Inclined to Believe II

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Believe

 

Sunday 07/30/17 

Series: Doers of the Word

Message – Inclined to Believe II

 

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Inclined to Believe

Deut. 1

6  “The LORD our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: ‘You have dwelt long enough at this mountain.

Points of last week… Taken from Hebrews 3:4-19

  • The Holy Spirit says
  • “TODAY” the
  • IF YOU WILL (you have to be inclined to believe)
  • HEAR HIS VOICE
    • Notice : Mark 4:9,  “And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
    • Example…Luke 16:27-31,

“29  Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’

 30  And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’

 31  But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ “

  • So we concluded that if one is not inclined to trust in and rely upon the written word of God, it is very unlikely that they will ever hear and believe the spoken word of God. 
  • DO NOT HARDEN YOUR Hearts through REBELLION
    • Mark 16:14, “Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.”
  • See & hear but not believe. Israel and much of the body of Christ do not have hearts which are inclined to believe.
  • Becoming callous of heart happens to those who develop ears for hearing other voices.
  • THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THAT GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘Their hearts were drawn away AND THEY WOULD NOT KNOWN HIS WAYS.’
  • PS. 103:7  “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.”
  • AN unbelieving heart is an evil heart… In words it draws near but in action it departs from Him. “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God”
  • Exhort one another daily, while it is called “TODAY,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
  • Sin leads to hardness and godly encouragement turns you from it. Godly encouragement, stirs our hearts causing them to be more inclined to believe.
  • There is something to being faithful over what you have that more may be given.
  • To whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?
  • Not to allow oneself to be persuaded or believe, to disbelieve, be disobedient.

 

Why do we have the Holy Spirit?

  • Lead & guide into all truth
  • To know the things freely given to us by God
  • Another like Me

“The…Now we know that Faith comes…“(delimea)

 

Romans 10:17

As the gospel is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit instigates faith in the gospel message within the heart. Those that hear and submit also obey through entering into relationship by means of reliance – trust.

 

1Cor 2:1-10, “(1)  And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.  (2)  For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  (3)  I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.  (4)  And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,  (5)  that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

 

How precious then are the words spoken?

Rom 10:16-21  “(16) But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?”  (17)  So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  (18)  But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: “THEIR SOUND HAS GONE OUT TO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD.”  (19)  But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: “I WILL PROVOKE YOU TO JEALOUSY BY THOSE WHO ARE NOT A NATION, I WILL MOVE YOU TO ANGER BY A FOOLISH NATION.”  (20)  But Isaiah is very bold and says: “I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO DID NOT SEEK ME; I WAS MADE MANIFEST TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME.”  (21)  But to Israel he says: “ALL DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND CONTRARY PEOPLE.”

 

Unless you have a Joshua or Caleb heart what God does and what you THINK He is doing will be two different things.

  • Let us take the land for we are well able
  • It is because the Lord hates us that he brought us to be destroyed

Numbers 13,

“26 Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.

 27  Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

 28  Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.

 29  The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.”

 30  Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”

 31  But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”

 32  And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.

 33  There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

 

Numbers 14,

“15  Now if You kill these people as one man, then the nations which have heard of Your fame will speak, saying,

 16  ‘Because the LORD was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness.’

 17  And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying,

 18  ‘The LORD is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’

 19  Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”

 20  Then the LORD said: “I have pardoned, according to your word;

 21  but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD-

 22  because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice,

 23  they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.

 24  But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.”

 

General faith versus specific faith

Relational – directive

It is entirely possible that there are many times faith will not come for the specific because we refuse to be persuaded by the general.

John 5:37,  

“And the Father Himself, Who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.

 38  But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.

 39  You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.

 40  But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

 41  “I do not receive honor from men.

 42  But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you.

 43  I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.

 44  How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?

 45  Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you-Moses, in whom you trust.

 46  For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.

 47  But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

 

We will pick up 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.

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Blessings!

 

Pastor Mark

View posts by Pastor Mark

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!