Drawing inspiration from Ephesians 6:10, we've laid out a roadmap of seven daily practices that promise to deepen your walk with the Lord.
Pastor Marshall shows us what it means to truly confess and embrace the joy of the Lord as our strength. Discover the joy that not only sustains us but also propels us forward, reveling in God's pleasure even when the ground beneath us seems to quake.
Join us for an episode that will not only guide but encourage you to uphold a resilient faith.
Thanks so much for listening to the Believers Center podcast!
Service Times:
Sundays at 10AM (online + in-person)
Tuesdays at 7PM (in-person only)
Follow us on Instagram @believerscenter
To learn more about Believers Center, visit https://www.believerscenter.com
To submit a prayer request, or to get connected with a pastor, visit https://www.believerscenter.com/prayforme
Drawing inspiration from Ephesians 6:10, we've laid out a roadmap of seven daily practices that promise to deepen your walk with the Lord.
Pastor Marshall shows us what it means to truly confess and embrace the joy of the Lord as our strength. Discover the joy that not only sustains us but also propels us forward, reveling in God's pleasure even when the ground beneath us seems to quake.
Join us for an episode that will not only guide but encourage you to uphold a resilient faith.
Thanks so much for listening to the Believers Center podcast!
Service Times:
Sundays at 10AM (online + in-person)
Tuesdays at 7PM (in-person only)
Follow us on Instagram @believerscenter
To learn more about Believers Center, visit https://www.believerscenter.com
To submit a prayer request, or to get connected with a pastor, visit https://www.believerscenter.com/prayforme
We're going to pick up this week talking about what we started talking about last week. We introduced the subject about how to be strong in the Lord, or strength renewed, and we're planning, at the end of service today, just to have a special time of prayer. Who might request it? Whoever might request it, and that might be few, it might be many, but we're going to be praying for you at the close of service today. But I want you to open your Bible with me. Let's look at Ephesians, chapter six, again, and one verse of scripture I want us to focus on once again this morning. I have seven things you can do every day to be strong in the Lord. So I hope you brought something to take notes with, something to write on, something to write with. If not, maybe your neighbor will let you steal their pen or borrow their pen.
Speaker 1:Ephesians 6, 10 says Now, my beloved ones, I have saved these most important truths for last. Be supernaturally Would you say that out loud with me, please Supernaturally, to be supernaturally infused with strength through your life union with the Lord Jesus. Stand victorious with the force of His explosive power flowing in and through you. This is something every believer needs to know more about, but more especially needs to learn how to apply, how to live every day in the power of the Holy Spirit. Once the alternative Jesus said it would be the power of our flesh and he would say our flesh profits nothing. So you know, we know, we're pretty well what experienced in moving in our own strength and our own ability. We don't even take, I think, a second thought about just counting on our own strength to do things. But learning how to hand over more and more of our life and live it through and by the power of the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit is something we've still got a lot to learn about. Can I have a good amen? We admit that, because to live by the power of the Holy Spirit is Paul exhorted believers here to do is to live from a supernatural place.
Speaker 1:You may have had a lot of disagreements with the charismatic move. You may not even know what the charismatic move is. There may be a generation of us sitting in church today that don't even know what the charismatic move was. Years ago, a movement we believe it was a God movement in his church began where the gifts of the Holy Spirit were again beginning to be experienced. Word of knowledge, word of wisdom, a prophetic word, discerning of spirits, just on and on and on.
Speaker 1:And people. The baptism of the Holy Spirit was being celebrated again, and in a way that had not been celebrated for literally hundreds of years, and people became more aware of living their life in the Holy Spirit and the availability of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the promise that Jesus made that when he went away he would send another comforter, different in number but just like him and character. He would send another comforter and that comforter would come to live on the inside of anyone who was a genuine follower of Jesus Christ. The end result would be this powerful life, lived to his honor and to his praise and to his glory. Can I just say the Christian life was now actually possible.
