Through the Fire

In the spiritual battle, there are two offensive weapons according to Ephesians 6. The first is the sword of the spirit which is the Word of truth. The second weapon is prayer. Prayer is God’s force multiplier. With God, no weapon formed against us shall stand. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual for the pulling down of the devil’s spiritual strongholds.

Though all seems lost and futile as we are bombarded with the news from Afghanistan and Haiti where death and destruction run rampant, where terrorist extremists wreak havoc against the people. We whom God has called wrestle not against flesh and blood but against the powers of darkness, against the prince of the power of the air, against spiritual wickedness from on high.

As a brother from Afghanistan prayed weeping, we pray with unbroken hearts for God’s deliverance in this life or the next. Even though our hearts break, know that you, our fellow Christians remain under the hand of our Heavenly Father. We who have gathered together underground, pray for you and beseech your prayers for God’s will to be done in us and through us to his honor and glory.

Chuck Smith said, God always delivers his people either in the fire, through the fire, or by the fire. The crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold, but God refines the heart of man. Trials and tribulation try us and refine us to reveal his character within us.

According to Jeremiah 17:6, the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked… who can know it? Our hearts deceive us when we think that we can stand in our own power. There is wickedness in the heart of flesh that we inherited from Adam’s fall. The people said to Jesus, didn’t we cast out demons and perform wondrous miracles in your name? Jesus said, depart from me ye workers of iniquity… I never knew thee. The heart of man deceives us into thinking that we’re self sufficient in our own self serving power. The deceitful heart cheats men into suffering the consequences of their prideful acts. He said to the Pharisees, In vain do they worship me, they draw nigh unto me with their lips, and honor me with their mouths, but their heart is far from me. Sin is missing the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Sin will have its way with us if we fail to repent of our having forsaken the Lord and the truth of His word.

Spurgeon says, the guilty sinner must cease and desist from confessing righteousness in his own doing… in the nature of his own flesh. Confession unto repentance begins with being broken before the Lord. As the Apostle Paul said, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. As Isaiah said when God revealed the greatness of his glory, “woe is me, I am unworthy…. a man of unclean lips.” Then a seraphim touched a hot coal of fire to Isaiah’s lips to purge him with God’s refining fire. Only God can cleanse us through the atoning sacrifice of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf. For he who knew no sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.

In Romans 7 Paul said, “who shall deliver me from this dead body?” The answer is in Romans 8….The law of the spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.

Oswald Chambers said, thank God for breaking our hearts for what breaks his. The light of Christ can shine forth only when God breaks the clay pots of our earthen vessels. For we have this treasure of the spirit in earthen vessels… in jars of clay so that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

The nature of the flesh will conceal, deny, and refuse to acknowledge the sin nature that we inherited from Adam. Sin is broken fellowship. Sin separates our hearts from God and the righteous standard of his holy word. John 3 says, He that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. However, Jesus Christ came not into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. For he who doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be manifest that they are wrought of God.

Therefore, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. It is the goodness, the loving kindness, grace, and mercy of the Lord that calls a man to repentance.

The theme of 1 John is our fellowship with our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice on our behalf. 1 John 1:3 says, “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

Repentance is to turn from sin and unto the Lord. 1 John 1:7 says walk in the light as he is in the light and the blood of Jesus Christ shall cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Walking in the love of God will cleanse our hearts… the cleansing is in the walking. Sin is missing the mark. However When we return our hearts to the Lord, we press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall inherit the earth. Peace is available only through the prince of peace. Jesus said, my peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid. Peace is the result of reconciliation… of bringing together that which has been separated. Jesus Christ’s is the one who reconciles us with God. Acceding to Ephesians 2:14-15:
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby…

2 Corinthians 5 says, we are ambassadors for Christ. As his emissaries, We’re sent to deliver a peace treaty from our homeland in Heaven, for we are citizens of heaven. The message is the gospel message of the good news of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Jesus Christ is the one who reconciles God to man. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…

That through his payment for sin on our behalf, we may ever live to the praise of the glory of our Father’s grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Desperate Hearts

Jeremiah 17:9 says, “the heart is desperately wicked above all things, who can know it?” The Apostle Paul said, “In my flesh dwelleth no good thing.” The fallen nature that we inherited from Adam seeks the things of this world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. However, Jesus said, blessed are they who hunger and thirst, not for the things of this fallen word, but for God’s righteousness. They are blessed because they shall be filled. Only God can satisfy and fill those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

CS Lewis said, if you’re looking for a religion that makes you comfortable, then Christianity is not that religion. It’s uncomfortable to admit when we’re wrong. However, Proverbs 28:13 says, “He that covereth (and hides) his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

Men of this world seek to justify themselves. Those who deny God think that they are in charge of their own lives… that they can define for themselves what is just and praiseworthy in order to appease their own selfish hearts. They take pride in their own self righteousness that says, I’m not subject to a holy God. Then they think they’re justified when they transgress God’s righteous standard for truth.

The Sermon on the Mount explains Jesus’ keys to the kingdom of heaven… the things that set believers apart as followers of Christ. Matthew Henry said, It’s folly to trust in man, for he is frail and deceitful. Our own hearts deceive us into thinking that we trust in God when we really don’t. It’s a common mistake for men to think their own hearts better than they really are. God’s standard for truth says that the heart of man is deceitful above all things. A deceived heart calls evil good and good evil. Then It colors the lie with a rosy deception. It distorts the truth, blinds the eyes, and cheats men so that they fall into their own ruin. The heart of man is deadly, desperate, and past relief. Its conscience is seared with a hot iron…. it deceives itself into thinking it is the candle of the Lord. It twists the truth into a corrupt, watered down disposition. The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. As the Apostle Paul said, “Who can deliver me from the body of this death?”

Jesus said, “apart from me you can do nothing. To bear good fruit you must abide in the vine. I am the vine and ye are the branches.”

To know the condition of our fallen hearts, we must compare our hearts to the righteous standard… the Word of God and Jesus Christ, the word of God made flesh. There is no hope apart from the grace of God through the payment for sin Jesus Christ made on our behalf.

We can know our hearts when we walk in the light as Christ is in the light. Then when we walk in the light as he is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In 1 John, the sin is to break fellowship… In order to have a right relationship with God, we must reconcile our hearts with God. Our first priority is our vertical relationship with our Heavenly Father.

In a season of comfort and complacency our heart will be tempted to fall into sin. King David left the battlefield, forsaking God’s call as Israel’s commander in chief. Instead, he retreated to his palace for rest and relaxation. Then in a moment of complacency, he gazed longingly upon his neighbor Bathsheba bathing on her rooftop. He was consumed with the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. David’s lust was consummated in adultery, deception, and murder.

1 John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The sin is anything that breaks our fellowship with God by leading our hearts away from God’s heart. Sin is missing the mark. The mark is the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The solution to sin is to pursue the mark…. to chase after our Lord together with others who also chase after Christ.

Jesus said, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. David in his confession said in Psalm 139:23-24, search me O Lord and know my heart… if there is any evil thing in me. Create in me a new heart O Lord, and cleanse me from all iniquity.

