We already saw how we need to be in a state of prayer life on a regular basis. How we need to study to show ourselves to be approved workmen, approved team members. We’ve already seen how we need to be committed to the task of winning our super bowl ring and how part of that commitment is found in fellowship with the other team members.

The final stage of preparation I want to close with is suiting up for the game. Just like in the Super Bowl both football teams wear a uniform so that they can see each other in the crowd of people on the playing field, so likewise are we to wear the uniform our team owner has selected for us. God has laid out our uniform. He’s given us all that we need for protection in the game of games so that we can walk away victorious and without injury. Just like the football player who wears padding and protection to cover the areas where he is most likely to be struck by his opponent, God had given us this same kind of protection in his uniform. You may have already guessed where I am going with this. Look at Ephesians chapter 6, starting with verse 10.
“Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is now against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints”.

I want to call your attention to just a few things about this reading. First and foremost, notice that our struggle isn’t in this world, not our physical world of flesh and blood, it’s in the spiritual world, that’s where the real battle is going on. In this world we are going to have ups and downs, pains cuts and boo boos. That’s just a part of life in a fallen world. My friend we aren’t going to see perfection here on this earth until Jesus Christ returns and gathers his bride and carries us off to the new earth. It’s not going to happen! God doesn’t promise perfection here on earth, but what he does promise is that when we leave here, it’s going to be perfection in heaven. That’s the promise of God. Now look at the list of verbs in this reading. Put on the full armor of God! God doesn’t dress us; he just gives us the uniform. It’s up to us to put the thing on. God provides us with his armor but it’s up to us to take it and put it on. God provides us with armor but we don’t wear it and we get hurt whose fault is it, God’s or ours? If we are given armor to wear into battle and we elect not to wear it aren’t we acting a bit foolish? If we have the proper armor at our disposal it’s our responsibility to put it on.

Stand firm then with the belt of truth. We have to stand firm, it’s our responsibility to take a stand and not waver back and forth. We wouldn’t go to a football game wearing the helmet of one team and the jersey of the other would we? Of course not! We pick our team and stay with them, that’s what makes us a fan of our team, we support them in their endeavor to win. When we pick the team of God we need to stay with that team, we need to stand firm in our decision and not waver back and forth. In the book of James we are admonished about not being like a wave in the sea tossed back and forth by the wind. Pick your team, stand firm and don’t look back! Jesus even told us that once we put our shoulder to the stone we can’t go back any more. If we’ve selected the helmet of God we need to quit putting on the jersey of Satan! We need to quit falling back into a sin lifestyle. In the Super Bowl when we run with the ball we have to run in just one direction, we don’t get to pick which goal like we want to cross, we don’t get to say “I think I’ll run to the one that is the closest or the easiest to reach”. If you really think about it isn’t the goal we’re after the one that is the hardest to get to? Isn’t the goal the one that is most defended by the opposition? That’s the way it is in football and that’s the way it is in life. Satan is going to love it if we run to his goal line but we don’t score any points by not standing firm in our belief. Stand firm, every time we get to the goal line we need to score points for God, don’t waver and score any points for the other team.

Take the shield of faith, take the helmet of salvation, and take the sword of the Spirit. God has provided all these things for us, He’s laid them out for our use, but it’s up to us to take them. God isn’t going to force us to take them but He has provided them for our use. God’s provided all these things and he’s telling us in his word to take them, grab hold of these things and don’t fumble they away, like a good football player, hold on to them with all you have. And like any football game, remember that the opposition is trying to take from us what we have, Satan is trying to cause us to fumble. Satan would love to see us fumble away our faith, he would love to see us doubt and question, don’t do it, stand firm. He would love to see us fumble away our salvation, to fall into a sinful state and reject Jesus and his mighty work on the cross, don’t do it, stand firm. And Satan would love to see us fail to use the gifts of the Spirit, to see those gifts lay useless like a Bible on a shelve gathering dust rather than opened and read. Don’t do it, stand firm, use the Bible, use the gifts of the Spirit and use them wisely and often. Take advantage of everything offered by God, if he didn’t want us to have it and use it he wouldn’t have offered it to begin with. Any other thought, doubt or question is a lie and a trick of the enemy. Satan is trying to win the Super Bowl of all super bowls, let there be no doubt about it. He would love to be the champion but in reality he is already a defeated foe. Satan isn’t going to get the ring, he isn’t going to get bragging rights and he’s not going to like it when he sees the final score. When they post the final score and it shows the number of souls under God’s name and the number of souls under Satan’s name the entire universe is going to know who the winner really is. We have to do all that we can to make sure that our name in the right column. And we have to do all we can to make sure that no one else’s name is in the wrong column because we didn’t do our part in getting them on the winning team with us. Every player deserves to win the Super Bowl ring and every player deserves to be a winner; not for what we’ve done; but because of what was done for us by Jesus on the cross. This is the most important game we will ever play in, lets go out there and play out hearts out, and lets go out there and show the world that we are champions and our team owner is a King.

Grace and peace

Give to Caeser what is Caesar's

2010-10-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s

By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted
Luke 20:23-25

“He saw through their duplicity and said to them, “Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it? “Caesar’s” they replied. He then said to them, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
When Jesus said this I think he was saying something that in close analysis shows a far deeper meaning than what we see at simple face value. On the surface it appears that Jesus was talking about money. Today in America we call it the dollar, its yen in China, euros in Europe, drachma’s in Greece and I think it’s still the pound in England unless they have gone with the euro as has most of Europe which has a very heavy overcast of the end times. The Bible tells of when there will be one world government and one currency and it is quite evident that we are headed in that direction. It’s just a matter of time. That is the reason for urgency in my messages, it’s still not to late too accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Once the trumpet blows and Christ returns it’s a whole new day and things will be different but that’s not the direction this message is going so I better get back to the outline of today.

At that time and place when Jesus physically walked the streets and countryside of what we now call the “Holy Land” the monetary note of choice was the Roman denarius. The denarius was the printed or most likely a better term is, the stamped coin of currency issued under the authority of Rome and used for most types of transactions, and in particular the payment of taxes.

But one of the places where the denarius wasn’t accepted as a type of currency was in the Jewish temple. The Jewish priests issued their own coinage and it was the only accepted currency that could be used to purchase the animals or objects needed for the required sacrifices that needed to be purchased and offered for sin on the altar in the temple as described in The Law. The people would come to the temple with their Roman coins and have to go to the money exchangers who had little tables or booths set up in the outer courts of the temple known as the Court of the Gentiles. There the money changers would exchange the Roman coins for Jewish coins, for a fee of course; the people would then pay a priest for the article of sacrifice, and then offer the sacrifice back to the priest who took it and completed the sacrifice ritual.

The Jewish priests really had a good thing going in the temple if we were to look at this from a business point of view. Being the good godly men that they were, it was the priests that said the evil Roman coin was of no value and had to be exchanged for the good and acceptable Jewish coin. The priests were the ones whom under their authority ordered the issue of Jewish coins to be made for use in temple service. The priests were the ones that made the arrangements for the money exchangers to be in the temple to offer their exchange services, and of course the priest got a portion of the profits from this exchange service. It was the priests that made sure all of the Jews offered a sacrifice for their sins, and it was the priests that received the sacrifice offerings. From the beginning to the end of the transaction in sacrifice offerings, the priests made a profit from every angle to be implemented. A fellow has to make a living now doesn’t he?

Allow me to cover this one more time to make sure we all understand how this worked. The priests ordered the stamping of Jewish coins, for a profit of course; the priests then got the Jewish coins in the hands of the moneychangers, for a profit of course. The moneychangers then sold the Jewish money to the Jewish people taking in the evil Roman coins and charged a fee for this service with the priests getting a cut of the profits for this service. The people then bought from the priests an object for sacrifice, a dove, a bird, an animal of some kind; for a profit of course. And then the priests took the sacrifice to the altar and were able to retain a small portion of the sacrifice for their wages as was fitting for being a poor and humble priest. Now mind you, each time I’ve mentioned a profit being made, it was a profit paid in Roman coins, you remember those bad and evil coins that no good and godly priest would want to handle but did so out of the goodness of their hearts just to get rid of those nasty old Roman coins. The priests did this great and noble service for the poor and simple people because the Jewish coin was pretty much useless for any transactions outside of the temple; there the Roman coin was the desired and accepted coin of use. I think today we would call this a very slick and unique money-laundering scheme, which would most likely be quite illegal in our society. Unless of course you are the government, they do the same thing, they issue the currency, tax you when you get it, tax you when you use it and tax what’s left if you save it making a profit for themselves at every turn in the road. Jesus knew how this system of profit and exchange worked and now maybe you have a good idea why our dear sweet Lord Jesus got so mad when he saw what was going on in his Fathers house of worship. Now you can see why Jesus kicked the tables of the moneychangers over and drove the owners of the tables out of the building. Jesus knew they were crooks and he let everyone know that he knew it. I think it’s safe to say that Jesus wasn’t a bit bashful in addressing sin when he saw it. What our dear Savior did was follow a practice we today call “Civil Disobedience”. Jesus saw a practice of the ruling government, in this case the temple priests, Jesus saw a practice that went against the law of the Father and he followed the higher order; that of course being the order of God and he, Jesus, rebelled against the government edict that allowed this money changing system to function in God’s house.

I think we can also see the wisdom Jesus displayed when challenged in regards to the Roman currency. Jesus said that if the Roman system or government of Rome wanted to collect taxes from their Roman currency then give them what they wanted. Jesus knew the recorded word of God, he wrote it. Jesus knew that in the Old Testament, which was the only Scriptures they had at that time; that it was clearly prophesied that when the people rejected God as their king and demanded a human king like the heathen nations around them, that that king would be demanding the payment of taxes to support his government and that under the order established and permitted by God that king then had the right to demand the taxes and the people under his authority were obligated to pay them. God warned the people about the problems they would encounter under the leadership and authority of human kings and what would be required of the people should they go with human kings over having God as their king and ruler which was the system they then lived with at that time. The people were unrelenting in their desires and said, “give us a human king”, which God did, the king said, “thanks for the job, now give me taxes” and the taxes needed to be paid. Pure and simple politics at it’s best. You can read for yourself the account of how this all transpired, the people’s demand for a king, God’s warning about not getting one because they would be under a heavy burden of taxes if they had a king and God’s walking away for the table when the people wouldn’t relent in their demands. It is all there in 1st Samuel the eighth chapter.

But the paying of taxes isn’t the only object lesson to be learned from this portion of scripture. There are other principles to be learned as well. There is more fruit to be harvested in this because the words of Jesus are seldom just a sandwich; usually they are a complete meal with everything from the appetizer to the desert, kind of like going to the buffet for seconds and thirds. In our opening reading, in the twenty-four red letter words of our Lord alone should the Holy Spirit inspire me I could glean a half dozen sermons, God does that all the time with people all over the world.

Yes, Jesus is saying that paying taxes owed to the government is the proper thing to do. It’s our obligation to pay taxes and in doing so we are being a good witness in the principles of Christianity. We are being obedient to the civil authorities that God has allowed to be established over us. The apostle Paul explains this in greater detail in the 13th chapter of the book of Romans. Starting with verse one Paul goes on to say, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves”. We need to remember this when we start to grumble and complain about our elected officials, there is no one; there is no person, not a one, in any office or position that is there against the will of God. Be it from the highest to the lowest, if they are in office; God allowed it, he may not like what they are doing, and he may not approve of their behavior while in that office, but God in His sovereign power and authority has allowed that person to be there. Sometimes we may question why, what is God’s logic in this? But it’s really a God thing, and it’s not our position to question God. If you are a reader of my materials or should you ever sit in on one of my teachings at some point you are going to hear me use a passage that I go to frequently from Isaiah. (Isaiah 55: 8-11) “8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. 9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

If you believe in an all powerful and almighty God, if you believe in divine providence and that God is omnipotent in all things, then you have to believe that it is by God’s authority that anyone and everyone is in office because God allowed it to happen. You see my friends, God has a plan and a purpose for everything and even though there are many times when we can’t see or understand what that purpose is; there are many times when it’s like trying to see the forest through the trees, it is right there in front of us but we just can’t see it. It is still within Gods plan and authority, God’s plan is being carried out regardless of our lack of insight or understanding of the situation. You may be thinking, “Pastor don’t tell me that God wanted President Bill Clinton to conduct himself in the fashion in which he did while he was in power!” No God didn’t want him to conduct himself as he did; nor did God condone his behavior, but isn’t it possible that God allowed it to happen for a greater purpose? Because of Bill Clinton’s lies and lurid behavior thousands of Christians rose up in righteous indignation and went to the ballot polls to cast a vote when in the past they just sat on their righteous moral behinds and complained and grumbled but they did little else. Because of Bill Clinton a message was sent to our political leaders that said, “we have a voice and it’s going to be heard” and that my friends is a good thing!

Getting the Christian to voice their opinion is a good thing just as obedience to the civil authorities is a good thing. Remember, we have established government because God wants it there. But … is this to say that we are to follow the edicts of the government blindly in everything that it says or directs and never question that authority? Is this to say that there is no place for civil disobedience under any circumstance? And the answer to that my friend is a loud and resounding NO! I’m not trying to say that and neither do the scriptures, go back to our reading of Luke. What are the words that Jesus used? “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. We are to give the government their just due but we are to give God his just due as well, and God should come first in the equation.

If government is established under the authority of God, who’s authority is higher, the government or God’s? In this equation, who’s authority do you think should be supreme, God’s authority or the governments? And of course the answer to that question is God’s authority because in all reality there really isn’t much of a question to be found is there? And since God is the higher authority and government is established under God’s authority; when there are times of conflict or disagreement between the two would not common logic tell us that we are to advocate to the will of the one who is in the highest position? In times of conflict when the will of the two authorities are at odds with each other man must submit to the will or desires of God over the will or desires of the ruling government regardless of what that government structure may be.

Our founding fathers knew and understood this concept of government and submission to the higher authority. Look at our system of courts. Should we be in conflict with another person or people what is the process for settling the disagreement? We engage the court system starting with the local or town court. Should we disagree with that court’s ruling we then advance to the court of higher authority, which is usually the county court. If no satisfaction is reached at this level we continue to advance in the system through the various levels of state court, moving onward and upward until finally we arrive at the U.S. Supreme court, this journey exhausting several years and thousands or millions of dollars. Most disagreements are brought to a closure before we arrive at the U.S. Supreme Court, which is our highest level of justice, and it is hoped that by this time all parties have had their chance to voice their opinion and we trust that the judges will render a fair decision.
In our military there is a well established chain of command going from the lowest ranking enlisted man and going up to the highest ranking officer and should you violate that chain of command you open yourself up to charges for that violation. This holds true in the department of corrections as well. You have the correction officer; this is the level I worked at during my career in law enforcement. Next in line were the sergeants who were under the authority of the lieutenants, who were under the authority of the captains who were under the authority of Deputy Superintendents of Security who reported to the final authority in the prison, the superintendent. And of course all the superintendents of the various prisons scattered about the state are under the authority the Department of Corrections. And thus we can see that with each level from officer on up, there is always someone to whom we are accountable to, we are always under the authority of a higher power or authority regardless of who we are and ultimately that higher authority, no matter who they are or what title they carry must come under the final authority and that being God. Once we reach the level of God there is no further appeal process, there is no other place to go and God’s rulings must be obeyed, God’s word is final and complete, God’s rulings are final and complete. There is no higher authority over God!

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. We call it “Civil Disobedience” when we find ourselves in dispute with man’s authority and we then go against that authority even if we find that authority be our form of government. And although we are instructed in the scriptures to obey our governmental leaders is there ever a time when disobedience is acceptable, is there ever a time when disobedience is not only accepted but required? And does the Bible address this situation? The answer to this question is “yes, the Bible does address this very situation”. Look at the book of Galatians in the 1st chapter, looking at verse 10. “Am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ”. You see my friend, if there is a discrepancy between the will of man and the will of God and we want to be servants of Christ then it is the will of God that we must submit to even when it violates the will of man, even when it violates the will of the government because the government isn’t the final authority, God is. I may be bias but I’d venture to day that in America we have the finest form of government to be found on this earth. I think our form of government is superior to every other form of government even though it’s not perfect. We will never see perfection until Jesus Christ returns in all power and authority to rule this world but until that time what we have is the best to be found even with its flaws and imperfections. By and large, in theory our government is directed by the will of society, and at times the will of society, the will of the government is in opposition with the will of God. And it’s within these times that the Christian has the responsibility to be in or practice civil disobedience to the government. Allow me to give you a few examples.
In our present situation in America today what is the biggest discrepancy between the will of man and the will of God? I would think abortion! There may be many others but in my mind abortion is the largest of all the divisions to be found between man’s government and God. Our government, our society, our elected leaders and appointed judges have taken a stand for abortion that is in direct violation to the recorded will of God. Our society and our leaders have said that it is alright it kill unborn children and to use this process of selected murder as a form of birth control eliminating a entire generation of people to cover over or mask our sinful lifestyle. It is more acceptable in our society of today to eliminate the results of a sinful lifestyle than to speak out against the sin that creates this result. Our society now says that each individual has the right to do with their own body whatever they desire and should the results of that use be a unwanted child then it is alright and acceptable to kill that child without consequence.
But this is not what God says, not in regards to children .God tells us that children are a blessing from Him and that they are a gift, given by God. Psalm 127 says; “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of the mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them”. Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them, full of what? Why children of course, the man with many children is to be happy that he has them. Children are to be a blessing to us, where is the blessing if we kill them off? Proverbs 17 says; “Children’s children are the crown of old men and the glory of children are their fathers”. Not only are children a blessing from God but grandchildren as well. The children’s children are the crown of old men. We are to delight in our children and our children’s children, the children are a blessing and the grandkids are an extra blessing, for every child aborted, for every generation aborted there is the future generation aborted as well. When a child’s life is ended so likewise the ending of the potential prodigy that child may have created had they reached adulthood. God tells us that children are his blessing, that we are to love them, protect them, educate them, nurture them and watch them grow to maturity that we may be blessed with their children as our heritage. Jeremiah 19 tells us the mind of God in regards to child abuse, “They had built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal, something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind”. The killing of children doesn’t even enter God’s mind, so why does it enter ours? If this thought isn’t from God then where did it come from? I’ll let you answer that for yourselves, I think you already know the answer to that one. We should all know that there are two spiritual forces at war in this world, God and the evil one, and if the thoughts didn’t originate with God then it had to come from the other spiritual force and our society has fallen victim to the evil one’s way of thinking. And although our society says it is all right to kill our young with the flawed logic being that because they haven’t really been born yet and come out of the womb, consequently they can’t be real humans either. It is in this flawed logic that we as a society face a real conundrum. On the one hand where we’ve said the child isn’t really a child because it hasn’t been born out of the womb, and on the other hand society says that should you kill a woman who is pregnant you’ve then killed two people and are responsible for two lives, the mother and her unborn child. This friend just doesn’t make any sense. We can’t have it both ways, either the unborn child is a person and represents life in all situations or they do not and God does address this topic and God’s word on this is very clear. Listen to what the Bible says in the book of Psalms in the 139th chapter. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be”. God sees us before we are even formed in the womb, and he knows us … intimately. He knows all of our days, he knows all about us; and all of this knowledge about us comes before we are even born. That my friends, tells me that from the moment of conception I was a person, I had life and I had a future. This scripture tells me that God knows us from the moment the cells of our male and female parents first unite in the woman’s womb, from that first instant on, from that first new union of what will be a new life, we are a person and as a person we have a spirit. We may not be complete, we may not have all the parts developed yet, but we are a person with a spirit that God knows. If we weren’t a person, even if we are only a small and incomplete person, would God have made mention of us in his word were it not true? Would he have given us this place in his book of instruction and direction?

Let me approach this from a different perspective for a bit. Can a non-person sin? A rock isn’t a person right? So can a rock commit a sin? We all know the answer to that is “no, a rock can’t sin”. But what about other things, I’m an animal lover, I love animals, in particular dogs, and I have to tell you “I really love dogs”. But dogs can’t sin! If I have a dog and that dog chews up something of mine it isn’t a sin, granted I’d be angry about it but I couldn’t say that the animal sinned, they just did what comes natural to them and it comes to be an aggravation to me, but no sin has been committed. Why? Because the dog doesn’t have a soul and a spirit, the dog doesn’t have that spiritual connection to God that man has. Man has soul and spirit, that’s where the connection to God comes from, the spirit of man and God the Spirit, two unique spirits in communication. You don’t find that with a dog, love them as we may, they aren’t privy to or don’t have the same attention of God as man does because there isn’t that spiritual connection. Be honest now, have you or do you know of anyone that has had a dog or for that matter had any animal that has done something we perceive as wrong and said to the animal; “look at how great your sin is!” I doubt it. We may have told the pet that they were bad, “Bad boy, bad boy, look what you did”. But we don’t tell them that they sinned because they don’t have a spirit and sin is a spiritual thing. Pets, animals, when they do wrong; it’s a physical act and it’s declared “wrong” in a physical sense but that’s where it stops, in the physical. But we humans, when we do wrong in the physical we sin in the spiritual. The physical action is the wrong doing, but it’s not sin, not in the physical part of the equation. But in our spirit … here’s where the two, the physical and the spirit are interwoven, the physical action although wrong is not sin but creates the sin factor, the sin is in the spirit part of us and the two can’t be separated, that’s why this is such a hard concept to grasp. In our human minds we can’t separate the two, we can’t conceive us as having a physical and a spiritual part without uniting the two as one and that’s how God made us. Animals have the physical only, we as humans have the physical and the spiritual because we, and not animals are made in the image of God.

To give you a clearer idea of what I’m saying try thinking of it like this. The physical man does something wrong and sins, say grand larceny; they’ve taken something that wasn’t theirs. The taking of the item was the physical action, it was the wrongdoing. The spirit now is in a state of sin because of the physical action of the taking of the item. The person is now arrested and convicted in a court of law and given a jail sentence for their crime. They do their time in jail, they are released from custody and their obligation to society has been met. If we were physical beings without a spirit like the animals this would be the end of it, the entire situation would be over at this point, a crime was committed, a time was served for that crime and the laws of the land have been fulfilled. But the story doesn’t end here because there is still a part of this act that still exists … in the spirit of the person. They still carry the sin in their spirit, man has been appeased by the incarceration, but God hasn’t because the person is to this point unrepentant, they haven’t acknowledged their sin and they haven’t asked for forgiveness from God.

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. Man has been given what he desires, in this case a jail term for a crime. But God hasn’t been given what he desires, a repentant spirit.

Now … the person realizes that what they did was also against the will of God so they repent and come to God and ask for forgiveness. Again… they have truly done so with a repentant heart and being the kind and grace giving God that we serve, God in his mercy forgives that sin, the sin is no longer sin, it is no longer there, it is no longer remembered, God’s word tells us that God not only forgives but he forgets sin so it’s gone, the slate is wiped clean, it’s like it never was and the person’s spirit is now free from judgment for that now forgotten sin. Now, Caesar has what he deserves, time served for a crime, and God has what he deserves too, a soul, which is back in union with God without the division of sin between the spirit of man and God the Spirit. I hope through this illustration you can see that man is more than one-dimensional; I hope you can see that man is physical and at the same time; that man is spiritual, and the two can’t be separated from each other, what one does the other either enjoys the consequences of or suffers the consequences of that action. I hope I’ve made my stand on this a little clearer and now I’ll return to where I was before I made that little detour for clarity’s sake.

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. I want you to remember that we aren’t talking solely about financial matters; this command of Jesus talks of much more than just money. We are still talking about civil disobedience and giving to God what is God’s even if it goes against the law of the present day society. And now we are going to look at civil disobedience from a different perspective, and yet it will still be with children in the middle of the focus.
I’m an advocate in the belief of prenatal sin, I’m an advocate, or it is my belief that a child can sin in the womb, that a child can sin prior to birth. You may not believe in this or maybe you’ve never even given it a thought, and that’s okay because I’m not here today to try to change your thoughts or get you to think along the lines my minds goes to. I’m not here to argue about it with anyone because in the final analysis whether you believe it’s possible for a child to sin prior to birth or not, it’s not going to have any effect upon our salvation. Lets go to the Gospel of John reading in the 9th chapter. “As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Look what it says here people, the man was born blind from birth and the disciples are asking who sinned to bring this to happen, the man or his parents. The disciples were with the understanding that the blindness was the result of sin, either the mans, or his parents, and since the blindness was present at the time of birth and that since it could have been the man’s fault or the result of the man’s sin, his sin had to be prenatal. I think you’ll find the words of Jesus to be quite interesting here. Jesus didn’t say, “Well the man couldn’t sin because he hadn’t been born yet and it’s not the result of the parents either”. But what Jesus did say is that neither the man nor his parents sinned resulting in the blindness, thus indicating while not actually saying; that it was possible for either the man or his parents to have sinned and the sin to be the possible cause for the blindness. And in my mind that opens the door to the possibility of pre birth or prenatal sinning.

By now you may be saying; “okay, you’ve got my attention, I may not be buying all of this but you do have my attention. So how can a child sin before birth? How can that be possible?” Although this sounds like a complex question the answer is actually very simple and we have already talked about it. Even before the child is birthed from the womb it is still a person, it is still a little tiny people/person with a spirit and a soul, and remember you have to have a spirit to sin. At the moment of conception that spirit was there and from the moment that spirit was there the ability to sin was there as well. But you don’t have to take my word for it, go to the Scriptures, what do the Scriptures say about this? Psalm 51:5-6 “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surly you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.” Look at psalm 58:3 “Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies.” When a child exits the womb the ability to speak lies is already present. We come with a sin nature already installed, it’s a standard part not an option that is added on later. It’s something we inherited for our farthest removed relatives, Adam and Eve. They are the only humans other than Christ to be born without the sin factor already in their being. Still not sure, look in Genesis in the 6th chapter. “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” That’s very strong language friend, “I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me”; “Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time”. Although modern science is usually at odds with the Holy Scriptures, strangely enough in this case modern science proves the Scriptures out to be correct. Through the marvels of modern science we can measure the brain activity of the youngest embryo in a mother’s womb, through the marvels of modern science we can now see and register the effects of voices on the unborn fetus, man can prove that the unborn child responds to music and to the sound of the parent’s voices while still in the womb. Today parents are encouraged to talk to their unborn child while that child is still in the womb, to sing to the child, to have conversations with the child and the child responds … while still in the womb the unborn child knows and recognizes their parent’s voice. And after birth, the child shows that it has already established a bonding with the parents because it knew them from their voices before the child was born, and that applies to both the mother and the father. It was always known that there was a special bond between the child and the mother because of the mother carrying the child inside her body, but now there is proof that the child can have a bonding with the father and the mother at the time of it’s birth because the child recognizes them from hearing them as they talk to that child. Friend, if that child is capable of thinking about its parents before birth it is capable to make judgments and in its mind conceive sinful thoughts as well. A child developing in an abusive situation, a situation where the mother is being abused by the father or where the mother is in a violent or vile surroundings that child will exit the womb and enter the world with anger or fear or both already in it’s mind, it will already have a predisposed nature to negative emotions and sinful conduct. And I’m not the only one saying this, the Bible is saying it too, the Word of God is saying it. God is saying that every thought is sinful until the proper Word of God is planted in that child’s heart.

If you question this, think for a moment about a small child and their actions. If left to their own design will not a child automatically go to the wrong thing or do the wrong things until they are instructed to do differently? Without any instruction a child is going to run into traffic if not instructed against this behavior, if left alone a child is going to play with fire, stick things in an electrical outlet, fight with other children, scream just for the sake of screaming, take toys from other children and the list goes on and on. Come on now, you know I’m right don’t you? If you don’t instruct a child, if that child isn’t shown the right way or correct way to behave, if that child isn’t trained or instructed in behavior, it is going to be one little monster in activity, in behavior and character. Go to any store or public place, go to any school function or any activity where there is a gathering of children and it won’t take long before you are able to make a distinction between the children that have received proper instruction and correction from the parents in the home and from those who have not. If you study the children’s behavior for just a few moments you will be able to see the ones who behave well in public and the ones who do not, you will be able to see the children that have received instruction and the ones who have not. If left uninstructed little children do little nasty things and bigger children do bigger nasty things and it doesn’t change with age. If you doubt these words just look at the prison systems in the United States, the jails are filled with people who were never filled with the word of God and who were left to their own design and to find their own way in the world. They didn’t gravitate to the right or godly way of doing things, they gravitated to the wrong and ungodly way of doing things and now they are a burden on society and on God’s heart.

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. Remember what we have already established, God’s authority is to be respected over the authority of government, it’s called “Civil Disobedience” and it’s not only acceptable but required when man tries to usurp God and go against God’s commands and laws. I’ve talked a lot about abortion and correctly so because it is one of the biggest contradictions between man and God, but there are others and we will address just a few and most likely not in the same amount of detail as the abortion issue. Time won’t allow for that.

In our society today it is far more acceptable to kill a child through abortion … and talk about it openly … than it is to talk about the circumstances under which the child was conceived if those circumstances were outside the bonds of legal marriage. If we talk openly about abortion in our society today well that’s acceptable, the law said it’s okay to have an abortion and that’s an acceptable practice … because the laws of the land say it’s acceptable, and for the most part, no one gets offended, as long as you aren’t saying that it’s killing children, even though it’s the truth, that’s a no no, then people get offended, they don’t want to hear that part of it. If you say “abortion” well that’s okay, if you say “killing”, well that’s not okay, strange isn’t it how one word is acceptable and the other isn’t? But heaven forbid don’t even talk about how the pregnancy came to be, not if it was through un-matrimonial sin, not if it was through relations outside of the bonds of marriage. Now if you want to offend someone try talking about sexual relations without the marriage bond or a wedding ring. Our society of today, the same one that says abortion is acceptable; also says sexual relations without the ring, God’s blessing and the license are acceptable as well, and I dare say that this is a far more touchy subject and will get you in more hot water than talking about abortions. Why? Because there are a lot more people having sexual relations without the marriage license, God’s blessing and the ring on the finger than there are people having abortions. Although abortions still remain somewhat taboo, having sexual relations in a sinful state is not, not in the society in which we now live, today having intimate relations with someone is almost as common as dating. I hate to have to admit it but it was my generation, the generation of the 60’s that really ushered in this new free lifestyle that has flourished into what we have today and I have to be so ever thankful for God’s grace and mercy in forgiving past sins.

