December 18, 2011
Scripture:
Scripture:
Can we go back to Psalm 16 for a moment? I just want to focus on that phrase: “In thy presence is fullness of joy.” What is fullness of joy? Fullness means complete; if more was added, it would run over. And that joy is found “in thy presence.” If we had a joy scale, going from 1 to 10, this fullness of joy would be a 10. The world offers fun, but that’s less than a 1. We can have fun on earth, but we will not get His joy; the world’s fun can even rob us of His joy. This morning, we have been in His presence, so we should have fullness of joy. Of course, it depends on our state of soul.
The first three fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, and peace. These are in a specific order. When we delight in His love, we will have His joy. When we have His love and joy, we will have His peace. What a delight to be able to enter into His joy!
The Lord had two joys: the joy of doing the Father’s will, and the joy of receiving a bride. We are part of that bride, and so should enter into that mutual joy with Him. We will do so more fully when we get to Heaven; may these thoughts encourage us to delight more and more in Him each day!
Hymn 335 - I am so glad that our Father in heaven
Prayer
2 Samuel 7
David wanted to build a house for the Lord, because he didn’t feel right about living in a house when the Ark of the Covenant was in a tent (the tabernacle). He talked to Nathan the prophet about it, and Nathan told him to do whatever was on his heart to do for the Lord. But while Nathan was sleeping that night, the Lord came to him and told him that it wasn’t His will that David build Him a house. He also told Nathan to remind David of how the Lord had blessed him. He was to remind him of how the Lord had saved him from the bear, Goliath, and Saul.
The Lord told David that the king coming after him (one of his sons) was going to build a temple for the Lord. Even though David did not build the temple, it is very precious to see how David wanted to do something for the Lord after all the Lord had done for him. You don’t have to be very old to do something for the Lord. Samuel wasn’t very old when he started working for the Lord: he was just a boy. We should each pray and ask the Lord what He would have us do. One of the best ways for children to serve the Lord would be to obey their parents. By obeying them, you are doing something that the Lord would want you to do.
The Lord also told David that his throne would last forever. Forever is a long time. We can’t really grasp how long forever is because we’re in a world that revolves around time. When you are young you might not understand time, because you do the same things day after day. But forever is a long time. David’s throne was to last forever: this means one of his descendants would always be reigning. The Lord Jesus was one of David’s descendants, and He will one day reign forever.
David didn’t feel that he deserved anything and as he speaks to the Lord, he communicates thankfulness. The blessing on David’s house were forever. Right now, the Lord is in heaven, but in a future day, he will come and set up his throne, as He promised David. Then, He will reign forever.
Our lesson from this chapter is that we don’t deserve anything that we have. It is all given to us by the Lord, in His love and mercy.
Luke 91-17
Last chapter, we saw the Lord deal with various issues; and in this one, we see Him expanding the work of His ministry by sending out the twelve disciples. What they had gone through up until this point was training so that they could represent the Lord. We all go through training as we grow up; it should be training so that we can go out and do more work for the iLord. There comes a time when we must become doers of the word, not just hearers.
Our Lord called the disciples, gave them their message and special abilities (each of these action words can apply to us as well); and He also told them what to take, and what not to take. They had a serious responsibility - it’s a serious thing to be a representative of the King of kings - and were seriously dependant on the Lord. We are on dangerous ground when we feel that we can fulfill our God-given tasks in our own strength.
Jesus gave them power (healing ability) and authority (the right to use that power). There is a job for us to do, and God is the One Who provides the power to do it. When God gives, He doesn’t take back. By coming to Him, we get the power of the Holy Spirit. For that power to affective, we need to depend on God. We can quench the power of the Spirit if we don’t obey His promptings, or we can be in a wrong condition because of sin.
There were two things that our Lord then sent the disciples out to do: preach and heal. The Kingdom of God (the Gospel, the good news) is what they were preaching. They were living in times when things were moving from law to grace. There was new wine, and it had to be put into new bottles. Grace hadn’t arrived in it’s fullness (like it did after the cross, in Acts), but it was on it’s way. The Gospel of the Kingdom is also what Jesus preached. We find it when He talks to Nicodemus; “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3). It took an act of faith to get into the kingdom, not works of the law.
Jesus used miracles of healing to demonstrate His power. If only God could heal, and Jesus was healing, that meant that Jesus had authority from God, which entitled Him to also forgive sins. The people of that day had such a One in their midst! And now that One was sending His disciples out to spread the message of the kingdom, with the same power. The power to heal would have added a great attraction and proof to their message.
Now, the Kingdom of God has Millennial applications, but it goes beyond that because - as the Lord said to Nicodemus - it extends to those who are born again. Some people say the Kingdom of God is a moral condition, but we could put it simply as: the place where the authority of God is exercised and obeyed. The Kingdom of Heaven, referred to in Matthew, sometimes means the same thing; and sometimes it refers only to the Millennium.
The disciples weren’t supposed to take very much on their journey, certainly not what we would. The Lord told them to take no script (which possibly means a suitcase equivalent), no money, no food, no staves (it’s as if the Lord was saying, “Lean on me.”), and only one coat. They were specially provided for, but they were also specially depraved. This would cause them to be very dependant on the Lord and those people along the way, who, no doubt, met their needs (some of which had probably been blessed by their ministry).
When the disciples came to a town, they were only supposed to stay in one house. Labouring brothers that travel around do this so that they won’t create gossip. Someone wrote about the early Christians and said, “They went where they were sent, they stayed where they were put, and they gave what they had.”
As a representative of the Lord, the disciples had a responsibility; but as a hearer of their message, you, too, had a responsibility to receive that message. The Lord told the disciples to shake off the dust of their feet for a testimony against those who would not believe. We, too, are representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ; and there will be serious judgement against those that do not believe the message of salvation that we bring.
We don’t hear much about what the disciples did, because they’re already back by verse ten, and they’re referred to as apostles. They went out to minister to the people, and then - later on, as we’ll see - the people came to them. We sometimes go out to give the gospel to folks, and other times they come into us to hear it.
Hymn 330 - A message came from Heaven
Prayer