Servant to servants part 2: 6/2/13

Servant to servants part 2: 

Even being a servant to servants must come from God.  It is not something to glory in, no work that we do is anything to glory in. 

Gal 6:14  But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

To glory means to boast or vaunt.  In our minds, without saying anything aloud, we can dwell on, “How much I have grown!  I did that difficult thing with humility.  How humble I have become!” 

The issue is not that we haven’t grown, or that we weren’t humble, or that we didn’t do that which was difficult for us that we felt we should do.  The issue is our focus.  Our focus and our joy, our glory and our rejoicing need to be in the Lord and in Him alone. 

As Brother Gyme has taught us of the perilous times, to focus on our self is to lose strength.

Php 3:1  Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.

The word ‘safe’ here means, secure, firm, certain, sure

1) firm (that which can be relied on)

2) certain, true

3) suited to confirm

CONFIRM, v.t. [L., to make firm. See Firm.]

1. To make firm, or more firm; to add strength to; to strengthen; as, health is confirmed by exercise.

2. To fix more firmly; to settle or establish.

3. To make firm or certain; to give new assurance of truth or certainty; to put past doubt.

Rejoice in the Lord:

Php 4:4  Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

Rejoice at all times.

Deu 12:18  But thou must eat them before the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto.

Rejoice in the Lord as you are doing anything. 

Whatever your hands find to do, do to the glory of the Lord.

1Ch 16:10  Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD.

Those that seek the Lord, rejoice in the Lord and glory in His name.

Neh 8:10  Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.

To rejoice in the Lord is our strength.  ‘Strength’ here means a fortified place and a defense.

1) place or means of safety, protection, refuge, stronghold

1a) place of safety, fastness, harbour, stronghold

1b) refuge (of God) (figuratively)

1c) human protection (figuratively)

To give all glory to the Lord and have Him be our rejoicing is an extremely safe place. 

Psa 5:11  But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.

Psa 5:12  For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.

Let those that put their trust in the Lord rejoice in the Lord.  Let all that love His name rejoice in Him. 

Psa 37:4  Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Have the Lord as your delight. 

Isa 12:2  Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

Isa 12:3  Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

It is through having joy in the Lord that we receive water from the well of salvation.

Hab 3:17  Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:

Hab 3:18  Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

When nothing is going the way I’d like, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

1Th 5:16  Rejoice evermore.

Rejoice in the Lord at all times and in all places.

Php 3:2  Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.

Php 3:3  For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Php 3:4  Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:

Php 3:5  Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;

Php 3:6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Php 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

Php 3:11  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Php 3:12  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Php 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

Php 3:16  Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

Php 3:17  Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.

Php 3:18  (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

Php 3:19  Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

Php 3:20  For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:

Php 3:21  Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

Brother Gyme Sunday School 6/2/13

Brother Gyme Sunday School 6/2/13

Mat 11:12  And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

This scripture is telling us that we are going to be pressed, but we are going to push back.  We want to be able to push back and fight the good fight of faith to the best of our ability.  God has given us the tools to do this and it is up to us to use those tools.  Sunday school is to teach us how to use these tools that are made available to us.

I am convinced that it is no different today than in any other day.  It has waxed worse and worse but there is no new thing under the sun. 

If you follow the news much you hear over and over again is of how bad it is.  Then our mind gets on the track of how bad it is.  But God is still God.  He has not changed at all. 

If you read in the Old Testament you read of the wicked kings that reigned for years.  They set up wickedness all around them.  Then God would set a man on the throne that was after His heart.  They tore down the high places. 

God is still God.  We need to be just going forward in the right battle.  If we are not in the right battle, then we will be spending a lot of energy on the wrong thing.  We want to be fighting God’s battle.

God is looking down looking to see if we are going to be one that does right or are we going to go the other way.  We have to make that choice every day. 

Isaiah 6:1 The two kings before Uzziah ended up doing wrong.  Uzziah started out good and then he messed up.  Isaiah probably thought, “There could have been such hope and Uzziah also messed up.” 

When Uzziah died there could have been a discouraging time.  But Isaiah saw God on His throne high and lifted up.  God is still a God that works miracles and is above all.  Don’t have your eyes upon man. 