Speaker 1:It is impossible to live the Christian life in a way that again gratifies Jesus without the power of the Holy Spirit active in our lives, active in our minds, active in our choices, active in our emotions, even allowing him to actually live in what and declare these bodies his temple. That's why Paul would say believers, listen to me, I beg you to do this. By the mercies of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable Christian service. Be not conformed to the world, but be transformed. Say that with me. Transform, it's actually the word in the Greek language where we get the English word metamorphosis. Be transformed how? By the renewing of, not the removal of the mind. Some charismatic tried to remove the mind. God gave us intellect. It just needs to be submitted to the Holy Spirit. Can I have an amen? So he said be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you can actually prove or make manifest, is what that word means, prove, put on where, what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. What a challenge for us to live in such a way that people observing our life can actually get a view into what the will of God is, what God is like, how he lives his life, how he wants us to live our, our life. That's only accomplished by the grace of God that is being distributed daily by the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:So here Paul comes back. He's he's addressed a number of important issues already in this letter to the church at Ephesus and he says finally, my brother, let me read it to you again Now my beloved ones, I have saved these most important truths for last. Be supernaturally infused. Say it again supernaturally, god wants us to live a supernatural life. Be supernaturally infused with strengthen through your life, union with the Lord Jesus, stand victorious with the force of his explosive power flowing in you and flowing through you.
Speaker 1:Amen, because his ministry is not just to us. The Holy Spirit's ministry is not just to us, but he desires that it be through us in helping other people, in helping other people come to know who Christ is. Right Again, anointed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the anointing. We are anointed by the Holy Spirit to live this Christ's life and also to minister, because all of us in the body of Christ, whether you realize this or not, or even accept it yet or not, it's the truth that you are a minister for Christ. You have your own platform and all of us are in the need of God to bring the gospel to the whole of the world. And it takes every single one of us, cooperating with the Holy Spirit, to even begin to get a glimpse of who Jesus really is and what he's really like. Amen, that's why, family, we've got to stick it out, we've got to stick together. We've got to circle the wagons, we've got to come against anything that tries to. It works to divide us or keep us at a place where we're at each other's throats and instead of walking step for step with one another and with God. We are better together than we are apart.
Speaker 1:If far too many again and it's not our subject today far too many divisive things that are still being spoken in the church one toward another. Far too many prejudices that are being nurtured and developed. As I get older I realize that there is that age prejudice in the church. I never felt that when I was 30. No, I did too. I'm sorry. I did feel it from the other side, you know, when I was 26 and we were starting the church. I have to say I have, cindy and I have enjoyed since the inception of the church back in 1980. And we've enjoyed the support of people who were quite a bit older than we were starting the church. They were not prejudiced against us, they were, and thank God in those days they were the majority. We had a few people that said a 26 year old could never pass through me. I guess God thought different. I guess because it's God who sets us in the body of Christ and he sets Cindy and I as pastors and gifted us, you know. So you know it can work either way.
Speaker 1:Let's just my point is just let's be watchful and let's be careful that we're not throwing walls up between one another. That Jesus took down, amen, that Jesus took down. So let's get into these. Again, we'll go through them, you know. I think we'll say enough about them to guide you and to help you in how you spend your day and how you spend your week, which is always a goal of ours is to give you some practical things you can actually practice. Amen. We're not just hearers of the word, but what we're doers practitioners of the word of God. So here's the first one Stay devoted, be true and faithful to the one you love. Again, we're talking about seven things you can do every day to be strong in the Lord. Stay devoted, be true and faithful to the one you love.
Speaker 1:Referring to Jesus, you know, when Paul wrote this letter, he was behind a prison bars, and he was. He had Roman soldiers standing watch outside his cell. It's where, I think, he was inspired to actually write about armor in the first place. Only he would write about the armor of God. He would draw from that analogy and pin about the armor of God later in this letter, but I don't think it was the armor alone that impacted him the most about what he was looking at and what he was, what he, what he was observing. I think he was moved by the strength that these soldiers had because of their devotion and to the death, faithfulness to Rome and to their Caesar. They were given to serve him and they were armed to serve him and to carry out what his will was for Rome, and I think that really spoke to Paul. And again he took from that and he began to write these words about us and the Holy Holy Spirit being clothed with the armor which is being clothed with the power of his mind. Our best asset, if you will, in taking on the God of this world, who is Satan and the lawless insanity have you noticed the lawless insanity that has come and will only increase the scripture teaches us is our devotion and our steadfastness to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:When Paul wrote to Timothy he talked about the last of the last days, and we're not quite there yet, but we are approaching. There. It's the picture of a ship that's sailing, going from port to port to port to port, but there is a last port on the horizon, and Paul is talking to Timothy about the last of the last days. The word there is eschatos, from the Greek and it just simply means the very last and only the last. In other words, if I mentioned the last day of the week being Saturday, I would just be talking about Saturday, I would be talking about the whole week. I'd be talking about Saturday being the last day and only Saturday being the last day. If I talked about the last week of the month, it would be the last week of the month and only the last week of the month, to give it emphasis. And so Paul is doing that when he's writing Timothy and he says the last of the last days is coming, we're almost there, and he paints this picture of being surrounded by insanity, being surrounded by lies, being surrounded it's not a pretty picture being surrounded by deception, and he says it will only increase. And he uses a word there perilous. Say that out loud with me.