It’s easy to deceive our own hearts. As men, we look at our own outward appearance. However God looketh upon the heart. Men often do the right things but for the wrong reasons. The people said to Jesus, didn’t we cast out demons…didn’t we prophesy and do many wonderful works in your name? Jesus said, depart from me ye workers of iniquity… I never knew you. He said to the Pharisees in Mark 7:6-7, “Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

How do we know if we’re doing the right things for the right reasons? According to 2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with open face beholding (the truth of the Law of God) as in a glass (mirror) the (spiritual) glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory (of the flesh) to glory (of the spirit), even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” When we through through Christ’s eyes behind our eyes look into the word of God, it reflects our true nature as born again believers… the reflection of the Holy Spirit of God in Christ in us.

The nature of God is mercy, grace, compassion and love. Romans 3;23 says, all have sinned and come short of God’s righteous standard. The solution to sin is the Saviour from sin. According to Romans 6:23, “for the wages of sin Is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Thank God for reproof and correction. For whom the Lord loves, he takes the time with care and concern to chastise. To correct means to return to an upright position. Even though it’s painful to be straightened, when we have our vertical relation with Him in alignment, we can live in the abundance of life to which he’s called us. The blessing is in seeking the Blessor and not the blessing…

… that our hearts may be made right to praise and glorify our Heavenly Father through His son, our Lord Jesus Christ… that we may ever live in Fellowship, in communion with our Lord to love, honor and glorify God.

Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Pete McKenzie 0:19
led to one of the greatest hours of prayer we’ve had in a long time, on Friday mornings, and we’ve been doing that for 28 years, meaning guys meeting together and go into war, go into battle. We fight with spiritual weapons in these battles, we have to learn to do that. And prayer is the best spiritual weapon. It’s the key spiritual weapon. Do you know we see things happening in Afghanistan, and now we know in Mongolia, in India and around the world, God’s working. And he’s working powerfully. And he’s working to do one thing. And that’s the draw man to himself. He’s not trying to save countries, he’s not worried about what’s going on politically. He never bothered himself with that when he became a man and came down and live 33 years, he didn’t get involved in all that. He had bigger fish to fry. He had the gospel. He had died on the cross redeeming new me from one big issue sin. And sin is a reason that all that’s going on in the world is happening, all the hurt, all the atrocities, all the gulags all the killing fields, all the divorces, separations, church splits, all the division, all the hate, all the bitterness, all the revenge. All of this is called the one thing man is a sinner, and all have sinned. It’s not just a few have sinned, we have sinned. You and I have sinned, we could be part of the Taliban, but by God’s grace, we have it within our hearts. And we’re going to talk about that today. But before I do, I want to read something that I received this morning. It’s a word from the underground church in in Afghanistan is a little pause in between each sentence. But there’s a I didn’t have time, I didn’t get it in time to get it to our guys and get it on the screen up here. But there’s a member of the underground church and he shared his heart about what’s going on in Afghanistan. Now read you what he’s saying. Hello, dear sisters and brothers in this. His face is on the screen. But it’s all garbled. So you can’t tell I hope you’re healthy. Today in Afghanistan is the first day of Taliban rule. I don’t know what the future of this country will be.

We’re not able to control her emotions. He’s weeping is he saying these things?

Because we’ve wanted worked so hard for 20 years.

And all our work over the past 20 years has been lost in one night.

Only God understands how much pain we have, and how broken Our hearts are.

We are crying out. We are crying not out of fear. But because our hearts ache for our beautiful country.

It has now been destroyed by this savage and extremist group. Every precious thing of value in our nation is now destroyed. The whole world has abandoned us.

Those who said they support us have now abandoned us to the worst situation imaginable.

Don’t know what’s going to happen to us. Are we supposed to live alongside the Taliban’s rule Friends, we record this video today is a testimony. We want it to remain in history. We want to be remembered by our friends and loved ones that today we have been left in the field by ourselves. But we’re not leaving the field. We will fight harder and we’ll continue in God’s work.

If we are no longer with you remember this. Remember this word from our unbroken hearts.

Please remember us the great difficulties that we now face. If any of us remain if our children remain I have a request. Please do not leave them alone. Please take care of them please do not abandon them. I’m sorry, I cried and became emotional. My heart is hurting send this to all your friends as a remembrance of their brothers and sisters in Christ. I hope this finds you under our Heavenly Father’s shelter. Thank you The supportive underground Christians in Afghan When’s the last time you were underground? How long before Christians in America have to go underground? have our religious services and gather together to pray to meet like we’re meeting today. Two or three years from now this could be an American Christian saying the same things we’ve seen a very country destroyed not before our very eyes and not overnight this has been coming for 70 years and it always get back to the question of God delivering as people not always delivered as people and Wayne quoted Chuck Smith in that regard during our prayer time, he said God always delivers his people some through the fire some in the fire and some by the fire you know always delivers this people

mentioned that this whole thing is because of one three letter word sin. Man’s despicable heart. I quoted to you last week a quote by CS Lewis it is appropriate to be quoted again today. If you’re looking for a religion that really make you comfortable, I don’t suggest Christianity. When you’re looking at guys and if you were to ask, if extremist whatever they might be a motive or eelke they might be was about diverse q2 or qu and you ask them why are you doing this? They would say the same thing that Francis said that the Hindus are saying about Christians. Our Gods quit responding because you guys are worshiping. So we have to get rid of you so our gods can answer our prayers again. That our God is God our God is king. Our God is sovereign and the other gods know what all the demons know it and they shudder. Jeremiah 17 nine says a heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it fully and know its secret motives. Be patient when we we find this devotional by Matthew Henry, when he have some commentary, thoughts on this verse.

This again is from the verse at heart is deceitful above all things in debt. desperately wicked, who can understand it? concerning the sinfulness of man’s heart in the divine inspection, it is always under. It is a folly to trust in man, for he is not only frail, but false and deceitful. We’re apt to think that we trust in God, and are entitled to the blessings here promised to those who do so. But this is a thing about but this is a thing about which our own hearts deceive us as much as anything. We think that we can trust in God when really we don’t, as appears by this, that our hopes and fears rise or fall according to second causes, smiles and frowns. It’s true in general that there’s wickedness in our hearts, which we are sales are not aware of, and don’t suspect to be their minds me when Jesus said, there are many who have come to me and say, Lord, Lord, we cast out demons in your name. We prophesied in your name, we heal people in your name, you also Depart from me, I never knew you. That’s the deceitfulness of a man’s heart. It is a common mistake among the children of men to think themselves, their own hearts at least a great deal better than they really are. The heart the conscience of man in his corrupt and fallen state is deceitful above all things. It’s subtle, and false. It’s apt to supplant or replace. It is that from which Jacob pad is named the Replace, or there’s a planter, because evil good and good evil. Put sports colors upon things. In Christ peace, when there is no peace. Men, when men say in their hearts, that there is no God, or he does not see or he will not require. for they shall have peace, though, though they go on. Now. In these in 1000, similar suggestions, the heart is deceitful. The cheats man into the their own ruin. And this will be the aggravation of it, that they are self deceived yourself, destroy yours. You’re in the hardest, desperately wicked, it is deadly, it is desperate. These are hard words, but they’re necessary words. Because if we don’t get this down, if we don’t understand this, we haven’t missed anything but the boat. The essence of Christianity is it sin is desperate and despicable and evil, is deceitful. And if we don’t understand that, it’s going to have its way with us and we’ll be victims of our own sinful natures. The case is bad indeed, in a manner deplorable and pass relief, if the conscience which should rectify the errors of the other faculties is itself a mother of faults, and a ringleader in the delusion. What will become of a man if that in him which should be the candle of the Lord gives a false light. If God’s deputy in the soul that is interested to support his interests, betrays him, such as the sequence of the heart that we may truly say, who can know it? Who can describe how bad the heart is? I don’t know about you, but it’s that generally my thinking about my heart. I give myself a lot of credit for having a pretty good heart. I even look at you sometimes and think maybe you have a good heart. But how many times a day does our heart betray us? How many times a day that we go back to our vomit? How many times a day do we compromise what we say we believe? How many times a day do we hate when we should be loving and giving mercy? How many times are we patient when we get impatient and say things that we regret later? I mean time so I get mad at my wife and my children, the government people on the freeway and never feel too bad about it because they all are screwed up. They’re messed up they deserve. They deserve my revenge. They deserve not critical spirit. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. But there is an answer and God’s given us an answer in Scripture to this sin problem that we have. Proverbs 2813 warns us so he conceals his transgressions will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion

Charles Spurgeon was making some comments on this and he said the tracks this tracks the way of mercy and compassion for the guilty, repentant sinner, who must cease and desist from the habit of concealing uncovering sin. It’s one thing to be a sinner, even to acknowledge your church center, but it’s another thing to conceal and cover your sin. The business of a center is to confess in PR sake. That’s what we’ve been called to do. So everybody’s sins All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But not everybody confesses. Not everybody says, search me, O God and know my heart, draw me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there’s any hurtful way and me. Not everybody, for sakes. I looked up that word for sake, means to renounce or turn away from entirely, to abandon, to give up control or influence, to give up with the intent of never again claiming a ride or interest in. But he who confesses who brings it out into the light? In a lot of times that I think we talked about this before. A lot of times we think well I confessed it, I brought it out into the light, that’s enough. But this Scripture teaches us that it’s not enough. I don’t only have to confess my sin, I have to forsake it. How many times have we heard testimonies of alcoholics, who that came to Christ, and they got a new life and new desire to be holy and right with God. So they take their alcohol and pour it down the sink, that’s forsaking that doesn’t mean they won’t be tempted to do it again, that shows where their heart is drug addicts who wash all their drugs down and flush it down the toilet. I mean, in terms of we heard that they were moved by the Holy Spirit to clean their lives to get a new life. If any man’s in Christ is a new creature. He’s a different man, as Mary said in the chosen, that was one way. And now I’m different. I’m not the same guy anymore. I’m not the cleaned up guy, the painted guy, the varnished old guy. I’m a brand new guy that never existed before. I’m a new creature in Christ. And as a creature, the best thing about that new creatures he’s forgiven for all his sin that’s driven me my whole Christian life. I was desperate and sins and trespasses as the scripture says, I couldn’t handle it I couldn’t beat it. I couldn’t control it couldn’t defeat it couldn’t work my way out of it. It couldn’t deliver myself or fix myself. Imagine how happy I was a night I came to know Christ and found out I didn’t have to fix myself I know I did. I didn’t have to I couldn’t listen to the poor in spirit. Bless those who are crushed, who are mourning blesses those who acknowledge that they’re centers and that you repent and forsake it. That’s what we’re is required of assess the business of a sinner. We must recite the evil in disown all present and future intent to abide in it. The habit of evil must be broken. Together with all places in companions, pursuits in books, and anything that would lead us astray. don’t suggest Christianity if you’re looking for a comfortable religion. If you’re looking for the Holy Spirit to overlook what’s going on in our hearts, the sin that hides in every crevice and corner of our heart, even though we’re forgiven for every sin, we’re justified. God wants to sanctify us to justified means that I’m forgiven for all my sin. He’s put it behind him as far as the east is from the west, I have the white robe of righteousness own of Christ. The blood of Christ is cleaned me from our sin, I’m justified. It’s just as if I’ve never seen before. I’m right with him in his eyes. And when he looks at me doesn’t see all my sin and all that evil in my heart. He sees the righteousness of Christ and that’s what you’ll see when I come up to the judgment. See, the great white throne. You’ll see the righteousness my heart when I get to the door of the banquet room, and they have checked me to see if I get in or not. When they see the white robes of righteousness, only the blood of Christ is cleanse me from all sin, I’ll be admitted and not only admitted but joyfully admitted. And nobody would be more joyful than me. If that happens, I may be surprised myself. Because I’ve said Lord Lord, I preached him his name I baptized in his name, have encouraged others to follow his name, but Paul said, after enlisting, so Many others to the race I myself

might be disqualified. So we know that you will know a tree by its fruit Jesus. The fruit of righteousness of the fruit of humaneness, the human heart, the sinful heart. If there is division in trouble and critical spirits and hate, revenge, anger, profanity, pornography, drugs, alcohol, jealousy, causing divisions all the time, broken relationships. And I’d say that person probably is questionable whether he really knows Christ and He walked out he got baptized, he prayed the prayer. But where’s the fruit? And the greatest fruit is the fruit of repentance, the fruit of going back and making restitution, the fruit of going to someone and making it right with them. If you come to the altar, and you know someone has something against you, I’m going to make you uncomfortable. I’m going to stir your heart, I’m going to bring you to righteousness, I’m going to bring you to a place of you can’t speak at peace with yourself until you go and do your best to make it right. Maybe you can’t make it right maybe they won’t forgive you. But you can go to them. You know, you’ve sinned, you know, you’ve heard them. And God says, Go and make it right. Go and confess your sin and to do that, to confess your sin, you have to go and acknowledge it, you have to name it. God, forgive me for drinking again, cursing again, go into that pornographic side again, speaking, disrespectfully and ugly to my wife, being angry with my children. doing the things that I do in the flesh, be filled with the Spirit. And we have that opportunity. Don’t be drunk with wine and do all the other stuff we’re talking about. Be feel to the spirit. That’s what God has given us. He’s given his spirit and in His Spirit and in his power, through the Spirit, we can live these lives we can be free, will never get to a place. And we’ve talked about this over and over again. But we need to be reminded over and over again. Least I do I figure maybe you do need to be reminded that I can fall into sin with the best I can justify and rationalize my sin. And that’s what I do. I cover it and conceal it. I don’t bring it out into the light. I don’t want people to know what I’m really like. I don’t want them to know what I think. And it is seen in the lust of my heart. And so I find myself on my knees before the Lord is saying Lord apart from you, all I can do is sin. All I can do is disappoint you and disappoint my friends, my family, my wife, my children. Church. I’m selfish to the point of being sick at my stomach from selfish looking out for myself, as it affect me, so all about me. I get mad because life is hard. It’s not supposed to be hard. Even though Jesus said in this world you will have tribulation. Praise God that He said, But take heart. I have overcome the world. The world I’ve overcome the flesh, I’ve overcome the devil. You can live these kinds of lives man. God has called us to live these lives to live in the light. To live in the light means that we first confess and we forsake when we need to. Not just going and making it right or make restitution with that person we’ve heard or sinned. But when they heard us and they sinned against us, and they let us down and betrayed us and criticized us and lied about us and called her eat good evil. That’s where I have to show my fruit of the Spirit. That’s where I get a chance to give grace and forgive even as I’ve been forgiven. That’s where I get a chance to be Christ like you’re never more like Christ. And when you forgive and give grace. They don’t deserve it. They will never ask you for forgiveness. They will never admit their sin against you. But you forgive them in your heart. One to set him free but to set him free from yourself your own heart. You always wander into sin. When you’re feeling bitterness and anger and resentment and revenge toward another to get even with them. And you always know you’re not right with them. When you see him in the grocery store or church and you avoid him. You don’t want to come face to face with him. But if you forgive him in your heart

