2017 in Review (2 of 2)

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Review

 

 

Sunday 01/07/18 

Series: Doers of the Word

Message – 2017 in Review (2 of 2)

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2017 in Review…

Well last week we began our year in review on ‘Being Doers’ of the word.

Like I said, we’ve learned so much here over the past few years…but the scriptures say that, “knowledge puffs up but love edifies”, 1Cor. 8:1.

So we are continuing our review this week were we left off last week which was with the circle of remembering, but before we do, let’s make our professions…

Blessed am I

For I have eyes to see

and ears to hear

I anticipate

God’s Power in my life

to not just will

but do

His good pleasure

in my life

 

James compared our doing to – looking into a mirror. Our problem is forgetting what manner of people we are. The phrase in James is found in chapter 1 verses 22-24,

“22  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

 23  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, they are like one observing there natural face in a mirror;

 24  for they observe themself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person they were.”

 

This had 3 primary meanings:

  1. We forget that we are vulnerable to falling (Let him who stands take heed lest he fall).
  2. We forget the encouragements and admonishments we received in the Word to be like Christ in our actions.
  3. We forget who we really are – that Christ is in us and we are no longer our own, the incorruptible SEED of Christ remains in us and everything within us is of God. When we forget this – we begin to live like our old self who died with Christ.

The solution was remembering and continuing.

We learned that:

  • God influences us towards His character
  • God reminds us of WHO we are.
  • The circle of remembering and continuing his life this…
    • Remembering requires drawing near and drawing near requires desire, desire grows to enticement by remembering.
  • One key was asking ourselves – am I seeking God FOR fulfillment or am I seeking God AS my fulfillment.
  • We learned that we need to devour God’s words as love letters we cherish, which requires us to listen with different ears.
    • I told you that the same Old Testament Law that was Death & Condemnation to Paul was the love and focus of David’s heart…it’s all in how you hear it.
      • Rom. 7:7-13, “7  What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.”

         8  But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.

         9  I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

         10  And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.

         11  For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.

         12  Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

         13  Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.”

 

 

  • Psa 119:97 “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.”

    Psa 119:113 “I hate the double-minded, But I love Your law.”

    Psa 119:163 “I hate and abhor lying, But I love Your law.”

    Psa 119:165 “Great peace have those who love Your law, And nothing causes them to stumble. ”

 

    • Instead of seeing God’s Words through eyes of legalism and long lists of “thou shalts & shalt nots” view them from the intentions of His heart as Jesus did.

FOR EXAMPLE:

Thou shalt not steal or covet – was heard as…

“Be satisfied with Me. I’ve given you what is needed, and have blessed you with as much extra and I know best concerning you. My purposes are my Own. What I do with your brother or sister I do for the whole family. Allow yourself to be free from the destructive weight of self-consideration and comparison and simply rest in the knowledge that as part of the family, if one is blessed all should rejoice. What I do – I do with the salvation of  your heart and your brother’s to mine in mind. Let not your heart be trouble – don’t let it be disturbed, anxious, heavy or dismayed. I will never leave you.”

 

Don’t murder – was heard as…

“Your identity is found in Me – and even as I have loved you and pursued you I have also loved and pursued those you would call your enemy. You and I are one, do not separate from My heart. Do not  break my heart by cherishing desires to do harm to those for whom I died. Work with Me, Partner with me to pursue their hearts by loving them and doing good. I have freed your heart, do not let satan trick you into bondage through agreement with him. You belong to Me. Do not lend your heart to another.”

What does this do for us? It works with our hearts making it easier to surrender. Consider what we just read in Romans 7 verses 8 and 9

“8  But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. 9  I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.”

You ever hear any of these phrases, “it’s all in the delivery” “it’s all in how you say it” “you gather more flies with honey than vinegar”

Our hearts are in the process of redemption but they are still a long way from God’s character and are rebellious by nature and the one thing a rebellious heart will respond to the worst is a commandment.