Speaker 1:Perilous, it's again from the Greek, where we get a deeper meaning, a better, clearer meaning than we get from a translation, any of the translations, except maybe the passion translation on Second Timothy 3.1. Because it talks about painful times. It talks about exceeding fierce times. The word was used in Greek literature to describe an animal that was vicious and that would take your life if it had the opportunity. Those words are behind what Paul is saying to Timothy, describing the last of the last days. The only other place that the Greek word is used, which is calipos, is actually in Matthew, chapter 8. It's only used twice in the New Testament Once in Second Timothy, chapter 3 and verse 1, and the other in Matthew, chapter 8.
Speaker 1:Do you remember the story in Matthew, chapter 8? Jesus gets out of the boat. He's been in the boat with His disciples. They came from the west side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus was asleep in the boat. A storm came up. They woke up Jesus. I'd love to sleep that sound again. Amen, without any help.
Speaker 1:Jesus was asleep in the boat. Storm is raging. They woke Him up, accused Him of not caring about them. He came past all that. He stepped out and calmed the waves, calmed the wind that was causing the waves, and they just marveled. They were astonished at this man.
Speaker 1:They got to the east side of Galilee and on that side of the Sea, matthew's Gospel talks about two men who were demon possessed. In fact, one of them had more than a thousand legion Do you remember that story? Had a thousand demons living on the inside of him, and so that man was described by the same Greek word, calipas. And so he was exceeding fierce. The Bible says, in fact he was so. The demons drove him to such violence, not only to himself but to others, that there was a trade route that went both on the east side and west side of the Sea of Galilee, and on the west side, where the tombs were, the graveyard was that they were actually living in and occupying had become a complete impasse. Nobody would approach that part of the route because of the demonic, violent presence that was embodied in these men, in one in particular.
Speaker 1:Then gives us an idea of why, if for no other reason there are many reasons but why we're going to need to face the days that we're moving into in the power and in the might of the Holy Spirit and not our own Right, and also very quickly. There there's an example. Jesus gave us an example by how he handled it that we can use as we go into the last of the last days in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus didn't run from the impasse. He ran to it. He didn't run from the darkness. Come on church. He didn't run from the darkness, he wasn't afraid of the darkness, he was full of the Holy Ghost. He got out of the boat, he did what others would not do and he challenged the darkness and he cast the wickedness out. Not only did he free two men that day from demonic influence and possession, he freed the whole region.
Speaker 1:I believe this. Maybe you don't yet, but I believe the Holy Spirit will convince you at some point. You and I will not run from the darkness as it's on the rise. In the last of the last days, god will send us, god will assign us to run toward it and to free those who are captives in it. But we'll only be able to do that in His power and by faith in His name, amen. So Jesus operated in this power.
Speaker 1:Of course, when he was confronted by Satan in the wilderness His time of temptation, he was full of the Holy Ghost. The Bible teaches us. But let me tell you something that I learned a few years ago about, or one of the reasons why, jesus was so successful and so quick to defeat Satan. When he was confronted with Him in temptation. Jesus was actually living the scripture he was quoting. Can I say it to you again? He was actually practicing in His life. So he lived His life. He was living what he was learning. He was living the scripture. He was really the living Word. So when Satan would quote a half scripture or scripture to Him, jesus would speak up and quote the Word. It wasn't because, simply, he had the Bible memorized, memorized scripture, it's awesome. But the power is gonna come by you living what you're putting to memory Right. And because Jesus was living the Word and was the living Word, satan was never able to take hold of Him and to bring Him across that threshold of temptation and to sin. Jesus was tempted.
Speaker 1:The Bible says in all points like we are yet without sin. So we have an example we can follow. We need to choose to nurture and protect our fellowship. Would you say that fellowship, our fellowship with God. Pastor, how can I do that? I know I still miss the mark. I still sin from time to time. I do things I don't wanna do. I do things I know God doesn't want me to do.
