The Call to Consecration (P2)

The Word of God's awesome.

I don't know if I have seen so many truths in a long time about what it really means to be consecrated to God.

And by the way, we've got uh a new possible coming member in our church today named Kobe.

Where's Miss, there's Kobe.

Matt's got Kobe.

All right.

Yeah, look at oh, she's beautiful.

My oldest daughter's best friend's named Kobe, so I won't forget that one.

In fact, the Kobe that grew up with us in Virginia when we were at Liberty, she was a basketball player with my girls, and uh she'd come over, they'd stay at our house every weekend because I built a half-court basketball court in my backyard for a reason.

I wanted all the boys, if they're gonna be around my girls, at my house.

Amen.

So I just built the basketball court there in my own backyard, and uh, so we'd have a good time.

But anyway, Kobe loved chocolate milk.

We'd buy a gallon of chocolate milk by the by Saturday afternoon, it was gone.

Because Kobe loved chocolate milk.

Yeah, yeah.

So uh, but anyway, uh, and I was talking to uh Ken, uh Kendrick, and uh he said Patsy's doing better, and uh I've been texting and praying.

I like I said, I'm I'm supposed to actually I'm supposed to be in the bed now or relaxing with my feet up, but uh I did tell him I was gonna preach this morning.

But uh, and David, again, you weren't in here.

I heard you knocked it out of the park.

I've listened to part of it.

Amen.

Great job.

I just, hey, with you and Rick, I can just take off anytime I want to now.

Amen.

I like it.

The old man can take a break.

1 Peter chapter 1.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

That's two weeks ago, we began to look at what it meant to be consecrated to God.

And we looked at five things basically.

We said, what should motivate us to consecrate our lives to God?

And one was we had to ready our minds.

Two, knowing that the rapture is coming and we're all gonna give an account to ourselves before God, ought to motivate us to live for God.

And then in verse 14, we saw that we've got to reject our old lifestyle, our lustful old lifestyle from creeping back in on us.

Isn't it amazing how after you get saved and even you start growing that old that old sin nature that will not be eradicated until we go to be with the Lord?

Okay?

I mean, isn't it amazing how it tries to get you to go back to things that you were doing prior to getting saved?

Now, am I the only one that has that problem?

No.

Okay, that's better.

So, it, but we've got to learn how to conquer that temptation and not allow our spirits to go back to our old ways of our spirit to go back to our own way of living.

And then we said uh the holiness of God, and that's what to take care of number three, the lustful uh past, is just being holy, just like we sang today.

Beautiful.

Be holy.

Holy is the hey, holy is the lamb, and we're to be holy.

So, and then number five, verse 17, we said we will be reject, I mean we will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ.

So, those were five pretty powerful principles of consecrating your life to Christ.

And that's what I preached at Connorsville last Sunday, Sunday morning, Sunday night.

So, uh today we're gonna look at the rest of the chapter, and we're gonna be looking at uh really four things, but on your outline, I've got them listed 6, 7, 8, 9, because there's nine powerful principles that ought to motivate us to be like Jesus.

They really should be.

And they're right here, verses 18 through the end of the chapter, verse 25.

So, with that said, let's begin by looking at a few of the verses, verse 18 and 19.

For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with incorruptible things of silver and gold, from your vain conversation, behavior, your vain behavior, your disrupted behavior received by tradition from your fathers, verse 19, but with the precious, ha.

It's not just blood, it's precious blood.

The precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

You know, more Christians would be dedicated and consecrated to the Lord if they really understood the trauma and the torture that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, went through as we approached this Easter season.

It was, I was reading through medically the crucifixion the other day, and I was gonna read it, but I thought I might wait and read it on Easter, but then I got to thinking this is horrible.

I mean, there's nothing, I mean, the medical reasons of the things that my Savior went through during that 24 hours that he never was asleep.

It's just horrible, folks.

The passion of Christ.

How many of you have seen it?

Okay.

That's probably as close of a description that I could give you of the journal article, medical journal article that I read on the crucifixion of Christ this week.

And it just broke my heart.

But that should motivate us to be tender-hearted with the discouraged.

It should motivate us to be tenacious in our dedication.

Amen?

And it should motivate us to be true in our devotion and trustworthy in our duty to the Lord.

It ought to motivate us to be consecrated to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And as I begin to look at that, look at the word here: Redeemed.

The word redemption.

Peter states that we are not redeemed, notice, with corruptible things like gold or silver.

Aren't you glad to know that, hey, you can't buy your salvation with money?

I don't care how much money you have, I don't care how much money you give, you can't buy your salvation.

Amen.

And I did a word, I had not done a word study in a long time on the word redeem, and we're going to look at three verses.

This is powerful.

This ought to get you excited.

And I think I'm going to give you a little information about redemption that you haven't.

That's all I've done for all week.

I've spent about 30 hours studying.

So I've done.

We may get through one or two points and have to finish it later.

But anyway, uh, what's this?

The word redeem.

Let's look at the topic.