If you’ve let them go, if you’ve turned them over to the Lord to deal with, so that you could keep your heart pure and clean, you could walk up and hug them. You can be comfortable when you see him. But you don’t want to do that. And you won’t do that. If you’re concealing and covering bitterness and sin in your heart. God wants you to be free, you’re never going to be the man of God that you could be and that God’s called you to be. And I’ll never will. If we were concealing sin and rationalizing and justifying and won’t bring it into the light, will always have broken relationships. First john one seven. If you walk in the light, as he is in the line, you will have fellowship with one another, you won’t fellowship with your wife within walk in the light. Do what God nudges you to do what God pushes you to do the little things, compliment her. She may never encourage you, she might never compliment you. That doesn’t keep you from doing the right thing. You compliment her you do little gifts for her. You do things that make her feel special that you wouldn’t do to any other woman. Because she’s your wife. You ask her forgiveness, you try to make things right. When you need to, and we need to all the time. Amen. That was a week. Amen on that. like you mean it. That’s what God wants to hear. God wants to hear we agree with him, that we are sinners, we have no hope. We have a great God who’s worthy to be worshipped, who is worthy of our very lives is worth worthy, given our utmost for his highest Do you want this is the one is best. And this is how you get it. You live in the light. The light came into the world and the world rejected the light that we don’t, we did. But now we don’t. I was that way I was rejecting him, but now receive Him and honor Him. And how do I do that? By living a life that reflects him to have a strong family resemblance to my father and him to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. there’s work to be done, man, their sin rampid in the world. The Afghans, you know, the Taliban and ISIS and the mob in America. Everybody that we see working evil, they’re just useful idiots. So the devil. We fight not against flesh and blood, but against spirits and powers and authorities and the air is that that we fight. So if you understand that you’re not going to hate these people that are enslaved to the devil. And that’s what Paul told Timothy, Timothy, you’re going to, you’re going to, I’m turning you over to a church full of troublemakers. They don’t get along. They think about themselves. They’re young. There’s dumb sucking Christians if Christians at all. And now I’m turning them over to you Now don’t be refused to take their foolish and ignorant speculations, their shenanigans, all the things they do. You can’t take it to heart. refuse it for the Lord’s bondservant must not be quarrelsome. And that’s all that leads to is quarrels. But I’m not calling you to be quarrelsome. I’m calling you to be a peacemaker. So you must be instead of taking it to heart and letting it pull you down. I’m telling you to be kind to them. Teach them by your spirit and heart and attitude the way you live. You gently correct them if you ever get an opportunity to do that. And many times we don’t. And this is why, if perhaps God may grant them repentance, perhaps it may not do it. It may not happen. You may you may do everything you’re supposed to do and they still will never repent. That maybe they will and if they are ever do this is because you responded like this if perhaps God may grant them repentance, it’s a gift to repentance is God’s calling you to repent and in verse sake, don’t pass it by. Don’t cover it over. Don’t walk away. You may or may never have the chance again, it’s a gift of God to repent. And God moves in our heart to bring us to repentance. And if we say no, we harden our heart to God. And it’s a lot easier the next time to harden our heart and the next time to harden our heart to that we get to the point where we’re used with swear salt, it’s lost its flavor. We may not be Christian at all. Perhaps God may grant in repentance. Why leave To the knowledge of the truth,

they’re in their sin because they believe lies. Life is supposed to be easy. It’s not supposed to be hard, it’s all about me. I need to be in control. And I’m not going to make peace reality that I’m going to die, I’m going to live forever. That they will call about your actions and attitude, that they may come to their senses. They may come to the knowledge of the truth and come to their senses. And that’s what God has called us to these scholars to a ministry of helping people come to their senses. Helping people come to that place where they understand that they need Christ in their life, they will never have peace without the Prince of Peace. They’ll never find forgiveness, in anyone that’s puts it behind them as far as the east in the West and gives them grace. You’ll never find that anywhere, but in Christ, and then his true people. Perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. Why they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, who holds them captive to do His will, if you looked at everybody in the world today is slaves of the captors of the devil who holds them captive to do His will. And they looked at the Pharisees, your of your father, the devil, and your desires to do His will. See, you need to understand that when you’re seeing these people, the Taliban and ISIS in all the centers in the world and all the sinful groups in the world, and warring factions, and murderers and killers and to bring in doom and gloom and that’s all it can do. When they’re slaves of the devil. Break up, churches break up, families, break up, marriages break up business. That’s all they can do. They’re slaves to the devil. And we should look at them with pity and mercy and grace, not with our and bitterness. We hate the evil, but love the sinner. And we kind of make fun of that sometimes. Because who can do that? Who can truly hate evil, but love that center who’s evil, seeing them as slaves of the devil, that’s what you are. That’s what I am. We hope they’ll love us that way. Don’t count on it. Even in the church. That’s what God has called us to be. He’s called us to be different and new and to live the life that he gave us a Holy Spirit and forgave our sin to give us to go out there and give them heaven. And that’s why we say that. That’s why I said every week I need to be reminded, I need to go give them heaven. What’s that mean? Give them grace. Forgive them, serve them, wash their feet. But to do that, we have to be done with ourselves, our right to ourselves, I’m crucified with Christ. I no longer live, praise God. I no longer live. but Christ lives in me. And now the life that I live, I live by faith. In the Son of God, Faith has to have an object and don’t just live by any faith, it’s faith in the Son of God. Why? Because he loved me and gave himself up for me. I’ll never be able to repay that. But I’m going to try. I’ll never be able to pay what I’ve been forgiven and getting to go to heaven and spend eternity instead of hell. The alternative to Heaven is not good. It’s a small gate in a narrow way and few that it’s going to go in because many are on the wide gate going through the wide gate in the broad way that leads to prediction. And I learned what prediction means it means how destruction in many go there in our job is to keep as many on get them to the small gate and the narrow way as we possibly can. If in fact we’re have done it ourselves. That’s your mission in life. That’s your calling. That’s why you’ve been gifted. That’s why you’ve been set aside. That’s why God has given you grace and mercy so you can give it away and give him heaven. So I guess he wants to know, you’re in or out. I believe that and he believes that. That’s the reason you’re here today. Get around men, like you’re sitting next to the guy in front of you and beside you and behind you. These are the kind of man we need to be with. If we’re going to get the job done. In a log, that by itself is not going to burn. You have to throw it on the fire and many logs burning together will draw crowds. They’ll gather around if you give your heart to Christ and pour it out for Christ. They’re gathered around just to watch you burn. That’s what we want. That’s what God’s calling us to be. That’s what the Beatitudes all about. Next time we’ll get down to bless it or the merciful

for they shall be shall. I shall mercy. Have you been shown mercy? Has God given you His grace? This I like it today, okay. Let’s spread it around the start in your home and then let it go from there. Let’s pray. Father, thank you for reminding us of these things that the heart is deceitful above all things that’s our hearts. We can deceive our various selves. If we live in the light, though, you’ll show us our sin. We can repent, we can walk in newness of life, we can walk forgiven Your grace and we can give it away. We can give him heaven. But to do that, we have to die. It’s uncomfortable. To do that we have to give up our right to ourself. Give us a grace to do that. Give us a desire to do that. Help us mourn over our sin. Help us be meek. And then Lord, we’re gonna learn what it means to be merciful as you have shown us mercy and we’ll give you all the credit and the glory for our God is God. They want to get rid of us because our God’s greater than their God, but they’ll never be able to do that. It’ll never happen. praise you. A bunch of thankful man here this morning. We’re grateful in our hearts for our salvation in Christ. And we want to go out there and act like it in Jesus name And all God’s men said guys