Speaker 1:First, john 1.9 is written to Christians and it simply tells us that what we need to do when we have fallen into sin or we have entered into it, that we need to turn from it. Confess the word means to agree, to agree with God about what Number one we were wrong, because pride can keep us from admitting when we're wrong. So we admit when we're wrong and then we agree with God that when we confess our sin he is faithful and he is just to cleanse us. Say cleanse, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There's something that happens when we sin. It happens to our conscience, and when our conscience is being defiled the Bible teaches us that it shipwrecks our faith and so we lose confidence, we lose assurance in God and listen, we actually interrupt and break fellowship with God. We're still as children, we're still going to heaven when we die, but we break fellowship and it's intense from God's perspective. It's something that he absolutely hates. So he has provided for that to be healed and to be cleansed.
Speaker 1:I believe when we confess our sin to God, the Holy Spirit convicts us of what we just said or did. That was wrong, and we go to God with the right spirit, humility. We confess it. He cleanses us from what? That defilement of our conscience. So he cleanses us of that and he restores our confidence in God. Why does he do that? Because he really wants fellowship with you. He wants time with you more than you can imagine, even when you really mess up.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna encourage you today not to run from God, but to run to Him. Amen, run right to Him when you mess up and do what John taught believers to do, cause they were actually being taught that their sin didn't matter by a group of people called the Nicolaitans, and they were being taught that anything in the flesh just didn't matter, only spiritual things mattered. So they started living while professing to be Christians Excuse me, it was the Gnostics, not the Nicolaitans. The Gnostics, they began living just like they wanted to and however they wanted to. And so John said well, this is not the case. He says if a man sins and says he hasn't sinned or says he doesn't have sin, he's a liar and he makes God a liar. And so we wanna agree with God when we've messed up. Can I have an amen, church Agree with Him. He's waiting, he wants to hear from you. He wants, he doesn't want any kind of interruption here. He doesn't want that break. He wants full fellowship with you every day, every moment of every day.
Speaker 1:Number two we make Jesus to be strong. We make Jesus's pleasure and gratification our strength. There's a well-known verse in Nehemiah, chapter eight and verse 10, I'll just quote the last part of it. That says be not grieved and depressed, for the joy of the Lord is our strength and stronghold. The joy of the Lord, say it with me the joy of the Lord is our strength and our stronghold. So what does that mean? Does that mean we're happy when God puts His power in us? I don't think that's what it's talking about. I think it's talking about what I just stated that when we live our life instead of pleasing ourselves or pleasing other people primarily, we live our life to please God. We live to gratify Him. That's what motivates us. Our love for Him motivates us. Then it becomes strength to us. Amen, when we know that we're living at again at a place of pleasure where God is pleased. God says without faith, it's impossible to please Him. So, for example, when we're trusting Him, we're also strong as a result of that and we can remain strong in Him. Again.
Speaker 1:Jesus constantly made reference to why he came and what motivated Him, and he just would say again and again and again. He says I'm gonna hear about my Father's business and I'm here to please Him. In fact, I'm determined, I'm dedicated, I'm devoted to not saying things I don't hear Him say or he hasn't initiated on the inside of my own myself. I won't do what he doesn't initiate for me to do. I'm in complete obedience to Him. That's where I wanna live my life. That's why I'm here, and so doing the will of God, and doing it for the right reasons, will provide strength for you and for me without fail. Number three Are you with me? Yeah, remember who you are in Christ and what God did for you in Christ. Remember who you are in Christ and what God did for you in Christ. By doing so, you end up clothed with His strength, his power and His might, effectively putting on that armor of God that Paul would go on to write about to the church.
Speaker 1:At Ephesus, paul consistently proclaimed that he was, by the grace of God, who he was. When he would come under heavy criticism, he would just write. He said you know, I hear you, but I am who God says I am. You know, he said that by the grace of God. He could have said it for other reasons, but he didn't. He said it for the grace of God. You know, there's no value in any of us comparing ourselves to anybody else. Come on, two things are gonna happen. When that happens, or if you do that, you're gonna come away thinking you're better than somebody, or you're gonna come away thinking that you're a whole lot worse than somebody, and both of those are terrible places to live your life from, amen. So we don't compare ourselves. We just celebrate one another's uniqueness and thank God for the grace of God that we're all carrying on the inside of our life and the special anointings that we carry.
