Sister Dorothy Sunday School 8/25/13

Sister Dorothy Sunday School 8/25/13

My burden has been on ‘How to think.’

Pro 23:7  For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

Thinketh - H8176שׁער shâ‛ar shaw-ar'

A primitive root; to split or open, that is, (literally, but only as denominative from H8179) to act as gate keeper (see H7778); (figuratively) to estimate: - think.

That thought was so good to me, to act as a gatekeeper as to what we think.

Php 2:5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

G5426 Φρονέω phroneō fron-eh'-o

From G5424; to exercise the mind, that is, entertain or have a sentiment or opinion; by implication to be (mentally) disposed (more or less earnestly in a certain direction); intensively to interest oneself in (with concern or obedience): - set the affection on, (be) care (-ful), (be like-, + be of one, + be of the same, + let this) mind (-ed, regard, savour, think.

Probably from an obsolete φράω phraō (to rein in or curb; compare G5420)
G5420Apparently a strengthened form of the base of G5424; to fence or inclose, that is, (specifically) to block up (figuratively to silence): - stop.

The words, ‘to think’ in the Old Testament and ‘our mind’ here in the New Testament, are very similar: to fence or enclose or act as gatekeeper.  He wants us to have the mind as Jesus Christ had.

Mat 15:18  But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.

Mat 15:19  For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

Mat 15:20  These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

There is not a murder or so on that happens without the individual first having evil thoughts about it.  Evil thoughts bring about these kinds of things.  It is from the heart that these acts are manifest.  It is what comes out of the heart.

Engage the mind.  Keep that gatekeeper very tender and careful.  Engage my mind.  Keep the precincts of my heart and mind devoted to God. 

We have one precinct in Paradise.  Our mind is as a precinct.  The precinct for God should be the largest.  We have one for family, one for work.  We enter those processes in our mind. 

Our mind can dwell on the cares of life and on tragedies of life, but let the largest precinct be for God that those thoughts we have for God enter into all the other things in life.  He will help us in what to think about.

In the beginning God said let there be light. 

2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

This is special!  In the beginning God said let there be light and there was light.  God who did this has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in Jesus Christ.  He has caused not only the literal light but the light of His face to shine through Christ to us.

We cannot imagine until we experience it the beautiful light that comes from God through Christ.  You look on the Saints of God and they have a lightened countenance. 

There is a scripture that says, “There face gathers darkness.”  It is not so with God’s people.

In the world many times their face tells that they have a hard life.  Even in young people their face shows that. 

Joh 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Joh 14:8  Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

Joh 14:9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

We see the Father.  When we are saved and have the light of Christ in our heart, God is not hid to us.  We can see the Father through the Son.  He manifests himself to us.  No one can come to the Father but through the Son.

Jesus was almost like he was perplexed by Philip’s question.  Have I been so long with you and you cannot see the Father through me?

Mat 11:27  All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

God will reveal to us the Father.

Jer 31:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jer 31:34  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Isn’t that wonderful?  Know the Lord.  He has equipped us to know the Lord by putting His Law in our hearts.  Just to know that God has taken our hard heart and has written His law in our hearts.  Know the Lord!  We know Him.

Thy Law is truth.  We can have that truth in our heart.  God witnesses to us, “That is right, or “No that is not right.”

Before, to know God they had to go to the prophet, now in our time from the least to the greatest shall know Him.  We can have an experience with God and He can speak to us.  Our pastor wants us to know God.  We want each other to know God.  By knowing God and who He is and about God it builds us all up and gives us a purpose and strength to live.

Heb 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

Heb 8:11  And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

Heb 8:12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

Heb 8:13  In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Here we have the same account in the New Testament.  I will put my laws in their mind and write them in their hearts.  This is what Jeremiah prophesied would be in the Gospel Day. 

It is wonderful that we have that privilege of knowing God.  It is born of internal spiritual perception not by listening to others.  We see this in the world.  They listen but there is no heart change.  What we have has to be when God writes it on our mind and in our hearts.  Just listening doesn’t bring it.  We must have that beautiful experience.

Luk 11:1  And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

Luk 11:2  And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

Luk 11:3  Give us day by day our daily bread.

Luk 11:4  And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

Jesus here is introducing His disciples to the Father through prayer.  “Our Father”, as is the Son so is the Father.  In the Old Testament there are maybe three or four places where the word Father is capitalized meaning God.  In the New Testament there is time after time where it talks about Our Father.

Pray to Our Father, Jesus said.

Luk 11:5  And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;

Luk 11:6  For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?

Luk 11:7  And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.

Luk 11:8  I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.

Luk 11:9  And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Luk 11:10  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Luk 11:11  If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

Luk 11:12  Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

Luk 11:13  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Jesus not only introduces His disciples to the Father but is telling them what kind of a Father He is.  He is a friend that you can trouble at any time.  He will supply that need.  He is a father to us.

Ask, seek, knock:  Keep at it.  The Father is listening.  He is a Father and will not turn you away.  He will not give you something that is not good for you.  He will not give a stone when you ask for bread.  Ask.  Pray.  Know the father.  Ask of Him and you will receive.

He has so much good in store!

Mat 5:8  Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

The pure heart will see God:  Moral adjustment through the work of the Holy Spirit.  He took the heart made an adjusting and a work in your heart that by a born again experience, not one that just says, “I believe”, you can see God.  It is a work that is done in the heart by the Father.

Joh 3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

When we are being instructed some like Nicodemus think, “How can that be?”  Don’t marvel at that.  It is God that does the works.  Realize that if you are dead in trespasses and sin, you need to be alive by that born again experience. 

It is rampant that people today say that they are saved but they have missed the born again experience.  They haven’t been made a new creature with a new mind.  It is so foreign to them like it was to Nicodemus.  The telling and the living is what we need to do.

Each time that God deals with us there is that new inspiration from God.  The enemy would come to steal it away.  It encourages me to remind God and really I’m reminding myself, “You gave me a new heart here.”  How am I living and what am I doing with the food God gave me today?

We want to live so that we have new life every day.  When you ask the world what has changed sometimes they are offended.  When they ‘believe’, has there been a change in their life? 

The reason they cannot live above sin and cannot see it is because they haven’t been born again.  We can point to the day and the time when God washed me of that and I didn’t rise from the altar and go out and sin again. 

They have a dead experience.  They haven’t been taught that and are living to what they have been taught.  It is not by listening but by an experience that we can see. 

Jesus told Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again He cannot see the kingdom of God.”  You cannot see God the mercy of God or anything about God if you are dead in trespasses and sin. 

Old time conviction will make them start thinking about their soul and where they are going. 

Truth is withheld from people in Babylon.  When they are hungry and thirsty they don’t know where to look.  To be born again is to be born from above.

Joh 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Not ‘believed on Him’, but ‘received him’.  The Son of God is born into me by the direct act of God.  As a child of God I must exercise my right of coming to the Father with my needs. 

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

We can be born by the act of God making us a new creature.  We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end and a desired goal.  What is His purpose for my life?  That I depend on His Word and power now.  Know God now.  Not depending on yesterday’s experience or what may happen tomorrow.  Know Him now.

Stay calm and unperplexed.  His purpose is for now not some time in the future.  I can walk in the chaos in my life now.  Do this and my life is a blessing to God and each moment is precious because we depend on Him and know Him. 

Our life should impact our surroundings.  It should impact not only our lives but also all those around us.