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Blessed Are The Hungry and Thristy

It’s one thing to come unto the Lord Jesus Christ. However, Jesus said, “if you continue in my word then you shall be my disciples, (my disciplined followers) indeed.” CS Lewis said, if you’re looking for a religion that makes you comfortable, then Christianity is not that religion. Christianity is unattainable in our nature of the flesh, our worldly nature that we inherited from Adam. However, We who are born again of God’s spiritual nature can understand Christ’s nature… the things of the spirit of God.

Jesus Christ himself blazed a trail straight to the heart of God. The beatitudes are the roadmap to follow Jesus Christ. There are many roads, but only one road leads back home. Home is where the heart is… Therefore, set your affections on things above. For where thy treasure is, there will your heart be also.

At home with the Lord, when Christ returns, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the Glory of God our father. Despite the confusion, chaos, strife and contention of this world, Jesus said, in this world you shall have tribulation… but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

According to 2 Timothy 4 Paul said, I have been poured out as a drink offering. I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course. Henceforth a crown of righteousness has been laid up for me and for all who are assured of salvation and look forward to the return of our Lord.

Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

The fourth beatitude says, blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. The multitude at the Sermon on the mount knew what it meant to be hungry and thirsty. They lived in a semi-arid desert and in an impoverished culture. They often did not not have enough to eat and drink. For what are you hungry and thirsty? Jesus said to the woman at the well, I am the fountain of living waters. He who drinks of the water of life shall never thirst. He said to the crowd at Capernaum, I am the bread of life. Only Jesus Christ can satisfy our hunger for the things of the spirit… only he can quench our thirst for righteousness because our righteousness is in him… for he who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.

Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” God honors faithfulness according to his word. Jesus Christ is the faithful one. He said, I always do my Father’s will. He consistently followed his Father’s word and will.

This world is filled with problems, pressures, and pain. There are many things to mourn over in this world… for those we loved who have died and left this world… for the sin which doth so easily beset us…. for our having fallen short of the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. In the mourning we can turn our hearts to the Lord with meekness and humility. We mourn over our hunger and thirst for the things that we can not grasp in our own power. The solution to the problem is Jesus Christ himself. There are many problems but only one solution. There are many questions but only one answer, Jesus Christ himself.

The world chases after happiness. However, happiness is a fleeting emotion that lasts but for a moment. Happiness depends on happenstance. The fleeting rush of euphoria for things having worked out in this world cannot satisfy. Happiness depends on temporary wisdom, wealth, and power. However victories according to the things of this world are temporary…. they’re here today and gone tomorrow. Happiness depends on favorable co-incidences. However with God there are no co-incidences…. there are only God incidences.

God is faithful to his Word. His steadfast love endures forever. Loving kindness and tender mercy is the nature of God himself.

Hungering and thirsting after righteousness is the hunger pang for the righteousness of Christ. Repentance begins with turning from the hunger for worldly things and unto hungering for heavenly things of the spirit of God. As the prophet Jeremiah said, Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15:16)

Oswald Chambers said, why shouldn’t God break our hearts? In order for the light to shine forth, our earthen vessels… our clay pots must be broken. Only then can the light of the spirit of Christ in us shine forth… for we have this treasure in jars of clay so that the excellency of the power (of the spirit) may be of God and not of us. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven.

Righteousness is not in our own power. Righteousness is the result of Christ’s justification as the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf. When we are born again of God’s spirt, who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall persecution or tribulation, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay…. in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Thank God for breaking our hearts. Thank God for filling us with a hunger and thirst for his righteousness…. for meekness and mourning to come unto him with empty hands and a destitute heart of humility… he alone can fill us and fulfill the purpose for which he called us…

That we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Blessed Are They Who Hunger and Thirst

The Beatitudes are the introduction to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. CS Lewis said one road leads home and a thousand roads lead to the wilderness. Christianity is not a comfortable religion. Returning home often seems unattainable. Aim at the the things of earth and you’ll be forever lost. Apart from Christ, it’s impossible to reach home. The Sermon on the Mount is the profile of Jesus Christ himself. He blazed the trail to the Father’s heart. Home is where the heart is. The Sermon on the mount is the roadmap, the turn by turn directions to arrive at home. The final destination is at the end of time when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

There are many battles in this world. However, we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against the powers of the Darkness of this world… against spiritual wickedness from on high. Then at the end of our earthly life, we who have been born again can say with the Apostle Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing”.

Jesus said, Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. What is it that you are hungry for? What can satisfy your thirst? The one who is blessed is the one who is hungry and thirsty for God’s righteousness. God will honor a desire for the righteousness of His son. This is a hunger only he can fill.

Hungering and thirsting for the things of this earth never satisfy…. they leave the soul empty and disappointed. Hungering for the things of the flesh are the picture of Tantalus…. According to Roman mythology, Tantalus was doomed to spend eternity in the underworld… he was tortured by his perpetual hunger pangs even though he was surrounded by a feast of delectable (tantalizing) foods. They were just out of reach above his head. His condemnation was to suffer a tantalizing insatiable eternal hunger.

When is enough enough? John D. Rockefeller, one of the world’s richest men was asked, “how much more money is enough?” His answer: “Just a little bit more.” Reach for the kingdoms of this earth and you will die frustrated and empty handed. Reach for the kingdom of heaven and you’ll get the earth thrown in.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. The filling is with the righteousness of God in Christ in us. The Apostle Paul said, “in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.”

Men strive for the unattainable… to dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to try when your arms are too weary to reach the unreachable star. The striving is for the things that this world holds dear…. self satisfaction, self gratification, self aggrandizement, self sufficiency, and self actualization. When the hunger is for the selfishness of self, the result is continuous frustration… the appetites of the flesh cannot be satiated.

However, when we turn from the frustration of hungering for the things of this world and instead hunger for God’s righteousness, then this is a hunger that only God can satisfy. Only he is sufficient.

According to 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Bad company corrupts good morals.” We’re most like those with whom we choose to associate, those whose company we enjoy. Who are you following? When we’re hungry for the fellowship of Jesus Christ and those who hunger and thirst for his righteousness, then we will be filled. Jesus said to the woman at the well in John 4:14, …whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Then in John 6:35 he said, …“I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

We’re blessed when we hunger to “choke in the dust of other men who chase after Jesus Christ.” When our heart’s desire is to follow in close proximity to our Lord… to hunger and thirst after his righteousness, then we shall be filled… the filling is his righteousness, his character, his spirit… For Jesus Christ who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him…

… that we may ever live to the praise of the glory of Thy grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Pete McKenzie 0:07
He broke it off. Now you’ll have some talk about afterwards.