Speaker 1:You hold, can I say it, a powerful position in Christ. If you're born again today, you are a brand new creation in Christ. One creation, one translation says you're a, you're a species that has never existed before. God has changed you in spirit. You are of a different nature than you were before. You were born again. You are in Christ Jesus and you need and I need to begin to meditate on that and let that again empower us and keep us strong, especially when we're feeling all beat up or condemned or again under accusation, criticism of somebody else. Just remember who God made you to be. Say this out loud I am who God says I am, say I can do what God says I can do and I can do all things, all things through Christ, who gives me His strength, powerful life. You have been fully vested and have been given everything you need to live a godly life and a powerful life. You have been given the name of Jesus, the name that is above every name. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. When that happens, they will have done it either willingly or they will do it unwillingly, but every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father. At the sound of His name, the mere mention of the name of Jesus, demons tremble and they go weak and they have to release their whole. The mere mention of His name.
Speaker 1:Number four continuing the things you have been taught here. Again, going back to the second letter that Timothy wrote, or Paul wrote to Timothy, beginning with chapter 3, verse 13. Let me read some verses to you. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue. Say that out loud with me, continue Now.
Speaker 1:This is Paul's strategy to young Timothy after he's described these dangerous, not just difficult times, but these dangerous, treacherous times that are coming. He says but continue down the things which thou has learned and has been assured of knowing, of whom thou has learned them, and that from a child thou has known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. And then verse 16 says all scripture is given by inspiration of God. All scripture is. That's been challenged again today. It's always been challenged. But there's a whole generation We've lost, not a whole, that's an exaggeration, excuse me. There's a great number of a generation just passed that no longer believe that scripture, all scripture, is given by inspiration of God.
Speaker 1:They don't believe that everything in here can be taken literally. They believe there are mistakes in both the Old and New Testament Because God used men to write it they believed in. There are mistakes. I just think God's bigger than that. You think God calls us without knowing how wild we can be.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I want to use the word stupid, but then you get all offended. When listening to anything else I have to say we can do some pretty dumb things. You think that takes God by surprise. He called you and nondid you, filled you with the Holy Ghost, continues to reveal his word to you, picks you up when you fall down, cleanses you from all unrighteousness. He already knew what you do. He already knew what you would do.
Speaker 1:All scripture, say it all scripture given by inspiration of God. He said it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof or correction. Just note the word correction there. We won't spend a lot of time on this. The word correction oftentimes leads us to think of a harshness that God chose toward us. He starts doing this, wagging his finger at us, and he speaks tough words to us. Actually, the word correction in the original language is a picture of someone who has fallen down. Someone reaches down to them and gets them back up on their feet. So even the correction of God is for that purpose. When we have failed, fallen, missed the mark, god corrects us. It's to get you, those of us who are fallen, back up on our feet, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
Speaker 1:Note the word able. We just read it. Guess what word that is from the Greek language. It's the word dunamis from Ephesians, chapter 6 and verse 10. Be strong, be strong in dunamis, same word here. It teaches us that if we'll stay in the Word if we'll do a deep dive into the Scripture. I'm here to tell you by my own experience, when I've really been down and just have felt completely defeated in my life, if I could manage to just open my Bible and begin to read it without fail, I sense the strength of God beginning to go to work on the inside of me. Amen.
Speaker 1:And here it is. The Scripture, the Holy Scripture, the God-breed Scripture is suitable. I mean able to pick us up, to make us strong. By continuing in the truth of the Scripture, god's strength, dunamis, is released to us. It enables us to move past our weakness and into God's victory over the darkness. And then verse 17, with that, says that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished under all good works. The word perfect is just a word for fully mature.
Speaker 1:Thoroughly furnished describes a ship or a boat that has been completely outfitted. It's the Greek word exartizzo and it means completely outfitted. You know, when I went fishing with my dad we went fishing when I was very young until I think he felt like he couldn't do it anymore because of his injuries to his back. He just couldn't get in and out of the boat. But we would go and usually there'd only be a couple of oars in the boat. That's all the equipment we had. We might have a bait bucket a menna bucket with bait in it. It really simply outfitted, though, but when I went to the lake with Larry Tuttle who's in heaven now he had a fully equipped boat. It had oars, but it had everything else. We could see the bottom of the lake because he had a graph that showed the bottom of the lake. We could actually see if there were fish we had taken it by faith still, but fish under the boat, because he would graph them under the boat. Larry, you got this. Oh yeah, just a minute, I've got this. He had everything. He had every cold drink we ever wanted to drink. He was fully prepared and his boat was fully outfitted.
