…but by My Spirit XXI

but_by_my_spirit_series_knowing_the_spirit_intercession_albumart

 

Sunday 11/06/16 

Series: …but by My Spirit Pt. 21

Message – Knowing the Holy Spirit IV

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Living in the Kingdom

POINT #4 – We unite with God’s heart through Intercession.

  1. (Sub-point) God is a God Who LOVES both Justice and Mercy. He WILL NOT pervert justice and show partiality to NO ONE!

In my opinion, one of the BEST verse to illustrate this is Isaiah 30:18,

Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.”

Left off last week with Moses Interceding for Israel in Exodus 33

  • In vereses 1-3, The Lord told Moses He would NOT go with them, but would send His angel to protect them and lead them into the promised land.

    • What reason did God give for saying He would not go with them?

    • They were stiff-necked and He might destroy them on the way!

Here we are told that in response to this Moses pitched a tent FAR outside the camp and called it the tent of meeting.

face to face

  • In verses11-18 God spoke face to face like a friend to Moses. Moses and Moses begins his work of intercession by saying,

    “You said, ‘I know you by name, and that I have found favor in Your sight.’

    (13) Now if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, please teach me Your ways, and I will know You and find favor in Your sight. Now consider that this nation is Your people.”

    Then God said, “I will go with YOU and give YOU rest”

    Moses intercedes more and says, “If you do not come with all of us – please do not make any of us go up to the land You’ve promised. Otherwise how will the world know You’ve placed Your favor upon this people – if You do not go up WITH them?”

 

God replied, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.”

Summery statement…

This spiritual intercessory dance drew Moses closer to God’s heart…so MUCH so that in the throws of deep adoration and soul hunger he cried out “Please, let me see Your glory.”

QUESTIONAt this point – how would you describe the emotional state of God? How is He responding to Moses’ intercession and his new found zeal desire to know God’s glory?

God has found a friend in Moses and is delighted to have an intercessor to lay hold on God’s dream of a covenant people and remain true to His justice at the same time. God had allowed Moses a look into His heart and Moses in turn, allowed God to look into his…..as a result Moses spent himself on the heart of God and God on the heart of Moses! THIS is a ‘type’ of the parachoresis!

In chapter 34:5-7

God reveals Himself to Moses in TWO ways…

  1. He came down and manifested His goodness (glory) to Moses.

  2. He proclaimed His name ‘Yahweh’ by word AND definition!

    (That essentially means that He was named before Moses by that which identified Him. This is why Jews see the name of Yahweh as God’s Own personal name.)

Before you can fully appreciate What God was promising here you need to know a little about Hebrew language and culture…

Name

breathe

God's name revealed I

Meaning of YHWH

This is very similar to the name Jehovah God revealed to Abraham.

HWH-asher-HWH

This is, by the way, why the religious leaders got so angry at Jesus for the following statement,

Jesus = I AM

So what God was telling Moses here is that He would reveal His Own character to him and describe it.

“(6)Yahweh–Yahweh is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth, (7) maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving wrongdoing, rebellion, and sin. But He will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ wrongdoing on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.”

This gets a reaction out of Moses to say the least!

Moses intercedes for Israel

(8) Moses immediately bowed down to the ground and worshiped and said, “My Lord, if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, my Lord, please go with us. Even though this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wrongdoing and sin, and accept us as Your own possession.”

NOTE: God had JUST revealed Himself as loving, compassionate, gracious and slow to anger – forgiving wrongdoing…rebellion & sin. So that was the basis of Moses’ Intercession!

Of course God knew the outcome of these events and revealed His nature to Moses SO THAT Moses WOULD intercede.

Warning to obey – God’s favor does NOT supplant His justice

“(10) And the LORD responded: “Look, I am making a covenant. I will perform wonders in the presence of all your people that have never been done in all the earth or in any nation. All the people you live among will see the LORD’s work, for what I am doing with you is awe-inspiring. (11) Observe what I command you today. I am going to drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. (12) Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land that you are going to enter; otherwise, they will become a snare among you. (13) Instead, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and chop down their Asherah poles. (14) You are to never bow down to another god because the LORD, being jealous by nature, is a jealous God.”

Christ Intercedes for US – revealing Intercession as the heart of the Father….

  • Isa 53:12, “(12) Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.”

  • He CONSTANTLY intercedes for us – Rom_8:34 “(34) Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also makes intercession for us.”

    AND…

    Heb_7:25 “But this (priest), because He abides forever, has the priesthood which is non-transferable, for which reason He is able to be saving those completely and forever who come to God through Him, being always alive for the purpose of continually making intercession for them.

  • EXAMPLE via Parable…

    Luke 13:6-9 “(6)He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. (7) Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ (8) But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. (9) And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ “

So we see that even though we are born anew and are the off-spring of God, we STILL need an advocate – One to intercede for us before the Father WHO is a God of JUSTICE.

This is further seen in other passages as well…

Next week we will begin looking at the Goodness and Severity of God in regard to His church as the basis for intercession for and among believers.

 

We will continue here next week….Blessings! 

 

 

I hope this teaching will challenge you and encourage you to place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

You have a special place in God’s family & kingdom. If you do not know Him, please use our ‘Contact Us‘ page and reach out so we may have the privilege of introducing you to the Lord. Neither money nor attendance at our church will be mentioned.

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Blessings!

 

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!