We’re talking about the Beatitudes. And getting into the Sermon on the Mount eventually. But you can’t get any of that before you go through the Beatitudes. And it’s what Jesus said at one time in the chosen. This is a path that people can get used to get to me, who really want to know Jesus Christ. This is the gate in the narrow way that you have to walk. To get to him. I want to read a few quotes by CS Lewis. As we go into this, we’re talking we’ve talking about bless it are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. That’s the message today. CS Lewis said, one, one road leads home and 1000 roads lead to the wilderness. So we’re talking about that one road that leads to home and home is in heaven. He also said if you want a religion that’s going to make you really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity. Can I get an amen from the congregation, especially when you start talking about these quits preaching and goes to meddling in this sermon on the mount, he starts messing with things in our lives that we don’t want to have to mess with. He opens doors to things in our lives that we don’t want opened. And it makes us uncomfortable. Matter of fact, it seems to be unattainable. And it is apart from Christ. Aim in heaven, and you get the earth thrown in Hemet, earth, and you get neither aim in heaven and you get the earth thrown in aiment Earth and you get neither. And finally, the Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God. The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God. And that’s what he’s doing in the Sermon on the Mount. He saying this is what a son of God looks like this is a lifestyle. This is a character. This is a profile. This is the image. And this is who I am is basically what he say. Jesus never asked us to do anything that he wouldn’t do himself in the nRd done. Here’s another quote, the more the world sinks into madness, and it seems to be doing more daily, the more God’s man must draw closer and closer to Jesus Christ in His gospel. It’s the world’s only hope. It’s the only way to real peace. With all the fights divisions, partisanship, gender wars, ratio, wars, church wars, political wars, nations warring, it seems that the world is divided between blacks and whites, Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, men and women, husbands and wives, children and parents, doctors against doctors. Just keep in mind that when all the dust settles, and the last wars have been fought, there’s only one war that really matters. In Jesus’s incarnation, death, and resurrection, if it means anything at all. It means that there are only two kinds of people saved and unsaved. For a day will come when the wars will cease. The swords will be converted into proshares, the lion will lay down by the lamb, and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, Amen. There are so many fronts at the war these days, the gods man are going to have to fight. Just make sure you’re fighting the right war. Never try to take a hill that doesn’t need to be taken or you can’t be taken, choose your battles carefully that strategies of war. And what did what is that right war? Well, Paul in Ephesians, six said, finally be strong in the Lord in in the strength of his mind, but on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. That’s the war. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers against powers against world forces of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places. And then in First Timothy as Paul was writing, Timothy, his protege Fight the good fight Timothy, it’s a good fight of faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. And you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses, fight the good fight of faith.

In Second Timothy four, four, I am already being poured out as a drink offering in time of my departure has come. I fought the good fight. At the end of your life, you want to make sure you can say I fought the good fight. There’s a lot of good fights these days. There’s a lot of things it seems worth fighting for. But you can’t fight on every front. And if you’ve got to fight, make sure you’re in the right war. Make sure in the war that makes a difference. If there’s only two kinds of people saved and unsaved make sure you’re fighting that war. I think that’s what these men are saying. So bless it are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. You know, we don’t know a lot about hunger and thirst. In our culture today. There are some people that do but not like third world countries. And when Jesus was teaching these men about tongeren, and thirsting for righteousness, he’s what he was talking about man that know what hunger was. The average worker in those days in Jesus’s days, made about a nickel a day. So he was very poor. He couldn’t go to his tap in his house and turn it, turn the water on and get clean drinking water. Water was rare, and he didn’t want to be caught out in the desert in a place where you couldn’t get to water, there wasn’t an oasis close by, or you didn’t have your pig skins full of water on your camel, if you had one. So these people understood thirst, they understood hunger. Most people have an instinctive desire for goodness and righteousness, but not really, if it means to pay a price. Robert Louis Stevenson said, it’s the malady of not wanting or not being needy enough to be willing to pay a price to have it. So hunger and thirst. And I think we have to ask ourselves the question, What am I hungry for? What am I thirsty and after? Usually, it’s something to gratify the flesh or the ego, something to make us feel safe and comfortable.

Get my attention.

It would be obviously make all the difference in the world if we desired goodness or righteousness to the point of being desperate for it. And I think if you’ve ever really truly come to Christ, you’ve been desperate. You tried it all. You tried being good, you tried getting baptized, you tried walking the owl, you tried reading good books, you tried going to the conferences and retreats. And nothing seemed to satisfy nothing. got it done. And finally, you were desperate. You were desperate enough to pray a prayer prayer prayer. I’m not sure what that is. But don’t let it by the

way. Now, looking at the Beatitudes this way, makes it the most demanding and frightening of them all. At the same time, it’s the most comforting it means that the man who is most blessed is not necessarily the man who achieves goodness. But the man who longs for it with all his heart. Sometimes you can feel like well, I’ll never get to be that good. I can’t be good enough. I can’t do enough serve enough. give enough no enough. Attend enough. And so you feel like a second or third class citizen you feel like you just can’t attain to what’s been the standard being held. But you know what God looks at our heart. And God looks at the fact that you add to what you want. cite my centers prayer. God I know I’m not the man You created me to be but I want to be so I want that man. But I wanted to be that man and God honored my wannabe. And God knows hearts. You can’t fool God. You can fool most some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool God anytime. He knows everything you’re thinking before you think it insane before you say it. Look at Psalm 139. You can’t run from him and hide. You can’t go the highest mountain they say or the lowest desert or ocean and he’s there. And when you get there, you’re on long trip. He’s in there waiting on you. You go to sleep at night and you wake up and he’s been thinking about you all night long. So there’s no, there’s running but no hiding from him. If blessedness only came to those who achieved, then nobody would be blessed. So he’s not putting a non attainable standard up here. But what he’s saying is, if you want to be if you’re desperate in your heart, and you’re striving in that direction, well, that’s what he said to David David always wanted to build the temple if you remember, and God wouldn’t let him build a temple. And David, heard God say this in First Kings, you did well, that it was in your heart to do so. God told the children of Israel when they were taken captive into Babylon, he said, I will put it in your heart to know me. We’ve talked about that before. God looks at the heart. You and I this out of heaven will never achieve complete righteousness will never be holy enough, will never be obedient enough, will never serve enough. Steady enough, give enough. But God looks at our heart. And he knows that when we repent, for not doing enough, he forgives. He encourages he comforts. So on one hand, this is a frightening beatitude, I’ll never get there, I can’t attain to it. On the other hand, it’s a very comforting beatitude where he says, you have a heart to do so and I’ll honor that. The meaning of righteousness in this Beatitudes means the whole thing blesser to those who hunger and thirst for all of righteousness. Now, you will never attain to that. But that’s your goal. And if that’s your goal you’re going to attain and more than you would attain if it’s not your goal. In other words, you don’t want to eat half the sandwich, you won’t eat the whole thing. And back in my day, I didn’t want one beer on the whole six pack. That’s thirsty now after the wrong thing. But it’s the same goal. It’s kind of like you don’t want one drink from the jug, you want the whole jug. And that’s what the kind of righteousness that we’re talking about. Now, there’s partial righteousness, and you’ve seen it, maybe you’ve even been it. Hope you’re not now. Partial righteousness is there’s a guy who’s good. He goes to church, goes to the Bible studies goes to the concerts, maybe a trade conference. But then he goes to work and his language is foul, and he treats people unkindly. And I’ve had guys come up to me before, in one of the leaders years ago in our ministry, and he said, I know so and so’s one on your leadership team, but you have to see him at work and how he treats people. See, that’s partial righteousness. You’re righteous here, but you’re not righteous there. I saw that mon dad’s life, I never heard my dad use profanity around my house. But when I saw him with the guys he worked with, he would use four types of profanity. And I’ll never forget noting the knowing the difference. And he was a great Dad, I’m gonna want to put him down. Because he his love covers a multitude of sins, and he loved me.