Look at Revelation 5.9.

Revelations 5.9.

And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof.

For thou wast slain and hast redeemed, there's that word us to God by the blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.

In other words, salvation's for everyone.

Can I get an amen?

Everyone.

Not just a chosen few, but for everyone.

Now the word redeem here is agarazo.

Agarazo.

And here's what it means.

The word literally means to buy in the marketplace.

In other words, it literally means to buy in the marketplace.

It has reference to purchasing a slave right off the auction block.

That's what it means.

And I thought about that.

Is that not what Jesus did to us?

I meant, hey, purchasing us as a slave.

We were slaves to sin.

And Jesus Christ came into the marketplace and he literally said, No more, Satan.

You're not going to attack him anymore.

You've had him long enough.

He's mine, and I'm purchasing him today.

I'm purchasing him today.

And boy did he not.

And that is what Jesus did when he died on the cross.

He paid the full price that we might go free from the penalty of sin.

Redemption through the blood of Jesus is a reason to shout.

Amen?

It's a reason to shout.

Notice the second word.

Go to Galatians 4, 5.

To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Now the redeemed word here is ex-agorazo.

Exagerazo.

And this word, woo, woo, I'm about to, to take off the market.

To take off the market.

In other words, to take off the block.

In other words, I have bought him, I have paid for him in full.

And Satan, you can't have him ever again.

He's mine.

My wife's gonna get mad at me.

I'm getting a little excited.

He said, don't get excited, Sunday.

It's like telling a bulldog not to bite.

But anyway.

To take off the market.

In other words, I wrote this: Jesus paid the price for us, and we're no longer up for sale.

Hey, that's a reason to shout.

Can I get a shout, church?

Amen.

Amen.

Yes.

To pray.

Satan no longer has any claim to bid on your soul, for it belongs to the Lord.

Isn't that awesome?

He can't bid on you anymore.

He has no power over you anymore.

Man, that's exciting.

Look at the third word for redeemed.

Look at 1 Peter 1.18.

For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation behavior received by traditions from your fathers.

Now, this word is lu trio.

Lu.

And this word means to release after the purchase has been made.

In other words, God bought us, God purchased us, and we became his, and then he said, Okay, you're mine, and now I release you in the liberty of Christ.

Now go live for me and be like me and be an ambassador for me.

And I got to thinking, I said, now that's worth shouting about.

That's worth shouting about.

It pictures one who buys the slaves and then turns the slave loose.

This is what Jesus did for us.

He bought us off the slave block of sin, and after he redeemed us, he removed us from the cell and then set us free, not free to go and sin, but to go and live for him.

Well, that word redeemed means something, doesn't it?

Man, I got caught up in that thing.

And I said, Thank you, Father.

Thank you.

He literally outbids Satan.

Satan thought he had us.

Satan thought he had him when he put him in the grave.

But I got news for you on that third day, he came out of the grave, and hey, he snatched the keys of death right out of Satan's hand.

Because we have been redeemed by the Lord, we belong to him and not to ourselves.

Look at what he says in 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20.

What?

Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you?

Hey, which is in you, and you're not your own.

You've been bought with the price.

There, yeah.

He bought us, he purchased us off the marketplace.

In the marketplace.

Then he says, glorify God in your bodies and spirits, which are his.

Wow.

That's awesome.

What?

No, you not.

Redemption then may be summarized, let me kind of sum this up with these three words, in three best basic ideas.

What's this?

First, we are redeemed from something.

From the marketplace and the slavery of sin.

We've been redeemed in the marketplace from the slavery of sin.

Can I get an amen?

So we see right here that we've been redeemed from something, but then watch.

Secondly, people are redeemed by something.

What are we redeemed by?

The precious blood of the Lamb.

You know, we're living in a day where they're trying to take the blood out of the, hey, songs, they're trying to take the blood out of the Bible.

I got news for you.

Nothing but the blood.

What can wash away my sins?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Amen?

Is that not true?

Absolutely.

He's redeemed me from something, redeemed me by something, and then thirdly, he's redeemed me to something.

And this is stated of the freedom in Christ.

I mean, we have the most opportunity to understand what true salvation is.

It cost God his only begotten Son.

It was a high price.

And that's why, bless God, when he bought us, he ain't gonna let you go either.

Hello.

No man can pluck them from my hand.

Why?

Because he paid such a price.

What a beautiful picture there.

And then he tells us in this verse.

Peter describes the life of the person who doesn't know Jesus Christ.

He describes him, notice, as vain.

You know what that word vain means?

Futile, empty.

Your life is empty.

You can be the wealthiest person in the world and you still are empty.

Isn't it amazing all these Hollywood actors and all these rich folk?

Isn't it amazing how they're you hear all kinds of stuff of committing suicide and just all kind of stuff about them because they're not happy?

They're not happy.

They can't, hey, the lust of the flesh will never make you happy.

The lust of the eyes will never make you happy.

The pride of life will never make you happy.

He satisfies a longing soul.