I’ve talked with many young people and if there is one common thread to any of their conversations in regards to the dating process it’s having sexual relations as soon as possible, many times on the first date, before you even know the other person. In our society today the people are intimate with each other before they even know the other person’s last name. In talking with many of these younger people I was amazed to hear that not only is intimate relations a part of the early dating process but it is almost expected, and that’s the opinion of both the men and the women. In regards to our society today I have found out through talking to the young adults and pre-adults that both the men and the women, with the women rapidly becoming the dominant aggressor, intimate relations are integrated into the dating process as early as possible and if one of the partners objects, be it the woman or the man, that person, the one holding back or practicing morality, is then deemed a misfit, and is usually dismissed as a potential partner.

And one of the truly sad parts of this is that our government doesn’t care any longer. Our government and society now turns a blind eye and looks the other way when people enter into intimate relations with each other. Not only does the government and society look the other way, they actually encourage unholy relations between people. Where marriage was once the only acceptable way for a man and woman to cohabit together and should that couple do so without meeting the legal requirements of the law they could find themselves in legal troubles were it reported and if they did cohabit together without falling under the repercussion of the law, after seven years they were considered married under the status known as “Common Law Marriage” this practice was once looked down upon as shameful but it was tolerated and the legal consequences and benefits of marriage then applied to the couple after the seven year period had ended.

But oh how things have changed. All of that is now passé, obsolete, old-fashioned, and out-of-date. The government now allows instant recognition of any relationship as “Domestic Partners” and each partner is allowed the same rewards as the legally married couples. Insurance benefits, medical coverage, shared property, and where is this all headed? The new rage is accepted domestic partners of the same sex; the rewards of marriage now can be applied to homosexuals and lesbians following their perverse lifestyle and demanding “their rights”.

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. As Christians are we to follow the laws of the land when those laws go so terribly, so appallingly against the Word of God? Are we to follow a government edict or decree when it is in clear violation of God’s word or, are we to follow the higher power and enter into civil disobedience? We’ve talked about this earlier in this teaching; the answer now is the same as it was before. The answer to this question is that we are compelled to enter into civil disobedience just as Jesus did. The answer is that we are to follow the ruling of the highest authority and rebel against the lower authorities ruling just as Jesus did when there is a division between the lower authority’s ruling and God’s ruling.

We call it “Civil Disobedience”, it’s a form of rebellion, and that’s exactly what we are to do. In a civil fashion we are to be disobedient to the edict of the government when that edict violates the word of God, in a civil fashion we are to rebel against the government if the government places its self in a position that violates the will and word of God. So how do we go about this civil rebellion against the lawful government, the government established by God and placed in its position of authority over us and over the land? To start with, we don’t form or fashion our rebellion or civil disobedience as the world does, we do so in a fashion that does not harm or taint our Christian image. We do so with respect of persons and property, we do so without anger or violence, we do so in humility and gentleness of spirit. We start with prayer, heartfelt and sincere prayer, prayer in our private life and in our corporate gatherings. We offer prayer in your homes and we offer prayer in public, we pray in our family settings and pray in public gatherings. After prayer we voice our opinion to whoever will listen wherever we can, and at times even when they don’t want to listen; but we do it in proper respect. Contact the politicians of your area, contact the news media, let everyone know that you are taking a stand for God and that you want to follow God’s word over mans word if the two are at odds with each other.

If the violation of God’s word is being promoted via the television or some other form of media, the newspaper, the radio, contact the sponsors of that media and tell them that you intend to boycott their products until they stop supporting this misguided cause. If enough people talk to the bottom line of these big companies, take my word for it; you will get their attention. If enough people talk to the bottom line, the almighty buck, and those bucks stop rolling in you will get someone’s attention and it won’t take very long. These sponsoring companies keep a very close eye on the bottom line; they monitor the flow of cash very closely. They are not in business to just provide a product or a service, they are there to make a buck and if anything interferes in that flow of money they will stand up and take notice real fast.

Contact the politicians who are making the decisions, we need to let them know how we feel; we need to express ourselves clearly. Let the politicians know that we are the voting public and that we have a long memory. Remind them that they are there to serve us and if they can’t they can be replaced in the next election. We need to show ourselves in numbers and let the politicians know that we are watching and we are going to be heard, let them know that we intend to be heard in their offices, in their meetings and in the elections polls as well. Always do so with respect, in the book of Titus, in the 3rd chapter we read; “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.” This is not to say that we walk blindly and are to follow no matter what, remember, God’s authority is the highest authority and we are mandated to follow the highest authority. Again in the book of 1st Peter, in the 2nd chapter we read; “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.” Our elected officials, and those appointed, like them or not, we are to show proper respect. We are allowed to protest, but we are not allowed to show disrespect to our leaders.
Gather together in public places for prayer and petition, let our numbers be seen, there is power in numbers, there is strength in numbers. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work; if one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up. Also if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves, a cord of three strands is not quickly broken”. The Rev. Doctor Martin Luther King knew and understood this concept, using godly principles and acting under the direction of the Holy Spirit Doctor King was able to usher in the greatest change in our nations history since the Civil War.

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. All of us are called by God to be able to understand and divide what belongs to whom. I believe that if you’ve made it to this point in this teaching and I haven’t lost you each of you all have the mental capability to read the scriptures and then make a proper judgment as to what belongs to God and what belongs to man. I believe in my heart of hearts that each hearer of this teaching is able to look at the topics I’ve covered and then has the ability to say with clear conscience “Either this is or this is not in agreement with God’s will and I know that I must stand on the side of God in my support of this topic”.

I’ve only covered a small few items that fall under the “What is God’s will about this” category, money, marriage, children, but there are far too many other items that need our inspection and for those things, time now will not allow. Get out your Bible, if there’s dust on it, blow the dust off and open the pages, get involved with God, read his words, look at what he has to say about pollution, the environment, conservation and use of our natural resources, read what God’s word has to say about war, feeding the hungry and homeless, education, taxes, think of a topic and you’ll find that God has addressed it in his word. It’s all there for our use; it’s all just a turned page away. Hosea 4:6 reads; “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge”. We can’t allow a lack of knowledge to destroy us, with the availability of the diverse amount of educational resources found today there is just no good reason for anyone to not know what God has to say about any subject if only they the person are willing to take a little time and look into God’s word and see what it has to say. I won’t even try to list the resources that are but a fingertip’s touch away because the list grows daily and is so even as I speak. But it’s all out there if we will but only look for it.

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” Each has the right to what they deserve, give what is required and give with joy knowing that when we do our God looks down on us and smiles because we are doing his will.
Grace & peace

How To get The Most Bang For Your Buck

2010-09-08T05:08:00.000-07:00

How To Get The Most Bang For Your Buck
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted
Psalm 119:9-16
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O Lord; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees I will not neglect your word.”

How can we get the most bang for our buck? I’m sure this is a question most of us have asked ourselves many times. Well if we were talking about the actual almighty George Washington good old U S of A one dollar bill many would say to check on the sale items at Wal-Mart, clip coupons, compare product labels, be a comparison shopper and just get the things you need and forget about the wants. Others might recommend buying things in bulk and develop a nice little stockpile we could go to when there’s a shortage of that particular item. We do this to avoid the mad rush and panic shopping we have the propensity to do in times of crisis. When I went to school we used to be told that when there was a low demand prices would drop, the logic being that this was supposed to stimulate sales, offer your goods at a lower price and the people respond by buying more of the item since it now cost less, and then when there was a high demand the prices went up because now people really wanted your product. I don’t think the law of supply and demand works any longer, now it’s “the price goes up no matter what’s going on in the market place”. I would imagine for almost any one this message is reaching out to, you have your own theory on how to get the most bang for your buck. My dear wife can stretch a dollar so far that poor old George Washington looks like he’s been on a forty day fast he’s so thin, and I praise God for her, she’s the money manager in our family, I on the other hand am not.
But we aren’t here to talk about our money or the stretching of a dollar. We are here to talk about God; we are here to talk with him, to worship him, to have fellowship with him, to pay him all respect and to praise him for all we have in us because of all he has done for us even while we are still yet sinners. We are here to have an open and two way conversation with our God, an open dialogue and not a monologue with us doing all the talking and not listening to what God has to say back to us. And how do we go about having this open dialogue with God? Unless you are one of the blessed few that actually hears an audible message from God, the way he communicates with us is through his written word as found in the Bible. And what I want to try to communicate to you today is how we can obtain or get the most benefit to be found, extracting it out of God’s word, his Holy Bible.

I can remember reading a little saying once that said; “if you see a person with a Bible that is worn and tattered, chances are their life isn’t”. If you think about that for an instant you’ll see that there’s a lot of wisdom in that little saying. If we have a Bible that is worn and tattered from hours of use and study, most likely our life is being held together by what that little black book has to say to us. When we put God’s word to use it changes lives, alters people, reshapes history and makes God smile. Reading the Bible is precious indeed, but there is much more to putting God’s word to use in our lives that just reading it from the Good Book. The Bible is the main resource that God uses to plant his good seed in us, but there are many other resources that are readily available to assist that planted seed to reach its full maturity.

One of the additional resources we have at our fingertips are other books written by Spirit filled people obeying what God is telling them to do, which is to write as the Spirit inspires. I would like to think that that is what I do, I pray for divine inspiration and the leading of the Holy Spirit in leading me to write only what the Spirit of God would have me write about, I read the Scriptures, I read other peoples books and when inspired I allow the Spirit to lead me with thoughts and mental images of what I need to say or talk about. It was while reading a book entitled “The Practice of Godliness” by Jerry Bridges that the Holy Spirit came upon me and directed me to pen this message. Mr. Bridges is also the author of another book, “The Pursuit of Holiness”. Both these books are excellent and I would recommend that you find and purchase them through your local book source and add them to your library.

In his book “The Practice of Godliness” Mr. Bridges makes reference to a system of study used by a Christian group he is a member of known as “The Navigators”. Quoting Mr. Bridges, “The Navigators use the five fingers of the hand as mental pegs on which to hang the five methods of intake of the word of God; hearing, reading, memorizing, meditating and study”. And it is this system of hearing, reading, meditating, memorizing and study that we will be looking at throughout this message.

First from this list of good habits for getting to know of God’s word is “Hearing”. Jesus said many times, “He who has ears, let him hear”. We need to hear the word of God; we need to hear it over and over and we need to hear it repetitively. That should be one of the main reasons people go to church, to hear the word of God preached to them from the pulpit by a preacher that hopefully has been inspired by God’s Holy Spirit and is presenting a truly anointed message to them. People need to hear the word of God, they need to have it preached to them in stories and illustrations that stirs something in their mind, something that can cause them to remember what God’s word is trying to say to them, the people need to hear a message that is filled with godly boldness and presented in a manner which they can understand and then apply to their lives in any given situation. It is imperative that the presenter or preacher is in tune to God’s Spirit and is speaking only that which the same Holy Spirit has given him or her and not trying to fill in the blanks with their own personal wisdom or knowledge. There are many truly gifted people who have much worldly wisdom stored up in them and it’s sad to say that when they are presenting the word of God they try to inject this worldly wisdom into their teaching for one reason or another and they end up giving the hearer their own special twist on the scriptures rather than presenting the Word as God would have them present it, they feed the flock according to their way of thinking rather than seeking God’s way of seeing it. When preachers or speakers do this they are working out of their own personal pre-suppositional disposition and worldview.
All of us have our own pre-suppositional disposition; we pre-suppose how things are or how they should be based upon through what our past circumstances have been and what our life experience has shown us. We also call this our “worldview” and it’s how we view the world based on everything we know and how it was instilled in us. If we were raised on a farm in mid-state Ohio, our pre-suppositional disposition, our mindset and thoughts will see and comprehend things based on the mindset of a farmer raised and living in Ohio. If we were raised in a city in France and had been exposed to the French life style for our entire life, seeing only French newspapers and French television, those things being approved and authorized by the French government, then we would see world situations from the perspective of a French city dweller and react thusly. And our actions and how we perceive things as a Frenchman will be far different than the farmer from Ohio. But regardless of how we were raised, where we were raised, what type of environment or social atmosphere we were raised in, regardless of what our pre-suppositional disposition my be, it doesn’t change the one true and undisputable fact that there is only one God and one Holy Spirit and it is from this one True God and Holy Spirit we need to be hearing from and about. We need to lay all of our worldly wisdom aside, cast off our worldly knowledge and become totally dependent upon God and the leading of His Holy Spirit when it comes to discerning what God’s word has to say to us.

Deuteronomy 5:1 says; “Hear O Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing. Learn them and follow them”. There are the words of Moses and he’s speaking to the people of Israel. Moses said this because he knew how important it was for the people of Israel to know what God had to say to them. Moses knew that there is life to be found in God’s word and he wanted the people of Israel to have and enjoy their life in God to the fullest. Friend, hearing God’s word brings many things. It brings comfort, hearing God’s word brings peace, it brings contentment and it brings safety, safety from the snares and traps of the devil. But far more important than all of these things, hearing God’s word brings salvation. Salvation comes through Jesus Christ and Christ alone, and it’s hearing the Gospel message, the Good News, that tells us this.

Worldly wisdom may tell us something different, but God’s word isn’t worldly wisdom, it’s quite different and it’s quite specific, Jesus said that no one comes to the Father except through him. Worldly wisdom may say that to gain entrance to heaven we need to do many good works. Friend, there is nothing wrong in doing good works; we should be doing all the good we can, Lord knows there is a real need for good works in this perverse world in which we find ourselves today. But do all the good we want and it won’t get us into heaven, the doing of good works can’t gain us our salvation. Salvation only comes through belief in our sweet and precious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We can teach or attend Sunday school for thirty years and it won’t get us into heaven. We will be more knowledgeable but we won’t be any closer to entering the gates of heaven. We can commit to memory Bible verse after Bible verse and it won’t get us into heaven. It may help us in being a better witness for Jesus, but it won’t open any doors to paradise. Salvation comes through Jesus and by no other means. In the sixteenth chapter of the book of Acts the jailer asks Paul and Silas what he needed to do to be saved, and their reply was quite simple, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved”. The jailer heard the word and salvation was his for the asking. Hearing the word of God is the key to understanding what it says.

(Ephesians 1:13), “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation”. Hearing is so important when it comes to the word of God. Hearing is so important even when we are reading it for ourselves. I’d like each of you to try something when you are in your quiet place and alone. Get your Bible open and when you start to read, say the words out loud, don’t just read the words but speak them out loud to yourself. When we do this we get three of the senses working in unison to add to our understanding. Our eyes read the words, our lips say them, and our ears hear the words. Once we develop this practice of reading and speaking the words out loud we’ll be amazed at the results. After a short period of time we’ll feel as if all five of the senses are basking in the light of God, not only will our ears be hearing, our lips be speaking and our eyes reading; but we will be able to taste the sweetness of God’s word, smell the fragrant aroma of God’s blessings and we’ll feel the touch of power found therein. So we can see the importance of hearing God’s word, even if it is from hearing our own voice as we read.

Now it’s time to introduce “Reading”, the second segment of this study. You’ll notice that “Reading” was introduced in the last segment as part of the Navigators study habits. Reading is essential in learning and understanding God’s Word. Go to the twelfth chapter of the book of Matthew. In reading verses 3 through 5 we can clearly see that Jesus expects his disciples to read what is found in the scriptures. “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread …which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priest. Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?” We see in this pericope that Jesus was calling the Pharisee’s into account about knowing what the word of God has to say. For any student of God’s word, reading is of utmost importance. If we really want to experience the Living Word of God as an active force in our lives we need to get into the practice of reading God’s word on a regular basis.

In light of the explosion of advanced technology that has burst upon our day there are not many people alive who have a valid excuse for not reading the Bible. The exceptions being of course are those who are blind and don’t have access to brail books, or the ones who just can’t read. And even then they can experience the Bible in an audio fashion with tapes and CD’s or any one of the Christian radio and television shows that are to be found on the airwaves 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Also the Bible has never been more accessible to the masses or easier to read, there’s a translation of the Bible that meets the needs of practically any person who desires to read it. We have easy reading Bibles such as the Living Bible, The Way, the New King James, the NIV, The Message and several others. There are study and devotional Bibles designed and set up for either men or women, each addressing topics or social issues that are most common to that particular person. Student Bibles, Bibles that come already color-coded to highlight selected themes, and any number of other specialty Bibles. We can find the Bible printed in just about every language found on the face of the earth and if it’s not printed in some far and remote language, I’m sure there is someone out there who is working on that problem and it will be coming out soon. We have Bibles that are specifically designed to be read in predetermined segments over the course of one year, Bibles that are laid out in chronological order, and Bibles that come in every size or price range. The point I’m attempting to make is that there is a Bible out there that has been designed to meet the need of just about every single person regardless of their learning ability, their level of comprehension, their reading level, their financial ability or their nationality and native tongue. As previously stated, there are not many valid reasons for not reading the Bible.

To gain more from reading the Bible, we need to set an attainable objective or personal goal of selecting a time on a regular and daily basis when we can read if only for just a few minutes, regardless of how active or busy our hectic schedules may be, we can all find a few minutes of free time and that’s all it takes to start with. Once we make that effort to put God’s written word in our lives on a regular basis we will be pleasantly surprised to see just what God does for us. We will start to experience a peace like nothing we have never known before, we will start to experience contentment in our present circumstances to the likes of which we didn’t know was possible. Is this to say that once we start reading “The Good Book” every little piece of our life will fall into place and we will never again experience another problem or have another setback or painful moment invade our life? Is this to say that once we start reading the Bible our lives will be filled with nothing but joy and happiness and all misfortune will pass by our door without ever stopping in to disrupt our lives? No, chances are that isn’t going to happen, Jesus himself told us that the rain was going to fall on the just and the unjust in equal measure, it comes with having to live in a fallen world, a world that still contains sin and pain and sorrow. But what I am saying is that once we start to read the word of God, once we start to release the power found in that word, it’s going to have a major impact on how we react to the situations and circumstances that are going to occur around us. Both good and not so good things are still going to enter our lives, death of loved ones, loss of a job, family squabbles and the like are still bound to happen every once in a while. But what is going to happen is that we will see a change in how we look at those circumstances and how we react to the events we each call “life”. Calmness will settle in, a peace will surround us and we will know that God is near. We will still have problems; we may even find ourselves not only in deep waters but also up to our neck in alligators as well every once in a while. But we will be assured that we don’t have to go through the problem on our own, that there is one that can calm the waters of life and close the mouths of the alligators, we will know that Jesus is going to be there every step of the way and it’s his strength that is going to carry us through the fires of controversy and deep waters of troublesome circumstance we will face.

“Study”; the third segment of our teaching for today. After we’ve started to hear and read God’s word we need to develop the habit of studying God’s word. There is a huge difference between reading, hearing and studying. When we hear God’s word it feeds our soul, it places seeds and nourishment inside our inner being even when we aren’t fully attuned to the message. We may hear what a person is saying and be able to comprehend their words but our mind may be off thinking about something else all together. Problems with the children, the family, and our job, there are many distractions that can filter into our mind as we listen to someone present a good and godly message.
When we read God’s word then we are a little more focused, the word calls to us in a deeper fashion, its right there in front of us and we are looking at it. Both reading and hearing are good but we need to move into a deeper area of understanding, we need to do a full exegesis of God’s word and that comes from doing a complete and comprehensive studying of God’s word, from absorbing and really taking in what that word has to tell us. In less than a minute we can read the entire thirteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians, the beautiful explanation of what true love is. But we could spend an entire month of intense study in those same thirteen verses and not gain the full knowledge or understanding of what this chapter holds. It’s in our time of studying that is found the full revelation of what God has for us in his word. It’s through study and meditation on God’s word that we see the beautiful jewels of wisdom that lay just below the surface. Reading is like sitting in a boat and looking down into the water, we can see ever so slightly what lies below us, but the sun and the atmosphere distort what is just beyond our sight beneath the surface. But study is like peering through a glass bottom box that has been placed in the water to break the surface. Once the reflective qualities of the surface have been pushed aside or penetrated we can see to a far greater depth and discover so much more than we could before we broke the surface.

The amount of resources that are available to the serious student of the scriptures today is wonderful and almost endless. Study guides, study Bibles, commentaries, Bible dictionaries, Bible atlases, maps and charts, tapes and CD’s, all of this is readily available through a great number of outlets. And of course then there is the Internet. The Internet holds a vast amount of material, a literal mountain of material. It’s like having a library card to every library in the world. At the touch of a few strokes of our fingers we can open and view more resources that the people of just a few years ago would have thought impossible to access. One of the best sites I’ve found is www.blueletterbible.org; in one place you have six different translations of the Bible, five different commentaries, a dictionary, word search, and the Greek and Hebrew lexicon. I find this site to be kind of like a “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance” x10 on steroids. Another great sire is www.Bible.com, another site that offers services that are for the serious student a wonderful tool there for your use.
One of the amazing things you’ll find about developing a good routine of studying the Holy Scriptures is that it can become addictive, and I mean that to be taken in a good way. But when doing extensive study, we need to pace ourselves. We need to pray about our course of action and seek the Spirit’s direction as to what we are to study and then pursue that topic with gusto. And again I warn you, do so with caution, God’s word can become so interesting to study that before we know it half an evening can be gone and we feel as if we had just started, researching God’s word is just that good.

Each of us will find that we are led to different interests and themes, each of us will have different levels of in interest and different study habits, but that’s okay because if we all did the same thing at the same time life would become very boring in a very short period of time. So whether we allocate our time for study to be in the morning, afternoon or the evening hours will be dependent upon how our personal schedule flows, but regardless of what time frame we find to be best for us, I encourage each of you to be totally diligent in the task that lies before you. (Psalm 1:1-3) “1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”

Our fourth segment is “Memorization of Scriptures”. For some of us the memorization of passages will come to us with very little effort, for others the task may be a little more difficult, the goal a little harder to obtain. But rest assured; the goal is obtainable. Work at your own speed and set your own level of goals, commit the passages of Scripture to memory that best spark your interest and hold your attention. I can assure you that regardless of what subjects you select for study and memorization you are going to find many passages of Scripture that pertain to your area of interest and each of them will be a true blessing to you. Memorized passages of Scripture can be a wonderful tool to be used in our witness to others but do so with all humility. In many of the teachings that I’ve given I always tell the people that I’d rather associate with the person who only knows one passage from the Bible and lives it out in their life rather than the person who knows volume’s of passages but doesn’t apply any of it to their life.

The memorization of Scripture is a great ego builder; it helps us develop confidence in whom we are in Christ Jesus and in what we believe as the foundation of our faith, and as before stated, it assists us in developing our witness for our King. But again, I would admonish you, practice humility in your endeavor. A gentle and sincere witness for Christ will be far more effective than an arrogant or prideful witness. A few well placed and heart felt words offered with a sprinkling of Scripture will reach the unsaved far better than reams of words and volumes of Scripture offered for the wrong purpose of self aggrandizement. A simple yet effective rule of thought to remember is; if we are impressed with the looks of our halo, remember that it only has to fall about ten inches to become a noose around our neck. (Proverbs 16:18) say’s it best. “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall”.

King David knew the importance of memorization of the Scriptures. Look at David’s words given to his son Solomon as found in (Proverbs 7:1). “My son, keep my words and store up my commandments within you”. How would King Solomon store up his fathers words within him? By committing them to memory. Again we read the words from the pen of King David, (Proverbs 10:14), “Wise men store up knowledge”. David isn’t talking about saving it to a floppy disk or on a CD; he’s talking about having it placed permanently in the mind, he’s talking about having it memorized and stored in our thinking. King David not only told others to retain in their minds the things of God, he practiced what he preached, he lived and learned from his own advice. (Psalm 119:11), “I have hidden your words in my heart that I might not sin against you”.

Did David sin? You bet he did, and his sins were great and terrible on the grandest scale. David committed adultery with another man’s wife, Bathsheba, whom David got pregnant. Then David arranges the murder of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah the Hittite, he does this so he can marry Uriah’s wife. And who was Uriah? One of David’s trusted and most honorable solders; and this murder was arranged through very devious means and a total misuse of David’s kingly authority. Why did David do this? David did all this in an effort to cover over his sins, but in the end the King of Israel acknowledged that sins can’t be covered over, he realized that God sees all sin and knows everything we do and that covering over a sin will never work, but asking for God’s forgiveness through His grace and mercy will. Not only will God’s grace and mercy cover over our sins but also it will completely remove them.

Look closely at the wording of (Psalm 119:11). “I have hidden your words in my heart that I might not sin against you”. King David had God’s word hidden in his heart. Haven’t all of us at some time or another hidden something away so well that we forget where we put it? I think this is what David did, he knew what God’s word said, he knew what God wanted and expected of him, but in his desires to fulfill his own personal lust of the flesh for this forbidden woman he forgot where that word was for a time, and by forgetting about it he was able to ignore it as he pursued his own desires of the flesh rather than pursuing God’s desires in his life and it got him into trouble and sin. But over time and by knowing that he had been seen by God he was able to pull that hidden word out and apply it to his life, he was able to repent of his sins, he was able to seek forgiveness and he accepted God’s grace and mercy and David learned from his mistakes and not only did he learn and repent, he didn’t repeat those same mistakes again. We all need to learn the power of that message, all of us sin, the Bible tells us that each of us is a sinner and friend; this is a fact and cannot be disputed or denied. But praise be to God, all of us can repent and ask forgiveness for our sins because of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. But the key to unlocking the door that holds us in the bondage of sin is to follow the example of King David, once we repent and our sins are forgiven, we need not repeat those sins again. Once the applied grace and mercy have done their redemptive work we need to walk away for the acts that led us into sin to begin with. Again, how did David do this? By having the word of God stored in his heart, by knowing what God’s word has to say.

And that brings us to our final segment, meditation, or the act and art of meditating. I realize that on the surface meditation and memorization appear to be somewhat one and the same thing. Do we not have to meditate on something for a time before we can memorize it? And to some degree the answer is “yes” to that question, but there is a distinct difference between these two practices. I like the explanation Mr. Bridges uses in his book “The Practice of Godliness”. In his book he says “The word meditate as used in the Old Testament literally means to mummer or to mutter and by implication, to talk to oneself. When we meditate on the Scriptures we talk to ourselves about them, turning over in our minds the meaning, the implications, and the applications to our own lives”. Mr. Bridges then goes further on to explain that while the memorization process deeply plants a seed of scripture in the mind, using the process of meditation, a totally different process, this allows the seed planted in the mind through memorization to grow and take root in the heart. Memorization is the planting of a seed in the ground but meditation is the feeding and watering of that seed which brings about good fruit. The process of memorization opens the door and allows entry so that the process of meditation can begin. How can one meditate on something if they don’t know what or where that something is? How could any of us meditate on the nine fruits of the Spirit in our hearts without having the Bible placed before us and opened to the correct page if we hadn’t first memorized what those nine fruits are? If we’ve committed to memory a passage or even a segment of that passage, just a few words or highlights of that passage, we can carry it everywhere we go. We don’t need to have the “Good Book” right in front of us, we don’t need a printed page, we can carry that word in our mind and are able to meditate upon it in our heart. So we can see that although the two, memorization and meditation go hand in hand, there is a distinct difference between them.

So there we have it, the completed message as led by the Holy Spirit. We’ve come to the end of this teaching; we now have the formula for getting “The most bang for our buck” out of the scriptures. I guess another way of saying this is to state it as “getting the most use from the wealth we have”. Every one of us should be able to profit from this message. Remember the symbol of the hand used by the Navigators, the mental image of the five fingers, “Hear, Read, Study, Memorize, and Meditate”. Hear God’s word, use any of the various means available, teachings in the church, tapes, radio, television, CD’s, the list goes on and on. Read God’s word, we’ve already talked about this, there is no real good reason for not having a Bible handy for us to read, they come in just about every language, they come in just about any size and are geared to almost every interest or reading level. Study God’s word. There are so many little messages to be found in every portion of Scripture, and no one message is any more important than the other. God talks to us through revelation and that revelation is revealed through study. Memorize God’s word. Committing to memory is the planting of the seed; it’s the first step that assists us in preparing for the harvest that is to come. And finally, meditate on God’s word. Ponder that word; contemplate what God is telling you, mull over it time and time again, waiting on God to reveal his perfect will, his perfect revelation.

In closing let’s go to God’s word one final time. Reading from Psalms in the 19th chapter we find this wonderful jewel.
“The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold: they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward”.

May our Lord Jesus Christ bless you in all you do as you share in the precious banquet of God’s word that will meet your every need and fill your every void. Amen!

Grace & peace

God or Baal? Your choice!

2010-07-08T14:41:00.000-07:00

God or Baal? Your choice!
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All scripture verse used is from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted

“Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." But the people said nothing.”(1st Kings 18:21)

I find it amazing how God works sometime, my wife and I took a trip to Maryland when I first retired from New York State Corrections, travel was one of the things we wanted to do when we had the time and since my parents had always said the same thing and then when my father retired they never went anywhere, by then his mind was deteriorating at a rapid rate and travel was out of the question and subsequently their dream ended. With none of us really knowing what is in store for us in the future my wife and I decided that we would not repeat the actions of our parents and said “Lets Go”, and so we did. As is my daily routine I usually raise early and try to do a Bible study each day and even on holiday in someone else’s home I like to follow that routine. It was before 06:00 in the morning and in the kitchen of my friend’s home I had already gotten out my Bible and opened it to the book of 1st Kings, the eighteenth chapter. I found a paper and pen on her desk, something I was sure she wouldn’t mind me using and before starting to read decided I’d make a pot of coffee first. When I turned back to the kitchen table I saw that my friend’s cat had gotten up on the table and was laying on my Bible, it truly did look like the cat was reading my Bible and I instantly knew that this was going to be a special reading this day, even one of God’s creatures, a cat, knew that 1st Kings was the passage for the day and the following is what the Holy Spirit brought to mind from that reading.

“Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." But the people said nothing.” (1st Kings 18:21) With-in the Christian community there has been much controversy over the topic of predestination, the topic has divided the people into two camps, Calvinism and Arminianism, Calvinism claims that there is among God’s people predestination, some are predestined to go on to glory through salvation and some are not. They believe that God has preordained some to have the full experience of his glory in heaven and likewise he has already selected whom he will not have in heaven with him. Arminianism makes no such claim, rather the concept is that we all have a choice as to whether we will accept salvation or not, in essence, the ball is in your court, what are you going to do with it? Great theologians have debated this subject for eons and the debate continues on today. I on the other hand do not claim to be a great theologian, I’m a simple country preacher who knows my salvation is assured because I know Jesus Christ died for my sins and I accept his atoning work on the cross as the sacrifice that has been offered to God the Father for my sins and I acknowledge Jesus as the Lord of my life.

In 1st Kings eighteen were we to read the entire chapter we see Elijah talking to the people of Israel, they all are in the middle of an extreme drought and there is famine throughout the land. Elijah is confronting King Ahab; who is the husband of Queen Jezebel, both of them being a follower of the false god Baal. Because of the leadership of this king and his wife, she actually being the leader and he the puppet king, the people likewise have chased after the false god and in doing so have angered the one true God, the Lord God Jehovah, and in his wrath he has allowed this drought and famine to come upon the land and the people that live in that land are experiencing just what God’s wrath can be. Elijah is challenging the people in his statements, he’s asking them how long they are going to follow this false god and suffer the wrath of the true God, he’s challenging them to either follow the true Almighty God or follow Baal, Elijah is telling them that they have an option, pick one or the other but do something because the clock is ticking and time is running out for them, the drought is severe and the famine is deadly.

Does this reading address predestination? Can we apply this as fuel for the fires of Calvinism or Arminianism? As a simple country preacher I can’t say that we can or not, but what I can and do say is that from this reading of scripture it appears that Elijah is telling the people that they have a choice as to who they are going to follow and that it’s time they make a public declaration as to who their God is going to be. And it is also quite obvious that the people were not ready to make any such choice just yet. When the question was placed directly before them and they knew that they were in the middle of a drought and severe famine what was their reaction? They still were fence sitting, not wanting to go to the left or the right. Don’t we see this still in the church of Jesus Christ today? All of us can see that there is something going on in the world, in our nation, in our communities, in our families and in the church that is not right and yet we still want to follow the worldly ways, we are afraid to take a stand for what God said is right and what is wrong. We want to be politically correct and not offend anyone rather than being Biblically correct and addressing sin as what it is, sin, something that is offensive to God and a stench to his nostrils. The church today wants to make sure that everyone is welcomed through the doors and that no one is left outside in the cold even if it means not addressing the sins of the people so as not to offend anyone. Friend, there is nothing wrong in inviting everyone into the church of Jesus Christ, we are even commanded to do just that, in (Matthew 28:19-20) Jesus said: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” But when we invite everyone to come into the church if they are coming with luggage that is filled with sinful behavior they need to leave their luggage at the door, we need to make sure that the people are welcome but their sinful behavior isn’t. If it’s offensive to God it shouldn’t be in the church! Mind you know, I’m talking about the sinful behavior, not the people. The people are welcome; the sin is not. Don’t shout me down just yet because you know that what I say is the truth. Today we have churches that are filled with people that practice all types of sinful behaviors on a regular basis and the leaders behind the pulpit say nothing about it because they are afraid that they might offend someone. I have to ask you a question, which do you think would be the better option? Saying something about sinful behavior now while the people are here in front of us and they can be shown that their behavior is offensive to God and possibly change that behavior or say nothing now and wait until they stand before God in judgment and then they hear from God that their behavior was offensive and they are cast off to hell?

"How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." It doesn’t seem to be that hard of a question not does it? How long do we think they the people of sinful behavior within the confines of God’s church should be allowed to waver between two opinions before we tell them the truth of the situation? Like it or not, sin is sin and God won’t stand for it, sin is offensive and God will not abide with it in his kingdom and neither should we in our churches. Should the church be a place where sinful people congregate? Of course! The scriptures tell us that all of us are sinful people, every one of us is a sinful person, if we weren’t we wouldn’t have needed the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to pay for our sins. But the object of being a believer in Jesus Christ is for each of us to try to lead a life as sin free as we can. There are many people that know and believe that there is one true God, the difference between them and the Christian that one follows the teachings of Jesus and the other doesn’t, even Satan and his demons know there is one true God, the scriptures tell us this. “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” (James 2:19) Will we ever hit the mark of perfection while in this life? No, but we still should strive for that mark and when we fail we need to ask for forgiveness and then move on with life again trying to live as sin free as possible. We can’t turn a blind eye to sinful behavior and pretend that it doesn’t exist, not in our own life and not in the church. If we as a person sin we need to go before God and ask forgiveness and likewise if there are people in the church that are leading a sinful lifestyle they also need to go before God and ask for forgiveness and should they feel that they don’t need to do this they need to be ejected from the church until such time as they have repented and sought God’s forgiveness. I can almost hear the gasps now, “Did he say eject them from the church?” Yes I did say just that and that is what needs to be done if someone refuses to follow the guidelines of the scriptures and flaunts it in the face of the church. You may be asking if there is any precedence found in the Bible for me to make such a harsh statement, and the answer to that question is a resounding, “Yes, this is exactly what the scriptures tell us to do.

The apostle Paul addressed this in his correspondence with his student and spiritual son, Timothy. “Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.” (1st Timothy 1:18-20) Hymenaeus was teaching that the resurrection of the saints had already come (see 2nd Tim. 2:18) and it is not recorded what the problem was with Alexander but it is not improbable that his sin was the same since they are both listed together in 1st Timothy and the two of them were excommunicated from the church. This theme is repeated again in 1st Corinthians in the fifth chapter. “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife. And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.” (1st Corinthians 5: 1-5). Are these people to be rejected from fellowship forever? No, only until such time as they repent and their sins confessed before God and God’s grace and mercy applied by forgiveness, then they are to be restored to fellowship and snatched back for the hand of Satan before they loose their soul. “If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” (2nd Corinthians 2:5-11). I pray that I have shown you the scriptural background for my argument in regards to this issue of sinful behavior in the church and how we are to deal with it. It’s not about being politically correct, it’s not about protecting someone’s feelings, it’s about being biblically correct and saving them from the fires of hell.

Would this be a popular action to take within the church today? No most likely not but it’s not about being popular either, it’s not about numbers and growing a huge following of people. (Galatians 1:10) says; “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” I realize that the mega church is all the rage today but as for me, I’d rather attend a church partially filled with a few solid believers than a church of thousands that didn’t follow the directions of our King. Numbers aren’t everything you know, our God isn’t impressed with the number of people in the church as if the larger the number the better the church, he’s more interested in the heart of the believers that follow and that they are reaching out to the unsaved offering them a sound and solid message of salvation rather than the number of people that attend but haven’t heard the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In 1st Kings eighteen we can find an example of this, if you look in the nineteenth verse we can get an idea of the number of people Elijah was dealing with: “Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table.” Although the challenge Elijah was about to issue went out to the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah with all the people of Israel to be invited as witnesses, only the prophets of Baal came forward to accept that challenge so the combat of the gods was going to be the one sole follower of God Almighty, Elijah, against four hundred and fifty false prophets and all of this was to take place before the people of Israel, they acting as the witness to record the outcome. In verses twenty-two through twenty-five Elijah lays out the ground rules for his challenge, he tells them that we each get a bull to slaughter, we each build a fire pit and fill it with wood and we each then place the sacrifice on the wood and wait for the god of our choice to ignite the wood and burn up the sacrifice. That sounds simple enough, arrange the wood, put on top of the wood the dead animal and then use nothing to light the fire other than the power of the god you pray to. You pray to your god and I’ll pray to my God and lets see how it comes out, lets see who has the real deal in their corner to get this forerunner of the community barbecue cooking. Elijah, always the gentleman of God allows the prophets of Baal to go first and they start calling upon their god but with little success. “ So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. "O Baal, answer us!" they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.” (1st Kings 18:26)

You see my friend there is an object lesson to be learned from this verse. Just as we looked at the allowance of sinful lifestyles within the church and how it’s is not to be, when praying to God we need not be dancing around the subject proper and seeking assistance from a strange but unreal and dead god but rather go directly to the one true God if we want results for our efforts. The fact of the matter is, as these prophets of Baal are about to learn, is that there is only one God. Offering prayer, worship, time or energy to anything other than the one true God is fruitless, a waste of time and effort and actually offensive to God, it like all other sin is a stench to his nostrils. We can see this in the reading of this passage, and if we continue reading further we can see that there is more of the lesson to be learned from this passage of holy writ. “At noon Elijah began to taunt them. "Shout louder!" he said. "Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened." So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.” (1st Kings 18:27-29)

Not only is prayer to a false god futile and ineffectual, it can be down right harmful to the prayer offering party. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not we as humans have a spiritual as well as a physical side to us. We have our human nature, our flesh and blood body and we have our spiritual nature too, and it’s the spiritual nature that Jesus talked about most of the time in his earthly ministry. Did Jesus minister to the physical needs of the people? Of course he did, we have many examples of this in the four synoptic gospels, the feeding of the five hundred, many healings of physical abnormalities; even the making of wine for a wedding ministered to the physical need of the people. But much of the time Jesus was talking about the spiritual nature of man and the effects a sinful life will have upon that spiritual nature, which in turn can have devastating effects upon the physical man as well. Contrary to the belief of some all physical illness is not the direct result of sin in a person, sometimes sickness comes from the fact that we live in a fallen world, a world that isn’t perfect and that has harmful elements in it that cause sickness, pain and suffering. Should a person suffer from some type of chronic breathing problem because they worked in a coal mine can we call that the result of a sinful nature? If another person is hiking along a mountain path sing psalms and praying to our Lord, and they happen to fall from the path and break a leg is it sin that caused the injury or is it just the law of gravity; a law created by God, that caused the person to stumble and fall thus creating the injury? But just as not all sickness and injury are the result of sin, some sickness and injury are, a drive by shooting by rival gangs, drug use and subsequent overdose, an auto accident by the drunk driver are a few of the most obvious. But there is also the kind of sickness and injury that can’t be seen by the naked eye, where the sinful lifestyle has taken a toll on the physical person, maybe mental illness that torments or the anxiety that many suffer from greed or jealously. The list of sins committed by men and women are many and the results of the drain on the physical part of the men and women are diverse and many too. In verses twenty-seven through twenty-nine the people offering useless prayer to a false god are harmed in a physical way that is self induced, that is self inflected, they cut and slashed themselves with swords and spears. In many cultures even today this is still a common practice, in many parts of Africa and in India and elsewhere about the world the people still inflict physical pain and blood letting upon themselves as a part of their prayers and worship to a dead and useless god, a god conceived in the minds of men and women who can neither see, hear or respond in any way. Our Lord does not only forbid prayer of any kind offered to a false idol; but as we have seen in our readings today, false idol worship is totally useless. Our Lord addresses this practice so eloquently in his Word, look at what God has to say about this in (Isaiah 44:12-20) “The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint. The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. It is man's fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm; I see the fire." From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, "Save me; you are my god." They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, "Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?" He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, "Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”
In 1st Kings, chapter eighteen, verse twenty-six it says in regards to the useless prayers of the prophets of Baal “Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. "O Baal, answer us!" they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.” You see friend, just as these people danced around the altar they made we can do likewise. But in the end all of our dancing about the issues, about the altars we make will be futile if we aren’t serving the one true and living God Almighty. We can sing dance and shout all we want but if we aren’t calling out to the only true God who has the ability to respond we are only wasting our time and breath. We can be like the people found in verse twenty-eight, we can dance and shout, we can work ourselves up to a frenzy, to the point of exhaustion and it will all be for naught. If our efforts aren’t directed in the right direction, to the cross of Jesus Christ and our eyes aren’t focused on God the Father our actions will be nothing more that what they are on the surface, just our actions with no base or true foundation to stand upon! Because if there is no true God to receive our worship it is all just a sham and useless, words sent into the morning mist with no one to receive them.
So far we’ve been looking at this reading from 1st Kings eighteen more from a personal perspective, we have been looking at what this portion of scripture has to say to the individual but we haven’t looked at what this portion of scripture has to say to the church as a whole. This portion of scripture, this eighteenth chapter of 1st Kings is a virtual treasure chest of wealth for the church today and any pastor that is not using both the Old Testament as well as the New is missing out on a mountain of wisdom that was designed for God’s church. Lets go on to verse thirty to see what is to be found. “Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come here to me." They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD, which was in ruins.” There is a reason why God used this precise wording in his Holy Scriptures, God didn’t say that Elijah just call the people together and they responded and then leave it at that. No he added a little more which adds much more to the meaning of this passage. Here the symbolism of Elijah calling the people to him is the same as God calling his church to him. When Elijah’s call to the people was made they responded by coming and once they came what did Elijah do? He repaired the altar, which was in ruins. Friend, this is what can happen to the church today if they hear the call of God and respond by coming to him after hearing that call. The church today is in disarray, it’s fractured over disputes that are attacking both from outside the church and from within at the same time. Christianity is under attack in the courts, on the streets, in the news media, by our own government, at both the state and federal levels. Legislation that places restrictions and censure on pastors and the general Christian public is being passed by our elected officials at a rate that is mind boggling to the point that even the watchdog groups can’t keep track of what is happening and happening so fast in multiple bills all at the same time. Perversions of God’s Word are being forced upon us and should we resist on the grounds of our Christian belief we are liable to law suit for expressing our said Christian belief. We are experiencing an outpouring of politicians whom no longer are concerned with the will of their constituents but rather vote and pass law after law and bill after bill solely on their own personal beliefs and like deer standing in the headlights of an on coming truck we stand there deaf, dumb and blind waiting to be hit but not moving. Within the church there is debate going on that is eating away at the very foundation of the assembly as to whether we as a people should allow people of perversion to hold office at any and all levels of the hierarchy of the institution in which they stand when God’s word is clear and precise. God wants people of sound moral character in his church at all levels, people that know and follow his decrees and not pervert them to meet their own personal desires. We see ministers behind the pulpit that express the opinion that God doesn’t even exist or if he does we need not follow his outdated rules and regulations as found in the Bible or at best pick and choose the ones we want to use and reject the rest because they go against their own personal beliefs and the society in which we live. But it doesn’t have to be this way, we as believers don’t’ have to accept this tainted outlook. “Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come here to me." They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD, which was in ruins.” If we come to God again, and truly repent of our sins, as a person and as a nation, if we bend the knee and acknowledge that God is the King over our lives and that his word as given in the Bible is our rule and guide for life he will repair our altars and heal our churches. If we as a body of believers come back to God and earnestly seek his face and allow his Holy Spirit to give us direction and allow Godly wisdom to have her way in our congregations the healing will begin and strength will again return to the church and regenerate the people. God’s word tells us that this will happen, friend it’s in the Bible, it’s right there if we will take the time to look at it. “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.” (2nd Chronicles 7:14). It can happen, healing can begin, our fragmented churches can be restored, our broken altars can be repaired and God will take up residence in our land and it’s people and bless them again if we just turn to him and reject the false idols and false gods that are placed about our country. These gods aren’t real, they may be a trick of Satan but we the people have allowed them to take root in our hearts and in our churches. But the good news is that we the people can take a stand and remove them just as well, and as surely as we allowed them to be put in place. Satan doesn’t have the power or the authority to force us to follow his false gods and his false teachings and The Almighty God of all creation who does have the power to force his will upon us won’t, he’s given us free will and the ability to make decisions on our own and now it’s time we make the decision to come back to the God of our forefathers, to return to the God that brought us out of the desert and into his land of milk and honey.
I’m going to close now but before doing so I’ll leave you with two scriptures, ponder their meaning if you will for a moment, think about what they say and see if they won’t assist you in making one of the most important decisions you will ever make. The first comes from the book of James, chapter four, verse seven: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” We have the ability to resist the devil, the authority of God through the blood of Jesus Christ has given us that power, we don’t have to allow Satan to rule and reign, he was defeated by the cross and has to hide from God’s presence if we so desire to exercise our rights as children of the Living God and co-heirs with the Risen Savior. The second verse I want to leave with you is from 1st Peter, the second chapter and the ninth verse from that chapter. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” We are a chosen people, chosen by God to be his people, to be a royal priesthood and a people belonging to God himself, what an honor that is! And he has called us to come out of the darkness of the world and into his wonderful light, and once we see things in God’s light we will never want to return to the darkness again. That darkness didn’t just happen, it wasn’t like a light bulb was turned off and it became dark around us instantly. Satan was slipping his darkness around us little by little and with each addition of darkening sin we experienced over time we slowly became used to it, we accepted it until we were unable to see our way out. But Jesus came and his Spirit is shedding godly light everyplace he goes and God’s light is far more powerful than Satan’s darkness, all we need do is open our hearts to allow that light to filter in and illuminate our very soul. James, the brother of Jesus said it most eloquently when he, inspired by the Holy Spirit told us that God was the Father of Lights and well he is, just let that light shine in you and through you and you’ll be amazed at what can happen.
Grace & peace

Jesus Broke the Barriers

2010-06-03T05:58:00.000-07:00

Jesus Broke the Barriers
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All scripture verse is from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted

What are the barriers each of us face in our daily walk today? There are many kinds of barriers to be encountered by each person and sometimes we never know where they are going to come from or where they will take us but each has an effect on our life, how we treat other people, how we react to other people or how we react to the circumstances we encounter. Some barriers are healthy and some are not, knowing that there is a barrier between us and something that is harmful or dangerous for our person or our spirit is a healthy barrier, knowing when to stop and not enter into a situation that could have a negative effect upon our witness for Jesus Christ is healthy for both the person and the spirit. A barrier that is insulting or restrictive in nature stopping us from accomplishing what God has in store for us is not something that we could call a healthy barrier, if it’s not productive or positive for us then we should avoid that barrier at all cost. Barriers come in all shapes and sizes, in all colors and conditions, they can come at any time in any location and when we least expect to see them but know full well that at some point in our life a barrier is going to come before us and have to know instinctively how we are going to react to that situation as it happens.

The Bible is our best book of instruction and example for how we should act when a barrier is placed before us, knowing what God’s word says and how to apply it in our life should be the goal of every Christian and it’s only through study or divine intervention of the Spirit that the answers and solutions will come to us when confronted by the barriers of life. For some of the barriers we will encounter we can find comfort in knowing that Jesus has already addressed them for us and he has broken those barriers and cleared a way for us to pass through with little or no problem whatsoever. It is with this thought in mind that we progress into the land of barriers and look at how Jesus handled them and what the end result is for us the believer of today who is dependent upon Jesus, his Holy Spirit and the direction of the Father of all creation.

The first barrier we see is the racial barrier, today there is much emphasis being placed upon race as a barrier, there is division between the races, between the white and the black race, between the Hispanic and the oriental or maybe the middle eastern people of the world. The news media feeds us information that fuels the fires of controversy calling attention to differences and usually finding the slightest incident and then making it look as if half the world were focused in on that incident when in reality there is little to nothing at all to be made from the situation the media is trying to hyperbolize. Is there racial difference between the peoples of the various nations and races? Of course there is; that’s what makes us so wonderful. It’s the fact that there is difference between us that makes life bearable. If we were all the same it would be a very dull world indeed. If every person we met was exactly as we are it would be like looking at the sands of the shoreline and never seeing a sea shell or any of the wonders the ocean brings forth on that sand. If it were nothing but sand it would be nice but after a while it would be boring to look at and there would be no challenge to the imagination. We need those differences to add spice to our life. Think how boring it would be if every person you met were female; had red hair, green eyes and the perfect size body, the right weight, the right height and dressed impeccably.Sure it’s a pleasure to see someone like that but if everyone were like that and no one stood out in the crowd it would be so common place that you would never look at anyone at all because what good would it do if they were all the same? But if you are in a room filled with a variety of people and someone with those characteristics enters you take notice of them instantly we admire them. Jesus addressed the racial issue when he talked with the woman at the well as recorded in the gospel of John in the forth chapter.(John 4:1-9) “The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)"

On the surface this doesn’t sound like much of a racial barrier today but in the time of Jesus’ physical presence on the earth for Jesus to even talk with the woman at the well was a great taboo or barrier and he broke four barriers of his day with his simple question of asking for a drink of water, and it is this four barriers that we will look at starting with the racial barrier. Jesus was a Jew and the woman was a Samaritan, she was of the people that Father God had specifically told his chosen people, the Jews, to avoid in the Old Testament. One of the arguments some people have against granting Jesus his rightful place as Deity, as God, is that he didn’t establish any divinely inspired rules or regulations but such is not the case because right here we see Jesus establishing a new rule or ordnance which ended the old order of things by ending the racial barriers which up to that point had been in place. Were this action of Jesus, the talking to the Samaritan woman, a violation of the will of Father God Jesus would have never spoke with her. But by his talking with the woman Jesus was fulfilling the will of the Father and making a public statement that those racial barriers are to me no more. By Jesus talking to this un-named woman he crushed years of tradition and ended one of the long standing barriers that separated the people in the land in which they lived. They walked by each other on a daily basis, they may have shopped next to each other, worked next to each other but they didn’t communicate with each other, it was taboo, it just didn’t happen. Sounds strange doesn’t it, can you imagine working by someone or shopping next to someone or just passing by on the road and not saying hello, not stopping and talking or at least saying good morning to that person? And yet doesn’t this happen right now today in America, a tradition that has been around for two hundred years. We have laws that say it doesn’t happen we have mandates and regulations that say it doesn’t happen but it does happen every time we walk past someone and don’t acknowledge the presence of that person. There was a time when people would pass each other on the street and men would tip their hat to each other, children stepped out of the way from the adults, and ladies would nod hello, such is not the case today, we are too busy, maybe talking to someone on a cell phone, texting or something like that. We can’t acknowledge the person we are passing; they might think we are up to something. We wouldn’t want them to think that we were going to be so bold as to approach them now would we? I mean why in the world would we even think about talking to a stranger? Why? Because Jesus did that’s why, he entered into a conversation with a woman and in the end he liberated an entire race of people. Maybe a kind word from any one of us today would liberate someone from bondage or a barrier they had been trapped behind for a long time, it may sound strange but you never know, it may just work a miracle in that person’s life… and maybe in your own.

The second barrier we are going to look at is the barrier of gender. Over the years gender has been a very hot topic in the public view. When Jesus talked with the woman at the well he did so in a time when just the act of talking to the woman was taboo, forget that she was a Samaritan, she was a woman, period. Woman were not treated as equals in the days of Jesus, they were looked upon more as a possession than an equal helpmate. And although we as a people have flip flopped back and forth over this issue how much has it changed for the better in the past few thousand years. Fast forward to just about 90 years ago and we see woman in America starting to say enough is enough, we want our rights, we demand our rights, and they were right in saying so, they didn’t have the power of the vote, the right to hold public office, they couldn’t have a job on their own if they were married and if they did have employment outside the home their earning was controlled by the husband. So they protested and marched and paraded and got their right to vote, to hold public office, to get equal pay for equal work. But it didn’t stop there, they demanded more and more and more and they got it, all that they wanted and then some. The feminist movement became a political agenda, women in America were determined to have their place in the workplace, the public office, the military, and just about everything else. From the time of Adam and Eve being cast out of the garden the perfect balance that God had originally established between man and woman had been ended and there has been bias on some level between one of the two genders ever since. When everything was male dominated there was oppression of woman and then the woman’s movement came to be and every since there has been a shift in society and what little balance there was went out the window and the scales now are tilting in the wrong direction once again, family life has been affected, the economy has been affected, marriages have been affected by the millions, but is life any better for either gender? Abortion is now a popular means of birth control, single parent families are the norm, welfare and public assistance is the standard, inflation is rampant, domestic violence is common practice for both the man and the woman, they are both abusive and violent, there are more woman in jail now for violent crime than ever and the competition level between men and women is at a all time high with each trying to undermine the other and all for the name of gender greatness. Both men and women now live in a pressure cooker environment that is self induced and we see no balance of any kind between the two. And I fear it will remain this way until there is another shift in policy and there is another attempt at forcing authority over the opposite sex regardless of which gender is the aggressor. And that will be the norm again until one of two things happens, the polarity changes and one gender surges over the other or both genders take to heart the words of God and the example of Jesus Christ is followed. Unless the word of God is re-established as the ruling factor over the lives of both men and women there will never be true unbiased liberty for either of the genders. There will always be a form of competition between the two, one will always be trying to flex it’s might over the other and the problems of the past will be repeated over and over again in a never ending cycle of frustration.

Is this what Jesus intended or started when he said “Will you give me a drink?” No, we can’t blame this on Jesus and his simple little question. When Jesus asked for the drink of water he opened a door of communication between the genders that was meant to be a healthy, loving, caring and compassionate line of communication and we the people have taken his words of kindness and perverted them into something God never intended to be. We’ve lost the concept of helpmate in the marriage relationship, of working together as partners and equally sharing in the good, the bad and the ugly. We lost the concept of godly wisdom as found in King Solomon’s writings of the cord growing stronger when there are more strands braded together.(Ecclesiastes 4:12) We’ve lost the concept of unity and power when we work as a team united in marriage and we’ve developed into a people that are at odds with each other. When Jesus said “Will you give me a drink of water?” he opened the door to the restoration of that lost balance, when he made his powerful statement Lord Jesus didn’t just talk to the woman at the well , he was talking to all men and woman letting them know that as God he was ending gender bias and opening the door to full and complete acceptance of all of God’s children as equal, each loved by the Father of Creation but the only way we can know or understand this concept is through reading and instruction of the Word of God as found in the Bible. When that word is read, studied and understood the wonder and beauty of Jesus’ simple little statement comes to life in the heart of the hearer and transformation of the spirit opens the heart to accept each other, regardless of gender as an equal partner in every aspect of life.

And finally when we talk about Jesus breaking down the barriers with his open conversation at the well we have to look at his removal of barriers of religion. There was a time when God seemed to have selected for himself a single people from all of the people on the earth but when Jesus opened that door of communication he removed the last obstacle of religious bias. When Jesus talked with the Samaritan woman he showed through example that it is well and good for all of us to be offered the invitation of fellowship with the God of our creation. Jesus started the ball rolling and Paul by the leading of the Holy Spirit placed life in institution of communication between the religious factions. Jesus spoke to the woman at the well and then left earth but gave his Spirit to others, in this case Paul, to continue the teaching of openness to all who will come to God. Jesus said “Will you give me a drink of water?” and Paul said “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:28-29). Jesus said “Will you give me a drink of water?” and Paul said “I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.” (Romans 11:13-16).

So you can see that Jesus did indeed break down the barriers that were once in place that separated people by religion, by gender and by race. Father God sent his Son in human form to talk with the people, to explain in word and show by example how we are to work in unison with each other and he did so through the simple illustration of meeting with a woman at a well and asking for a drink of water. Sometimes it is the simple things that can mean so much, learn from this example of the King, follow his lead and break down a few barriers that have been placed around you, Jesus changed the world when he did what he did, try it and see how much of the world you can change by following his example. You might be pleasantly surprised by what can happen.
Grace & peace

Dear Lady of 2nd John

2010-05-05T13:57:00.000-07:00

Dear Lady of 2^nd John

By Rev. Robert P. Elkins

All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted

2 John 1

1The elder,
To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth - 2because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:

3Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, will be with us in truth and love.

4It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

7Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. 11Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.

12I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

13The children of your chosen sister send their greetings.

It is not often that I start a teaching by reading the entire epistle from which the teaching comes from. But in this case, because the epistle is so short I think it is well and proper to do so. This letter takes almost no time to read and I have no doubt that it was surly directed to each of us personally. I feel I’m safe in saying to each of you the believer in Jesus Christ that we are much like the dear lady the Apostle John was writing to so many years ago. And I pray that what I am about to present to you will be a blessing and you will as I do feel that this is from the Holy Spirit. From reading this very short epistle, there is so very much to found with-in, it’s a literal gold mine of beautiful thoughts and a wonderful collection of words.

To begin with the lady in John’s thoughts who for so many centuries has remained nameless, we have no idea who she was, nor will we ever know and I guess it’s really not all that important. There are some who feel that it wasn’t a person at all but a church that John was writing to but that isn’t my personal belief. I think John was indeed writing to a person, a lady that he knew and that she was just a friend that John was concerned with and his letter was recorded for all mankind as a letter from God for all of us to learn from. As I said, she has no name, but we can see that she was a believer in our Lord Jesus. That’s the important thing, at some point in eternity, should the Lord tarry in his return; each of us will become nameless. We’ll have letters found in a dusty attic and someone will read them and say; “I wonder who this was? It says it’s to Robert but I don’t know who Robert was”. And they may keep those letters or they may toss them away and all memory of this long forgotten Robert will be gone. But that’s going to be here on earth and if I’m the Robert they are reading about I’ll be in glory with my Lord in his heaven and any memory of me on earth won’t matter any more. I’ll be like this lady.

Now, about this letter, John is writing to this dear lady without a name and he is telling her that he is giving her a teaching that she most likely already knew. That is found in verse 5 and 6. “5And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.” He states that it’s not a new teaching but that his letter is a reinforcement to a teaching that she had already learned and is embedded deep in her heart and the heart of her family as well.

Sometimes in reading the Scriptures we have to look at what is not there as well as what is. We have to read between the lines so to speak, but not to the point that we start to add things in our human efforts to assist God with his duties of telling us how to live. But by looking at what is not said we can draw conclusions that are as revealing as what is said.