 

  • We learned that confusion comes from an impure heart with dual-loyalties. (Js. 4)
  • Clarity comes when your vision is free of yourself.
  • Be diligent about your heart – what it sees, what it hears, what you expose it to.
  • Ultimately our doing comes from Christ’s work within us by faith, but our actions either prepare our hearts for compliance and obedience or waywardness and sin.

We learned that in order to become doers who bear the image of Christ and produce fruits of our union with Him we had to not lose heart.

God’s promises make us partakers of the divine nature and His promises to us are an anchor for our soul and they enter into the Presence of the Father behind the veil where our High Priest – Jesus Christ the righteous One is forever interceding for us.

A BIG turning point in our understanding came when I taught you about being milk drinkers or meat eaters. The difference between the two was not only what we desired, but what we practiced!

Heb 5:12-14, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. (13) For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. (14) But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

Then we learned about how we play HOST to the Spirit of God in our hearts. That as such we need to make our hearts “homey” for Him. Being inviting to Him. A heart where He would like to dwell.

  • There are those who invite you to stay but do not make you feel welcomed
    • They give you the feeling that you are on trial and are very much a visitor in their home.
  • There are those who invite you to stay but make you feel like family.
    • They give you free reign in the house and frig and encourage you to make their home your own.

That is who we want to be with Holy Spirit.

We learned about spiritual warfare which is MOSTLY about submitting and resisting.

We learned about strongholds…

Strongholds are fortifications, fortresses and are used metaphorically of any arguments in which one trusts.

An argument may not take the form of an oral debate in one’s mind, it may simply be an inner struggle of the will, the emotions or a mental battle of falling into a persistent pattern of sin in an area. When we have established any pattern of running to this sin often enough it becomes a STRONGHOLD.

Our besetting (strongholds) sin is building another kingdom. Were saying “I can trust this” but God… not so much You!

 

2Cor. 10:3-5,

“(3) For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  (4)  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,  (5)  casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”

 

Stand fast in our liberty

“Stand” means to be constant and firm in your faith and duty. Perseverance!

  • We are in warfare
  • Our weapons are not of the flesh
  • We are not fighting people
  • We ARE fighting against the sin and death in OUR flesh
  • We are fighting against demons
  • Our enemy’s weapons are arguments against our trust in Christ
  • Our weapons are God inspired, spiritual weapons OF trust in Christ
  • The battlefield is in our soul (mind, will and emotions)
  • We obtain victory through surrender (heart-obedience) to Christ

One of the reasons why many of God’s children are ill-equipped for spiritual warfare is because the two greatest parts of our spiritual armor require passion and devotion.

The apostle tells us, AND ABOVE ALL TAKE the sword of the Spirit and the shield of faith… but these are not found in the world but in intimate communion between us and our Lord… and to borrow a quote from a Tozer prayer, “the world is too much with us”.

Spiritual warfare is not neat and clean. It is only out of ignorance or laziness that we blame all our hindrances on the devil…but this is no more than a sidestepping of the real issue… We do not long for and pursue intimacy… and That is our greatest enemy. Spiritual apathy Is defeat… It Is death.

A clear and simple definition of spiritual warfare is anything which challenges the advancement of God’s rule in my HEART.

 

AND NOTHING… AND I DO MEAN NOTHING, challenges that more than indifference!

 

This is why our Master made much of love…

So I taught how the Scriptures reveal that Love brings the victory!

That in that love relationship with have with God we need to be Inclined to believe.

and we learned more about how belief IS relational trust in God.

THAT is when we began learning about Koinonia – our shared life and experience with Him and how that affects our loyalty to Him in our doing. 

Then we tied things up by revisiting some truths under a different light.

  • What does your heart value?
  • Valuing Christ?
  • Knowing Christ.

And finally… Hear about Him…See Him for ourselves…Telling others from our experience.

 

This service had no notes since it was an open discussion…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.

If you have been spiritually fed by this ministry and wish to give, we truly appreciate that and you may do so here, but all outreaches of this ministry are FREE for you and anyone to enjoy at no cost.

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!