He fills the soul with goodness.

Can I get an amen?

So, we see we have nothing without him.

Without Christ, your life has no significance, purpose, or meaning.

That's why he says in 1 John 1:7, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 1:7

So, the redemption of Christ should motivate us to be consecrated.

Notice the seventh thing.

Second thing today on your outline.

Number seven.

Our relationship with Jesus Christ should be nurtured.

Look at verses 20 and 21.

Who verily was forordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.

Now watch who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.

Hey, if you and I are going to be consecrated to the Lord, we need to develop our relationship daily with the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's a day by day.

Paul says, I die daily.

And that what he meant, I have to be with the Lord every day in order to crucify that flesh so that I can, hey, have the mind that'll be pleasing to Christ.

So it's a daily dying to sell.

Where many Christians, this is unfortunately that's where many Christians stop and they miss out on many blessings that God has for them.

You know the saddest thing you can do as a Christian?

Now listen to me.

The saddest thing you can do for you as a Christian is to not to grow in the Lord.

It is, you are it it's it's like in fact, I I was reading this article about let me find him.

Uh Pooh.

Uh no, uh, the oil field, a famous oil field called Yates Pool in Texas.

He was a big rancher, had a ranch, and it was so big that he was not making any money, was trying to grow the cattle and all, and and actually it got to the point he couldn't pay pay his rent or pay for the uh note, and he was on subsidiary.

In other words, he was being helped as much as he could by the government.

Until one day, and he was about to lose the whole ranch, until one day, an oil company came onto the property and said, We would like to see if your land, we believe your land has a lot of oil.

Sure enough, they did their test and they began to drill, and then they started bringing in.

Are you ready for this?

They started bringing in a hundred, and about a hundred thousand barrels of oil.

I mean a month.

Overnight, he became a billionaire.

But now watch.

When he purchased that land, the oil was there.

It's always been there.

He was rich when the moment he purchased the land.

But the problem was he didn't know it.

What's the greatest tragedy for Christians is once we get saved by one spirit, or we all baptized into one body, 1 Corinthians 12, 13, when we get saved, we are wrecked.

And we don't even know it.

Oh my goodness.

If we could understand what we have, we're to walk with God daily and have an appetite for his word.

Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest preachers that ever lived back in the early 1800s.

This uh the church that Jonathan Edwards used to pastor, there's a memorial plaque to his ministry, and the writing on the plaque, it's Malachi 2, 6, and here's what it says.

The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity, iniquity, sin, was not found in him.

Wow.

What a testimony that Edwards had in his life.

The highest compliment that any Christian can get is that they walk with God.

Amen.

That's my greatest goal in my life is that when it's my time to go with the way with Jesus, that my kids, my kids, the churches, the people that I've worked with all my life, all my ministry, or say one thing about me, it won't be so much to me.

In fact, God didn't listen to what uh Edward said he wrote this statement, and I couldn't help but just agree with that.

He said, God did not call me to find fulfillment in the quality of my work, he didn't call me to faith to find fulfillment in all that I was doing for him, but he called me ready for this to be activated by the quality of my walk with him.

He didn't call him, hey, he didn't want him to be fulfilled in all that Jonathan Edwards did when he did unbelievable things.

What he wanted him to be, hey, hey, fulfilled with was his relationship with an awesome God.

And you know what I've learned?

If my relationship is where it needs to be, my word will always be where it ought to be.

Amen.

Yeah, I don't have to motivate you to come to church when you're walking with the Lord.

You want to be here.

I don't have to motivate you to serve when you're Hey, walking with the Lord, you want to serve.

I don't have to motivate you or try to uh guilt you into giving.

Hey, hey, if you're walking with the Lord, you know you wanna do it.

You wanna do it, you wanna do it.

You can't wait to do it.

If I have to convict you or give you a guilt trip, then guess what?

Neither one of us are doing our job.

And I'm just not gonna do that.

I did that in my early years.

I'd tell you, if you didn't come back to hear me preach on Sunday night and watch, you stay home and watch the Super Bowl, I'm gonna pray your TV explodes.

Are you going to a ball game when you ought to be in church?

I'm gonna pray your engine blows up.

I used to, I knew all that stuff.

But then I realized that, hey, then you come here and you're mad.

You're not gonna listen to anything I say.

In fact, you'll find every fault in the church you can.

So I'd be honest with you, just stay home, go back to the ballgame.

You're gonna quench the spirit.

Hello, you okay out there?

That's why when I come here, I know, you know what I pray?

I don't pray for God to fill the house up.

You know what I pray?

God send the people that have a hunger for the word of God today.

Send them.

Send them, because I know we're gonna experience what we did in worship a while ago.

I mean, man, I was about if I hadn't, if I wasn't a little, if I didn't have to be easy, and I'm being easy, really, I think, but uh, I'd have been up there dancing with the praise team this morning.

Amen.

Amen.

But but folks, listen.

What's this?

Psalms 86, 11 says, Teach me thy way, O Lord, I will walk in thy truth.

Unite my heart to fear thy name.

When God grabs your heart, he's got everything.

Amen.

And by the way, you can't get saved if you don't give him your heart.

With the heart, man believes unto righteousness.

With the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.

Romans 10, 11.

So you've got to give him your heart.

And then listen to what he says in 1 Thessalonians 4.1.

Furthermore, then we beseech you, we beg you, we urge you, hey, we encourage you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as ye have received of us how you ought to walk to please God, so ye would abound more and more.

You know what he just said, more and more there?

You read over that, and don't he says, if you live for me and if you walk with me daily, and if you're radically desiring me daily, you're just gonna keep increasing more and more and more.

Yes.

So you, hey, the more you love him, hey, the more you want of him.

Amen.

Now notice.

And Job.

Here's I saw this and I said, oh boy, this is a good example.

Remember Job?

Job lost everything he had.

Everything.

Everything.

But now watch this.

I found a word.

In Job 22, 21, he says, acquaint not thyself with him and be at peace.

Excuse me, acquaint not thyself with him and be at peace.

Thereby, good shall come unto thee.

Good shall come unto thee.

Now the word acquaint, there's a it's uh the Hebrew word of Sawhan.

Sawhan.

And here's what it means to be familiar with or to cherish something.

In other words, to be familiar with something or to cherish it.

Thank you right now.

Now I want you to, for just a moment, I want to ask you a question.

What do you cherish most?

Now, for most of us that are married, I hope we would say we cherish our mate.

Amen.

I know for all of us we cherish our children.

Right?

Amen.

And what does that word cherish mean?

It means to endure or whatever it takes to be there when the going gets tough.

Now that's what cherish means.

That means, hey, when everybody else walks out, you're not walking out.

Is that not good?

That's really a practical application of what it means to cherish.

Job was saying that we should cherish our relationship with the Lord and be familiar with Him.

In other words, we should cherish it.

If whatever it takes, we're gonna go with God.

My friends can, hey, they can abandon me.

Hey, I can be fired.

I can lose everything, but I'm not gonna lose my relationship with Jesus Christ.

And here's the exciting thing.

When you stay that connected with Him, you've got a guarantee that my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches and glory through Christ Jesus.

And my God can't lie.

My God can't lie.

The word acquaint, also, another synonym is used treasure.

Wow.

As a treasure is guarded, we too ought to guard our relationship with Jesus.

I don't know about you, but there's some things, guardrails.

I read a book titled Guardrails for Your Life.

It's a great book.

We got to put up guardrails to protect us from the enemy.

Guardrails keep you from what?

Going off the road.

Okay?

Well, that's what guardrails are for.

To keep you straight and narrow on the right path.

So you need to set some guardrails.

You know?

My whole ministry, I've set guardrails.

For example, I don't touch the money in any ministry I've been over.

I can't sign a check.

I can't do anything with the money.

That's a guardrail for me.

Amen.

And we have receipts for everything.

Amen.

So we know, and I even tell our guys to write on there what, other than the gas, ask Tabitha, do I not?

Write on there what that was for.

I do that.

Why?

It's called guardrails, accountability.

Because I know people are looking and checking, and not that they're trying to check up and find something.

No, it's just the above reproach.

Can I get an amen?

I got another guardrail.

You know what it is?

I will not meet with a woman by myself.

And it's not that I'm afraid of the woman, but I'm afraid of what people might think about me and the woman.

Hello.

Yeah, but if she's hurting and crying and needs counselor, well, she doesn't need me to counselor.

Hello?

No, I got a husband and wife team back there.

Stand up.

Come on.

Look at that.

Come on.

The Edmunds, the Solomons, yeah.

Best trained counselors around.

And they do it as a couple.

So that's where you need to go.

Listen, I am no dummy.

If David had a problem, a man after God's own heart, who am I?

Amen?

That's a guardrail.

You gotta have guardrails.

If you're a recovering alcoholic, and we have several, and there's that, don't be ashamed of that.

If you say, if you felt that way, then you you need me to pray for you.

I hey, hey, I y'all gonna laugh what I'm gonna say.

Hey, I have I'm a I'm a sugarholic.

You don't know, chocolate.

You don't know how I had to fight that.

I meant seriously, but I've got it down and I'm keeping it on.

Amen.

Yeah, if I can just, yeah.

I still love those donuts.

But but guardrails.

Guardrails.

You gotta have them, folks.

You gotta have them.

And the greatest guardrail you have is the word of God.

Amen.

Listen to what Jeremiah described, the empty life of God's people that didn't do this.

Jeremiah 2.13, he said, For my people have committed two evils.

What's this?

They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have cut out them out of cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

When we examine the scriptures, we find that God gives us insights on how to develop our relationship with Him.

In fact, I want to give you these four things.

How do you develop a relationship?

Now, there's books, how to be disciple, but after 41 years, I think I have a very simplistic delivery on what it means to be consecrated to God.

I'm gonna help you here.