Speaker 1:There are going to be Christians who enter into the last of the last days, some of them better equipped than others, and so they're going to handle those times, the ones that are better equipped than others. I can sense that, even as I talk about it right here with our church family, there are so many of you still who just kind of roll your eyes up in the back of your head when the last days are spoken of, probably because your dad and mom talked about it, or your grandfather, grandmother talked about it and Jesus still has not come yet, or the rapture of the church has not yet taken place and so you don't want to hear about it. And so I just feel like a father to you, a spiritual father to the majority of you in this room, and I'm telling you these days have already progressed and we are closer than we have ever been to the last of the last days. We have not seen the level of violence that we're seeing around the world, that we're seeing right now. Horrible things have always been done, but we're not seeing the magnitude. We have not seen the magnitude of them that we're seeing right now. All I'm saying is please don't wait till the storm comes to put a roof over your head, and I'm not trying to scare, just like God. God doesn't work to scare us, but he does work to prepare us. Fathers, hear me please. Dads, moms, prepare your children. Teach them now, not only how to play the bass guitar when they're nine years old and a worship team. Are you kidding me? I didn't know that was coming. Yay for miles. Well, he's got great parents who love Jesus and he's learning how to worship God. Amen, come on, parents, if you still have that voice in the life of your children, continue to speak into their lives and get them ready to be on the offensive instead of the defensive in the last of the last days.
Speaker 1:Number five developing a waiting posture before God. Isaiah 40, beginning verse 29,. Very quickly, he giveth power to the faint. We're going to pray this over those of you who want prayer this morning. He giveth power to the faint, to them that have no might. He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary. The young man shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Very quickly, what does it mean to wait?
Speaker 1:The word literally means to intertwine. Say that to intertwine and I think it's twofold we do that with God. To intertwine means I put it this way sometimes I talk about our steps need to have a divine pause in them, because we're submitted believers, we're trusting believers, we're trusting to be led by God. So there's a, you know, there's a sort of a divine pause. We want to see where Jesus is leading and where he's going, and then we follow after after Him.
Speaker 1:Have you ever done a three leg race? Have you ever done that? Pretty awkward, huh. But the one who wins does what. They learn how to sync with their partner. They tie that leg together over here and they learn how to sync. So when their partner is running at a certain speed, they run that speed. When the partner runs at a maybe a slower speed, they run at that slower speed. If the runner that they're tied to pauses, they pause too if they're going to win the race. And that's what this word means. We need to follow Jesus. When he runs, we're running. When he's walking, we're walking. When he pauses, we pause. When he stops, we stop. Amen.
Speaker 1:That's what it means to wait upon the Lord, but it also means to practice what you know, with confidence that if you need anything else that you don't know, god will just reveal it to you. Again, it's to, it's to practice. You know you probably go out to eat. Maybe you go out to eat, maybe you want. This afternoon you have someone a waiter or a waitress come to your table, take your order. They'll bring you your food. They'll ask you what you'd like. Do you need anything else? You know they're waiting on you. They're active that's my point. And Christians who wait on God are also active, doing what they know to do, what they've been taught to do. Again, we're not just hearers of God's Word, we are practitioners. 1 Timothy, 4, 7 and 8.
Speaker 1:Be quick to abstain from senseless traditions and legends, but instead be engaged in the training of truth that brings righteousness. Verse 8, for athletic training only benefits you for a short season, but righteousness brings lasting benefit in everything, for righteousness contains the promise of life for time and for eternity. King James Bible just puts it simply says bodily exercise profits little, which I wholly agree with. So you talk about the truth. Thank you, jesus. You know I have belonged to a gym for six months and nothing's happened. I think I'm probably going to have to go down actually go down there and work out. Don't you wish everything was just as easy as getting fat?