And he took care of me, he spent time with me. There’s also that, that righteousness where there’s a guy who uses bad language, and he’s cheats and on his taxes and does a lot of things that don’t replicate Christian behavior. But then if he sees someone down and out, then he’s the first guy to show up to help help them move. Help them physically help them financially, as partial righteousness is not living a very good life, but he’s got a good heart to help people. But what God is saying here is bless it are those who desire and hunger after Complete Whole righteousness. Martin, Lord Jones said, Let me describe it as a great charter of every seeking. So this beatitude is a outstanding declaration of the Christian gospel to all who are unhappy about themselves in their spiritual state, and who longed for order and quality of life that they have never enjoyed before. It emphasizes one of the fundamental doctrines of the gospel, namely, that our salvation is entirely grace, by grace, and for grace, that it is entirely the free gift of God. Bless it in happy or there is a world for the world wants to be happy, seeks after happiness. But the problem with happiness is it’s dependent on circumstance. dances is dependent on things going wide going well, man I hit one up the gap knock into Ron’s I got great happiness. I’m having guys in the dugout. But I got men in scoring position and the last in strike out. That happiness I had in the third inning went left in the ninth inning. But God gives us a happiness, it doesn’t leave. It’s in spite of circumstance, stances in spite of what he puts in and takes out. We can still have a peace and a blessedness.

It is consistently unattainable. You can have it for a short while and then it’s gone because our happiness depends on circumstances. But consider Pain Pain is a wonderful thing in the body to alert to a deeper problem. Now I got a pain in my knee, I don’t know if it’s alerting to a different problem is problem enough. You may have one in your elbow or knee, one between the eyes? What’s the cause of all wars and pains and misery? Well, it would be sin. Treat the real problem of sin in the disease is taken care of. And what we do too often is we treat the symptom rather than the real source of the disease. So if a person’s got a adultery problem or drug problem or line problem, an unfaithful problem, nicotine, alcohol problem pornography, you can take those sins head on and try to help them with them. But what if they change their heart? What if they had no more appetite for that? What if the source was that they’re centers by nature, and they needed to be forgiven and altered, they needed to be redeemed, transformed, conformed to Jesus’s image. And then, and you’ve seen it happen, maybe it’s happened to you. You were one kind of man and then you became different. And that different man, that new man didn’t have an appetite for those things. He used to have an appetite for. He didn’t like the party in in the drinking in the pornography and he will find it out of his life, he will be tempted all his life. But he’s found a new life. He’s found peace and happiness. He’s found that a peace in happiness that you can’t take away from him. No trial, no difficulty. No temptation can remove that from him because that’s who he is. Now, that’s a spirit that’s been put in him. And so he’s got it in there because he was poor in spirit, which is a gateway by sort of the poor in spirit. for theirs is the kingdom of God bless it to those who mourn, who were repentant who are broken and crushed because of their sin. In the first three badly Beatitudes, then bless it at the maker looking at our lives in a negative sense. We’re seeing our sin and we’re crushed over our sin. we’re realizing that there’s no good in us. And apart from Jesus, we can do nothing and we got nothing he needs. But this beatitude is different. This is the one that says once you’ve been through these other Beatitudes, you come to bless it are those who hunger and thirst. So you’ve seen that your poor in spirit, you saying that you have nothing to offer your crust in mourning and repenting over your sin. And that gives you a different kind of heart. Once you’ve been in those saying you’re meek and humble. And you want now, righteousness, you want to be like Christ, you want the goodness, the blessing that comes. You want to be satisfied. You want to be content. You want to be at peace. And that’s what Jesus Christ is saying, if you want to come to me and you want all that you want those blessings. Then you come through that road. You come through those gates, and you get to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Well, this profile this righteous man, hungry and thirsting for righteousness follows poor and mourning and make it means being free from the desire and power of sin. You want to be rid of it. You don’t want to be that sin, sinful guy, you want to keep doing that stuff. It’s not paying off. You’re tired of throwing up. You’re tired of your wife criticizing you and getting on you about this and the other you’re tired and you know it’s true. It’s not like you’ve been accused falsely. And that can happen too. But we’re talking about things that you know you want to shake off. You know, you want to be delivered from the power of sin. It means that desire to be free from sin in all its forms and manifestations because it separates you from God in Too often we have Christian men, and we’ve talked about this many times, and we can’t talk about it too much, because we forget it. That when we say and we have a recourse, you don’t want to say and you’re tired of standing, but you do anyway. Amen. You think it you say it, you do it. And then you feel crummy. You feel the consequences in your guilt meter in your heart. And you know, you did wrong. And Jesus says, Come to me are you are heavy laden,

I’ll give you rest. If you confess your sin, I’ll be faithful and righteous. I’ll forgive your sin and cleanse you of all unrighteousness. You don’t have to wallow in your guilt and shame. Come to me come into the light. And that light will cleanse you from the sin. Because we’re going to fight this our whole life. site, Jesus said, did you think when you came to follow me that you’d never sinned again, wouldn’t be much of a redemption if one or two sins and mistakes, cancelled it all. You don’t lose your salvation, once you’ve come to me and truly have it. The question is, Do you truly have it. And if you truly have it, you’re not going to lose it. It means a man has come to realize that he lives in a world controlled by sin and Satan. He knows what the real battle is. We read it a few minutes ago in Ephesians, six, where our fight is not against flesh and blood is against powers and principalities of the air, it’s against Satan and sin. He knows that he’s under the control of a malignant influence, that he has been walking according to the prince and power of the air, he wants to get rid of the power that drags him down. In spite of himself, in spite of not wanting, in spite of wanting righteousness, it’ll drag him down. He remains free from the bondage of sin outside and inside, because he likes it. And he wants it still. And that’s the battle that we fight every day. The reason we want to be in the word in prayer and fellowship, and well the reason we want to just saturate ourselves with praise, music and the theology. And the truth of that is to keep our hearts in a place where we can hear his voice and where he can protect us from ourselves, not just from the outside world, and all the things that are there, but protect me from me, from my wanting to lust and have what I want. It’s not good for me, tastes good, makes me feel good, temporarily. But then I feel the guilt and the shame and the consequences of it. And you want to be free from that. summing it up to hunger and thirst for righteousness, his desire to be free from self and all its harmful, horrible manifest state stations. It means nothing but the longing to be positively holy. And again, if you don’t want to be positively holy, fully, wholly, completely, wholly, you’re not going to work real hard and confessing your sin. You’re going to justify and rationalize, you’re going to accept it. You’re going to say, well, that’s just me. But if you’re really hungry and thirsty for the whole righteousness, then you’re going to work harder in learning and Time In the Word and discipline yourself or godliness, confessing your sin. So the question is, do you and I really want all the righteousness that God’s got? Oswald Chambers put it in these terms, my utmost for his highest. Do you want his highest so you’re willing to give your most to have it? What are you willing to sacrifice to be fully wholly holier than you are today you’ll never been fully fully holy until you get to heaven? Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen. It’s an it’s a man who wants to live out the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount and the fruit of the Spirit and everything he says and does in life. Are you going to get there? No, not completely. Are you going to try and give it all you got? Yes, that’s what you and I get to decide. I’m going to give it all I’ve got. I’m going to quit being so lazy. I’m going to least be less lazy than I was yesterday. I’m going to be moving in the right direction. I’m going to be making better choices and stick into them. Now, it really helps if you’re hanging out with guys who are doing the same thing. You got to be careful who your friends are, who you hang out with what environment you find yourself in, because that environment will shape you Make sure you’re creating the right environment for people that come into your environment. That they’re that you’re the kind of guy that people that are really hungry and thirsty for righteousness seek after others who do that. They want to be in their presence, they want to be friends with them, they want to hang on their screen door. They want to influence each other. It’s really matters, who you hang out with, and what the men are like that are your friends. It means that one supreme desire in life is to know God and to be in fellowship with Him, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the light. It means a longing and desire to be like Jesus Christ.