This is worth you being here this morning.

I'm gonna take all of the concentration, uh consecration, I'm sorry, that Peter talks about, and I think I can sum it up for you in four things.

Now that's pretty simple.

If you can do these four things, you'll live a consecrated life.

I really believe that.

Number one.

Number one, saving faith in the Savior.

You say, what is that?

Hey, hey, you can't live a consecrated life if you don't know him.

You gotta know him.

Paul said, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolish unto him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.

You got to know the Lord.

You got to know the Lord.

He said in 2 Corinthians 4 4, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

You must be born again.

Except a man be born again, he should not see the kingdom of God.

John 3, 3.

I didn't say accept a man join the church.

I didn't say accept a man or woman be baptized.

That's not what it said.

It's a relationship.

It's a relationship with Jesus Christ.

You gotta know him personally.

You gotta know him like I know you.

You gotta know him like you know me in a personal way.

We're family here.

We know each other pretty intimately.

And you know why?

That's why we feed and eat together the love feast every Sunday, so we can get to know each other.

And what a beautiful blessing that is.

But you got to.

For God who commanded the light to shine out, hey, to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Salvation is the first step in knowing God.

So here's the question: Do you really know Him?

I didn't say Join the church, be baptized, read your Bible.

Now, if you're saved, you're gonna want to read your Bible.

That's right.

But no, that's not it.

Number two, you gotta seek the Lord in the scriptures and in prayer.

Got to.

You'll find that many of the answers that you're looking for are found in the Word of God.

Let me rephrase that.

All the answers you're looking for are in the Word of God.

They're there.

It's a mind.

Spurgeon said, if you wish to know God, you must know his word.

Oh, listen, Jesus put it this way in John 7.17.

Ye shall, hey, know my will.

Hello.

When you know my doctrine, when you know my teachings, when you know my word.

You'll know what God has planned for you.

And I don't know about you, but that's the most important thing you can do is do God's plan for your life.

That's when you're going to be the most happiest when you're doing God's plan for your life.

So that's what he's saying.

The Bible.

The Bible's such, hey, is a tremendous book.

It has a wealth of wisdom.

Proverbs 2.6 says, God gives wisdom, out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

Oh, it is filled with encouragement.

Amen.

Now, brethren, he says, I commend you to God and to the word of the word of grace, which is able to build you up.

Acts 20, 35, it's filled with encouragement.

Notice what else it's filled with.

It has a host of hope.

Titus 1.2 calls it the blessed hope.

Look what else it has.

It has heaps of history.

You want to know history?

You want to know how this world's going?

What's ever written, hey, it was written aforetime for our learning that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope.

Romans 15:4, we can study God's word.

Romans 15:4

And I'm telling you, I've studied it, and the way that our country's trying to go is definitely in the wrong direction.

They're heading right down the trying to the road of socialism, dictatorship.

And I don't have to just study Rome and look what happened.

They fell overnight for very similar characteristics that's going on right now in America.

The Bible is a treasure chest rich in jewels.

Ladies, do you like jewels?

I got onto this and I said, I think the ladies are like this.

You ready, ladies?

This is for you.

Let me tell you how the Bible relates to the jewels.

Okay?

Are you ready?

One, the rubies.

The rubies, anybody like rubies?

Oh, yeah.

Amen.

They stand for revival and refreshment.

Amen.

Just like that ruby.

Ooh, you love it and you're refreshed and you're excited.

All right?

What about silver?

You like silver?

Anyone like silver?

Yes.

Okay.

Well, silver stands for salvation and saintlessness.

You're a saint and salvation.

What about sapphires?

Ooh.

Stability and steadfastness.

What about gold?

Godliness and giving.

What about diamonds?

Dedication and determination.

Pearls, prayer and purity, opals, obedience and living for others, and emeralds, enthusiasm.

Is that not good?

Is that not good?

So that's what your Bible is full of.

Wow.

All of these gems are for our benefit.

The Bible has everything we need to live the Christian life.

Jesus said, I've come to give you life, quote it with me, and give it more abundantly.

But now don't forget it, the front of that verse, John 10, 10, it says, the thief has come to steal and kill and destroy.

He wants to snatch all those gems away from you.

He doesn't want you to experience those gems.

So not only should we study the Word of God, but we should pray.

Jesus said, Men ought to always pray and not to faint.

We are to seek his face in prayer, and in so doing, we'll get to know the Lord as we see him, answer our prayers, empower our lives, supply our needs.

When's the last time he answered a prayer?

I didn't tell you when he answered mine.

Last weekend.

After that morning, I was teaching Sunday school in this little round oval room.

And I was standing up, I should have gotten a chair.

I'd gotten a chair the night before on Saturday night.

And I was hurting so bad.

I was teaching and praying at the same time.

I've never done that before.

I was praying silently as I was teaching because I was in so much pain.

I got through.

I walked back over right into the apartment that was right there.

I laid down.

And I said, Lord, if you don't help me, I can't do this.