So what is today’s lesson to be learned from this short epistle? Notice John’s letter is to the dear lady and her children. Here is our first example of something that is found in reading between the lines. We can assume that this lady had more than one child, how many we don’t know because there is nothing stated. But it does say “children” so we know that she had more than one child, she had multiple children. Our dear lady has children just like many of us have children. And I’m sure this dear lady loved her children just as we love our children. We can also see that she had shared the Gospel message with her children as we have hopefully shared it with our children. That’s a lesson to be learned. How I come to this conclusion will be explained in the following paragraph. And now continuing, from this letter we can surmise that she has known a measure of sorrow as well over her children. I’m sure her heart has been broken more that once in worry over her children, much like many of us. I’m sure our dear lady has suffered the pain of watching some of her children follow after the ways of the world and its hurt her because she has had to watch her children follow a way that is contrary to her faith in our Lord.

You may wonder how I can know this? Because John tells us without actually saying it. Look at verse 4. John says; “It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth.” (emphasis mine) Those simple words “some of your children” speaks volumes. I doubt our lady taught only one child the ways of her faith and didn’t teach the others the same thing. I am sure she sat each of her children down on a regular basis and instructed them, all of them, in the way of her faith in Christ Jesus. Each child received the same instruction each child was made aware of the Lord and yet only “some” of her children were walking in the truth. And so without saying a thing on the subject, John acknowledges that if some were walking in the truth, some were not. Beloved… learn from this epistle today the message of hope that was present at the time of its writing.

You can do all the right things, you can raise your children in the faith, and you can raise your children in the church. You can have them in every program, in Sunday school, Royal Rangers or Missionettes (the youth ministries of the Assemblies of God denomination) or the church youth groups. You can do every thing you want but once they reach an age of accountability and are old enough to make decisions on their own they may wander into things you have always warned them to avoid. You may have shared with them from your personal life experiences all the errors that you made along the way and try as you may to save them from repeating these same errors. But you know what? They are going to have to test the water for themselves. You may have been the drill sergeant parent who went through the learning years with the attitude of: “I’m the parent, you’re the child and you are going to as I say or else.” Or you may have been the ever loving, ever kind and gentle parent, always taking time to explain and reason with your child or children, never loosing your temper and always showing love and concern. But either way we are never sure just what our children are going to do.

To be sure, children are always full of surprises. And that’s not to say that these surprises are always unpleasant. But sometimes the outcome of a child’s behavior is anything but pleasant to the parent. My friend this is where your faith in the word of God comes into play. The Scriptures tell us that we are to raise up our children in the ways of our Lord and in time that little light is going to come on in their head and they will see the error of their ways. They may have to fall flat on their faces a few times and in the process pick up a few bumps and bruises; there may even be a few permanent scars left in their lives, things that just will not go away. But God’s word never lies and by faith we have to believe that they will become the men and women God wants them to be. It may happen today, or it may happen tomorrow or at some time in our life, or it may not happen until after we have gone on to glory, but by faith we have to believe … it will happen! We have to have the attitude that if God said it was going to happen then it will happen no matter what. And on faith we have to stand on that promise. It’s a promise from God and his promises always come to be. Mixing in a little constant intercessory prayer isn’t a bad idea either. Prayer works. I’m a living example of that and have a testimony to prove it. My Aunt Florence prayed for me for 40 years without stopping and she lived to see her prayers come to reality. She prayed that I’d respond to God’s call and become a pastor because she knew that that call had been placed on my life when I was very young. She prayed through my wild years in the Navy. She prayed continually through my many ups and downs and she didn’t stop. My aunt was on her knees in prayer until she saw her prayers answered before she went to her grave. I have no doubt that the prayers flooding the throne room of God from this saintly lady greatly affected the direction I took which eventually lead me to enter the clergy.

This little epistle also speaks to a segment of believers who may not have noticed or realized their connection to this dear lady but I’d like to call it to your attention now. Our dear lady loved her Lord, she trusted in him, and she raised her children as best she could regardless of the outcome. One more thing I think it’s safe to surmise from this epistle. I think our dear lady was a single mom. There’s nothing in John’s salutation or in the body of the letter that makes any reference to her having a husband. We don’t know if she was widowed, divorced or if she had ever been married, the last is least likely in light of the social order that was in force during that time frame of history.

The stigma of a child born out of wedlock has only been seen as an acceptable practice over the past few years. Children born out of wedlock have always been a reality but it hasn’t always been so acceptable in society to the degree it is now nor should it be. It’s sad to say that we as a society have lost the shame factor in our acceptance of responsibility that comes from sinful behavior. We have children born outside the covenant of marriage as established by God with little or no shame by the parents, and the fault lies with both the man and the woman because it does take two to tango. We turn a blind eye to sin and think nothing of it any longer because our present society finds no shame in sin. It started with “If it feels good, do it” and we have now reached a plateau that now finds almost anything acceptable. And worse yet is the fact that we as a society now kill thousands of children as a matter of convenience by both married and unmarried mothers under the name of Abortion, and this also with little or no shame.

We have forgotten or have chosen to ignore the importance God has placed upon the blessing of having children. Psalm 127:3 says; “Sons are a heritage for the Lord, children are a reward from him.” In Proverb 23 it says; “May your father and mother be glad; may she who gave you birth rejoice.” Jesus in his years of recorded ministry often admonished us to pay special attention to children. An example of this is found in Mark 10. “People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.” And before returning to our main topic let me finalize this wandering of mine by stating emphatically that there is not now nor has there ever been an illegitimate child. The child played no role in the circumstances of their birth. There are illegitimate parents and that’s where the responsibility lies. And even then it is their responsibility to seek the Lord’s forgiveness and not ours to pass judgment on them. I don’t know about anyone else but I’m not qualified to cast the first stone at anyone. Should circumstance be placed in front of me I’ll explain what needs to be explained to a parent or parents of a child born out of wedlock, and then I’ll love them and love the child without question or explanation, period.

Now back to where we were going in the first place before I got sidetracked. Going back to our letter from John. John is instructing our dear lady to walk in love. “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.”

Notice John doesn’t place any restrictions on the dear ladies love walk. He doesn’t say love only those who are most like her, he doesn’t say love only those who will return that love. He doesn’t place any restrictions in his instructions at all, nothing other than to love … even the unlovable.

We need to pay special attention to this portion of the letter, verses 5 and 6. Because if we look with a discerning eye we’ll notice an anomaly here from the way many present the Gospel to another person. John makes no demands, the word command is used but John is quick to point out that the command is from God and not from him. At the end of verse 5 John places his request. “I ask that we love one another.” What gentle language John uses. “I ask that we”, I’m asking your permission, I’m including myself because we are both equal, there is no male and female role playing in John’s letter. John’s wording is so simple and undemanding and yet through his close association with Jesus he was held in high stature in the Christian community. But he doesn’t hold this over the dear ladies head as his badge of authority. He makes no mention of any rank or authority other than in his salutation and then he uses only the title of “The Elder”.

How many fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord have been deeply hurt by other Christians who pile on demands and insistence on the head of the person they should be witnessing to? How many times has a new Christian been hurt by the one who should be witnessing in love when they come on with their “I’m telling you that you should do this or that” and they say it as if they were one in authority. I’m sure that I am not the only one who has had a fellow Christian come to them and say that the Lord had given them a word of knowledge for me, and when it is delivered it isn’t very nice to hear and you question just who the author of that word was.

In my studies once I came across a statement of rebuke to just such an attack. And to be honest I can’t remember if it was John Wesley the founder of the United Methodist Church or if it was Charles Spurgeon, the mega evangelist of the late 1800’s. A woman who was well known for her biting tongue all in the name of the Lord approached the man, Spurgeon or Wesley, one day after he had presented a sermon to which she had taken offence with. And in a public setting she quite loudly announced that she had a word of knowledge for him from the Lord. Before she could go any further the man cut her off by saying in an equally loud tone “If the Lord truly had a word for me he would have delivered it himself since we communicate so often. And had he desired to reveal a word to me through another person he surely would have used a person of higher character.” Needless to say she had nothing more to say.

John is much gentler in his approach. “I ask that we, you and I, as ones on equal terms, love one another. No questions asked; no boundaries or limits set.” [1^st Peter 4:8] says, “Above all love each other deeply, because lover covers over a multitude of sins”. And John carries this point even further, by saying that this isn’t a new command, there’s nothing new to this. It’s what our Lord Jesus repeated over and over. It was the driving force in his earthly ministry. Love as your heavenly Father loves you, no hidden agenda. No coded words, no cost or payment required. Just open arms and an equally open heart.

In John’s gentle way he is instructing the dear lady in obedience to her God. I would pray that each of us would have a mentor such as this mentor, John the Elder in our lives. What a blessing that would be.

Beginning in verse 7 John changes the entire nature of his letter to our dear lady. He goes from gentle instruction about love to a matter of fact terminology in regards to the antichrist. John just jumps into his discourse with instruction about false teachers and the ever-present false Christian.

Do these false teachers live still today? We all know they do. Today we have placed labels on them and they have gathered into distinct groups. Some of these groups deny Jesus as God having come in the flesh. The Jews fall into this category. They don’t deny that Jesus the man was here on earth but they do deny his Kingship as God. But look at John’s language and you’ll see a key word. “Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.” Although they acknowledge Jesus as the man, John says that they deny Jesus Christ. That key word is Christ, the Messiah. This is what the false teachers deny, not the man but the Messiah factor. This is what the Jews deny although they are not the only ones; there are others like the Jehovah’s Witnesses or the Mormons, which we will look at later. Another group that denies the Lordship of Jesus is the Muslim. They don’t discredit his coming as a man but they do deny his deity. The Muslim considers Jesus as nothing more than a prophet, and then a lesser prophet than Mohammed. John goes on to say that such a person is a deceiver and the antichrist.

For generations the mere word “Antichrist” has conjured up a vast diversity of images as to what or who the antichrist is. In the past we looked at the book of Revelation and the numerical 666 for the antichrist. For a while many tried to say it was the late president Ronald Reagan and a host of others. Adolph Hitler was another. But does John ever say who the antichrist really is? Of course he does. If you were to go back to his 1^st letter in chapter 2 he states; “Dear children, this is the last hour; as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist, he denies the Father and the Son.” And so in light of this we ask again, who is the antichrist?

Would not the Jehovah Witness’s qualify as the antichrist? They deny that Jesus is God and the Christ. The Jehovah Witness’ are polytheistic in belief, they believe in a multitude of gods and that Jesus is just one of the many. We are monotheistic in as much as we believe in one God with three distinct personalities of Father Son and Holy Spirit. The Mormons are polytheistic in belief, their thoughts run the same as the Jehovah Witness’ with Jesus being one of many gods. As before mentioned the Jew and the Muslim deny Jesus as Deity but they are monotheistic with a belief in one God but that God is singular in his godhead. One God in one nature. The Hindu is definitely polytheistic in thought. They have thousands of gods. They have a god for every occasion. I personally find it much easier to have just one God who covers all my needs rather than trying to remember which god I need to call upon. The Buddhist are atheist in belief, they don’t acknowledge God at all. They don’t look at Buddha as a god but as the “Enlightened One” who was fully human, a man who figured out the entire plan of peace and tranquility. They believe in reincarnation and Karma. When you die your karma passes on to another living thing, not just a person. I have a friend who is Buddhist, while talking one day he was explaining that it is their belief that their karma is transferred to another form of living thing when they die. My friend’s karma at the time of his death could go on to a fish or an ant and remain there until that creature died and it would then pass on to another living thing. The karma may move about many times until it returns to another human, I personally find this harder to grasp than the concept of one God in three persons.

All of these as diverse as they are could be called the antichrist. Each denies Jesus as the Christ and in doing so denies the Father and the Spirit as well. The triune godhead can’t be divided with one deity holding a higher position over the others. You can do that with Neapolitan ice cream but not with God. Can you believe that I can get to the vanilla and strawberry ice cream without touching the chocolate? It works with ice cream but it doesn’t work with God. It would be easier to separate the milk and sugar from a cup of tea than it would to separate the Father from the Son or the Holy Spirit. It’s impossible.

I really like the NIV over the KJV for verse 9. The KJV says; “ Whosoever transgresseth and abide not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God.” The NIV says it so much more clearly. “Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God”.

I had a pretty good idea what transgression was but just for my own curiosity I went to the dictionary just to see how these two translations of the same word came to be so different. And much to my surprise they aren’t that different at all. One of the meanings of the word “transgression” is to “go beyond a limit”. So John is telling our dear lady “Don’t get ahead of yourself and forget where you came from. Keep all things in perspective and remember your roots”. John’s gone back to the same logic he used when he was talking about love. Keep it simple and keep it basic.

John is telling our dear lady to continue in her studies, continue in her learning and never; never, abandon her belief in what she first learned. This is a powerful lesson for us as well. Remember the words of Jesus in the book of Revelation? He was addressing the church at Ephesis. “You have forgotten your first love. Repent and do the things you first did.” Beloved these words of Jesus and John ring as true today as they did the first day when the pen was put to the paper. God is the same today and yesterday and tomorrow. The same holds true to his words. Hold fast to your first love, hold fast to your Lord Jesus and always keep him first in your life.

John is saying something here dear friend that is so true it’s scary. Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If we don’t practice our religion, if we don’t stay in the word, continue in our study of the Bible we are in danger of loosing that fire that burned so hot at the time we first came to the Lord. John is saying to this lady and to us that if we don’t keep after the things that got us hooked on Jesus in the first place we could loose that burning desire for him and his word. God will never leave us but we are in danger of slipping away if we aren’t holding on to what we had in the beginning. If your Bible is gathering dust, chances are so is you faith. If you have food in the house but don’t eat you get hungry and eventually sick, and eventually even death comes, the same holds true for God’s word. If it’s there in your house and you don’t feed from it every once in a while you’re going to wither away from the source of your nourishment in the Lord. Just as we feed the body we need to feed the spirit as well.

John then goes on to instruct the dear lady in how she needs to surround herself in the fellowship of the believers. And how she is to not open her house to the false teachers and false belief they carry with them. I doubt that John is telling her that she is to have no connection with the world. If this were the case John would be in direct confrontation with what he heard Jesus say about the great commission. But there is a huge difference in being a witness to the world and bringing the worldly ways of false doctrine into her home. And of course this applies to our homes as well. Our mission is to witness in the name of Jesus Christ and point the world to the cross and the work of Jesus on that cross. We are to call them into the light; we are not to follow them into the darkness.

And then just as abruptly as he changed courses once before, he does so again and ends his letter with a little note of hope in seeing this dear lady rather that writing her with pen and paper. This is my personal thought as well. And just as abruptly this teaching ends. May the grace of God go with you now and forever more. Amen.

Grace and peace.

Is Contentment and Godliness Compatible?

2010-04-02T07:05:00.000-07:00

Is Contentment and Godliness Compatible?
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted

“But godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1st Timothy 6:6-10)

Look at the same verses in the Amplified Bible translation
“[And it is, indeed, a source of immense profit, for] godliness accompanied with contentment (that contentment which is a sense of inward sufficiency) is great and abundant gain.
For we brought nothing into the world, and obviously we cannot take anything out of the world;
But if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content (satisfied).
But those who crave to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish (useless, godless) and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction and miserable perishing.
For the love of money is a root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have been led astray and have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves through with many acute [mental] pangs.”

The apostle Paul offers wise counsel to his protégé, Timothy, on this subject of money and contentment. I’m sure there are many reading this message that have heard that old adage “You’ve never seen a U-Haul trailer on the back of a hearse”. The point to be made from that little witticism is what our pericope is saying, when our days on this planet we know, love and call “home” are over and we are called to either eternal glory or even eternal damnation, regardless of how much of the worldly possessions we have acquired, in the final analysis we aren’t going to take a single thing with us when we leave here. We can have any multiple number of cars, one for every road condition and multiple homes, one in each of the desired climates, a mountain cabin for skiing, a luxury penthouse in a city for shopping and a thatch roof bungalow on a tropical island for snorkeling with a huge bank account locked away in a secret vault in each location for ease of access unless there’s a beach front ATM available and when we die we aren’t going to take a thing with us. We can even have our prized possessions placed in the ground with us at the time of our demise and gold rings placed on our fingers and toes if we so desire, and in the final analysis, in that last moment; standing before our Lord with every word, deed and action exposed and displayed like some kind of instant movie review of our life; we aren’t going to have anything to show but our nakedness. Accumulate as much as you can, stockpile and horde as much as you want, when that final breath is taken and our brainwave is just a flat line with no wave or fluctuation at all, we are going to leave everything behind and someone else is going to get the use of all of our possessions. So those words about never seeing a trailer on the back of a hearse are true and I think we can all be in agreement with that statement. Amen?

Another cute little declaration I heard once before said: “We shouldn’t take life so seriously, none of us are going to get out of it alive”. Another true statement don’t you think? There isn’t a one of us that is going to cheat death and slip away without first dying and giving up this earthy vessel we call our body. I don’t know about you, but as for me, this body of mine is just about used up anyway so I’m ready for a new and improved model. Both of these statements are true, both are accurate and make a good point, but they are not headed in the direction I want to take for today. They are interesting and worthy of some serious thought but they are not exactly what I’m looking for in this message.

I want to direct today’s message in the direction of contentment, the question I would like to pose before you today is, can we have godliness and still find contentment in our life today? In this crazy society that we all live in, in this society that is obsessed with gathering as much material wealth and possessions as possible; is it at all feasible to find contentment and still lead a godly life? I guess what I’m really asking each of you is: “Are you content in your life today?” and if not, “How can we look to the Bible to help us?” Before we can make any real sense of this question or try to find any answers to it we need to examine and define what “Contentment” is. We need to ask, “What is contentment?” because if we don’t understand what it is, how can we ever hope to obtain it in our lives?

If we look in the dictionary we will see contentment defined as, “the state, quality or fact of being contented”. Great, we’ve gone nowhere! So it’s back to the dictionary and after looking under the heading of “Contented” we find, “having or showing no desire for something more or different, satisfied”. Now at last we are starting to get somewhere, now a clear picture is starting to develop that we can see with our minds eye. Now we are starting to see that contentment is the state of being contented, and being contented is being satisfied and that all sounds well and good, but satisfied in what? There are so many categories to take into consideration! Do we have contentment in our jobs? Are the jobs we have adequate to provide our needs, put food on the table, a roof over our head and clothes on our back? And are we content with just that or do we want more? For some today having the basic needs met isn’t near enough, if there aren’t three cars in the driveway, a boat, a couple of motorcycles, a motor home and a swimming pool in the back yard they aren’t content at all, in fact they are miserable! For many people today the driving force in their lives is to obtain as much of the worldly possessions they can, to pack our homes with as much “Stuff” as possible and then build the barn or out buildings and pack them as well thinking this will bring happiness when all it brings is grief. Once we have our collection of “Stuff” our main concern is then protecting it from someone who may be trying to steal our pile of “Stuff”, trying to figure out how to pay for it since it was all bought on credit and how to acquire more! I recently saw an ad in the window of the local dry cleaners that said “Closet to crowded, talk to us about storing your clothes”. The average person today has more clothing than they know what to do with. The new home of today has more and bigger walk in closest space than ever dreamed of just a few years ago and it’s still not enough. Look at the recent rage of the “Yard Sale”. Everyplace you look people are taking all the things they have and are putting them all over the lawn, trying to sell them, so that they can get more money to go out and buy more things they don’t need. We pack so many un-needed items in our homes that we have become accustomed to walking around the piles because there isn’t room to put things away and out of sight where it belongs. I’m as guilty as anyone, my item of clutter is books, I have more books than many small town libraries. And I’m constantly looking for more.

You see beloved, there is a huge difference in having our needs met and having our wants met. Having our needs met, well for most that isn’t so hard to acquire, at least not in America. For many poor souls in other parts of the world it is anything from very hard to almost impossible to have their needs met because there is so much poverty in this cruel world but that’s not the case in America, at least not for now. But it is changing here. The divide between those that “have” and those that “have not” is growing at a rapid pace here in America.

Two of the most dangerous words that can come out of the human mouth are, “I Want”! With those simple little words on their lips people will covet, steal, take, risk everything including their life and liberty, kill and go to war over. With the “I Want” words embedded on their minds people will do anything they can think of in order to get what they want, regardless of the consequences to themselves or to others. They will shatter their lives, devastate their families, destroy their communities, and ravage their nations with wars in order to get what they want. And our society not only approves, but encourages this type of behavior.

Look at what we are bombarded with on a daily basis. We are brainwashed with words and images that feed our need for greed. “It cost more but I’m worth it”! Now there’s a nice little self-serving ditty for hair coloring. “You deserve the vacation of your dreams, let MasterCard help”. Help you do what, take the vacation you can’t afford and then do what, put you in debt? Two years after the vacation is done and all of the pictures lost someplace in the house we are still paying for the vacation of our dreams, but by now that dream has become a nightmare keeping us awake at night trying to figure out how to make the payments on that wonderful little piece of plastic in our wallet. What MasterCard did was help themselves to our security by offering to bury us in interest payments and pile on stress we really don’t need and is destroying our physical and mental health and stability. I love this one, “Escalade, all the power you need”. The advertisement showed a woman driving a diamond studded, gold plated 4x4 tank down a city street with a pothole in her way which she can go around easily enough since she is driving a 500 horsepower, gas guzzling behemoth, and she’s going to buy a pair of shoes or something as trivial as that. Like we really need to blow $70,000.00 on a vehicle that was actually designed to cross the jungles of South America in the rainy season just to impress the neighbors and feed our own egos. Does any of this really give us contentment? Or is it all a sham as we try to impress someone with what we have?

What about our homes? Do we have contentment in our homes? Does our home meet our needs or are they likewise just there to put on a false image? Does our home keep us dry when it rains, warm when it snows, sheltered when the wind howls and safe enough to allow us to sleep without fear? Are our homes adequate enough to invite someone in to share our blessings with them, a meal, a cup of tea or coffee, a place to share the gospel message? Are we contented enough with our homes to hold a prayer meeting and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work of ministering to our friends and family?

What about our marriage? Are we content in our marriage; are we content in the spouse of our youth? My wife, Mary, and I have had over twenty years of beautiful marriage and enjoy our life together. Think of that, twenty years of love and happiness, that’s not bad out of almost forty years of marriage! Why would I say that? Because it’s true, that’s why. We weren’t always happy and walking around on a cloud of peace and love, we weren’t always enamored in loving bliss with each other. There were times when our marriage was hard and down right painful to endure. We had money problems, we had children problems, we had disagreements between us and if it wasn’t for the love of the Lord it would have all come to an end. There were times when the only difference between our marriage and the Titanic was that they had a piano! We were both sinking fast. Before Mary and I allowed Jesus to have his rightful place as the head of our family and marriage we had some real rough roads to travel down in our lives. The only thing that held us together was another word that sounds like contentment, a word that seems to be avoided today in many marriages and relationships; commitment.

We don‘t hear the word commitment much any more, it’s not used much in our society; today people don’t like to make a commitment to one another. People will live together, they will share a home, a pet, a vehicle, a life, even a child, they will share an existence together but they don’t want to make a real commitment, they are afraid to make a commitment to have a lasting life together. It sounds too formal, it sounds to lasting, like commitment is a bad thing to be avoided. We like to have our “Out”, we want to know that we can walk away and pretend that there are no lasting consequences to our actions and relationships with other people if the road gets to rocky to travel any longer. When Mary and I got married we took the word “commitment” very seriously, we were committed to each other and we were committed to the vows we took before God and the witnesses present. There were times, although not many, and I praise God for that, when we both wanted to walk away, there were times of temptation when the grass on the other side of the fence really looked inviting but in the back of our minds, in that little place where the conscience lives; we were reminded by God’s Holy Spirit of the vows we made at the altar, we were reminded of the words we spoke to God and before the few witness’ that were present to hear those words. We made a pledge to each other and the Spirit of Jesus never let us forget it, we made a commitment and we knew we had to abide by the rules of that commitment even when there were other people and other places that really seemed a lot more desirable to be with or near. Regardless of the attraction, be it another person or a place, regardless of how close we each came to walking out, in the final analysis Mary and I had to admit that we were content to be with each other, just the three of us in our marriage, my wife, myself and our Lord Jesus.

You see friend, as a society, when we fell into the thought life that commitment was a bad thing, what we actually did was consent to a new thought life that perverted the word’s of God. The enemy has fed us a lie and we’ve taken it hook, line and sinker, we, as a society have fallen into his trap and we don’t even realize that we are in it until it’s too late. It’s as if Satan has dug a hole in a very deep sand pit and we’ve fallen into it. Have you ever been in deep sand and tried to climb up out of the hole or maybe even tried to go up over a tall sand dune? No matter how fast we try to move or how hard we struggle we can’t make any headway, as we claw and dig using both hands and feet in unison, trying to get a foothold in the sand; it just keeps sliding down around us and there’s no foundation from which to use as a launching pad and push up from. Once we’re in the hole it’s a trap we can’t get away from until we find something solid to grab hold of and a sure foundation to stand on that isn’t going to move. And that my friend is what Jesus offers us when we allow him to have his rightful place in our marriages and our relationships with others. When we make Jesus Christ the head of our relationships, of our marriages, our very lives, then we have that sure foundation that will never shake or tremble. In the book of Joshua God tells us: “As I was with Moses, so will I be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you”. That’s a promise that comes directly from the mouth of God and he will always uphold his word, God can’t lie, it isn’t in his nature to lie. For God to tell a lie is unthinkable, it’s impossible. If God were to tell a lie then he couldn’t be God because God is perfect in every way. You see, if we are to have contentment in our marriages we have to have the sure foundation of Jesus Christ as the base of our marriage, having God as the base gives us something to stand upon and something to build upon to guard us from sinking in the sand pit of the enemy. Having Jesus as our foundation is a sure formula for a great marriage that will bring with it success and contentment and thus we see that there can be a blending of contentment and godliness; it is possible if we allow God to be in control of our lives and our relationships. Godliness and contentment are compatible in this life.

Here’s another one to think about. Do we find contentment in our bodies? Are we content in how our bodies look, our physical shape or maybe the way we are on the inside, our medical condition; are we content with what and who we are? When I was twenty I looked like a string bean, tall and thin. Now I look like a squash! And my oh my have things changed for many of us, aches and pains in places where we didn’t know we could have aches and pains, maybe all the parts aren’t working correctly any longer or some of the parts aren’t even there any more. And for some, maybe those parts were never there from the beginning, things that were absent from birth. Has the old get up and go got up and went? What we once were able to do is now just a past memory and far beyond our range of motion. Is the mirror less of a friend than it used to be? Do we still have all that we used to have when we were younger but now we find that it’s all moved to a different location? The Bible tells us in the book of 1st Corinthians, chapter 15, that we are to be getting new bodies when we pass on to glory, ones that will no longer be falling apart or failing us after a few years. Imagine that if you will dear friend. Try to imagine what it will be like when we have our new bodies and they come with no pain or sickness. They will never tire out and they will never be out of shape. All I can say about that is “Glory! Lord I’m ready for this now”! Listen to the words of the apostle Paul from the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians: “I declare to you brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I will tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.” Paul is telling us that we, in this body we now have, cannot go on to glory in heaven with the Father and that in a instant we will be taken from this flawed and misused body and given a new one that will never perish or deteriorate. If we aren’t content with the bodies we have now, just wait. New ones are on order and we will never have to worry about getting the wrong size ever again. The body we gain from our intimate relationship with Jesus Christ will be a perfect body free from all defect and flaws. Again we see that there can be contentment and godliness in this life and that they are compatible. We may not be content with the body we now have but we also have the divine hope of a new body and just that thought gives us contentment and peace of mind.

Can we find contentment in our surroundings? Can we find contentment in the neighbors we have, harder yet can we find contentment in the family members we have? Neighbors we can change either by their moving away or by us doing the relocating. But family, well that’s another story, the family we have is the family we have and that isn’t going to change. What about contentment in the trials we face on a daily basis, what about the persecutions that loom over the horizon for the Christian believer and the followers of our faith? Read the Bible friends, we haven’t seen anything yet. The apostle Peter address this in his letter entitled “1st Peter”, in the first chapter Peter says: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he had given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded buy God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, through now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith, of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Peter is telling us that God is going to shield us in his power, that’s another of God’s promises that we can count on, but Peter is also saying that we still will be going through various trials and tribulations while we are waiting for the return of Christ or our death to occur, which ever comes first.

One of the strongest men of faith in the Bible is the apostle Paul and yet listen to how the events in his life went as recorded in 2nd Corinthians 11.
“I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have know hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches”. How is that for a job description? Just makes you want to run out and be a missionary for our Lord doesn’t it? But Paul took it all in stride, he knew that there was a price to be paid for being a servant of Jesus and he gladly paid that price without complaining. Paul knew that he had to keep his eye on the prize and not on the road leading to the prize. Listen to Paul’s words as found in his letter to the Philippians; Paul is talking about his striving on toward his final goal of fellowship with Jesus in glory. From the 3rd chapter we read, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead”. Paul knew that he wasn’t going to find contentment in the things of the world. Notice that Paul even says that he counts everything he had as a loss compared to his knowing Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Paul compared his “objects” of worldly things rubbish in comparison to his gaining Christ. But Paul did find contentment in this world, even in spite of the things that came against him in his struggles just to get through this life. Again from the letter to the Philippians, Paul states: “I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” The KJV states that last sentence as “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Although I use the NIV for most of my study and teachings, the KJV here offers a far more powerful picture.

You see friend, it’s not the amount of “things” we have that gives us contentment, and it’s the relationship with Christ Jesus that brings contentment into our lives. Paul was a man of faith and vision and the same Holy Spirit that bolstered Paul’s faith is available today for each of us. I dare say that not only is the same Holy Spirit, this Spirit of Jesus available, but He is there and desiring to have an active part in our lives. God’s Holy Spirit wants to have a share in our life, He wants to be a part of our decision making process, our reasoning, our every facet of life, God’s Holy Spirit holds us in very high esteem and desires with a burning passion to lead and guide us through this life and onto glory, the glory that will come only through a relationship with Jesus Christ when we pass from this earthly plane and into heaven. It is the Spirit of God that allows us to find contentment in what we have because when the Spirit enters us we look at things in a different light, we can see that the things of this world just aren’t all that important any longer because all the “things” are temporary and will some day pass away and leave them all behind.

One of the wisest men in all of human history was King Solomon, and in his wisdom after years and years of study he had the revelation of the Spirit that chasing after the things of the world was as fruitful as chasing after the wind. For a man or woman to have real contentment in their life they need the intimate relationship with their Lord and it was not until Solomon had this revelation did he find any contentment in his life. We can feel his passion when we read his words as recorded in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. Remember now that Solomon was most likely the wealthiest man to have ever walked this planet, in juxtapose Solomon made Bill Gates look like a poor man and yet we read: “I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks that anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well, the delights of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” If we were to read on and study the writings of King Solomon in any detail we would soon see that he, at some point, realized that all his great wealth and all his possessions were nothing if God wasn’t in any of it. If we look at the lives of the two men, King Solomon and the apostle Paul, if we study their writings, and look at their lives, we can see that between the two, Paul was the far more content and yet in regards to worldly possessions Paul had nothing when placed in juxtapose to Solomon. So in this we can conclude that in regards to our surroundings there can be contentment and godliness if all things are placed in their proper perspective.

We’ve now come to a fork in the road so to speak in this study. I could continue along the same path we’ve been on and to point out further object lessons about finding contentment in our present situations but I would like to now pursue a different direction by asking a simple question. What is the opposite of contentment? We have already established that being content was defined as: “having or showing no desire for something more or different, being satisfied”. So what is the opposite of this? The obvious answer is being “Dissatisfied” or “Discontentment” of course. If we are dissatisfied with any of the things we have already talked about in our lives, the things that should bring us contentment if we are in right relationship with our Lord, then we start to fall into the category of being dissatisfied with: who we are, what we are or where we are in life.

Now I pose another question to you, what was the first sin based on? The answer to that is the same answer as we used for the first question, “Discontentment”. If we go to the beginning of the Bible, in the book of Genesis, we see that God gave Adam and Eve everything they needed to have a perfect and content life. They had all the food they needed, they had a perfect climate to live in, so perfect that they didn’t need any clothing for warmth and they were never cool either. They had companionship with each other, they had all the animals, all the plants, and most importantly they had proper relationship and fellowship with God. God only placed one little restriction on these first two people, God said “You can have it all, everything you see is yours to enjoy, enjoy the food, eat to your hearts content, enjoy the climate, I designed it just for you, your naked, enjoy each other, I’ll leave the rest of that one to you, you can figure that one out on your own. It’s all yours … but … leave this one tree alone. I don’t want you to touch this one tree. You can have the pear trees, the cherry trees, the orange trees, and the banana trees. But leave this one I’ve set aside, alone, this one is just for me!” Adam and Eve were content with what they had, they enjoyed the gifts God had given them and then all of a sudden, one day, discontentment set in. That Old Rascal Satan planted the seed of discontentment in the heart of Eve, she accepted it and that seed took root and grew to maturity. The happy and content first couple were no longer content with what they had, they were no longer content with the finest of everything the world had to offer with the exception of one little tree that sat in the middle of paradise, no, now they wanted it all, they wanted everything that they had and they wanted that one little tree as well. They began to look past having all of their needs met and started looking out to having all of their wants fulfilled. The seed of discontentment was planted in the heart, it took root, it grew to maturity, it grew into temptation, and the temptation grew into lust and the lust developed into sin. Once that seed of sin was released into the world the days of eating fruit from the trees without any pain or strenuous labor were gone forever, paradise was closed and an angel placed at the entrance to keep man and woman out. Once the seed of sin was released in the world we lost our innocence and the spirit of greed and lust has run rampant ever since.

Now was this all God’s plan from the very beginning? Did God give Adam and Eve a taste of paradise and from the very beginning intend to toss them out into a cold, hard world? No. But what God did give them was “free will”. God allowed mankind the option of thinking and making decisions on their own. God instilled in us the ability to know between right and wrong and a conscience to stimulate our spirit when we do wrong, that’s the difference between us and the rest of the animals and other creatures on the face of the earth, the animals and other creatures don’t have our conscience and our spirit stimulated by God’s Spirit to lead them. So God didn’t intend for this to happen but he did allow it by allowing us to exercise our free will. And mind you well, there is a mountain of difference between what God intended and what God allowed. When God made us in his image he made us with free will, we came like that; it wasn’t an add-on option. God didn’t want puppets; he wanted creatures that exercised free will and were capable of worshiping God solely because we were able to so making that decision on our own. And we all know what happened, Adam and Eve did exercise their free will and violated the ordinance establish by God and what they received and what we have is the result of their action. When the first couple allowed their free will to lead them discontentment entered man and woman and ever since it’s been passed on from generation to generation. Adam and Eve passed it on to their children and they to their children, and they to their children, in a continuous cycle ever since; right up to and including you and I today. Again allow me to say, this isn’t what God intended to happen but it is something that God allowed to happen because he loved us so much and wanted us to have free will so that we could turn to him and worship him from the desires of our own heart, God didn’t want little robots that worshiped him out of a preprogrammed heart but he wanted children that would love and worship him out of our free will. Man isn’t stronger than God, man’s will isn’t more powerful than God’s will, and man can’t do anything outside of the will of God. Try as we may we can’t do anything outside of the will of God if God deems that it will not happen. It is only because of God’s extreme love for us that he allows us to make our own decisions and lets us grow even when we grow and wander into the wrong direction and make poor choices.

An example being, flight, man has always wanted to be able to fly, man has always held the dream of being able to fly like the birds, to soar and glide through the skies like the eagle. God didn’t design us for this type of activity but God in his infinite humor has allowed us to gain some type of flight using every conveyance conceived by man to achieve it. But true flight has and will always elude us; it’s not in the will of God for man to fly unassisted. Man has studied all the flying things in the world, if it has the ability to fly; we’ve studied it to see how it obtains flight on it’s own without the use of any mechanical adaptation. We’ve studied and copied the shape of the bird’s wing, applied it to an airplane, added a motor and we are ready to fly. But in all reality we can’t say: “I think I’ll go flying today”. What we can say, if we want to be accurate is: “I thing I’ll get into a man made device and with the assistance of this device my own hand has made and then I’ll be able to go flying”. God has allowed us the liberty to gain a semblance of flight, but he hasn’t allowed us to fly, why? It’s not in his will. And just to prove that God has a good sense of humor, he’s allowed us in our intense studies of flight to analyze every winged creature and evaluate the physics of flight and after years and years of study we have concluded that due to its unique and large body size and its small wings it is impossible for a bumblebee to fly! If we apply all of the laws of physics, as we know them to the bumblebee, that bee can’t fly, it’s impossible! But it does. God’s just letting us know that he is still in charge, that he is still in control, and try as we may, we can’t out do God.

If we think about it, if we think about the strategy Satan used in planting that seed of discontentment in Adam and Eve, we can see that Satan tried to use the same strategy and plant the same seed in Jesus. If we were to read the passage of Jesus in the wilderness from the book of Matthew in the 4th chapter we would see that Satan tried to plant a seed of discontentment in Jesus during Jesus’ time in the desert. “Jesus, if you’re discontented with the hunger in your body; turn these stones to bread and have something to eat. Jesus if you’re discontented with the little accumulation of the worldly things you have, worship me and I’ll give you everything in the world”. And how did Jesus respond to these seed plantings of Satan? Each time Jesus said: “It is written!” Jesus had to destroy the seed of discontentment that Satan was trying to plant by crushing it with the written word of God. Each time Satan tried to tempt Jesus by planting an evil seed, Jesus responded by quoting the scriptures to Satan; and in the end commanded Satan to go away and leave him alone. Jesus let Satan know in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t accepting the seed Satan was trying to plant and we don’t have to either. You see friend in that last little statement we now have the key needed to answer the question on how to find contentment and still live in a state of godliness. As with all questions of a spiritual nature we always need to go to the source of all knowledge and wisdom, the Holy Scriptures, the Bible.

God doesn’t’ want us to be discontented in who we are, what we are or at times, even where we are. Quite to the contrary, God wants us to be content in who are, and what we are and in the circumstances that surround us even when the picture isn’t looking all that great. For many, this may be the first time you’ve heard this but I like the acronym for the Bible as “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”. And that’s just what the Bible is, it’s a book of instructions on how to live and conduct ourselves in a godly way while here on earth. It’s God’s very own words given to us and for us, giving us instruction and guidance on how to live as godly people until his Son returns to gather his church unto himself or we go on to glory prior to his return. Think of the Bible as God’s personally written “Owners Manual” and well it is; it was written just for us.

God gave us this wonderful book so that we have his words in regards to our contentment in this life regardless of the circumstances we are in. Look at the book written by the apostle Paul to the church at Philippi. Notice with special interest in how Paul encourages and lifts that church up with his words as given by the Holy Spirit. Chapter 4:4-7 says: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”. Notice how Paul tell us to rejoice, not only does he tell us to rejoice, but to make sure of our understanding of his words, he uses a special emphasis in his statement by repeating the key word, Rejoice! He’s telling us that we are to rejoice and to not be anxious, but to rejoice and not be anxious in what? Why in everything! Paul says that we aren’t to be anxious about anything and friend that anything covers everything. God’s word tells us that we aren’t to be anxious, upset, antsy, or to worry about any of the problems of life, and why should we, we can just give it all to God. Jesus said, “Who of you by worry can change one hair on your head?” Worry doesn’t do us any good, it doesn’t gain us anything but an upset stomach and ulcers and maybe some long and sleepless nights. Worry does cause anxiety and frustration but it doesn’t bring us any benefit from it. Worry doesn’t add anything to life but it sure does place some powerful distraction in our way. When we become immersed in worry and anxiety we spend all of our time concentrating on the problem when all we have to do is give the problem to the Great Problem Solver! “But in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Again notice Paul’s wording here. Does he say that once we do pray and give the problem over to God we are going to get instant gratification or relief? Does Paul tell us that once we release the prayers to God we are going to get an instant response from God and all of our problems will instantly vanish like a vapor in the morning breeze? No. Paul doesn’t say that, but what he does say is that once we pray, once we submit our petition over to God, with thanksgiving, once we do this and give the situation over to God we will get one thing instantly; we can have the peace of God that transcends all understanding. And that my friend is almost as good as having the problem removed all together. We may still be facing the same problem but it is no longer ours, we are just holding it for a moment because it now belongs to God. Jesus has told us that the Heavenly Father allows the rain to fall on the just and the unjust, or the righteous and the unrighteous, and that rain falls equally on them both. Whether we are godly or ungodly, good or bad, it matters not, there is going to be times when the rains of life are going to fall on us, it’s inevitable. It’s the giving of our cares and concerns back to God that changes the way we look at that rain that is going to come. Just because we have to be out in the rain doesn’t mean we can’t carry an umbrella that helps keep us dry, and God’s words and promises are our umbrella. If we are out in the rain of life and it’s pouring down, and we have no umbrella … we are going to get soaked! But if we have the umbrella of God’s words and promise over us the only thing that gets wet are our feet. There may be a little dampness in our life but it doesn’t have to ruin our day.

There is another point of interest in our reading from the book of Philippians I’d like to call your attention to. Notice in verse 7 of the 4th chapter that it says, “The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”. That’s a two-fold blessing, a double portion of beauty to be had for the asking. If we are not looking to God and allowing him to help us walk through the problems we face on a regular basis, we can become so frustrated in our thoughts that it can have an effect on both our physical condition and our mental condition. But God’s peace will guard against the development of any problems. That’s a promise from God and we can stand on. I’ll use a medical problem as an example to illustrate my point. If we have a physical problem, pray about it, hand the concern over to God and allow him to deal with it. That’s not to say that we should just pray and ignore the problem or leave it at that, no never, if there’s a problem or medical condition that needs medical attention then by all means go to the doctor and obtain proper medical evaluation of the problem. God has given us the ability to tap into the many wondrous avenues of healing administered through the hands of doctors and modern medicine, but we need to remember that regardless of what that avenue of healing is, it originates with God, everything we have and use is from his creation, it all comes from what God made to begin with. Man hasn’t created anything on his own; he’s just found where God had it tucked away while he was waiting for us to find it. But according to the promise of God for his peace that transcends all understanding, while we are going through the medical complication, we can still be at peace, we don’t have to have additional suffering or worry or fear while we are waiting for the healing to take place.

And maybe the problem or the rainfall in our life isn’t of a medical condition, what if its source is found in something else; say our finances, does this principle still apply? Yes it does, regardless of what the situation, this principle of turning everything over to God in prayer works. Whatever the problem is… God has the answer. Whether it’s finances or health, God is the answer. Relationships or business affairs, God is the answer. Childcare or caring for an elderly parent, God is the answer. It doesn’t matter what the problem, we can give it to God and release ourselves from the burden of carrying it around with us like so much unneeded baggage. In the book of Mark in the 10th chapter we read the words of Jesus, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”. You see my friend, there can be contentment and godliness both alive and well in the life of the Christian when we put God in control of all situations and allow his Holy Spirit to direct us in all things. We can have both of the best God that has to offer, contentment and godliness; the two can go hand in hand.

In closing I want to give you a little review of the Ten Commandments and how if followed they can assist us in our journey gaining both godliness and contentment as we go. If we go to God’s list of “Ten Commandments” we will see contentment in each and every one of them:
The 1st commandment has contentment in it, “You shall have no other gods before me!” paraphrased it’s saying, “Be content with me as your God, I’m all you need”.
The 2nd commandment has contentment in it. “Don’t make any false idols” paraphrased its saying, “Don’t make any little gods with your own hands or contrive something from your own mind”. Be content to have the One and True Living God with you who is Spirit and communicates with your spirit and is always your constant companion.
The 3rd commandment has contentment in it. “Do not take the Lords name in vain.” paraphrased, “Be content to call me by the names I gave you, I have many so you don’t have to make up your own to get my attention”.
The 4th commandment has contentment in it. “Observe the Sabbath Day and keep it holy” paraphrased, “Be content with working six days a week because the seventh day should be set aside for me. If you can’t get it done in six days with my blessing, what makes you think you can improve it by working an extra day without my blessing and making me angry?”
The 5th commandment has contentment in it. “Honor your Father and Mother” paraphrased, “Be content with the parents I gave you, they may not be perfect, you may not even like them, but they are the vehicle I used to bring you into this world because I love you and wanted you here. And just as I will hold you accountable for your actions and deeds, I’ll be holding them accountable for theirs as well, let me handle it.
The 6th commandment has contentment in it. “Do not murder” paraphrased it says, “Be content knowing that my justice will be sufficient for any wrong you have endured, I don’t need your assistance in administering my perfect justice to anyone. I’m the one that gives life and I’ll be the one that determines when it ends”.
The 7th commandment has contentment in it. “Do not commit adultery” paraphrased it says, “Be content with the spouse you have, you found them to be what you wanted in the beginning and you came and asked my blessing on your marriage. If there’s a problem let me handle it with your intervention in using my given word to correct the problem”.
The 8th commandment has contentment in it. “Do not steal” paraphrased it says, “Be content with what you have, it’s not all that important anyway, and it doesn’t belong to you”.
The 9th commandment has contentment in it. “Don’t lie” paraphrased it says, “Be content in telling the truth, and when you come right down to it, it is actually easier than lying. To be a good liar you have to try to remember who you told what story to if each story is different with each person. And at some point in your lie you are going to get caught unless you are really good at remembering the various stories. Telling the truth requires remembering just one story”.
The 10th commandment has contentment in it. “Do not covet your neighbors husband or wife, their property or pets, or anything else they have”. Paraphrased it says, “Be content with what you have, I put this one in the list to cover anything I didn’t cover before in the other commandments, it’s a catch-all and I like it”.

And so my friend, I hope that through this simple yet somewhat lengthily teaching you have seen that there can be contentment and godliness living side by side in the person of each believer. When we have God on our side or maybe better said, when we are on the same side of the street as God is the walk to contentment and godliness is just a lot easier to obtain.

Grace & peace

Jesus Knew the Work to be Done

2010-03-01T05:30:00.000-08:00

JESUS KNEW THE WORK TO BE DONE

By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted

“I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day; then night is coming when no one can work.” John 9:4 NKJ

If you know me at all you know that most of the time I use the NIV Bible. But for today’s reading I’ll be using the New King James, I feel it makes more sense or is easier to interpret looking to the direction I want to take you on this journey through God’s word. The NIV translates this verse as “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me” and although later I will be talking about “we” as in you and I, for now I want to direct our attention to, at least in my mind, what makes more sense. And that is as if we are hearing Jesus say this words and he is talking about himself and what he is supposed to be doing at this particular time in history.

To give us a little background as to what was happening at the time these words of our Lord were uttered, Jesus was talking to a group of his disciples, these were the people that traveled with him and knew him in a little more intimate light than most. And so this group; this gathering of the disciples of Jesus are with him and they are asking him questions. I’m sure that happened a lot when they were together. Jesus was constantly doing things and saying things that were contrary to the thoughts and customs of the day and time in which they lived. And I have little doubt that he was questioned often as to what he meant when he said some of his more controversial statements. Now the response that Jesus gives his followers to their questions may have been construed by the translators of the NIV to be instruction as to what Jesus expected his followers to be doing, thus the use of the word “we” in there translation. It could also have been a more personal “I” focusing the attention more upon him than on the group of followers as we see in the New King James adaptation.

My purpose is not to start any great debate as to which translation of the Bible we are to be using. My advice to you is to go with whatever you have been using and are comfortable with. Go with whatever your personal preference is after seeking the Lords wisdom and the guidance of his Holy Spirit and feel comfortable in that decision. I personally will continue to use the NIV in conjunction with the use of several other different translations as well. When I am doing my studies it is not uncommon to find me using at least three different translations at the same time, usually the NIV, the KJV and either the Revised Standard or the Amplified Bible. Or even all four, I find that looking at a Scripture verse in more than one translation gives me a clearer understanding of what the verse has to say to me.

This is a relatively short verse, only 23 words, but what I would like to do is break this verse into three divisions and do an exegesis or to exemplify what this passage is saying to us the hearer of this word today.
Point number 1. Jesus said, “I must work the works”. Notice that to Jesus, doing the work is not an option. He didn’t say “if I feel like it" or “if the Spirit moves me”. Jesus didn’t say, “I’ll do it when I get around to it” or “I’ll do it a little later”. What he did say is very much to the point. “I must work”.

So here we have Jesus, in all his Deity and yet in human form, a theophany if you will and yet he knows that he has a job that needs to be done. Jesus knows that he is the one that needs to do it; of this he has no question. Jesus knows that he “must” do it. Jesus knows that this is his personal obligation and that this obligation has been delegated to him by his Father in heaven. Now we would think that as God, Jesus could work at his own pace or at his leisure. If a task was to be done and more time was needed then he could just say a word and more time would be created. By saying the word, more time would be created in the clock of all creation and his word would reset that clock back to wherever he desired it to be. My friends, there is a lesson to be learned from this. Jesus never flaunted his authority! Jesus never misused his powers, and he did (and still does) have powers over all things in the heavens and on the earth. Remember at the time of his arrest Jesus said that should he desire, he could call down legions of angels to assist him. Jesus was always the example setter of his day for the followers that flocked after him. And thanks to the unction of the Holy Spirit, he inspired men to record the words and actions of Jesus so that for countless generations later Jesus is still the example setter to all mankind.

The words of Jesus show a sense of urgency about them. “I must work”. He’s saying that he must work because the time is short and the work must be done, and not only does it need to be done, it needs to be done now! Jesus is saying that there’s no time to waste, the opportunity is now and now is the time to work.

Many of us today take a very casual approach to work. “If I get it done today, well that’s good. But if I don’t get it done until tomorrow, well that’s okay as well”. Beloved this is not the agenda Jesus followed while he was here on earth. When Jesus said, “I must work” his statement showed urgency, his statement said that there was much to be done and that he carried about the responsibility to get that work completed. “I must work”. A bold and forceful statement to be sure, full of power and conviction. “I must work”; there’s no time like the present to do this. “I must work”, Jesus knew that once a minute or even a second had passed it was gone forever, never to return.

How many here should you see a car cash or a child fall into a pond or swimming pool would do nothing at all and look the other way? I would dare say that hopefully none of us would react by not reacting. I would pray that none of us would react in a careless or callus manner but would leap to the task and do whatever we could to help. Even if all we could do was call for assistance. I would think that everyone would assist the person in the car accident or the child in the water if at all possible. That Jesus’ “I must work” mentality would kick in and we would respond in some form or fashion. If we didn’t I’d venture to say that there would be something terribly amiss in that person.

“I must work!” Jesus isn’t passing the buck to another; he isn’t saying that he is above getting involved and getting his hands dirty. He’s saying that if there is work to be done, then he’s the one to do it. In working for the kingdom of God there will always be an abundance of work to be done until Christ returns. The work is never ending but the time allowed is, there is a duration of time known only to the Father and each of us needs to be willing to have the mindset of our Lord and say “I must work!” And a part of that mindset needs to know and acknowledge that we are working for the glory of God and not our own glory.

Point number 2. “I must work the works of him who sent me.” Jesus knew and understood the driving force that mandated why he must work.

Jesus wasn’t working for his own glory. He didn’t do works to make himself look good to the disciples or his other followers. Jesus didn’t work for a title or a lofty position; he didn’t work for a paycheck or the admiration of those around him. The work Jesus did was the work of the Father who sent him. Jesus wasn’t following his own agenda, he wasn’t trying to line up his own line of followers, the twelve disciples he enlisted and spent hours upon hours of time in training wasn’t done to bring glory to Jesus himself. It was time well spent to bring about glory to the Father in heaven! Jesus knew who sent him and why he was sent. Jesus knew who sent him and what the objective was, he knew his mission and the heart of his sender, and Jesus knew the Father. Jesus knew what was needed to bring the world salvation and the message about the kingdom of God the Father and he knew he was to give all glory to the Father retaining no glory for himself. Jesus’ personal agenda in all things was to have no personal agenda in anything, total giving in a world of total self-seeking. Not only was this a new concept for that day, but a new concept for today as well. Church, we need to learn from the works of Jesus Christ. There’s a lesson to be learned not only from every word Jesus said but also for every action he ever did!

How much time does the church of Jesus Christ spend today chasing after shallow and self-serving objectives? There are many people in the church of Jesus Christ today, as in years gone by, who are working long and hard hours and they don’t have a clue as to what or why the real reason is or should be for what they are doing. Their mindset is “Look at me! Look at all I’ve done. Look at all I’ve accomplished. Look at me! Look at me! I’m over here working; now I’m over here working. Look at me, look at me!” There are many people in the church of Jesus Christ who are working towards the goal of obtaining their own salvation. Working through their own labors, working to gain something that has already been bought with a price and freely given yet they don’t even recognize that it’s theirs for the asking. They can’t accept the fact that the grace of God is freely given to all who ask and they need not do a thing other than ask and receive this beautiful gift. They can’t seem to grasp the fact that works should be the fruit gained after we’ve experienced the grace of God, not the means by which we gain it! The jailer said; “What must I do to be saved?” The answer was “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” For that jailer there were no strings attached to obtain his desire. There was nothing for him to do but believe.

My friend it hasn’t changed, the requirements are the same today as they were then. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! Our works can’t buy salvation, our labors aren’t needed. If it didn’t come freely it wouldn’t be a gift it would be a reward. If it didn’t come freely it wouldn’t be a gift; it would be recompense. When we go to work and put in our time the paycheck we receive at the end of the week isn’t a gift given, it’s the just compensation for our labors. The paycheck we receive is the results of a negotiated agreement between our employer and us; it’s not a gift. A gift is when we do nothing and still receive remuneration. Then its grace freely given!

Make no mistake my friend. The church needs many workers, there is still much to be done. There are many people that need to be reached with the soul saving message of the Gospel. But we each individually need to look deep down in our heart to see just what our source of motivation is. We need to be asking ourselves the question, “what am I seeking to gain from my labors”? If we are looking to gain praise from others or a reserved parking space in the lot outside then we need to reconsider what we are doing and what our motivation is.

“I must work the works of him that sent me”. There is no selfishness in the words of Jesus. There is no hidden agenda, Jesus knew the mission he had been sent to do, and he knew he was sent to be a servant. A strange title for the King above all kings but he gladly accepted the role of a servant and never once complained. The Son of God, the King of kings, and yet he was a servant. That my friend is the personification of humility, what a lesson to be learned! There is beauty in this lesson and there is beauty to be seen in all who learn and follow. Can you see the lesson church? Can you see the beauty in this portrait of words and wisdom? I would that you absorb this lesson down to the very core of every fiber in your being. Were we to do this what a glorious church we would be!

Jesus is the Royal Servant. He is the King of kings. And yet his attitude is still the same today as it was when he walked the dusty streets of Jerusalem. Should we call upon him now this instant he will still respond as the Servant of man working as the intercessor between man and Father God. We must remember that the same Jesus, who said, “I must work the works of him who sent me” is also the Jesus that said, “No one comes to the Father except through me”. These two sentences go hand in hand. While on the earth the daily task of Jesus was to be the servant of men and women, ministering to them as only God could do. Now although in the heavenly places, Jesus still ministers to us as the servant through our prayers, he is working for us by interceding on our behalf before the Father. Our prayers rise to the ear of Jesus who hears every word and knows the intention of our hearts and he then presents them to the Father. So when we pray we should have the heart and mindset of Jesus while he ministered here on this earth. Our thoughts should be “I must work the works of him that sent me” and pursue the task in all sincerity while giving the glory to God. We need to know the direction the Father would have us go rather than plowing ahead under our own steam, working long and hard hours to obtain a goal that has its lead in futile misdirection.

So often within the church of Jesus Christ there are many who feel that their life’s work is to criticize and judge the works of others. They find fault with everything and voice their opinion on a regular basis producing sour grapes but seldom producing any good fruit. Within the church we hear the voices planting seeds of discord on a regular basis, “I don’t like the way they did that! If I were doing it I would have done it totally different and so much better! If I had done that it would have looked a lot nicer. I guess what they did is okay … but.” That my friend is not going about doing the work of him who sent us. What that is, is actually undermining the work of the ones that are trying to do the work of him who sent us. What the real workers are trying to build for God the false workers are trying to tear it down.

If we look in the book of Nehemiah in the fourth chapter we see Nehemiah has returned to Jerusalem after being in exile. The Lord had placed a burden upon his heart to rebuild the walls of the city because a wall around a city meant protection for the people that lived there. Nehemiah gathers the people together; assigns groups of dedicated workers to each work on a section of the wall, that way everyone has a hand in the repairs and they can all share in the experience. He gets Eliashib, the high priest to dedicate the project and they start in the rebuilding process. And just like any good project, once the work is started here comes the negative Nellies. There is always a negative Nelly in the group. We see one group, the hard workers giving it their all and all but we also see the negative ones in the mix as well. . Listen to the words of Tobiah and Sanballat, two of the negative Nelly’s. (Nehemiah 4:1-3) “1 When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, 2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, "What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?"
3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, "What they are building—if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!” Real words of encouragement don’t you think? While the real workers are doing the best they can the complainers are saying that even a little fox could knock their work apart. A little later in the same chapter we hear the negative words ring out again. “Before they know it or see us we will be right there among them and well will kill them and put an end to their work.” We can see the biblical principle here, there are going to be workers who are actively seeking to do the will of God and there are those whose only mission is to criticize and tear down. But have no fear, if we were to read the rest of Nehemiah’s story we would see that the wall was completed and the negative Nellie’s were frustrated, all of their negative efforts were for nothing.

Then of course there is another group who although they aren’t the complainers they aren’t the workers either. This is the group that will expend a great amount of effort and energy in avoiding working at all. “I don’t have the time to help you. I don’t have the education to do that. I don’t have the resources. I’ve never been trained for that. I don’t have the right clothes, my car isn’t good enough, my house is a mess, I’m to young or I’m to old. I firmly agree that something needs to be done but don’t look at me to be the one to do it. I’m to much this or to much that, I’ve always got an excuse!”

While reading the works of Charles Spurgeon, the great evangelist of the late 1800’s and my source of influence for this and many of my sermons and teachings I came across a quote that I think fits this situation quite well. Brother Spurgeon said; “Either be a Christian or give up being called a Christian!” I think that sums it up fairly well, either led or follow but for heavens sake don’t just stand in the way!

Rather than lining up a list of excuses why we can’t do the works of him who sent us, we need to be making up a list of all the things that we are capable of doing and then working from that list. Rather than making a list of negatives make a list of positives and if there are only two items on our positive list then use them both and praise God for them. “I may not be the best public speaker but I can pass out tracts, I can visit the elderly or the shut in. I can bake a batch of cookies or cook a meal. I can listen when someone needs to talk. I can send a card of encouragement or lift a down trodden spirit with a letter of hope. I can make a phone call, offer a cup of tea or just let you cry and I’ll hold you. I can teach a Sunday school class, host a prayer meeting, start a Bible study, assist financially, offer a ride, or just simply pray. I may not be able to do a lot but I know that I can do something!”

Young, old or in between, it doesn’t matter. Rich or poor or anyplace in the middle, it doesn’t matter. Good health or poor health it really doesn’t matter. I once read a story about a missionary that was going to go into the mission fields. He had a wife who did nothing but nag and complain and did everything she could to bring him down but he had a sister that was a prayer warrior. And with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the determination of the man and the prayers of his sister he had a very successful ministry. The sister, she never saw her brother’s ministry field because she was confined to bed, constantly sick and crippled over but she still prayed daily for her brother and the ministry God had called him to. You see my friends regardless of our situation, regardless of our circumstances, regardless of our health, wealth, age, nationality or gender. All of us are capable of doing something; all of us are capable of doing the works of him who sent us. My advice to you this day, pray for the discernment of the Holy Spirit so that we may know the will of the Father and have his revelation to guide us to the work he's called us to do. And when the Lord calls… listen with an open ear. Follow his direction and give God the glory for what takes place. “I must work the works of him who sent me.” Here the NIV really fits in nicely. “As long as it is day, we must do the work, of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work.”

