August 12, 2012
Scripture:
Ministry:
Let’s read a verse in Isaiah 59:2. This is God’s message to Israel from a prophet. It is reminding them of their distance from God. Now let us connect that with Ephesians 2:13-14.
Hymn 352 - Oh, won’t you come to Jesus
Prayer
Last time I spoke, we looked at some of the kings of Israel. All of those kings did evil in the sight of the Lord.
1 Kings 17
King Ahab married Jezebel and together they worshipped Baal. This certainly caused the Lord to be angry at Israel. The Lord loved Israel and blessed in many ways; but ever since the division of the kingdom, Israel had been sinning and the Lord hadn’t been able to bless them.
Interestingly, someone new arrives on the scene. Elijah, the prophet, had a message from God for Israel. A prophet is someone sent to remind the people about God’s message and ways for them. Elijah was going to do that by reminding the people what God had said.
Elijah had to go to the king with the bad news that there would be no rain for three-and-a-half years. This wouldn’t just affect the grass, like a dry spell around here would do. This was going to affect their crops. They would be unable to grow food for three-and-a-half years; that would be devastating.
James 5:17
Elijah prayed that it would not rain for three-and-a-half years. Why? Read Deuteronomy 5:16 & 17. God had told his people to be careful that their hearts were not turned to other gods. This is exactly what Israel had done: they had turned to Baal. It goes on to say that if this happened, that there would be no rain for a time. Elijah prayed this so that Israel would turn back to the Lord.
Elijah believed and worshiped a living God. Baal wasn’t alive: he was just man-made god. Elijah needed the Lord’s strength to help him tell the king this news. As we go on with this story, we will see how the Lord helps Elijah and uses him.
Luke 14:25-35
The Lord continued to attract multitudes, and this next section in Luke 14 talks about following Christ and being one of His disciples. Now, the Lord uses some hard language in these verses. Are we really supposed to hate our wives (v.26)? I thought Ephesians told us to love our wives as Christ loved the Church, and yet Jesus says, “You’ve got to hate them.” What is He really saying? Our love for Him must take priority over all other loves. Our spouses are not our first priority. The Lord is our first priority, our spouses are second, and our children are third. Do we compromise our walk with the Lord in order to maintain our human relationships? We are to look after our loved ones, but the Lord must have the first place. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind.
It’s not natural for us to rejoice in bearing a cross. This speaks of the need to deal with things on the inside. Galatians 2:20 tells us that we are crucified with Christ. We can’t crucify our flesh, but we need to hold it in a place of death.
To be separate from the world, we need to come after Christ. But what is the world? There are different worlds: the wicked world, the vain world, the political world. As Christians, we need to be in the world, but not of the world. We need to be like the cobbler whose sign said: “Shoes repaired; Residence above”. He worked downstairs, but he lived upstairs. So should we. Now, we don’t go to live in a monastery to escape the world (you’d bring the world in with your heart anyway), but we are separate from it. We can work with Christian objectives in a secular work place that has no Christian objectives.
There is going to be a cost to follow the Lord. There will be difficulties. Jesus warns us about that and says, “Count the cost.” One such cost might be that, for a Christian, Lord’s Day is not a holiday like it is for everyone else. There are some people who say, “Well, I’m going to do something different this week.” They’re not committed to paying the cost and following the Lord. Some people have made shipwreck of their lives because they couldn’t endure. Our brother Gord has known some people who compromised on where they would worship so that their children could have fellowship with other young people. Unfortunately, their children never came to the Lord so far as we know. We need to start well, but we need to finish well, also.
Another cost is the cost of gaining an enemy. By committing to Jesus, you are declaring war against the powers of darkness. It may seem like the odds are against you; but, really, the odds are for you because *“Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world” *(1 John 4:4). We had Elijah in Children’s Meeting. He prayed for no rain, but that also brought famine upon himself. Did he count the cost? In our counting, we must factor in that God is on our side.
V33. Sometimes it seems that Jesus sets the bar so high that there is no way that we could measure up. We must realize that all we have is really the Lord’s: we’re just stewards. Our possessions are not to have priority before the Lord. Our decisions must be made based on our discipleship.
There are limited reasons why we have salt in our cupboards. It’s majorly for the effect that salt has on food. If it lost it’s flavour, we’d throw it out. As followers of Christ, we are to be salt and light. Salt is kept for it’s effect, so why are we here if we’re not being effective? Medicinally, salt stings when you put it on a cut; and it stings the conscience of an unbeliever to tell him he’s a sinner. We need to be salt.
Some say that the pharse, *“He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” *is the most repeated phrase in the Bible. If that’s true, it’s an important saying. We need to look out if we hear these words and don’t obey them. *“He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” *is also repeated often in the letters to the seven churches in Revelation. There we see that if we do obey, there are rewards that follow. Not everyone can hear; but we can, and that makes us responsible.
Hymn 179 - Nothing but Christ as on we tread
Prayer