Man will fail.  King after king failed.  The majority of people today don’t serve God.  Get your eyes on God.  He is still on the throne.

Gen 6:1  And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

Gen 6:2  That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

Gen 6:3  And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

Gen 6:4  There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

Gen 6:5  And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Gen 6:6  And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Gen 6:7  And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Gen 6:8  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Gen 6:9  These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Here we are in the middle of evil times.  We think that we have it tough today but Noah’s day was very evil.   

The imaginations of the men’s hearts were only evil continually.  It didn’t change Noah.  He found favor with God and did so because He did what was right.

In Noah’s day there were few that were saved.  We are admonished not to compare ourselves by ourselves.  There was a huge difference between Noah and all the evil around him.  God is always going to have a people.  We want to be one that will always encourage God with the grace that He has given us.  We don’t want to think that we are it and we have attained.  God will always have a people.

In this day they are calling evil good and good evil.  That spirit is trying to overcome good.  It is trying to change the whole rules.  Our job is to hold up a standard the Bible way. 

We cannot get obnoxious or graceless about it but we can say, “That is not right.”  If you and I won’t do this then God will find someone that will.  Someone needs to do it.  We need to do it.  God has set things in order and man cannot change it.

God’s instruction has never changed.  That is why it is a rock and is solid.  If something was wrong yesterday then it is wrong today.  That is why we can stand on it.

I was trying to teach the children, “If you lie to me one time then how can I know that I can believe you?  If you tell me something, after telling the truth all the time, then I can know that it is the truth because you have never lied to me.”  That is how it is with God.  He never has lied.

Gen 6:10  And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Gen 6:11  The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

Gen 6:12  And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

Gen 6:13  And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

We think that we have it so bad today.  The day was bad in the days of Noah.  He kept His eye on God and walked with God.  Keeping God in His rightful place, not looking at people and circumstances. 

If we look to people and circumstances then it will affect us.  If we get our eyes on the day…, here Noah was told to build an ark and all these people were making fun of Him.  They were hindering him, laughing at him, and telling him what a fool he was. 

This was not a one day project.  For a hundred years he was pretty much the only man with a vision of God’s plan and doing what God told him to do. 

Noah was one man but He obeyed God and God gave him a vision of what to do.

I think of the peril of today and it is worse because there was a sacrifice made for us.  We can know the Holy Spirit who is everywhere.  People are rejecting Him today.  They rejected Him in Noah’s day but it is sad with the thought of what is afforded us today that people would reject Him today.

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

There are a lot of weights that can weigh us down.  Anything that is hindering us is a weight.  Weights appeal to our flesh and that is why we have them.  We need to die to self so that we can see the weight and lay it aside.  Each one of us would have a different weight.  It could be anything.

We need to have everything in balance.

We lay the weight aside to please God but God looks at it as, “He will be happier if he lays it aside.”

Mat 10:37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

We are to love Him first.  When things are in their rightful place in our home, then our children are satisfied and there is peace.  When Paul said, “I die daily.”  He was teaching us to get everything in its proper order every day.  He that loves father, mother, son, or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Luk 8:1  And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him,

Luk 8:2  And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils,

Luk 8:3  And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.

Luk 8:4  And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable:

Luk 8:5  A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.

Luk 8:6  And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.

Luk 8:7  And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.

Luk 8:8  And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Luk 8:9  And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?

Luk 8:10  And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

Luk 8:11  Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

Luk 8:12  Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

Luk 8:13  They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.

Luk 8:14  And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.

Luk 8:15  But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

The cares and riches are not just monetary but anything that would hinder us and choke out our spiritual life.

Rom 13:11  And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

Rom 13:12  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

Rom 13:13  Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

Rom 13:14  But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

“Bring forth fruit to perfection”, “make not provision for the flesh”, if walk in the Spirit then we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. 

When we get ourselves cumbered and laden with things that pertain to the flesh then we will not be bringing forth the fruit of the Spirit but of the flesh. 

We can only hear the voice of the Spirit if we put aside the other things that are crying out to us.