Speaker 1:I swear I was in the pantry just the other day and I was eating Oreo cookies. I love Oreo cookies and my kids have learned to hide it from me. They hide Oreo cookies, but God has given me a sense of where they are and they can never hide them in a place that God will not reveal to me where they are. So you're shaking your head? Yes, because you know I'm telling you the truth. But you know what? I don't know how? Listen, I don't know. And I was. I was eating these cookies. I just said these to myself one day. I just was eating one, right after another. I said to myself I don't know how many cookies it takes to be happy, but I know it's more than 27. You're praying, praying for me, I don't know. Be a willing, be a willing hearer of the word, but be a willing doer of the word too. Amen, in fact, as we let me just make it the sixth point, number six every day, spend some time with those who strengthen your soul. Amen. Hebrews 10, 24, 25,.
Speaker 1:Discover creative ways to encourage others. The scripture says to motivate them toward acts of compassion, doing beautiful works as expressions of love. This is not the time to pull away and neglect meeting together. I wish more of us would really accept that. God is the one who called these meetings. He gives us liberty to set time, but he wants us to be together and we need to be. Get together by God's design and if you.
Speaker 1:You come to the conclusion that you don't need church. You've come to a really poor conclusion and you've come to one that's not biblical and God has issue with that, and you'll need to take up your issue with God. You say well, everybody, there's a hypocrite. Well, welcome home, my God. If there was a perfect church and you decided to join it, it's cease to be perfect. There's no perfection here. We should be a pool of people that are pulling for each other. We fall down. Instead of point the finger and say I told you so. We should rush over, help, pick them up, be used by God to dust them off. Speak some love into their lives, some strength into their lives, instead of expose their nakedness. Put some clothes on their back. Come on somebody.
Speaker 1:Amen, verse 25 says this is not the time to pull away and neglect meeting together, as some perform the habit of doing, because we need each other. In fact, we should come together even more frequently, eager to encourage and urge each other onward, as we anticipate that day. Birds fly in flocks for protection, support, guidance. So we should all surround ourselves with fellow believers who uplift us, encourage us in our faith journey, just like birds take turns leading the flock and navigating through different terrains. We need to rely on our spiritual community for that kind of help in our own time of need People who exhort you, people who speak the truth to you, not people who always just want to tell you what you want to hear, just what makes you feel. I don't want you just to feel better. I do want you to feel better about your life and about the things you're doing, but I want you to be better. I know God wants us to feel good, but I know he wants us to be good. Amen. He wants to change and is changing our lives.
Speaker 1:And the last one everybody say out loud, the last one Every day take time for random pauses or breaks to acknowledge God throughout your day. Just note these two verses from Psalm 119. It says the Psalmist said this seven times a day seven times a day, I praise you because of your righteous judgments. Great peace have those who love your law and nothing causes them to stumble. He said seven times a day he praises God for His righteous judgment.
Speaker 1:Again, the longer I live, I think, the more surprised I become to how senseless we can be as the human race. It's like common sense in the last, the last days, is going to have to be a superpower, or should be considered a superpower. Learning to practice the presence of the Holy Spirit is going to be essential. Again and this is one way we practice the presence of the Holy Spirit is we, with all the silliness, the insanity that we're being exposed to? We are being exposed to it. Our children, our grandchildren are being exposed to it. Okay, I can't choose as a six-year-old, what time I go to bed, but I can choose what gender I want to be. That's what's being taught, that's what's being encouraged, and that same six-year-old is being encouraged not to let you the parent know. I don't know any other way to look at that than demonic insanity. And what supposedly is being put in place to help the mental health of our children is actually adding to their confusion and their insanity.
Speaker 1:Listen to me, people of God, it's our time to shine the light of Jesus in the earth. Amen. When people need answers, let's lift up our hand and volunteer and say God in me has an answer for you alive. I don't know at all, but God does and he stands ready to help, amen. So again, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, would you stand to your feet with me. We're going to start over. Well, you should have seen the panic on your face when I said that just teasing. I just want to speak them over.
Speaker 1:You again, stay devoted, be true and faithful to the one that you love. Number two make Jesus's pleasure and gratification your strength. Remember who you are in Christ. Number three what God did for you in Christ Jesus. Number four continue. Say it. Continue. Continue in the things that you have been taught. Number five develop a waiting posture. Be intertwined to the Lord and to other believers. Number six every day, spend some time with those who strengthen your soul. And number seven every day, take time for random pauses or breaks to acknowledge God throughout your day. And it's that simple. You just stop what you're doing and maybe lift your hands to God and you go. God, I'm just so grateful that you're here with me right now that I'm not facing anything in my life that you're not ready and willing to help me with, and you just do that and do that without again throughout a day. Practice it. Don't just hear it. Actually practice it.