I'm through.

I gotta have help.

Took some Advil and got a nice pack.

30 minutes I laid there.

Then Susan knocked on the door and said, Honey, you okay?

I said, come get me when it's about time for me to preach.

I'm gonna lay here till then.

She came in, got me.

I walked in there, walked up, and I preached like I've never preached before.

Not one bit of pain.

Not one bit of pain.

Not one bit of pain.

Now God answered my prayer.

Amen.

God answered my prayer.

I mean, I preached.

Now I died afterwards.

I went back and pain was worse than it's ever been again.

But you know what I told the Lord?

Thank you, Lord.

Can you do it one more time tonight?

Then I'll get to the doctor.

But he answers our prayers.

He supplies our needs, folks.

Amen.

I mean, he's the bounty of blessings.

Say that with me.

The bounty of blessings.

Psalms 112, verse 15.

He's been mindful of us to bless us.

Oh, he wants to bless us.

Oh, he wants to bless us.

Knowledge obtained from God's word gives us a solid grounding in the faith and enables us to make good and right choices.

You can't make the right choice if you don't know what God says about it.

How would you like to make the right choice every decision you make?

Come on.

Every hand ought to be up.

Well, you can make the right choice if you, hey, go to the, hey, the B-I-B-L-E, it will tell you the right choices.

And then after you study that, what I always do is I want confirmation.

So I go to the next person that probably knows the word better than I know it to see what she thinks is my wife.

I tell you what, son, she's she's smart.

Oh my goodness.

So I listen to her to confirm what I feel like God's telling me.

But I always have a verse that I don't ever make a decision if I don't have a principle or a promise or a direction from the Word of God.

And we've always led this church from the very moment there were four of us sitting right there to what we have now.

Amen.

That's one of our core values.

Clear, biblical, unadulterated truth.

The word of God is a key factor.

Get into the book, read it, love it, learn it, live it.

That's it.

And then number three.

Salvation.

Seek the Lord in scripture and prayer.

And then number three, sacrificial giving.

No doubt in my mind.

As you give to the Lord and to the needs of others, you will learn about his care and power to provide for your own personal needs in your own life.

Let me tell you something.

If you will learn this principle to be a sacrificial giver, you'll never have to worry about your needs being met.

Never.

I'm going to say that again.

If you learn to be a sacrificial giver to the Lord's and his work, you'll never have needs that will not be met, or my God would be a lie.

My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4.19.

Is that not what it says?

All right, listen to what Jesus said.

Given it should be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together.

Now watch.

And running over shall men give back unto you.

That's why I have no problem getting up here every Sunday and asking you to give to God's work and to give to the ministry of God's work.

I don't have a bit of problems doing that because that's what we're supposed to do, and God blesses that.

That's why everything you see, the soccer family, I'm so excited about what's going on back there and how you God's blessed.

Everything's paid for.

Can we give God a hand?

What do they do with uh Dave Ramsey?

You call him up?

I'm dead free.

But how did that happen?

A lot of you though you've not heard the story.

Millions.

We've had about two million dollars in the last five years.

Come into this church.

Unbelievable, whether it was dirt or money.

I mean, it's been unbelievable.

Only God can do that.

But why?

Because he knows what we do.

Let me tell you, God will give you, hey, the money and the resources if he knows you're going to use it for his glory.

I had a guy ask me the other day, he said, uh, is it wrong?

One of the questions they asked me, we did a QA on Saturday night.

Susan, I always do a QA with couples when we do a couples retreat.

And one of the questions was, is it wrong to pray for money so that I can give back to God?

I've had that question a lot of times.

Is it wrong to pray for that?

You know what I how I answered?

I said, here's what you gotta qualify that question with.

What are you doing with what you got right now?

If you're, and I said, first of all, are you tithing?

Secondly, are you giving more than tithe?

Because if you're not doing that now, you can pray till the sun goes up and down again, and it's not gonna change.

Because God knows your heart.

Hello.

Hello.

Now I don't know whether or not they like that answer, but that's the truth.

Oh, if I lend the if I win the lottery, Lord, I'll give you 50%.

Why don't you give him 90 and just keep the 10?

Hello?

But let me tell you something.

You're not gonna give him 50% if you're not giving 10%.

Hello! Uh-oh.

Go on to another point, please, preacher.

Proverbs 3, 9 and 10.

Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits.

First fruits, that's the first dollar you make of all thine increase.

Now notice verse 10.

So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and the presses shall burst out with new wine.

Woo! Oh, God has blessed us so abundantly, Susan and I, all these years.

And I promise you, I'm not bragging, I'm not boasting, but he gives, we give.

We're conduit.

We're conduit.

I pray every week for ways to give.

I had a this weekend I had a way, I meant, well, to bless somebody, and this week already I've had a way to bless somebody, to help somebody.

Why?

I don't want my you know why?

One, I love people, I love God and love people, but secondly, I don't want my flow cut off.

Hello?

You say, now wait a minute, what does that mean?