Point number 3. Actually this segment can be divided into two parts as 3a and 3b. In 3a Jesus says according to the NKJ, “while it is day” or in the NIV, “as long as it is day”. “I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day.” And no, Jesus isn’t saying that we can skip the mid-week evening service because we only need to attend day things! The implication here is that we need to be doing our work now while there is still time. We need not be procrastinating and making excuses. Jesus is telling us that there is no time better than the present to do the work we have been called to do, to do the work of God. My friends the time is coming to a close rapidly and before we know it we are going to hear that trumpet blow and the King of Glory is going to appear in the skies. We need to get the mindset that says treat every day like there is no tomorrow.

I’m sure I’m not the only one to have had this experience. The opportunity is placed before me to witness to someone and for one reason or another I’ve not done it or put it off thinking “I’ll have to witness to them the next time. For sure the next time we are together I’ll tell them about the saving grace of Jesus and introduce them to our Lord.” And then through some set of circumstances we come to find out that for that person there won’t be anymore tomorrows. All of their tomorrows have come to an end and we have missed the time to witness.

In my life I’ve had two good friends that have by their own hand ended their life. And there has been several whose life was ended by accident or illness when I mistakenly thought there was ample time to talk to them about Jesus. Try to think of how we would feel if for some reason we said “I must work the works of him who sent me but I’ll do it tomorrow” and the person we wanted to talk to about God’s gift of salvation and grace never got to hear that message. Try to think how you would feel if the person you wanted to talk to didn’t have another tomorrow and all of their tomorrows came to an end today. My friend; don’t allow your conscience to have to experience this kind of sorrow. In the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon says; “For who knows what is good for a man in his life, during the few and meaningless days he passes through like a shadow? Who can tell him what will happen under the sun after he is gone?” We may get only one opportunity to be a witness for our Lord Jesus Christ. Grab that opportunity and make the best of it. That person may never pass by your door again.

3b. “The night is coming when no one can work”. I believe what Jesus is saying here is that there is a time coming when we will no longer be able to be a witness to others because we don’t know how much time is left in our lives as well. None of us know with any certainty if there is going to be another tomorrow in our life! It’s not only the other person whose life is like grass that withers and is blown away, it’s all life, it’s mine, theirs and yours. I can’t promise you today that all of us will be here tomorrow. I can’t promise you today that I’ll be here tomorrow! My last breath of life could come before I finish this message. It’s all in the hands of the Lord. I may do things that influence the duration of my life or I may do things that speed up its demise. I can follow proper eating habits, which is a real problem for me because of my love of good cooking. I can follow the advice of my family doctor and hope that she’s correct in what she says. But then again I also have the option to live the life of a fool and do whatever I want regardless of the consequences and take as many chances as I want. But in the final analyses … only God knows the time of my demise.

I would dare to say that if it were different all of us would lead a far different life style. If we knew without a shadow of a doubt that on the 5th of December in the year of whatever our life was going to come to an end we would be far more attentive to the things that really matter. Our language would change; we would dearly guard our every word knowing that final judgment was nigh. We would spend more time hugging our children or more time in the company of our spouse. We would spend more time with our Lord and less time chasing the almighty dollar. Precious moments would last longer and memories would burn deeper in our hearts. If in exact certainty the moment of our death were known in advance our lives would be oh so different.

And that my friend is what our Lord is telling us in this reading. “The night is coming when no one can work.” None of us here know the hour or the minute when our night is due to arrive but arrive it will at some time. “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day.” As before stated, I can’t make a promise to myself or any of us here that there is a tomorrow in our lives because we don’t know when the night will come and no one can work, night may fall in an instant without warning or any call of alarm. We live in world of very few absolutes. What was absolute yesterday or today may not be absolute tomorrow. Certain illnesses of yesterday that would have absolutely killed us have been conquered by modern medicine. Facts and figures in the world of science that were absolute yesterday no longer hold that position. The absolute fastest a plane could go in 1930 was almost two thousand miles per hour slower than the F4 Phantom went in 1970. And the Raptor is almost twice as fast as the Phantom was. At one time the absolute highest a man could go was the height of the highest point on the earth, Mt. Everest. Now man routinely goes thousands of miles above the earth in space orbit. And even in that there is still no absolute, we are looking to go even further. I still haven’t figured out why.

But there is one promise I can make to you that will never be broken, there is one absolute that will never change. This promise; this absolute, lives within the word of God. Jesus said “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” And that my friend is absolute, that will never change! The Bible tells us that Jesus is the same today as he was yesterday and he will be the same tomorrow. There can be no question about this fact, it is absolute. Jesus also said the he was going to return to gather his bride to himself. That is absolute. It’s a promise that can’t be broken.

“I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work”. Jesus knew that he must work while it was day, while there was time because he also knew that his time was already predestined to come to an end. Jesus knew that the Father had given him a commission and it was his duty to fulfill that commission. My friends; the Father has given us the same commission. We must work the works of him that sent us while it is day. There is much work to be done and the night is rapidly approaching and a time when all work will end. Join with me now and let us all work the works of him that sent us. The day is still with us and the night hasn’t arrived yet and no one knows when it will. Time is of an essence; make wise use of what time we have left.

Grace & peace

LOVE IS MORE THAN HEARTS AND FLOWERS

2010-02-02T11:37:00.000-08:00

LOVE IS MORE THAN HEARTS AND FLOWERS
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted

Now I’m not going to be bold enough to second-guess the Apostle John, nor will I be foolish enough to question God as to why or what he put in his Bible. But after reading the book of 1st John a few times I noticed something that I found to be interesting. The Apostle John, in his writing kind of wanders around in his thoughts. He starts his epistle with a beautiful salutation that praises with much admiration our Lord Jesus. He goes on to acknowledge that Jesus is real, that he personally had seen him with his own eyes after his resurrection from the grave, and he has not only seen him, but he has touched him as well. John’s personal testimony of seeing and touching a risen Savior, his beloved Jesus, is powerful to the reader since we can only assume that the person or people he is writing to knew of Jesus, may have seen him themselves and may have witnessed his death and burial.

We really don’t know who John is writing to since his letter doesn’t state any particular person or group by name as do so many of the other letters that make up our New Testament. But I think it’s safe to say that at this time in history the receiver or receivers of this letter had close personal knowledge of Jesus, had heard or seen him speak or was a first generation hearer of his Gospel. John’s second letter is addressed to “The chosen lady” if you are using a NIV Bible or “The elect lady” if you are using the KJV Bible. This may have been an actual person and her children, or a church and the congregation; again we can only make an assumption and never know in all certainty. The third of John’s letters is addressed to a man by the name of Gaius, who must be a close friend of John; we can surmise this from the warm language John uses in his salutation. With this the first of John’s three short letters I think we are safe in assuming that it was indeed going to a group since he makes reference several times in the plural form of “Dear Friends” indicating that the letter was intended to be read by several people. Whether it was sent to one person or many, a church or a personal family, matters not. The important thing is that it was received, recorded and maintained for us here today. But rather than looking for what isn’t in the salutation we need to be looking at what is in there, and that is an acknowledgement of the risen Savior and an encouragement to enter into fellowship with our God.

John follows his salutation with a discourse about encouragement in regards to walking out our life in an attitude or state of leading a sin free life. This he then ties into love, in particular; Godly love for each other. And this encouragement in leading a sin free and loving life is the main theme of John’s letter. But as I said in the beginning, John kind of wanders away for the theme every once in a while and them returns again in a few sentences. But with a discerning eye, after reading the letter a few times, the reader can by the direction of the Holy Spirit, find a golden thread that John has woven through his letter. This theme wanders in and then out between thought changes, and John does this over and over again throughout the entire letter. And what I’d like to do now is read this golden thread that is found in the fabric of the letter.
1st John 1:5-7
“5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”
1st John 2:3-6, 9-11
“3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. 9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.”
1st John 3:6-10, 14-15
“6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. 7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. 14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.”
1st John 4:7-8, 19-21
“7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

It is from this reading that I’ve based today’s sermon, and even then I’ll be staying within the context of love since Valentines Day is so close. The leading of a sin free life each of you can work out for yourself for today. I won’t be reminding you of what sin is, how it affects us and the outcome of such, I’ll save that for a different day. We as a people don’t like to hear sermons about sin any more, we always want those warm and fuzzy feelings after a sermon and we don’t like to be reminded of our shortcomings. And so today you won’t be.

John talked about love and even told us that God is love, I guess we can’t question that now can we? I once served as an associate pastor to a man who spoke of love every week, every week we were reminded of the love of Jesus and how it is poured out to us. If we look at the television or read the newspaper today where is the love to be found? All we see is killing in Iraq, car bombs and fools wearing bombs strapped to their bodies. Where’s the love in that? General George Patten made a statement once when addressing his troops prior to their going into battle about these people that blow themselves up to win the war. He said; “You don’t win wars by giving up your life for your country, you win wars by getting the other poor SOB to give up his life for his country”. I guess there’s some truth to that but there sure isn’t a statement of love in that.

If you want to see real love in any of this you have to find the little things that the news media doesn’t like to give out too much. They aren’t real interested in telling you about the love that is there even in this war that we are in. Do you know what true love really is? When we recently lost all those soldiers in the helicopter crash there was an example of love. One of the men that lost his life loved his country and the cause for freedom for the people of Iraq. His home base was in Hawaii and he could have been there had he want to. He had been wounded while in Iraq and could have been sent to his home base on a tropical island. Actually he had been wounded twice and both times he elected to stay in Iraq rather than be sent to safety. He had two chances to escape the ravages of war but he loved what freedom was for himself and he wanted it for those people that didn’t have it. This man loved his country, he loved his family but his love was strong enough that he was able to say “I’d rather stay here and see that these poor people have all the rights I have”. He didn’t say that they were Muslim and love only goes to Christians, he didn’t say that they were an ugly people obsessed with hate for Americans as the news media would have you think. He quietly said that he’d stay there and risk his life for a people he really didn’t know, and in the end it did cost him his life. Our Lord talked about this kind of love, he said; “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends”. We call it “paying the ultimate sacrifice”, when we should call it “showing the ultimate love”. And this is only the story of one out of many, this country has thousands in the military that share this your fallen hero’s thoughts and love. Another story that came from that same crash was the story about one of the young men who had the opportunity to leave the region and didn’t, he stayed because he loved his freedom, and his love was strong enough to want to see other people he really didn’t know have that same freedom. He died leaving behind a four-month daughter he had never seen. And this is only two out of thirty-one, I’m sure there are other similar stories if we only knew.

I recently saw on the television an interview, I think it was on 60 Minutes, where the reporter was talking to a young Lieutenant in Iraq. He was in the Army or the Marine Corps. I don’t know which. His men called him “Frenchy” because he had an accent like those raised in the swamplands outside New Orleans. The interviewer noticed that although the Lieutenant was talking to him this Lieutenant never stopped looking down range and keeping an eye on his men. He knew where every single one of them was at all times. The interviewer commented on this and the Lieutenant said he loved every man in his company and wanted to make sure they all returned home safely. This man knew what love was, he too showed the ultimate love and lost his life, the day before he was to be transferred home.

If we look at the situation in the Far East after the Tsunami hit, we can really see an outpouring of godly love. Millions of dollars and thousands of people have poured into the area to assist people they don’t know simply because the Holy Spirit has prompted them. And some of them don’t even know who the Holy Spirit is. Friend that’s God at work whether we want to acknowledge him or not. Man if left to his own design will not show love like that, even the ungodly have to respond to God’s call when he gives it. They may not know why, and they may not want to acknowledge God in any of it but it’s God working for his people, through his people, acknowledge him or not. I don’t remember the name of the nation but the news said that it was the poorest nation in the world, and they committed $50,000.00 to assist in the relief efforts over there. Whether they know it or not they tithed on their nations finances and I don’t doubt that God is going to bless them for it. I may not remember the name of the nation but I’m sure that there is a missionary out there that heard that name and the Lord has already spoke to them about going there to spread his Gospel. You’ve heard it said many times and it’s always true. God works in mysterious ways.

We don’t have to travel around to the other side of the world to see this love. I picked up a newspaper from the city of Batavia New York not long ago. There’s love all over it. I don’t know the man but he’s 84 years young and he’s been training boys in scouting for 48 years. His name is Weldon Hilchey and he loves working with kids. He may think he’s in scouting but he’s actually working in youth ministry, scouting doesn’t just teach young boys how to cook on an open fire, they teach them to respect their religion as well. They acknowledge God. I was a Cub Scout leader for 6 years and one of the most prestigious awards a Cub Scout can obtain is the Parli Dei, their religious award for the Catholic boys. And of course in scouting there is the highest award a boy can obtain, the Eagle Award, if you see a boy with this badge ask what he had to do in regards to his religious belief to obtain the Eagle.

There was a story about a man from Pembroke New York named Lynn Sneath, he’s going to do a 100 mile bicycle ride around Lake Tahoe. He’s not doing it because he’s got nothing better to do with his time, he’s doing it because he’s raising money for two children in the area that have cancer. Does he know the Lord? I don’t know, but I do know that he’s doing what Jesus wants him to be doing. He’s helping another person and he’s doing it out of love.

Also in that newspaper, the Catholic Charities set a goal of $10.7 million. Friends that’s a whole lot of love there. Do I believe in everything the Roman Catholic church teaches? No, if I did I’d still be Roman Catholic. But I know that they are doing as God told us to do because a goodly portion of the money is going to feed the hungry, care for the homeless and look after the widows and orphans. If they are professing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then we are brothers and sisters in the Lord and it’s up to God to sort out the rest. If they ask me the truth of the Gospel I’ll tell them but I’m not here to judge them, that’ not my job and it’ isn’t yours either. If we have the opportunity to share the true message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ we should but we’re not to be going to go out of our way to insult or offend anyone about their religious belief. We’ve been told to instruct them if we can, to love them without question and that’s good enough for me.

If we look in that Batavia paper in the “Area Religion Beliefs” section we’ll find 48 different churches listed. That included the Assemblies, the Methodist, Presbyterians, Baptist, Episcopal, Catholics and a few others. God didn’t make these denominations, man did. God didn’t say to divide over every little thing in my word, man did. God did tell us to love each other and he ended with that. He didn’t place in there denominations and divisions with-in denominations. God didn’t say I want Baptists and Independent Baptists and Southern Baptists, he didn’t say I want United Methodists and Free Methodists, and Wesleyan Methodists. He said he wanted his children to love one another. What did John say in his letter? He said; “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves had been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love”.

We started with looking at love around the world and then brought it down to a local community, now lets bring it closer to home. What about the local church here? The geographies may change but the command doesn’t. Are there divisions among any of us in our local church? There shouldn’t be, not if Jesus Christ is Lord of all. If we are like minded in one common goal and that being to spread the Gospel of Christ to the many, then we should be able to overcome any and every obstacle placed before us. Romans 5 says “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” And in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians he says “Then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.”

Reflect for a moment on the love God has poured out on your church. Do you have a nice building? Or as one old pastor I heard say once, “We got a nice church house here”. Is there heat in your building? Does your church have all the bills current, if there are no late payments going in it’s not costing late charges, that’s a blessing in it’s self. Do you have some really gifted people? People gifted in music, singing, and teaching, people gifted as organizers and prayer partners? What about some really good cooks? One of the churches I visit on occasion has a truly wonderful professional chef as a member; you should attend a dinner there. What a blessing he is for that congregation. What about a few gifted greeters, they can really make a difference to those coming in the door. And every church needs people who will listen when you just need an ear to bend every once in a while. Do you have some givers, people who are really generous, and I’m not talking just about money, I’m talking about time and talents. Yes you need givers of finances but there is so much more to be given other than money. And if you have all these things in your church and there are still some problems, not to worry, that’s okay too. It’s just a part of what a church is. If it weren’t for problems we wouldn’t have the New Testament! Do you realize that if you read from the book of Acts back to the end of the Bible it’s all about instructions for little churches with major problems. They had drunkards, thieves, gluttons, wife swappers, incest, and idolatry. Kind of makes your problems look a little inconspicuous doesn’t it?

So if you have some, many, some, most or just a few of these things gifts in your church and it’s still not functioning right do you have any idea as to what the problem could be? My former senior pastor knew, Pastor Stan preached on it for two years, every single Sunday for two years… love. The Love of God, the love of Jesus. Don’t give Pastor Stan the credit for the solution to the problem though, it wasn’t his idea, he’s just telling you what his boss said years ago, he was simply preaching a message Jesus preached a few thousand years ago. God put it all in his owner’s manual years before there was a Stan Thurber or Robert Elkins or any of us alive today. When God started his church he gave us everything we needed to run it until it was time for Jesus to return, claim his bride and take us to the great wedding feast. We’re the ones that have got things out of whack, and even if it looks like it’s unfixable it isn’t. We still have the owner’s manual we started with, we just need to look in it, see what it says and then follow the directions without adding anything to them. Adding our own thoughts to God’s directions is like letting God build us a house and adding an extra room on the side but not putting a roof over it. You can put all you want in the thing to make it look nice, fancy wallpaper, lovely furniture, and fine carpets, but it’s not going to last very long when the weather gets bad. When the storms hit without that protection of a roof it’s all for naught. It’s the same with a church, God can give us the nicest of buildings and lovely property but if we don’t do things the way he tells us he’s not obligated to bless us and if he pulls his Spirit we wither and die.

God has told us to love one another, he didn’t say only love others in the Assemblies of God, and avoid the Baptists, he didn’t say to avoid the Roman Catholics either, or the Methodists. It’s not in his owner’s manual. Jesus didn’t put it in there. Jesus didn’t tell us where to stop loving one group and where to start with others. And if any of us are having a problem in loving people in other denominations, what do we think we are doing when we are not loving others within as in my case the Assemblies of God or for you the reader, the church you may have had affiliation with? Friend, all of us has been guilty of a slight lack of love at one time or another. And yes these are words of wisdom the Lord has given me. And yes this message at times applies to me as well. When God gives me these messages you’d be amazed to see how many time I get hit with guilt when I’m writing what the Spirit is giving me. Believe it or not but when I start writing I open my mind to the Spirit and the words just flow. I pray “Father tell me what you want your people to hear, give me the words I need to reach someone and give me a preachers heart to say what you want without me hurting anyone or causing strife”. And then I start writing led by the Spirit and go where he takes me. When I started this I had no intention of going off in this direction. I went into prayer first, and then I looked up the history of Valentines Day on the computer. Next I started typing and instantly the Holy Spirit led me to one set of words and then another set and another set. Before I knew it I had paragraph after paragraph and suddenly before I had what you are hearing or reading and it sure isn’t what I had in mind when I started to prepare for today. I was thinking a nice guy loves the girl thing and it’s all hearts and flowers kind of sermon. You know romance and chocolate and all that stuff. But I don’t think that’s what God had in mind. We are talking love here but it’s not the romance I envisioned.

So Jesus is telling us to love one another and it starts in the home and the local church and that brings us back to the topic at hand. We’re told to love each other right here in this little church. And now you’re saying something like “are you kidding”, after what that person said about me? Or how about “Do you have any idea what she or he said to me or about me behind my back? I poured my heart and soul into that ministry and they came along and destroyed it in a instant or they stole my ministry and just forced me out in the cold”. Beloved I have shared every one of those thoughts as well. I’ve heard what people have said about me and behind my back or how they’ve gone around me to get where they wanted to go. But no matter what it is there’s only one place we can go. Whenever things like this happen we need to take it to the throne of the King and leave it there. Allow the Lord to do his healing in us and walk away for the throne in full confidence that God had his hand on the situation and it is now his.

Some of you may have been around my writings long enough to figure out where I’m headed with this. I don’t think I’m any different than any other Christian. I’ve got a few Bible verses that are my favorites and if you’ve heard of or read any of my sermons from “Up from the Ashes” ministry you have a pretty good handle on what mine are. I’m headed to the foundation of the entire Bible, Jesus and his love. What is our responsibility to use as our rule and guide in loving? Even when we don’t feel like it. (Romans 12:18) “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone”. And I know it sounds so simple to say it but how in the world do we live it out in our life? Saying something is one thing, living it out is another. It’s like reading about a Corvette in a Car and Driver magazine and then going out and getting in my 16 year old with 375,000 miles on it Toyota. Reading is one thing, doing is another. I can read about the Corvette but reality says I’m still in a Toyota. That’s where the rest of God’s word comes in. My next favorite verse, the love chapter of the Bible. 1st Corinthians 13 transforms my Toyota to a Corvette in my heart. “Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, is not rude, is not self seeking, is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails”.

My friend these are not empty or hollow words that really can’t help or be applied to any situation. I don’t care what it is, you can apply this to the situation and it will work. If we work with these two verses, mix them together in our minds and pour them out on a daily basis it will work wonders. (Romans 12:18) “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone”. Repeat those16 words over and over and over. When the hurt is still fresh, when the pain is still there, if there are scabs and scars for previous hurts, apply this as a balm, apply it with heavy coats, rub it in, over and over. Repeat it time and time again; walk through it, talk to your self about it. Allow the Spirit of Jesus to work his miracle in your life. He’s right there in front of you; he’s beside you at all times, he’s always behind you ready to give you the little nudge you need when you need it. Give the pain to him, let him have the hurt, eat crow if you must, swallow that pride and feel His release through it all. When we get out from under that weight of the problem we can walk on clouds and not fall through. Is it easy? Yes and no, it all depends on us, how much are we willing to forget, how much are we willing to forgive? How much love are we willing to show, how much love do we want back in return? Are we willing to show love even if it looks like there isn’t going to be anything returned, even if there’s still ice between you and the other person? We are not going to know until we try.

When I first started this sermon I told you the sermon title was love is more than hearts and flowers. Love is release and tears as well. Love is hugs and pats on the back, it’s holding on to someone and telling them that it’s okay, that you forgive them and it’s asking for forgiveness as well. Love is saying “I’m sorry if I hurt or offended you in the past and it’s saying that if I do it again, I’m only human and I make mistakes, show me grace again and let me try to make it right, even if I have to try a thousand times before I get it right. Love is saying I may never get it right but will you still forgive me? Grace received is a precious gift and grace given is truly heavenly and from God. The giving of grace is an attribute of Father God, but it’s also something we give as well. Love and grace are things we can all work on to develop more and more, there is no end to love, we can never have too much, and we can never give too much away. It’s like the widow with Elijah; her bottle of oil never ran out, neither will our love because God is always ready to refill us when we need it. Jesus talked about the ten virgins and their oil in their lamps, five were wise and five were foolish, be like the five wise virgins, keep your oil container full. Whenever you feel your love level running low, stop and refill it with a quick trip to the Lord in prayer. Try it, it works and you’ll like the results. If you see that someone is starting to run low in their lamp, give them some of yours, a hug, a kind word, a word of prayer. Remember you can’t give too much away and you have a source that will never run dry.

Grace & peace

It's a Personal Thing

2010-01-04T06:17:00.000-08:00

It’s A Personal Thing
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted

1st Samuel 17:37-40
“37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."
38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.”

When I did my first sermon many years ago I was working as an associate pastor under the direction of Rev. William Hays the pastor of an Assembly of God church in the western New York area. At that time I told the congregation of that church that the Lord had given me a very personal word of instruction when he called me into the ministry. He led me into [Matthew 11:29] “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your soul”. The revelation the Lord gave me from this was simple and straightforward, “Robert, you do as I direct you. Don’t worry about anyone else, I’ve made him or her the way they are and I’ve made you the way you are. If you’re going to do my bidding you’ve got to be yourself and not try to be anyone else”. I knew from the very beginning that I was called to be something different. You have no idea how often I’ve questioned God, “God are you sure this is the church you want me to be in? Did I go to the wrong place? Maybe I misunderstood you. God do you realize that this is a Pentecostal church, wouldn’t I be more comfortable in a little more orthodox setting?” And I kept getting the same response to my questions, “You are to be where I placed you and for now it’s at this church. A time may come when I call you elsewhere but for now this is where I want you” I kid you not, when my wife, Mary, and I first started to go to that church I even looked in the phone book to see if maybe there was another church listed with the same name and maybe I went to the wrong one to begin with. And when the Lord said he wanted me at that church he meant it, I was there for over five years before moving elsewhere.

After Pastor Hays left another man came in as the senior pastor, Rev. Stan Thurber and I truly loved him and his style of preaching. I tried comparing myself to Pastor Stan and mimicking his preaching style and to be quite honest, it didn’t work at all. When you looked at the two of us we were as completely different as two men can get. I would go in the sanctuary when there was no one else around and I would try to deliver a sermon with all the energy and animation that pastor Stan used in his delivery and I couldn’t do it. When I saw that this wasn’t happening I prayed about the situation, I tried to explain to the Lord as to how I wasn’t able to give a fiery sermon like Pastor Stan did and that I needed the Lords assistance to develop the style of a true Pentecostal minister. And after my prayers went out to that heavenly throne room of the Lord the Lord did respond, but not in the way I expected, he said “Nice try David, you can’t wear Saul’s armor, remember what I told you from the very start … “be like me for I am gentle and humble in heart”. And I’ve cried out; “Father the people love Pastor Stan and his delivery of a sermon, he’s a preacher and he’s an evangelist.” And I further heard his voice say; “I’ve called you to be a preacher teacher, not a preacher evangelist. Be like me for I am gentle and humble in heart. Do the job I’ve called you to do, that’s all I ask for. ”

I don’t doubt that there have been countless preachers over the eons who have compared themselves to others and have come away feeling at least a little bit inferior to the person they selected as their role model. We can only imagine how many preachers have said: “If only I could deliver a message like Billy Graham” or “Why can’t I preach like Joyce Meyers or maybe better yet the great preacher, from the late 1800’s Charles Spurgeon who at that time had a congregation in London England of over five thousand people. I also don’t doubt for a second that once those seeds of doubt or inferiority set in and maybe even a touch of jealousy; that the Father of Lies is sitting in the background saying to him self, “I’ve got another one questioning the calling God’s placed upon his life. If I can just turn the screws a little bit more it will be one more ministry I don’t have to worry about anymore. He’ll quit in frustration or be unproductive and that’s all I need.”

And that doubt or that questioning can indeed lead to jealousy and that jealousy can and usually will harm, hurt or destroy a ministry that was God ordained but the human side of man allowed Satan to gain entrance and tear down and destroy from with-in. Each preacher, no; each person, has to realize that the reason the Joyce’s and the Charles’ and the Billy’s are so successful is because they are unique and special, and God made them that way. If every minister of the Gospel ministered in the same way, if they all had the same gifts and talents, then the awe inspired sermon would cease to be awe inspiring. If every minister were to have the same style of delivery for his sermon, and then all sermons would be identical and commonplace with nothing special about them and the fickle public would look else where for its inspiration.

God allows some ministries to grow and gain worldwide acceptance and some to remain small and local with a plan and purpose for them both. Someone like Billy Graham knows and understands this principle. When a Billy Graham crusade is coming to an area, months in advance there are training seminars to instruct the assistants on how to minister to the throngs of new believers that will come out of that crusade. The Graham ministries realize that once their job is done and that job is getting the salvation message to the masses; that these people who are reached by the message will need to be directed to a local church. And it’s that local church that will feed and nurture that new Christian in the faith. Should there be trials and setbacks in the life of the new believer Joyce or Billy aren’t going to be there to minister to that new believer, they won’t be there to walk them through the Bible, to pray with them, to meet and share a cup of coffee or take a phone call in the middle of the night. If there is an illness or a family crisis they won’t be there to anoint them with oil and pray over them. They’ve moved on to the next location and they are doing what God has called them to do, plant the seeds and get another crop of believers started on the right path. Personal ministry after the seeds are planted is up to the local minister; it’s up to the local fellowship because that’s where the feeding in both physical and spiritual needs is going to take place. That’s where instruction is going to come from, that’s where the new believer will be guided to Christian maturity, where they will be baptized and nurtured and hopefully released into a ministry of their own.

The Apostle Paul understood this principle when he wrote to the church in Corinth these words. “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants, not he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” And so after hours and hours of prayer the Lord has allowed me to understand this principle as well. Once I stopped questioning and doubting and once I started to listen to the Lord’s voice with an open ear and a closed mouth he spoke very clearly to me, God always answers prayer, sometimes all we have to do is listen and stop doing all the talking. Many of us want open communication with God but we only want it if we can be his advisors.

Pastor Stan Thurber had been given a mandate and ministry. To start with, he was given an anointing to preach and be very animated while doing it. And God has told me, that’s Pastor Stan’s ministry, not mine. Pastor Stan has been given a holy mandate to preach the words of Jesus, Pastor Stan preaches from the portions of scriptures we could call the “Red Letter” portion, and he does so wonderfully. But God has told me that that is Pastor Stan’s ministry, not mine. And God then told me that Pastor Stan was doing exactly what he’s been mandated to do, he was following his Masters voice and if God wanted two Rev. Stanley Thurber’s he’d make a second one and that second one wasn’t going to be me. Our Lord has told me that I’m to do what I’ve been anointed to do, preach and teach, Pastor Stan is to do what he’s been anointed to do preach and evangelize, and God himself will take care of the details, it’s not my concern. I’ve heard the Lord’s voice say to me; “I make people unique, one at a time, I don’t need mass production to accomplish my will, I just need faithful servants who listen to my voice.”

Every once in a while I’d start to compare myself to another person, or I’d start to think that maybe I should try to do as I see so and so doing and I’d hear that voice in my spirit again. “Robert, you’re doing it again … be what I made you to be, not what you desire. I made you what you are, be content in that and stop searching for a better road to follow, you just stay on the road I’ve called you to take”.

Beloved I’ve got to tell you that I’m now very content with who I am, what I am and where I am. I can watch and hear someone give a forty-five minute sermon with no notes at all and say in all honesty, “that’s wonderful”. No longer do I say, “that’s wonderful, I wish I could do that”. I’m at total ease to sit down, pray to my friend Jesus and ask for guidance, search the scriptures, scribble down pages of notes in my own particular brand of chicken scratching. And then spend hours typing on the computer to get a finished sermon. My lovely wife will attest to the fact that for every sermon I produce under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, what you get, as a forty-minute finished product is the end results of a minimum of twelve to sixteen hour labor of love. And now that I have a cat that likes to assist me on the computer some of these take a lot longer. I study, I read, do some research, type, edit, re-edit, and then do it all over again and each time change a word here, add a word there, but that’s the way the Lord designed me, that’s the style he has led me to. My mind is always busy. Sometimes it’s racing ahead so fast that I loose contact with it and don’t know where it went. If you had ever sat in on my Sunday school class’ you could attest to this with no problem.

