Brother Chancellor Sunday Morning 5/29/16

Behind every testimony is God at work doing His purpose and plan.  There was also some prayer at work behind every testimony.  Our walk with God is built upon a foundation of prayer. 

The effectiveness of all our labors hinges completely on what God does.  As Christians we are to be a praying people, a people that has our walk with God as the center. 

The foundation is a life of prayer.  God works things through prayer. 

We look at things that seem insurmountable or difficult.  God has brought us to where we are today because He saw fit to answer people’s prayers.

1Pe 3:10  For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:

1Pe 3:11  Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.

1Pe 3:12  For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

1Pe 3:13  And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?

1Pe 3:14  But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;

1Pe 3:15  But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

1Pe 3:16  Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

1Pe 3:17  For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.

He that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil:  everyone wants to have a good life.  Most of the time people would say, “I would love to have a good life.”

He is telling us here how to have a good life.  We talk about sin or wickedness and evil things and many times in our mind we picture actions.  The scripture tells us that we will be judged by every idle word.

A lot of lives have been shaped by something that they said at some point.  Words can have great impact.  I was in a store and saw two guys get into a fight.  It started with words.  How many times have people let words separate them from close friends in their lives?

There are many times an attitude that causes the words that cause destruction in a life.  Eschew evil, do good, seek peace, and ensue it.

We should be a people that wants peace.  Sometimes we see people whose life is just crammed with drama.  That should not be by our design, the story of our life. 

Paul, the apostle, may have had a life crammed with drama, but he was not trying to have drama but peace.  He reached out to the Jewish people because they were his people.  They made sure that he had a lot of drama before he got done. 

We should have an attitude of not wanting anything between us and anyone else.  We want a heart that is clear.  We have experienced things in our life where people said things against us or did things against us.  I am thankful that I don’t have to carry that baggage.  By the help and grace of God and His example I can let those things go.  I don’t want to get to the end of the road and have something that I am holding that would hinder me from making it to heaven.

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears open to their prayers but His face is against those that do evil. 

Without the Lord on our side, our life would have been radically different.  When we needed help and deliverance then we could go to the Lord.  He could see what was happening.  His ears are open to the prayers of His people. 

People could get the idea that His ears are stopped up.  No.  They are opened to His people.

If you will study the thought of prayer.  God has by prayer given us heaven’s checkbook.  Write in there what you need.  Not only that.  Write in there what you desire.  God knows that those that desire peace will not write that which is bad but that which promotes good.

Be followers of that which is good.  Generally speaking if you do good to others they will do good to you.  But if you suffer for righteousness sake, if you have done good to one that doesn’t do good to you, then you can still be happy. 

If you are doing what God would have you to do then you don’t have to be afraid of the terrorist.  The most that they can do is send me to heaven faster.  There are evil people out there trying to terrorize the world.  We have a God that is out there whose eyes are open.  His ears are open to our cry.

Sanctify the Lord God in your heart:  have a reverence for God.  With meekness and fear give an answer.  We don’t want to be boastful or proud.  Be ready to give everyone an answer.

Every one of us has a testimony.  Everyone has a testimony even if you are not saved.  There is a story to every life that is here.  Every one of us has had experiences.  We have gone through things.  There have been things that have happened to us.  There are some life experiences that we remember with joy and others that we wish we could forget. 

Some of those things we could take to God and He did forget.  He puts it in the sea of His forgetfulness.  You go to some and try to make things right and they keep bringing it back up.  God puts it where it will never come back up again.

Every one of us has a story that we could tell.  That story is part of who we are.  Being able to tell that story shows the love of God and helps us reach out to other people. 

When I was working I pulled up an article in the Wall Street Journal about how some can meet for the first time and be instant friends.  One opens a bit and tells a bit of their story that works on another to tell a bit of their story.  Then they knew each other and they became friends.  As they opened to each other, then a relationship began to form.

Sometimes we are bashful about sharing our story.  As we open up and share our life it is the door into someone else’s life.  I was as shy as probably anyone.  God can help us to love the people and help us to open up. 

We need to realize that we have a story and God has taken us through all these experiences in our life.  He can help us to share and it may open a door to help us to share what God has done for us.

We have a testimony and we need to be able to share it with others.  Everyone has life experiences that are unique.  This testimony takes a certain form and there are always certain elements that are there.

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

This is the testimony that Paul gave for the Ephesians.  You could personalize this.  “I was dead in trespasses and sins and was walking according to the course of the world.”

Maybe we grew up around the church.  That still doesn’t change this testimony.  We were by nature the children of wrath.  We were all predestined for hell until we found Christ.  I am one of God’s children now, but I wasn’t. 

We read an article that dealt with the concept of the privileged out there.  I am one of the privileged.  I would gladly offer the privilege to everyone.  I am white but I believe that God blessed the people of other races too. 

I grew up in a home with two parents.  They cared about me.  They corrected me.  It was needful and it shaped my life.  They took me to church. 

If you were taken to church you are privileged.  As I have observed the lives of people that have not enjoyed this privilege then I become aware of how great the privilege was. 

As I have visited this young man in jail I think of how wonderful it would have been if he had had this privilege.  The young people in the world need to hear the testimony that you have. 

My dad was a preacher; not wealthy, but we never went hungry.  We lived in a middleclass neighborhood.  We didn’t have more or less than our neighbors.  But we had peace, we had a good time in our house. 

A young man that lived down the street ended up in prison.  We tried to get him to church.  My parents tried to get him in to church.  They did their best to use their influence for good. 

The life that was lived at home gave us something.  I have had my difficulties. 

We are His workmanship.  We are created in Christ to be what He made us.  We are His workmanship, when people try to separate Works from Christianity that has taken them away from what God came to create.

God saw me in sin.  If you know God there should be a line in your life and say, “That was me before Christ and that was me after Christ.” 

We live in a time when many people claim Christianity but have never experienced repentance.  We must be able to see and to acknowledge, “There was sin in my life.  God saved me and delivered me.”

The worldly influence started in my life.  God helped me to see where it was taking me.  Everyone should have the line between BC and AD.  Before Christ and after death: I died to sin and myself. 

You look at what is going on in the name of Christianity today.  There are people that are out there claiming to be a Christian and they have no testimony to share.