That means if I don't give and I just hoe hoard it, why would God give me some means by which to bless others if I keep it?

Have you ever thought about that?

Doesn't happen.

It doesn't happen.

And then number four.

Some of you are saying, is he ever gonna get off of that one?

You know, let me tell you why giving's so hard.

You ready?

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Hello.

Hello.

Your heart's there, you don't have to worry about the giving.

I've never even questioned it.

Supplement your faith with character.

Here's the last one.

Now think about it.

You gotta be saved.

Number one, seek the Lord in the word and in prayer.

Number three, you've got to sacrificially give.

And then number four, supplement your faith with character.

Look at 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 5 through 8.

2 Peter 1:5–8

He gives us a symphony of virtues that we are to add to our life.

He says, and besides this, giving all diligence.

Now, diligence is a powerful word, and the next word, add.

Those two words together.

To your faith, virtue, and to virtue, knowledge.

Verse 6, and to knowledge, temperance, self-control, and to self-control, patience, and to patience, godliness.

Verse 7, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity, love.

8.

For if these things, now watch, be in you, in other words, they got to be evident in you and me.

If these things be in you and a bow, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wow, wow.

He says, you're not gonna be barren, you're gonna be growing in the likeness of Christ, and he's gonna be blessing you and blessing you and blessing you.

Now that's powerful because you're growing in his likeness.

And then, 2 Peter 1, Peter provides all these traits.

Growth in these traits will help us to be effective servants for God and grow in our knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 3.18, but grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Knowing God begins with your salvation.

This is why Peter says that we are to diligently add to our faith.

Now, what's the words here?

Diligent.

You know what it means?

The word diligence and add.

It indicates the seriousness of growing in these areas.

All those areas.

Knowing God and being an effective Christian is serious business with the Lord.

Now let me repeat that.

Growing in the likeness of Christ is serious business with God.

Don't take that for granted.

You don't say, I got saved, that's over.

I'm not going to hell.

I can go on about my life now.

No.

That's not a real decision.

That's an emotional decision.

Or a calculated decision.

Hell, heaven.

Heaven.

What I do.

Okay.

I did it.

Thank you.

No.

It's not it.

It's a, in fact, let me tell you what it is.

Diligent and ad.

The word ad indicates the seriousness of growth, knowing that God and being an affected Christian is a serious business.

But now watch the word.

The word diligence is from the Greek word spudae, and it means with earnestness, with great effort and haste.

And then the word ad is a command.

It's a command.

So we are commanded to diligently, earnestly, I'm talking about fervently seek God with all our heart, soul, and mind.

And when you go and look at that, look at those words, it's like a runner in the Olympics running to the one and two and three, you know, in fact, gold, silver, and bronze medals, there's really no difference in the ability and the talent between a goal and a bronze.

You know what the difference is?

The one that can exert the most energy there at the end.

And what God is saying that you're to exert that kind of energy in seeking me.

Is that not good?

Oh my soul.

How many of us are guilty?

All of us.

Every one of us.

How many times as we preachers study because we're supposed to?

Instead of because we want to.

How many Sunday school teachers study to teach their lesson instead of to allow the lesson to envelop them and teach them?

Big difference.

Big difference.

If we're growing to mature and grow in our knowledge of the Lord, and if we're going to be effective service for Christ, if we're going to answer the call to consecration, we need to make the effort to do so.

I thought about it.

God puts the fire in our hearts when we put our faith in him.

Is that not good?

God puts the fire in our hearts when we put our faith in him.

But after we put our faith in him, we are the responsible for fanning the fire.

His word was in my heart as a burning fire.

Shut up in my bones.

Even when I didn't want to preach, I couldn't help but preach.

You don't play the piano like Mitch did and praise the Lord like that if something's not in there.

Hello.

Papa used to say, if I didn't shout, he said, he said, I used to say, Papa, why do you get so excited?

Why do you shout and holler?

And he says, Danny boy, he says, I have to.

If I don't, it's gonna kill me.

That's what I'm talking about.

That's what it means.

Then number eight, regard others with great love, verse 22.

Seeing you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.

Love's a big deal.

Love's a big deal.

I'm gonna keep saying it until I hear a little more than three people say yes.

Love's a big deal.

Everybody in here wants to be loved.

Amen.

My wife wants me to tell her I love her not every day, but ten or fifteen times a day.

She texted me this morning, praying for you, love you.

I text her back.

Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.

I didn't do that.

I'm smarter than that.

I just said love you very much.

Amen.

But it's a big word.

People like to be told they are love.

Beloved answering the call to consecration involves loving other people.

Can I get an amen?

God is holy, it's his nature.

Romans 5, 8, but God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Can I get an amen?

Christ died for us.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

God loves us.

He loves us.

He died for us.

Look at the word unfeigned there.

It's the Greek word anaphorkyritos.

Anaporkyritos.

There it is.

Which means undisguised, sincere, without hypocrisy.

Listen, you can't disguise real love.

You can't do it.

You can't do it.

I'm going to tell you what, and I know I it seems self-serving, but I have been in a lot of churches in the last 25 years.

Preached in over 500 or more.

But I want you to know something.

This church, from the very moment we sat there, David, Christy, me, and Susan, and we used the verse, Luke 10, 27.

Love the Lord thy God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all thy strength, and their mind, and your brother as yourself.

We just said we want a church.

That's when the love feast was birthed.

We want a church that understands what it really means to love.

Everybody says church is love, but what is real love?

What is real love?

Agape love.

What's real love?

It's unconditional love.

Giving, giving, giving, not expecting anything in return.

That's right.

And I'm I'm honored to be a part of this church.

I am so honored.

I love you with all my heart.

That's why people, I I had a guy the other day ask me, he said, Do you stand out there every Sunday and hug everybody's neck?

I said, Yep.

And I said, I hug them when they get in, too.

Why?

Because I love you.

And I want you to know that you're loved.

That's what Christianity's all about.

Let me tell you how Jesus put it.

He said in John 13, you shall know that they're my disciples by their love.

We love you.

We're not perfect.

We're gonna fall down, but we're gonna help you back up.

Can I get an amen?

When you fall down, we're not gonna kick you under the table.

We all have our faults.

We all have our failures.

We all have our frailities.

We don't need to be kicked when you're down.

You need to be loved on and helped up.

Can I get an amen?

And that's not condoning what you did if it's wrong.

Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

And isn't it amazing the next verse he says?

And those that are spiritual?

You know what he means?

Those that are loving, mature enough to come alongside and not see, be condemning and judging of what it, the incident that has taken place.

Doesn't it take a real mature believer not to judge?

Or to say, I told you so.

Hey, they already know it.

They're already paying the consequences.

They don't need any more kicking.

They need to say, let me help you get back on the right path.

That's what it means.

Number nine, and we're through.

Actually.

Yeah, let's finish with this.

I'll be quick.

The role and the rank of God's word in your life.

Verses 23 through 25.

Being born again, not of corruptible, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever, for all flesh is as grass, all the glory of man is the flower of grass, the grass withers, the flower fadeth away, but the word of God shall endure forever.

And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

And then verse 2 in chapter 2 is newborn, babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.

If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

If we're going to answer the call to consecration, the commitment, then the Bible must play the most important part in our life of anything else.

A, it's imperishable, indestructible.

Look at the word incorruptible.

You know what it means?

After Thartas, after Thartars.

You know what it means?

Not liable to corruption or decay.

Hey, it's imperishable.

Woo! Thank God the word of God's never gonna fade away.

Never gonna fade away.

Grass and flowers fade and die, but God's word endures forever.

Matthew 24, 35.

Jesus said, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away.

The fact that scriptures are indescruptible make them reliable.

They're indestructible because they are true.

Truth endures through time.

The word of the Lord endure forever.

I want to read this and I'm through.

The ashes and ambers from the scriptures that were fueled from the bonfires of tyrants have not shackled, stifled, stayed, stopped, stymied, or suspended, or brought the spread of the scriptures to a standstill.

The word of the Lord is during forever.

The pinks and the shovels of geologists have chipped away at limestone, sand, and mud in hot deserts or darkened caves in an attempt to discredit.

Hey, and defy the scriptures, only to find that they are true and stand firm like granite mountains on the shores of a raging sea.

The word of the Lord endures forever.

Infidels through history have beaten, murdered, burned, banished, and belittled the Bible, treating it with contempt as if it were dung or a decaying dead animal, but it continues to retain its strength and sparkle like polished diamonds or fresh fallen snow in the moonlight of a winter's night, for the word of the Lord endures forever.

Like a muzzled ox pulling a plow through sun-baked fields, judges in their secular courts, boy, we've seen that, have tried to muzzle the Bible by forbidding its display or reading it in schools and civil civic buildings.

Yes, the scriptures are still loved, longed for, looked at, and learned by millions, for the word of the Lord endures forever.

And scientists have invented theories like big red balloons that are full of hot air in order to disgrace, discredit, defame, demean, diminish, disprove, and dispute the word of God.

Yet the word of God continues to prove its accuracy in the fields of medicine, history, oceanography, geography, and astronomy.

The word of the Lord endures forever.

Give God's word a hand this morning.

I know you won't be.

Susan's here.

B, B, B.

It increases and intensifies our spiritual growth.

The book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night.

That thou may observe to do according to all that's written therein.

Then shall I make thy way prosperous, and then shall you have good success.

Four simple things to live a consecrated life.

That's pretty good.

Got to be saved.

That's the first step.

If you're here this morning, watching online, you're not saved, you gotta come to Christ.

No foolishness, no foolishness, no trying to bargain with God.

You just come unconditionally.

That's what you do.

That's what you do.

It's easy.

The thief on the cross, it's easy.

It's not hard.

Jesus died for you.

He redeemed you.

You he bought you off the auction block.

Can I get an amen?