When I first started doing sermons at that little country church on the ride back to our home I’d say to my wife, Mary, “I hope they understand what I’m trying to say” or “I hope I delivered the Lord’s message the way he wanted it to be done”. I don’t say that any longer. I’ve heard the Lords voice in my spirit say; “allow my Spirit to guide you and don’t worry about the people, I’ll take care of that end. If the message only reaches one person it’s the one I wanted it to go to. I am gentle and humble in heart. Remember, Ill take care of the details, you just do what I’ve told you to do.”

I don’t really know why it works the way it does but it does work. The more I seek His face, the more time I spend on my knees before His throne, the more time I remain silent and listen for His voice rather than talking and hearing my own. The more I do these things the more content I become in myself and the ministry God has called me to. The more I give, the more God gives back. The more I yield to Him the more he pours out to me. The more I open the door of my heart, the more He enters this house not made with hands.

And that my friend is the meaning of the message God wants you to hear today. We serve a very unique God, a God who makes very unique people. The Bible is filled with examples of how God in his infinite wisdom, makes one person at a time. Even when God creates twins in the womb, or those amazing multiple ready to use full families of three or more children. Each one is made one at a time, totally unique and totally special in God’s eye. They may come with the same hair or eye color but they are unique. They may come with the same height or weight but they are unique. They may come with the same laugh and giggle, but each one is unique. Each and every one of us here today was made by God to carry his special touch of uniqueness and is totally special in the eyes of God. No matter who you are, how many are in your family, what your family is like, rich or poor, it makes no difference to God; you are still special in His eyes.

The Apostle Paul tells us in the 12th chapter of 1st Corinthians that the body … both the human body and the body of His church, although one in appearance is still made up of unique and special parts. Paul asks, are all a hand or all a foot? And then he answers “No” of course not. And even then for most of us, we have two hands or two feet but if these two hands or feet are placed side by side they are each different to some degree. Each of us that has ten fingers will have ten totally unique fingerprints on those fingers. There will never be two that are alike, each finger was made to be unique, too be different even when it looks like it’s the same as the one next to it. That’s exactly what God does with people too, he made them to be different, to be just what he wanted. I know for some of us it’s been a while since we’ve been able to look in a mirror and gaze at what the Lord has given us without the cover of clothing and say, “My Lord, you do good work”. For those like myself, mean old Mr. Gravity has kicked in and things have started to head south. But visualize if you will a little baby. A little baby with a fat little belly and rosy cheeks, both top and bottom. Look at those thrashing legs and arms, right there ready to be hugged and snuggled. And look at how unique this child is. And yet there’s only one of them made exactly like that one child. That child may not be perfect as the world looks at perfect, but this and every child is unique and special in the eyes of God.

This holds true for all of us, every single one of us. As I said before, Pastor Stan and I don’t preach the same. Does this make either of us wrong or at fault? No. It just means that we are both unique and special in the calling we’ve received from our Lord. When I pray, usually I’m quiet and somewhat reserved in my use of words. Many times I’m almost at a whisper level and in the eyes of some, maybe short of words. On the other hand now when my wife Mary prays she always uses eloquent words and charming soul soothing phrases, she covers all the topics and dotting all the I’s and crossing all the T’s. Does that mean that one is better than the other is? No, it means we are both special and unique in the way we pray. For some when they pray, they have a voice that resonates from the ceiling and the rafters as they call out to God in the old Pentecostal fashion of praying. Because I’m quiet and this other person is not does that mean one of us has more access to the ear of God? No, I don’t think so. The Book of James tells us that the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective. God doesn’t care about volume or lack of it. God doesn’t care about eloquent wording or lack of it. God doesn’t care whether our prayers are long or short, loud or quiet, eloquent or elementary. God’s looking at the heart of the one who is doing the praying; he hears all the prayers regardless of how they are presented to him. Each person and each pray are unique and special.

We don’t need to be looking at others and trying to judge ourselves by their standards. Be content in whom you are; be content in what you are. God has made each of us and he has a plan and purpose for each of us if we will only open the door of our heart and allow him full rule and reign over our lives. Psalm14:30 says; “A heart of peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones”. Wouldn’t every one of us rather have a heart of peace than being consumed on the inside by envy or jealousy?

And beloved that comparison can go it two directions. You can do as I was doing and say how you aren’t meeting the expectations you have by comparing yourself to someone, thinking you are inferior. Or you can go in the other direction and compare yourself to others and say to your self; “I have far more talents to offer than that other person has”. Because once you get to that level the next thing you’re going to hear is someone whispering in your ear. That old adversary of God loves it when you listen to anything other than “I made you in my image”. Believe me no one is better and no one is worse than anyone else. We are all the children of God and we are all unique and special.

Look around in a church … do you think you see anyone better or worse than you? If you think you do, I better start all over again from the beginning. From my vantage point in at the pulpit I can see some truly gifted people. I see gifted singers and I praise God for that. You would too if you have ever heard me sing. I can see gifted organizers, that’s a trait that many don’t have. I may see a gifted person who can keep many checking accounts all at the same time. I’m so poor in finances that I have to do everything by cash, when I reach in my pocket and there’s nothing there then I know it’s time to stop spending. I may see people gifted in childcare, I may see people gifted in humor, and people gifted in wisdom. I may see people gifted in generosity and gifted in caring. And I may see an old grump or two, but that’s okay too. I’m sure I’d see teachers, greeters, prayer warriors and helpers. From my vantage point I could look across the room and see people gifted in every gift and quality the Lord wants in his church. But do you know what I don’t see? I don’t see two people who are exactly alike. I do see endless gifts and talents, from the pulpit I’d be looking at the children and I could see future teachers and preachers and missionaries. But I don’t see any two alike. Each person I would see is special and unique, some will carry a sword and armor and some will carry a sling and smooth stones. But all will cause the enemy to flee and with the metaphor, fleeing with his red tail dragging behind him.

If each of us will but go before the Lord humbly on bent knees and seek his face, asking him to reveal where our true gifts and talents are and then wait for him to answer we would all be amazed to hear what God may have to say. There may be some of you who are working in a ministry where they can shine and others may still be searching for that opportunity. Give it a try, call upon the Lord, then listen to his voice and then follow his direction. You are unique and special, stay that way. Seek and listen to sound wisdom, ignore criticism.
[Proverbs 11:9] “With his {and her} mouth the godless destroys his {or her} neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous escape”. (Emphasis mine)
[Proverbs 15:7] “The lips of the wise spread knowledge; no so the hearts of the fools”.
[Proverbs 18:2] “”.A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions
[Proverbs 18:5] “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out.”
[Proverbs 14:1] “The wise woman builds her house with her own hands, the foolish one tears hers down.”

I encourage each of you hearing or reading this message to be bold enough to step out in some form of ministry. I don’t care who you are or how old or young you may be. Male or female, young or old, get involved in some form of ministry. If you fall flat on your face that’s okay, get up and try it again, maybe in a different ministry or maybe in the same one preceded by prayer and then renewed effort. I’m sure that there are no perfect persons, we all have flaws and we all will experience some type of failure in our lives but again, that’s okay. If you’re worried about the “I told you so” crowd, don’t be too concerned with them. None of them will be walking on any water today or tomorrow. I’d rather see everyone try and fail a few times than to never have tried at all. Each person is special and unique; don’t let anyone or anything cause you to question that. Ever! Always remember that you are made in the image of God and he doesn’t make any mistakes and he doesn’t make any junk. Be what God has made you to be, let your light shine in every way you can. You’re only as good as God can make you and needless to say that’s going to be very, very good.

If you’ve got any questions about what you should be doing, pray about it, God will tell you. He doesn’t hold anything back. Remember he’s the one that said that the time of harvest is now but he needed many workers to gather in his crop.

Grace & peace

Is God Talking To America

2009-12-03T08:45:00.000-08:00

Is God Talking to America?
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verses are from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted

Jeremiah 2:1-8

“1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: " 'I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown. 3 Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,' " declares the LORD. 4 Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, all you clans of the house of Israel. 5 This is what the LORD says: "What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. 6 They did not ask, 'Where is the LORD, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and rifts, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?' 7 I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable. 8 The priests did not ask, 'Where is the LORD?' Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols.”

Chances are you have most likely seen where someone has tried to say to you “Look at this Scripture” and pointed out the set of verses I’m using and then followed up with “I’m sure this is talking about America”. And then chances are that they have tried to show you through Scriptures the line of progression for the masses that started in Israel and are running right to The United States of America. And for the most part I’m inclined to agree with them. By using various verses from the second chapter of the book of Jeremiah what I want to do is present to you in a new scenario how the prophecies of Jeremiah, with a little fine-tuning and the departure from standard syntax on my behalf, can be applied to America today. Is not the word of God a living word, applicable to all peoples of all times?

The Bible tells us that all mankind originated from two people, Adam and Eve, they in turn are then over all generations, responsible for all of the various nations of people we have today. And if we look at the various bands of people who have migrated from every corner of the earth, in particularly from the Middle Eastern regions, all of them coming to rest in this nation we call “The United States of America” it is not all that unthinkable to consider that there is a huge contingent of people here with roots that carry all the way back to the original tribes of the Old Testament nation of Israel. However this mass migration of humanity, although important beyond measure, is not relevant to this particular teaching which we are embarking on at this time so we won’t spend a lot of time pursuing this line of thought. What I am going to do is lay out some interesting facts and figures for you, I’ll then ask you the reader to look at what I have presented and at the same time requesting that the Holy Spirit will allow you to draw your own conclusions or analogies using your own logic and common sense. While we are looking at the diverse assortment of topics I’ll be presenting you I ask that you grant me license to remove the name Israel from the equation and apply God’s holy word as found in the Scriptures from the pen of Jeremiah directly to America and the peoples that reside here in this land. Then you be the judge as to whether you feel that the prophecies of Jeremiah when first written many eons ago, given by Divine inspiration of the Spirit, didn’t perchance have America in mind as well as Israel since America is now filled with descendents spawned from that nation of antiquity.

Jeremiah 2:2, “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: " 'I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown.” Men and women who were seeking a place where they could practice their religious beliefs in complete freedom and free from the fear of persecution founded America. Needless to say I am not referring to Christopher Columbus or the boys in his entourage that were backed by Spanish monies. Chris and the crew were of a different motivation, one that was based on greed and a desire for gold and personal profit, religious freedom wasn’t found in any part of their mind set, religious freedom wasn’t even a factor to be considered. But the first actual settlers, those who came to the North Eastern coast of this continent came to seek out a place where they could worship their God as they so desired without the organized church of their motherland lording over them and orchestrating their every word and action. America, in it’s youth did indeed when it was a young bride, love its Lord and God and did follow the God that they loved through a desert of oppression as found in the motherland and landed here in a place not sown or cultivated. For all intent and purpose, the continent of North America was a virgin land to these early settlers. Although the American Indian was already here, they had hardly scratched the surface of the resources to be found in this land in which they lived. For the vast majority of American Indians living here they were content to live with the blessing of abundance that God had placed on the surface of the ground, ample food and water, easy accessibility to shelter without the need to build housing that required a foundation. With many of the Indians being nomadic in nature, following the migratory habits of animals and birds and moving in accordance to the weather patterns in the areas in which they lived. The American Indian wasn’t very much concerned with what lay beneath the surface of the land, oil, copper ore, coal, gold, silver and aluminum etc. they were content with the rich forests, roaming food animals and fresh water. The American Indian had to work for their subsidence and their life wasn’t a life of ease and leisure but they were content to use the land without reshaping it to meet their needs, they preferred to leave it as God had made it. There is much to be said for having that kind of wisdom and I am sure that if they knew what was about to happen to them due to the influx of new neighbors they would have revised their immigration laws drastically to stop the onslaught of new arrivals.

But the early white settlers did arrive, God did have a plan in motion and things took shape as God directed. When the early settles arrived they had a major task laid before them, God didn’t just open the land and allow them to move in without backbreaking labor and unbelievable hardships to overcome. The early settlers didn’t come and find a Wal-Mart at the head waters of every stream, they came and worked tremendous hours in all kinds of weather and many of them faced death and died as a reward for their efforts before this land as a new nation was established. If you ever have the opportunity to read some of the accounts that have been preserved in regards to the hardships the new settlers faces by all means read them. These people faced hunger to a level that I’d dare to say most anyone reading this has never dreamed of. The settlers were driven by hunger to even boil their belts and shoes knowing that they were the products made from animal hides and that there had to be some kind of nourishment in them is consumed. And if the Holy Spirit had not stirred the hearts of the American Indian to step in and assist through donation and instruction I’d venture to say that the white man may not have made it through those first few years. And again I’m sure the Indians have questioned the wisdom of that act of kindness because it surely has came back to haunt them as the population of white men and women grew. They, the Indians, may not have known or realized what they were doing but the Almighty was in the background directing and motivating and they, the American Indians unbeknownst to them were following the leading of the Holy Spirit. The Almighty God was working out his plan for salvation for millions of future people by stirring the hearts of that little group that immigrated to America. God knew that he had a Gospel message that needed to be disseminated throughout the world and he was going to use the descendents of the American people, who are descendents of the Nation of Israel to do it. The nation of Old Testament Israel had been called upon by God to herald the message of salvation to the world and they rejected not only the message but the Messenger as well, but that wasn’t about to stop the plans of God, he already had a backup plan in the making.

Jeremiah 2:3.“Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,' " declares the LORD.” Not only was Israel looked upon as holy and set apart unto the Lord as his own to be blessed, but America as well due to the lineage of our people. God looked at Israel as the firstfruits of his harvest and that blessing can be applied to America too. You see friend, the first fruit of the harvest is the finest, the best, the top of the crop, the sweetest and the most abundant. Think about that for a moment, didn’t God bless America in just this way when America first became a sovereign nation? The people of America were shown God’s blessings on everything they lid their hands on. At one time America produced more than half of the worlds oil output, we dominated the world in production of coal, electricity, steel, iron, aluminum, copper and zinc. We out produced everyone in the manufacturing of automobiles, heavy equipment, clothing, lumber and electrical appliances. We were the leaders in banking, entertainment, education centers, research and medical advancement.

“All who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,' " declares the LORD.” Without question no one would match or compete with our military machines, our Armies or Navy. Look at the military history of America prior to the 1960’s and you will see that any nation that dared to come against the U.S. of A. was defeated, Mexico, Germany, Japan and even our motherland Great Britain fell to the might of America. They were all “Held guilty and disaster overtook them”. Prior to the 1960’s and the era of open defiance of God, his rules for morality and what amounts to an attempt to have total rejection of God altogether, in regards to military might America was unbeatable, unstoppable and undeniably the most blessed and powerful nation in the history of the world. When the Americans defeated Great Britain for its independence Britain was the world’s powerhouse of military might, mostly because of their sea power. Britain controlled the worlds shipping lanes and held much of the land mass in their hands. Just a partial list of British controlled land mass was Japan, India, Africa and Australia. And yet this little upstart of a nation known as the U.S. of A. was able to defeat them and gain our independence. How was the fledgling nation of America able to accomplish this monumental achievement? We didn’t do it on our own that’s for sure. We did it with the intervention of God. Look at the accounts, read the events that transpired giving America the upper hand leading to victory of the then super power of the world. Many of America’s victories came about because we had leaders who were not afraid to be prayer warriors first and military warriors second. Our leaders prayed, the people prayed and God intervened in his control of the weather. Two examples are the battles of New York and New Orleans. Were it not for God’s intervention by manipulating the weather both battles could have been a loss and drastically changed the texture of the world, without God there would have been a totally different outcome. Make no mistake about it, the shield of God’s protection was over America, we were his anointed people, our nation was blessed, our borders were blessed, our people were blessed and why was this? Because we as a nation, because we as a people, were a God fearing nation. Do you doubt this statement? Did you know that every single state, without exception, including Alaska and Hawaii acknowledged God as Sovereign in the preamble of their State Constitution! Every single state, when they entered the union of The United States of America acknowledged in their official statement that the God who is the provider and protection of Israel is the same God that is the provider and protection of America too. And friend, that didn’t just happen, it wasn’t something that just kind of slipped in there un-noticed when no one was looking. Each of these documents contains a statement of faith if you will, when they acknowledged the very existence of God. For your convenience I’ll include a few of these opening statements and let you be the judge, was this a Christian nation or not?
· Arizona 1911, Preamble ... We, the people of the State of Arizona, grateful to Almighty God for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution...
· Georgia 1777, Preamble ... We, the people of Georgia, relying upon protection and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish this Constitution...
· Maine 1820, Preamble ... We the People of Maine acknowledging with grateful hearts the goodness of the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe in affording us an opportunity ... And imploring His aid and direction.
· North Carolina 1868, Preamble ... We the people of the State of North Carolina, grateful to Almighty God, the Sovereign Ruler of Nations, for our civil, political, and religious liberties, and acknowledging our dependence upon Him for the continuance of those
Each document, each Preamble to the state constitution was drafted by men and women who desired to 1) express a desire to acknowledge God and 2.) make a formal request of God’s his blessings on their state and offer thanks for that blessing.

Jeremiah 2:5 “This is what the LORD says: "What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.” I could give you countless examples of how the Founding Fathers of this once great nation, the political leaders, the military leaders and the common man and woman in general followed the religious principles and beliefs of the early settlers of America, those who came here to avoid religious persecution. One does not have to look very far to see the impact a faith-based population had upon the early United States of America. If one looks at the literature of that era there are many references to what is found in the Bible. The Holy Bible was the cornerstone of every aspect of their very existence. Scripture verses adorn the architecture of the day; the Scriptures were carved into stone, painted on wood, cast into metal, the Scriptures was that important to the people. Every government office building had a Scripture reference placed in it or on it someplace, and always in a place of prominence, not carefully hidden away so as not to offend anyone, they wanted it seen! The Ten Commandments are on the Supreme Court Building, where they are now ignored and disgraced by the Justices that now sit on the dais. The Liberty Bell is embossed with a passage from Leviticus XXV “And proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof”. (KJV). Our currency proclaims “In God We Trust”, our legal system although now appears to be a ridicule of Scripture, was based on biblical principle as was our entire system of education. All early grade books used the Bible or Bible based books as the main key for reading instruction. A was for Adam, B was for baptism, C was for Christ, D was for David, that’s how they trained their children to read and the children memorized Scripture passages, that’s what they did then. Did you know that most of our great universities were founded by Christians to be used as Christian centers for education primarily for the education of pastors and missionaries? Including Yale and Princeton where God isn’t even allowed access any longer. Our great universities were founded to be centers of advanced religious education to further the advancement of evangelism and the development of apologetics for their students. It is to our disgrace that these once centers of religious education are now the center of the cause for destruction of religion and faith in the One True Holy God. This should be a heartrending and disturbing thought to everyone we reads this teaching. But rather than filling numerous pages with examples of God being given his rightful place in the many venues of antiquity I’ll present to you one of the most poignant examples of just how far we have fallen from our position as a nation of faith in just a few short generations. The following was taken from public record of a proclamation that was proposed by President Abraham Lincoln in acknowledgement of a request for a national day of prayer and fasting made by Senator James Harlan. The Senate resolution requesting the president to proclaim a day for "National Prayer and Humiliation" was introduced by Senator James Harlan on March 2, and adopted on March 3, 1863. I’ll allow the wording presented by President Lincoln to speak for its self.

Proclamation for a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer
President Abraham Lincoln
WHEREAS, The Senate of the United States; devoutly recognizing the Supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.
And Whereas, it is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.
And, insomuch as we know that, by His Divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People. We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God.
We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope, authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.
Abraham Lincoln,President
William H Seward,Secretary of State

Mind you that this was submitted by President Lincoln on the 2nd of March and adopted on the 3rd of March in 1863. It took one day to present the bill and one day to vote it into practice. Can you imagine something like this happening now, today in America? Were any sitting president to propose a bill like this they would be ridiculed out of office and the proposal would bounce around in the senate and the courts for twenty years. Were a sitting president to present a bill such as this today to a Congress and Senate now filled with professional politicians who no longer know or care what the will of the people is, who have total disregard for their constituents, and in particular if those constituents carry a Bible, if they believe by faith that what their Bible says is the very word of God and by doing so acknowledge the presence of a living God who is absolute in all things. Were this bill to be proposed today, it and the presenter would be condemned to a life of insult and misery. In today’s political machine of silver tongued shysters the will of the people who believe in morality and honesty, as found in God’s word; is on a regular basis cast aside so that our “Leaders” can cater to the will of the sinful minority who twist and manipulate the Law of the Land and our Constitution. And by doing so they are leading the entire nation down a path of destruction and culminating with God’s wrath.

"What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.” We as a people, we as a nation, no longer stand in awe of the Almighty God, our leaders for the most part take a even stronger stance and stand in utter defiance of God and show no fear nor respect to God while catering to the will and whims of the sinful minority ignoring the desires of the majority. It is a sad state of affairs to realize that the majority of the legal Americans in this nation still accept and believe in the person and presence of Almighty God. It is a sad state of affairs to realize that the majority of our legal population in America still believes in prayer and does so often, calling upon God for his assistance, his protection and the return of his blessings upon us. The majority of our legal population realizes that this nation became great because of the intervention of God in every aspect of our very fabric. Our military became powerful through God’s intervention, God not only allowed, but also assisted us in developing military superiority because his hand of protection was upon us. And now as we remove God from our society it is quite evident that as he graciously leaves he is taking his blessing of protection and covering shield with him as he exits. For years we were living under the shield of protection that was placed over us by the prayers of past generations of humble leaders and a holy population of believers. As the prayers of this past generation of leaders and believers were recorded in the heavens like so many deposits in a Holy Banking Account they gained interest and had sustained us through the turmoil’s that we faced. But now not only has our account run dry, we are overdrawn and God is adding up the late charges and tabulating interest and penalties. We can see it in every corner of this nation. Smaller under-armed peoples laugh at our military, our monetary system is failing, sin and perversion are rampant and our people are loving every minute of it as disaster crawls under the door and is wrapping it’s fingers around our legs and is pulling us down to the valley of despair while we sit idly by, blind and ignorant.

Friend, the Scriptures are talking to us. "What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.” The nation of America was founded on Christian principles, a Christian value system of morality, honesty, industry, faith, prayer and integrity. And while we operated under these Christian aspects we prospered and were blessed. America appeared to have the “Midis Touch”, everything we laid our hand to turned to gold. And now God is asking the same question that he proposed to Israel thousands of years ago. "What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.” The people of America have abandoned their history and no longer seek to have any recollection of it. We have forgotten what it was like before there was an “America” to call our homeland. Our children now study the history of strange lands, the lands their ancestors came from prior to migrating to America and in the process we now ignore the history of our own land. This didn’t just happen by chance, it is a plan put in place by Satan, its a distraction that blinds us to the reason behind our prosperity and blessings, the ones that are now vanishing like the morning mist. By keeping us focused on the lands and history of our heathenized relatives and by opening our centers of education to the study of strange and foreign gods and idols while restricting the study of the True God we have lost the knowledge and desire to study the source of our blessings, that being of course God Almighty. The people of America have forgotten where we came from and what our founders prayed into being by building up our Heavenly Bank Account of Blessings before in our infinite wisdom, we decided to remove God from our society.

Jeremiah 2:7 “I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable.” Was not America the most productive and fertile farmland in the world? Within the borders of our nation we produced enough food products to feed our entire nation at prices the common working person could afford while at the same time selling the surplus to others around the world and in the process the generation of millions of dollars in profit. And we still had enough to be benevolent and feed millions of other people of less fortune. Today, with our account overdrawn in God’s Bank of Blessings food is at a all time high in price and the majority of what we consume comes from outside of our borders, even our milk is imported now because we have driven the small farmer out of business. Granted we now have a huge population but our population is not the source of our problem, our population has not outgrown our landmass of fertile acreage. The majority of this country is still undeveloped open land. It’s not that we can’t produce enough food to meet our needs and do so at a fair price that all can afford while still making a profit, it’s that we won’t! In the area that I live in it was once mostly small dairy farms with patches of cows in every field. Dozens of farms dotted the region. Ninety-five percent of the small dairy farms are now gone, there is only a small hand full left. The land is still there of course, but what was once productive farms meeting the need of feeding the people is now a multitude of sub-divisions filled with huge homes and any open land now comes with posted signs and putting greens, golf courses are more in vogue than grazing land. Where once the land fed our people with food, it now feeds our pride and caters to our egos. Where once we worked the land to provide for ourselves we now build gigantic homes we can’t afford to hold the toys we don’t really need and have turned the rest of the land into strip malls, while our vegetables come from South America, our milk from Australia, our beef from Argentina and we continue to close down our sources of production becoming more and more dependent upon the “World Market” to provide for us. At some point the “World Market” is going to tell us: “Now, you who were once so proud, you can pay our price or go without because you no longer grow anything for yourself.” And the once great leader that the U.S. of A. was will become the hostage and the flea will rule the dog! When this happens we will sit in our huge palaces, the ones we can’t afford, we will sit in the cold empty rooms while our personal tank size vehicles sit in the driveway because we don’t drill our own oil and the “World Market” of oil producers hold us hostage, all because of greed. How can this be? To start with because they hate us with their motive for hate based on political motives, and the second reason is because of their religious belief that cries for world dominance and the complete annihilation of Christianity and Judaism. Our cupboards will be empty, our children will be hungry, our pride and greed will have overtaken us and all we will be able to do is cry “O Lord, how did this happen?” But the Lord has already provided the answer.

Jeremiah 2:8 “The priests did not ask, 'Where is the LORD?' Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols.” Many of the religious leaders of modern America are afraid to preach a message on sin and its consequences. They are afraid to say that sin is sin, that good is good and evil is evil and that souls will be lost and go to hell if we don’t return to God, repent of our sins and seek his forgiveness. They are afraid that they might offend someone, they might hurt someone’s feelings and they are trying to protect the bottom line, they don’t want the offering plate to come back empty. The pastors in America need to know that the people in America today don’t want to hear a sermon that may cause conviction to spring up in their life, they want a nice easy sermon, they want a “Feel Good” sermon so that when they leave the church they feel good about themselves, and not have to think about the consequences of their soft Christianity. Pastors today need a refresher course in proclaiming the full word of God, the good, the bad and the ugly. They need to tell the people that all of God’s word is “Good”. They need to point out what is “Bad” and condemn it and they need to tell the people the ugly truth that there are consequences for sinful behavior, were it not so all of the Bible would be lie. Pastors need to re-read James 3:1 “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” They need to revisit 2nd Timothy 1:7 “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” And 2nd Timothy 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” And finally Galatians 1:10 “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” It’s not about pleasing the people; it’s not about making them feel all warm and cuddly, it’s about saving their soul from eternal damnation! First teach them the path to salvation and get them on the right road to heaven, you can make friends with them later, we are running out of time, the clock is ticking away the chances for opportunity. Stand up for Christ first and go to their house for dinner later. Friend, there are ministers standing in the pulpit today that don’t know what the word of God says about sin or are afraid to tell their congregation if they do know. Worse yet, there are ministers standing in the pulpit that don’t even believe in God! For many ministers it’s an occupation, it’s a vocation but they have no fire in their spirit, they have no burning drive that tells them to seize the opportunity now before we are all standing in that place of judgment. It’s not about a paycheck and meeting the monthly bills, it’s about salvation of the soul, and it’s about getting a person saved in the power of the risen King, Christ Jesus.

I recently saw one of the “Super Preachers” on the Larry King television show. This man has a church of thousands and a mega television ministry and he and his wife were on the television show to promote his latest book. The host, Mr. King, during his interview of the “Minister” asked him point blank, “When you preach to the people in your church and those watching on the television do you tell then that a person can not enter heaven unless they acknowledge Jesus Christ is Lord and God and that it is through Jesus and Jesus only that salvation comes?” The Television preacher responded by saying “Larry, that’s a personal choice between the person and God. When I preach I want the people to leave the church feeling good, I preach messages that make the people feel good when they go home, I want them to feel happy, that’s what they come to hear.” This “Preacher” had the perfect opportunity to present the Gospel message to a huge audience on a nationally syndicated television show and he couldn’t do it, he was more interested in the sale of his book and the bulge in his wallet. You had this picture perfect man with his picture perfect wife nodding in agreement, both of them smiling knowing that his answer just increased the sale of the book and they were content with that. He could have saved his wallet and his reputation as a real minister of the Gospel if he had just told the truth and said, “Larry, it isn’t me that says that, it’s what the Bible says and if that offends you then you will have to talk to him about it because God is the author.” Our sweet Lord did this all the time when confronted by someone about his authority. Jesus repeatedly said, “As it is written” what he was saying is that it wasn’t me who said it but my Father. And no one could complain about that. Friend, I’m not saying that any of us have to try and carry the weight of the world on our back; we can leave that up to God. But God does expect us to tell his truth when opportunity knocks, and more so if you are a minister.

“Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me.” We have already touched upon the next point before so it will present no problem to build a little more on a foundation that has already been laid. I am again going to address our political leaders. Those in public office, in particular the Senate, Congress and the courts system, judicial and enforcement, pay heed to these words, you need a wake up call from the Lord. Our political leaders are the ones that write our laws, and our court system is there to administer justice and mandate that there is enforcement of the law as the watchdog of the police agencies. And the Scriptures address this segment of people. 2nd Chronicles 19:5-7 “He appointed judges in the land, in each of the fortified cities of Judah. He told them, "Consider carefully what you do, because you are not judging for man but for the LORD, who is with you whenever you give a verdict. Now let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Judge carefully, for with the LORD our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.” Is there anyone besides me that is not amazed at how far we have moved from the ten laws God originally gave us to have rule and order over our lives? God gave Moses the Ten Commandments; mind you that was ten simple rules of conduct. By the time Jesus came to the earth the religious leaders had expanded that to 1300 laws and rules and they made it so complicated that no one would live without breaking one of them at some point during the day. And now today, we can fill an entire library with the legal books we have, and that is just the state laws, it doesn’t take into account the federal laws. On a daily basis we see judges releasing criminals due to some legal technicality like the police finding fifty pounds of crack cocaine in the poor fellow’s car but their warrant only covered looking for the stolen dog. Criminals are released before the police can process the paper work, and repeat offenders have found that our courts and jails have revolving doors on them going in and out so fast that you can hardly stand in the wind the door makes as it spins and you can hardly keep a count of them as they flash in and out of the system. The rights of the criminal are far more important than the rights of the victim and if you seek out the reason for this it will lead you right to the Supreme Court. I won’t try to list case and circumstance but stretch your memory and try to think about something for a moment. When was the last time you can recall hearing of the Supreme Court in Washington rendering a case in agreement with biblical principle? Abortion, no it wasn’t there, public prayer, prayer in school, prayer at a sporting event, displaying Christian symbols, or the rights of the Christian superceding over the rights of the Anti-Christian, you can’t think of one case or situation can you? Don’t feel bad, I can’t think of any either. When we go before the highest court in the land we are pretty much assured that we are going before a court that is bound and determined to rule against Christian principle and in favor of anything that restricts the Christian’s rights. Misuse of the law and misinterpretation of the Constitution is a common practice today. We hear so much about the separation of church and state as found in the 1st Amendment but I’ve got to tell you friend, I don’t see it! I may be just a simple country preacher and not very learned in understanding of the laws but I can read. I’ve read the Constitution and I’ve read the Amendments to that Constitution and it doesn’t say a thing about God being removed from the government. What it does say in the 1st Amendment is “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. The people who put their name to that beautiful document never said or expected anyone to try to remove God from government, what the Constituting says is that the government isn’t going to tell you what church you go to, but they sure expected you to be going to church! This wonderful document has been so violated and dragged through the mud by the anti-god people that the common man or woman should vomit when thinking about it. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” congress cannot establish what religious belief you are to follow. “Or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” once you select your church or belief base the Supreme Court can’t tell you to stop practicing your belief. That my friend is what this Constitution says about our religious rights! If you want to put up a cross, that’s your right, “Or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. If you want to have a Christmas tree with a manger under it placed ANYPLACE that’s your right! “Or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” no one has the right; no one has the authority, under our law, under our Constitutional right to tell us otherwise.

I guess I’ve taken this as far as I should for now, not as far as I could go because I love this subject, but as far as I should and for now it’s time to bring this teaching to an end with a few closing statements. Is God talking to America? We all know he is and we all know he is upset over what he sees when he looks at America. God so blessed America with all of the best of everything, the land, the water, and the greatest multi cultural diversity of people on the face of the planet to develop it into the greatest nation on the face of the planet. And as a way of saying thanks we have handed God his hat so to speak and told him to leave and in the process saying to him “Thanks for the blessings but you are not welcome here any more. You can leave now, but don’t forget to leave your blessing behind after you are gone”. And that isn’t the way God works. God is God and we are not, even for a nation as great and powerful as America is, we don’t have the right or the authority to tell God anything other than “Thank you Lord, forgive us Lord and `Welcome to our house’, stay as long as you want because there will always be a place for you in this land”.

Is God leaving America? I think he is and he’s taking his suitcase of blessings with him. He isn’t just taking an overnight bag because he intends on coming back in the morning, he’s taking everything, there is a Heavenly U-Haul truck out there being loaded up. Heavenly protection, it’s being loaded in the truck, stability in our economy, industry and commerce, it’s being loaded in the truck, good jobs and bosses that are paying a fair and just wage, it’s in the truck, good weather, regular cycles of rain and sun, protection from hurricanes and tornados, protection against drought and wild fires, it’s all in the truck. Honest politicians, judges that know the Scriptures as the highest order of law and render decisions as the Constitution directs and intended, that’s already on the truck too. The truck hasn’t completely pulled away from the curb but the motor is running and the transmission is in gear, all God has to do is take his holy foot off the brake and he’s gone!

Is there anything we can do to stop God’s departure? Of course there is. If you have ever read any of the Old Testament you may have noticed that there is always a common thread that runs through each of God’s times of anger with his people when they walk away for him. God never completely shuts the door; he always leaves it open just a crack so he can look in on us to see what is happening. God is like any loving father who disciplined his child, he may send that child to its room but he peaks in just to make sure the child is all right because that child is entitled to and has all of the fathers love. If we as a nation repent of our pride and sinful behavior, if we as a nation turn away from the idolatry and the wicked paths we are now running down God will not leave. If we as a nation will return to the place from whence we came, to that place the Founding Fathers first gave us, a nation of Bible believing, God fearing, God loving people and ask for forgiveness he will return, remember, the door wasn’t completely closed, the truck hasn’t left the curb yet. God hasn’t turned his back on us just because we have turned our back on him, his flames of love for us hasn’t been completely extinguished even if we have drown our fire for him in a flood of sin. But that return to God has to be more that just a few people, it has to be a national event, something that the people do regardless of the leadership we are under. Our leadership is a major part of the problem but it’s not the full problem because each of us had to accept a fair share of the responsibility for what we have become. America has one hundred senators, four hundred and thirty-five congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices for a total of 545 people in all that are making the vast majority of the mistakes that is costing us our relationship with our Creator and robbing us of our blessings, but there are three hundred million of us in this country that are allowing that small number of poor leaders to destroy us. If three hundred million people start to pray, start to repent of our national sin and start to ask forgiveness of God the very gates of Hell will shake right off their foundations and Satan will have to relocate his corporate headquarters to another location because this regional office will be closed and off limits to him. If three hundred million people all start to look at just what our elected officials are doing and remind them that we do have the right to vote, we do have the right to demand what we must to save this nation and that is demand that our leaders return to the biblical principles that put this nation together in the first place. And if they aren’t willing to do that then we can vote them out of office and let the government retrain them to work in a fast food restaurant because their job has been outsourced to Christian leaders that love their Lord and love their country and don’t want to see it destroyed any longer from within. But for this to happen it is going to take all of us to get involved in what is happening in our government and in our churches. We can no longer sit in the corner and point fingers at the other guy, we have to step up to the plate and swing the bat for our self. Each of us has the option, get involved and take a stand for Jesus or sit back and allow the country to fall to pieces. We can rock the boat or watch it sink, the choice is up to us. Each of us may be only one person, but there are three hundred million “One Persons” out there and that my friend is a lot of prayer power. We can either say to God “Goodbye, it was nice knowing you” or we can once again hear the words “In God We Trust” ring out across the nation as they did so long ago. I think America is worth the effort, and I think you know what my stand is, but now I have to ask you, “What are you willing to do”? Are you will to be a part of the solution or are you content in being a part of the problem, quiet Christians is what got us here to begin with, why don’t we all make a little noise for a change and take our country back.
Grace & peace

Why is Our Nation Falling Apart?

2009-11-04T13:27:00.000-08:00

Why is Our Nation Falling Apart?
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verses are from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted

Psalm 33:12-22
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance. From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth- he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.”

It appears that the world as we know it in America is falling apart and being turned upside down. Our economy is taking a nose-dive; the stock market has more ups and downs than an elevator in a high-class hotel. Food and fuel prices are at an all time high with the fire of depressing news being fueled by a news media more intent on making the news rather than just reporting the news. Every day with great gusto the news media stirs the pot of contention with reports that today there were “Record High Prices” recorded for food and fuel. Friend it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if the price of an item is higher today that it has ever been and then it goes up one tenth of a cent overnight the next day will again be a new record high. So do we really need a daily reminder from the media of this calamity or is it reminder enough each time we take out our wallet and see that the dollar we carry has less buying power from day to day and from hour to hour? Daily we see that people are loosing thousands of dollars in the housing market and foreclosures are growing at a rate that is beyond reason. Crime is rampant, our places once considered safe and almost sacred, our schools and churches have become shooting galleries with deranged people running in and indiscriminately shooting anyone for no reason at all. The once hallowed halls of education are now lined with metal detectors and armed guards roam the halls and classrooms more obvious than the teachers who once were the symbol of authority in the building but have had to take a backseat to the fortified presence. The borders of our nation are being overrun by millions of illegal aliens who don’t just sneak across the borders any longer but brazenly charge into the land showing no fear or respect for the laws of the land. And once here and in our land they demand that everything be converted to their language to accommodate them in claiming their rights of privilege for which they have neither worked or are entitled to. Jobs in America are being outsourced to other countries, we no longer are the major manufacturer of anything but we are the major consumer of everything and in the process we destroy our economy while we build someone else’s. And the products we are importing are impure, improper, made from shoddy workmanship with inferior materials and at times down right dangerous to process. We take the young people in our military out of the safety of our own nation and place them in war zones to fight the battles for other people that hate us and are hell bent on destroying our economy, our way of life, and resent and despise our freedom and our religious practices. Our military forces are being murdered in foreign lands for a foreign society that is intent on destroying us and taking over this land to pervert it into what they are now, which is the very thing they are seeking our help in protecting them from.

And in the midst of it all we sit in our homes on Sunday morning and watch “Face the Nation” and hear our politicians make hollow and worthless promises issuing words that are meant to appease the people and gain their vote showing more and more concern for their political parties agenda and less and less concern for the good of the nation. We see both the Republican and the Democratic parties locked in battle with neither side willing to admit that it is even remotely possible for a member of the opposing party to have an idea that may be of any benefit to the nation. So while our world as we know it is being turned upside down and the good, the just and the moral is loosing ground rapidly and being forced out the door altogether we stand in awe and wonder “What in the world happened to bring us to this place of disaster?”

We as a nation have never been perfect, no one will ever see perfection until Our Lord Jesus returns and establishes his final kingdom. Although America isn’t perfect, it is in my humble opining the finest nation on the face of the earth. There may be some who question that statement but I believe we have the finest justice system, we have the finest political system of democracy, and even in light of all the turmoil going on inside our borders we still have one of the best systems for people of various ethic and religious backgrounds to live together without actually killing each other. We may argue and point fingers at one another inside of America but we don’t see the violence other nations experience. If you don’t agree with what I say by all means tell me which nation you know of has this mass migration of people trying to get into it by any and every means possible.

So how did America get to the point it is now as a nation? If we were on such a high pinnacle and flying so high above the other nations how did we fall so far and so fast? Maybe another way of putting it would be to ask: How did we decline to such a low level when not so long ago we were the most respected and prosperous nation on the earth? Was there some chain of events that caused our fall from the top of the pinnacle or was there some single event that triggered this seismic event? The answer to both of these questions is a mind boggling “Yes”.

Before we can pursue any train of thought we need to see what this seismic event was that started the downfall of the greatest nation on the planet in it’s entire history. What started this down slide was a simple four-word sentence. The rejection of God! It can’t be put out there any plainer than that. An entire volume of words cannot state it any clearer. The rejection and consequently the attempted ongoing expulsion of God by this nation is the cause of all our problems. For years, from the very start of this nation there has been a small segment of society that has wanted to reject God and his Divine Providence. But they were a small number of people indeed. Every society has always had a little contingent of naysayers and troublemakers floating around and sprinkled about in its population, it’s a tactic Satan likes to use. And use it he does because it has proven to be most successful at times. From the very beginning of this nation there have been a sprinkling of a few misguided distracters popping up every once in a while filing frivolous lawsuits trying to change the Constitution of this nation in an effort to remove God but for the most part they didn’t amount to much. They were more of a nuisance than anything, kind of like a fly on the backside of a horse. An example being: in 1876 an amendment was proposed that would restrict religious leaders from holding public office or receiving federal funding. Throughout the years other cases were presented to the US Supreme Court seeking to remove or restrict religion in America and although most did not have any major impact on the nation they each contributed to the chipping away of our God ordained covering that protected us and allowed us to prosper and be blessed. Each of these instances open a small crack in the surface of the nation’s religious based protection but it wasn’t until 1960 and a woman named Madalyn Murray O”Hair came on the scene that Satan got what he was after and from that point on things throughout the nation started to crumble and deteriorate at a rapid rate. The following is a copy of her record as taken from the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.org. “In 1960, Murray filed a lawsuit (Murray v. Curlett) against the Baltimore City Public School System in which she asserted that it was unconstitutional for her son Bill to be required to participate in Bible readings at Baltimore public schools. In this litigation, she stated that her son's refusal to partake in the Bible readings had resulted in violence being directed against him by classmates, and that administrators overlooked it.[6] After consolidation with Abington School District v. Schempp, the lawsuit reached the United States Supreme Court in 1963. The Court voted 8-1 in Murray's favor, which effectively banned coercive prayer and Bible verse recitation at public schools in the United States.” This landmark decision by the Supreme Court marked the beginning of the end for the United States of America and it’s relationship with God. With each downward step America has taken on the ladder of disparity God has been pulling his protection and blessings up to his throne room in the heavens and today we are just about totally uncovered and left naked before the eyes of Satan who has been counting the days until we are entirely his to toy with as he pleases.

Psalm 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance”. When this was first penned it was a prophecy spoken over the nation of Israel, and although it still pertains to Israel it isn’t limited to only Israel and Israel alone. We, you and I are included in this promise. How, you may ask? Anyone that has accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior has been grafted into the vine, has been accepted as an adopted member of the line that is Israel. At the time of the writing of the Psalms the offer of the blessing did not extend to the Gentiles. But after Jesus Christ came and was sacrificed for the sins of all mankind the non-Jew was included in the promise that was originally extended to the Jew alone. Romans 11:17-18 “If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you”. Think on this for a moment, this offer of acceptance was extended to the Gentiles, the non-Jew, simply by accepting Jesus as your Lord, this is a wonderful gift and its been given to us! The Christian, regardless of who they were or where they came from was now covered by the promise that at one time was for the descendants of Abraham. And who were the original founders of this nation we call America? Why it was Christians, God fearing. God loving and God believing people and when the came here and founded this nation the promises of God came with them. Can you think of a nation that was more blessed with natural resources than America? In 1921 the steel magnate Charles W. Schwab said “Our United States had been endowed by God with everything to make it and keep it the foremost industrial and commercial nation in the world”. This man knew what he was talking about. Other nations have been or are industrial and commercial powerhouses, but much if not most of the resources they needed for their industry came from outside their borders. Great Britain is a prime example of this. Although a nation of tremendous wealth, much of it came from their control of other nations. At one time Britain controlled much of Africa, India, Australia, Canada and other lesser lands. This is where their wealth came from; it didn’t originate from inside their land but from external sources. This is not the case with America, God blessed America with everything we needed, fresh water, lumber, coal, oil, gold, silver and the worlds most productive food producing land, millions of acres of land. At one time the United States lead the world in the production of steel, iron, automobiles, and electric. But not any longer, with each step we take on that descending ladder of rejection of God the farther the blessing of God move away from us. Once we were at a slow crawl, gradually creeping further and farther from God, ignoring him and the blessings he was giving us. Then we stood on our feet and started to walk away from God, and then jog and now we are at a full sprint, running headlong in the wrong direction. And while we are running away from God like madmen on a suicide mission we are still questioning why we are seeing God’s blessings evaporate like the morning mist after sunrise. As if God were obligated to bless us when we won’t even acknowledge who and what he is. There can be no question about the effects of the anti-God movement and how it has hastened the demise of The United States as a powerhouse nation. Our workforce no longer has that driven productivity once seen in days gone by. The majority of what we once produced with pride is now outsourced to other nations. Greed has replaced common sense in the corporate office; investors demand the highest return for their dollar even if it means destroying our own economy while we build someone else’s. We are caught in a vortex that is drawing us down to darkness and it appears that there is no light left at the end of the tunnel. A form of insanity has besieged us, on one hand we demand the cheapest prices on everything we purchase knowing that quality has been tossed out the window and we really don’t care. We demand cheap prices claiming that the American wage isn’t sufficient to purchase our needs because jobs are disappearing and good wages are a thing of the past. And on the other hand the cheap prices we demand can only be obtained by buying items that are imported from foreign lands made by people that make a fraction of the wages the American worker makes. And with each purchase we make of the cheap priced item another American is removed for the work force because their skills are no longer needed, they cost too much to keep employed and their job is moved to another location in another land. Unemployment drags the economy down even further and then we have to factor in the millions of people that are third and forth generation in America that won’t even look of a job because they feel that for some reason they are entitled to have everything handed to them and the picture gets even bleaker.

But the problems stemming from the removal of God in The United States are not restricted to just the economy and finances. As God removes himself he is taking his blessing of weather with him too. California, the once almost perfect weather state is now primarily trapped in two distinct weather patterns. Drought, which produced crop failure, and constant wild fires that are consuming everything in their path or so much rain that the earth is saturated beyond what it can hold and the mud slides are reshaping the landscape. The same hold true for the once fertile and productive middle of the country. Now they are either so bone dry that nothing is growing or they are under floodwaters, there is no happy medium. The middle of the country is ripped by tornados in ever increasing numbers; the East and South coasts are being pummeled by hurricanes and we sit and continually ask “Why?”

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance”. With each passing day God is being driven further away and as he departs he is taking his blessings with him. Why? The answer is found in verses 13 thru 15. “From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth- he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do”. The Holy Scriptures is so clear in their answer to the questions of “Why?” God is looking down upon us and just what is he seeing in America? The worship of his people in America is dwindling away, replaced by sports, entertainment, personal possessions and sinful life styles. In proper ratio we can see that as worship and faith in God goes down there is an equal rise in homosexuality and the destruction of the morality and family values. Greed and lusting after possessions is rampant, attorneys fuel the fires of greed with commercials demanding that we look for someone, anyone we can file a lawsuit against, if we are breathing we must have a reason to file suit against someone. Drug use and crime run together down our streets, violence is a way of life, in reality and in all forms of entertainment. And God is watching it all. Even legal drugs are being used to the point of it being abuse. It matters not what part of your body you want to look at, if it isn’t perfect in shape or feeling we have a pill of some kind that can help us gain perfection over everything. And we wonder why our children take drugs? They learn this behavior from watching us, the adults. If we were to open the medicine cabinet in the average home it will most likely look like an apothecary with a pill for every occasion. And of course the user can justify their use of the medications. “I’m just trying to make life more comfortable. I’m trying to cope with the pain or problems of life. I’m trying to just get through the day.” And do you know what? Those are the same excuses our children use when confronted about drug use. I wonder where they got this line of excuses? And remember, God is looking down and watching it all.

What does God see when he looks at our banking system and loan institutions? Does he see fair and just business practices or are they as corrupt as they were on the day Jesus entered the temple in Jerusalem? I think you already know the answer to that question don’t you? The moneychangers were filled with greed and nothing has changed between then and now. The almighty dollar was the driving force of the people then even though they didn’t call it the dollar, currency is currency and regardless of what it’s named, it was and is the driving force for the vast majority of people. Greed isn’t just a problem in the United States; it’s a worldwide problem and will be until Jesus returns to gather his flock of believers.

What does God see when he looks down upon our legal system? God gave us a simple ten laws to govern ourselves and we have turned it into thousands. What God placed on two stone tablets now fills a library of books and the number continues to grow. And is it any wonder that since the 1960’s, a time we have already discussed, there has been a surge of laws pouring out that are more concerned with preserving the rights of the criminal than the victim? While the criminals sit in jails demanding their rights for everything from what kind of peanut butter they get to cable television the victims they leave behind are left with little to nothing and have almost no recourse in what they are allowed to do. For every victim’s advocate group there are ten such groups to assist the criminal.

But a listing of the wrongs God sees when he looks upon the earth is not the main object of this sermon. I’m sure were I to send out a questioner I could get volumes of response listing the injustices in the world today because injustice like the other things I’ve mentioned is a world wide epidemic and God is viewing it all, nothing goes un-noticed. When God looks down on the earth he sees all the unjust, all the sinful and morally depraved behaviors of people everywhere. When I write, although I; through the Internet, open my work to the world, I am writing primarily to an American audience, but it is not only an American audience that these words have purpose and are proposed for. I pray that what I am writing has been inspired by the Holy Spirit and is applicable to a worldwide audience and well it should if I am using as a base for my thoughts the Holy Bible.

Verses 16 and 17 “ No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save”. We in America are making great strides in removing God from our nation and what is happening here in this land should be observed as an object lesson on what not to do by the rest of the world. The United States of America has the most advanced and powerful military machine in the world. No other nation can compare its self to the might America has. We have fleets of ships with the centerpiece being the aircraft carriers, modern marvels each holding the capability for destruction to a greater level than the entire ordinance used in World War Two. And that includes the two atomic bombs that were dropped in Japan bringing the threat from Japan to an end. Our Army and Marine Corps are the best trained, best equipped fighting force on the planet, no other nation has the technology we possess and the shear number of aircraft and aircraft carriers we have is mind boggling, America is a force to be reckoned with! Or is it?

From it’s conception until the start of the serious rejection of God in the 1960”s the fighting forces of the United States of America was if not the most feared, at least the most respected and the most dominate military power on the planet. But our respect and domination were not only attributed to our military might but our control of the world market and commerce. When America made a suggestion the world nations not only listened but obliged too. But once we started the removal of God from our nation look at what the outcome of our actions has brought us. Small insignificant countries now thumb their nose at us. Little countries with ragtag bands of ill-equipped, untrained, undisciplined and ignorant fighters not coordinated enough to be called an army are laughing at and attacking our military machine on the land, in the air and in the water. And they are attacking us in our own homeland as well. We are dependent upon our multi million-dollar machines manned by the best of the best personnel who are utilizing the most technologically advanced equipment in history and yet this ragtag sheepherder who doesn’t understand the concept of indoor plumbing is making bombs out of junk and that “Junk” is usually something we discarded or left behind attached to outdates munitions and not only is this buffoon attacking us he is doing so quite often and quite effectively. So we ask: “How is this possible”? It’s not that we aren’t prepared; it’s not that we aren’t equipped to put off these attacks. We have the knowledge and the equipment, but what we are missing now that was in place before is God’s protection and blessings. It was there once but it isn’t any longer. Once we started to tell God to leave he obliged and in the process he has been packing up his benefit package and taking it along with him as he leaves.

When I first accepted the Lord in the mid 1970”s I can remember singing a chorus that was rooted in Psalm 22 with these words.
“7Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
6Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.
8They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright.” (KJV)
These are the words America sang and trusted in for the first 150 years of its existence and in doing so God honored us with his presence, with his protection, and with his blessings. We worshiped God and paid him the honor due to him and he blessed and protected us in return. A simple system of respect offered and reward given.

We can have the greatest weapons system in the world, we can have the mightiest military force in history, but if that is all we are dependent upon we are doomed to failure, it’s just that simple. Without God’s protection and blessings no matter what we have or how we use it, it is useless as a means of defense or protection against anything or anyone. Without the blessings and protection of God our weapons and our military forces are of no use at all. If you doubt what I say look at the distant and not so distant past history for confirmation of my words.
There have been many powerful nations in the history of this world, huge nations with mighty armies and yet they all collapsed after so many years. Why? They didn’t recognize the Lord God as Sovereign over them. They were depending on their size and the might of their military, their armies and navies to protect them, they were depending on their intellect to protect and provide for them and they ignored God who is the reason for all life and liberty. They turned inward looking to their own self for provision and protection thinking that they didn’t need God involved it their day to day existence. To take a look at a few examples of this we don’t have to go very far back in history. The once powerful Soviet Union was second in might to the United States in military power and natural resources, they were dependent totally upon themselves for their existence, rejecting and denouncing God publicly, not even acknowledging the existence of God and what was the result of this rejection? The nation is a fraction of what it once was, it went from a huge super power to a splintered group of small nations each struggling with internal strife and poverty. We have already discussed Great Britain, the wealth it once had and the lands it controlled that brought it this wealth. But like America, they have rejected God as their source of protection and power and they are now being torn apart from the inside out by internal strife. The British people follow the same lifestyle, as do their American cousins and they are headed to the same destination. They are being consumed from within by a strong influx of Muslims that are slowly and methodically gaining control of huge areas with their eyes looking at their political offices and total domination; their goal being to create another Muslim state, a cancer eating them alive from within.

So, having looked at paragraph after paragraph discussing the problems found within America, is there an answer that can correct this before it is too late and all is lost? Is there something that can stop this rapid downward spiral? Of course there is! If you have done any studies of the Old Testament books of the Bible you may have noticed a constant theme repeated over and over in each of them. In each of the Old Testament books we find like a golden thread this theme that binds each story together. In each book we see that no matter how upset God gets with the people, no matter how many warnings God gives the people, they eventually reject God and chase after the false idols of the day, just like we are doing now. But by the time you get to the end of the book, the people finally see the error of their ways and repent of their sins and in each and every account God forgives and returns in his presence and with his blessings. Regardless of which book of the Old Testament you look at God closes that book with a ray of hope for the future but it is always hinged on the people returning back to God first. Look at verses 18 and 19 of today’s reading. “But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.” If we return to God he will return to us, if we will look toward God again he will look down upon us with loving eyes and again bless us as a nation. It is not to late for us as a nation to repent. We haven’t collapsed completely, not yet at least so there is still hope to be found.

One of the most popular verses pertaining to the turn around of a nation and the return of God’s grace, mercy and blessings is found in 2nd Chronicles 7:14. “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.” This of course is repeated in our reading for today, we just saw it in the last paragraph. God’s eyes are on those who fear him; God’s eyes are on all that respect him. God sees all things, we can have no secrets that God can’t see or know about. The Scriptures are quite clear about this; God sees all things, good and the not so good. But he pays special attention to those who follow his will and walk in submission to his word. Recall if you will the things we just looked at in regards to the nations that have placed their dependence upon themselves and their own strength. I listed a few of them for you. But what I didn’t do intentionally was to show you the flip side of that coin. I didn’t make mention of God’s grace and protection for the nation that still calls upon God on a regular basis to be their shield in times of turmoil. Look at Israel, a small nation few in people surrounded by their enemies who attach continually in a never-ending battle. And although the attacks levied against Israel are daily and ferocious God has been gracious in his protection, Israel has not been consumed by her enemies. Every day Israel literally lives in the mouth of the lion and yet that lion isn’t allowed to consume her. That giant lion may be allowed to bite and nip at Israel but it can’t consume her try as it might. Why? Because Israel still looks to the Lord for it’s protection. Israel may have powerful weapons in their arsenal and those weapons may come from us in America but they know that their strongest weapon is God’s protection over their small country. The Israelites are a people of prayer, a people of faith and for thousands of years God has been their protection. The people of Israel have come under attack countless times throughout history but each and every time they gather as a people and seek their God and he restores them as a people and covers them with his protection. They may be crushed and defeated in a battle but God always saves a ruminant he will call his own and allows them to continue with his blessing.

There is a lesson to be learned from watching Israel throughout her history. No matter how many times they have stumbled, no matter how many times they have fallen away and chased after false gods, at some point they repent and return to the one True God, and when they return to God he has been faithful in loving them, caring for them and being their protection. In verse 15 of our reading today it says that it is God who forms the heart in each of us and that my friend is a statement of truth. But it is up to each of to decide what we put in that heart. We can continue to fill our hearts with sin and participate in the rejection of God and his moral values, we can continue to fill our hearts with false hope in our own financial, our own military might and power, its what we have been doing since 1960 and look at what it’s brought us. We can continue along the path we are presently on but the road isn’t going to get any better if we do. History and reality tell us that it will only get worse. We can continue in the removal of God from our government buildings and grounds, from our legal system and from our institutions of learning, which is what we have been doing for the past five decades, knowing full well that it is foolhardy and futile, bring only pain and sorrow to a nation that in the past had never experienced this kind of pain and defeat in any venue it entered. Or we can turn over a new leaf and go running back to the altar of God. We’ve gone to far in our drought of belief and worship to crawl back to God’s altar. We need to get up and run with all speed and throw ourselves at his feet and beg forgiveness for what we have done and what we have become.

“20 We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. 21 In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. 22 May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.”
The entire nation of The United States of America needs to put into practice the words of these verses. The time for this has not only come but is slipping away unless we act now, instantly and decisively, before we are forced to bow to a foreign power and a false god and the hand of the One True God is removed and we are left naked and exposed to ridicule and shame. When the people of America start to say from their hearts that they are waiting in hope for their Lord, that they are trusting in his holy name and that God’s unfailing love is again resting upon us, then and only then can we stand down and feel the comfort of his protection and countless blessings. But until we experience this much needed reversal of public outcry and people by the millions are seeking God again, asking for forgiveness again and placing God on the altar of our lives again and casting out the false idols that now occupy that space. Until this happens we can only expect the situation to continue to deteriorate each day with the deterioration moving faster and faster. As a nation we can do this, we can turn things around, we can stop this downward spiral of spirituality but it will require work on the behalf of everyone that calls on the name of the Lord. And the first thing we need to do is get millions of people doing just that, calling our Lord Jesus by name and acknowledging that he is God and Lord of all things. We didn’t get to this place of embarrassment and shame overnight; we worked hard at making a mess of the nation and undermining the foundation of blessing and protection we once had. The Christians in America worked hard at looking the other way and saying nothing, we wanted to be politically correct. We were lead to believe that we can’t offend anyone, even when they were insulting not only us but also our Lord Jesus. We didn’t want to offend anyone when they were removing our rights, the rights the Founding Father of this nation put into place to protect our freedom of religion, the very thing we have lost to the enemies of God through careful planning and non-stop plotting, searching out every opening they could find, looking for every weak spot and taking advantage of each and every situation. And while they were doing this we sat back and said, “We can’t offend anyone, and they have their rights you know”. Well friend it is time for the Christian to exercise their rights too, it’s time for the Christian to stand up and shout that this is a Christian nation, founded by Christians, for Christians and set apart for God! And when we do that not only will we have answered the question of “Why is our nation falling apart”? We will have the answer to “What needs to be done and how can we go about it before it is to late”? So now my friend, since we started with a question I’ll end with one as well; “What are you going to do about it”?

Grace & peace