And look at him. On the earth, he’s incarnate in his incarnate state, his human state, look at him in his positive obedience to the Gods Holy law. Look at him in his reaction to people and how he treats them, his kindness, his caring, his gentleness, and humility, is giving spirit. Look at him in his reaction to his enemies, and all they did to him. And after all they did to him. Look at him in his holding the line in his determination to fulfill his mission of dying for the center of the world. This portrait of Jesus is what he through the Holy Spirit is shaping us into its very likeness and heart, spirit and attitude of Christ. Come to me, follow me. And I’ll make you fishers of men. All throughout scripture in the gospels, Jesus is calling men to himself, to free them up, to make them holy, what they were created to be. He left his throne in heaven because we were languishing in sin, and we had no hope, no power, no ability to shake it off. And he came with the power and they gave us the ability and the freedom and the Holy Spirit, to be able to become man of God, the Son of God became a man that he made enable other men to become men as sons of God. And that’s why he is in the business of making us into one of the earlier quotes that I shared with you is, the more desperate this world becomes in matter and crazier and all the lunacy that we see going on. The more we need to draw closer to Christ and other men who are drawn closer to Christ. We need it more than we’ve ever needed it. Thanks for being here today. Thanks for coming in and sitting with other men who are chasing after Christ. You know, other guys would benefit from being the ground men like this, go get them. They need the fellowship. They need the word. They need to be in this environment. So let’s go get them. Because they could be freed up they’re struggling like you and I struggle. Yeah, they may be Christians, maybe they’re not. Maybe they think they are. They hope they are. But they don’t know they are. And they need to come and hear what they hear and hear and testimonies and worship and teaching. Or if not here, get them somewhere where they can hear that. Just go after guys. And let’s ask God to give us a heart for man. Like he had men who are languishing and feeling the guilt and shame but don’t know where to go, that are not enjoying that fellowship with Christ. That cleanness, they’re getting drinks, and they want more. They want more of his righteousness and his character and his nature. They want more of the blessings. They want to inherit the kingdom of God. They want to be satisfied, in come into crisis where that happens. So we have a great guide and a wonderful Savior in Christ. And now we’ve gotten a hunger and thirst for righteousness. The next time we make. We’ll talk about Blessed are the merciful. We’ll talk about what the fruit of all this is. Where is it? Where are we headed with that? Blessed are the peacemakers blessing to the poor in heart. And they will get around to hopefully in time for the persecution not to break out too much. So we’ll be ready for when it comes blesser those who are persecuted for my namesake. So we got a lot of road to travel. But we’ve had a good one up to this point. And Jesus came today which I have to say, Man, this has been good stuff. I need to hear this. And I’ve always told you that I teach what I need to hear. I’ve taught this over the years a dozen times. It’s new every time and I needed more every time. So I figured maybe you do too. Let’s pray. Father, thank You for the word you give us in the home. You give us thank you for the life you’ve given us in Jesus Christ. Thank you for forgiving our sense. Thank you for giving us a heart. Not that we’ll ever holy attain it on this side of heaven. But you’ve given us a heart for righteousness. Give us more of a hunger and thirst for your presence for your nature for your character and us for holiness and righteousness and peace in the fruit of the Spirit. Lord, without that were lost. But with that we can help other men find that themselves. Do that Lord, in Jesus name And all God’s men said amen given heaven guys.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Blessed Are the Meek

The beatitudes are a progression, the steps that lead us to the heart of Jesus Christ himself. The path of righteousness is opposite from the path of our natural sinful fallen nature.

The first beatitude is that we must be poor in spirit… destitute and empty-handed in order to receive the blessings of the Lord. The second beatitude says, blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. The comfort is in the Holy Spirit and the hope of the return of Jesus Christ at the resurrection.

The third beatitude says, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Meekness is not a wordy value… The world discounts meekness. However, meekness is not weakness… instead meekness is power under control. Jesus, although he had twelve legions of angels at his command, controlled his spirit to the glory of God. What would Jesus do? He said, “I always do my Father’s will.” Meekness means teachable… coachable to follow the leading of our Father according to the spirit of God in Christ in us.

In order to be blessed and meek before the Lord, first we must become poor in spirit and then mourn over our having missed the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Meekness is adaptable and flexible to follow the holy spirit’s direction. Meekness is eager to reconcile and forgive. It is related to the our Father’s steadfast love… his loving kindness, tender mercy, and compassionate forgiveness.

Even though Jesus ministered when Judea was under the oppression of the Roman Empire, he was not concerned about political correctness. He told his disciples and the Pharisaic leaders of the temple, render unto Cesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.

Meekness characterizes one who demonstrates kindness, generosity, and compassion toward those who are suffering and in distress. The meek are not caught up in their own self interest… A meek individual is not defensive and self-absorbed, but instead seeks to comfort, bless, and minister to others.

Meekness and humility counter the selfishness of pride. Meekness gives up our own rights and with a heart to serve others, debases and decreases my own self serving self so that the Lord may increase. To the meek Jesus said,
‘Come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” When we’re pulling alongside our Lord, He will carry the bulk of the load. With a heart of love and compassion, It’s no chore to carry a brother who has fallen and needs my help. As the song says, He ain’t heavy… he’s my brother.

Meekness allows the Holy Spirit to come help himself to my life. A man of meekness knows by experience that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Meekness teaches that it is all of Thee and none of me. After Paul had prayed three times for God to remove his thorn in the flesh, God finally answered him, “My strength is made perfect in thy weakness, my grace is sufficient for thee.”

The reward of a meek heart is that the meek shall inherit the earth. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3, all things are yours and ye are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.

When you’re purposefully set at naught, when your good is evil spoken of, your opinions ridiculed, and you take it all with patient silence, then you’re blessed to be numbered among the meek. When you’re standing in the midst of persecution for God’s righteous calling, when you can truly love to be unknown, then you understand the meaning of meekness.

When everything I do is for God’s glory and not mine, when my purpose is to comfort and not be comforted, to serve and not be served, to love and not be loved, then I’ll understand the nature of Jesus Christ himself… for he who knew no sin was made sin for us that we may be made the righteousness of God in him. Jesus Christ himself was our example of meekness….

… that we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael