9.20.26 | Larry Truitt

Sugar Plain Friends : anybody know what today is? Today is Jam Kimper. Kempoor. Yeah. last week we had two celebrations, two feasts. We had the Feast of Trumpets, and that's basically what I want to talk about today. the Feast of Trumpets took place on the thirteenth, and it basically is a time when God called Israel together to remember the things that God had done for them and to prepare themselves for repentance. Now today is the day. this day is sometimes referred to as the day that God judges and men dies, because it's the day where God comes down and brings judgment upon those that had forsaken him without repenting. So he gave them a period of time to remember and to repent. So if you go to those of you who have your Bibles to Leviticus chapter twenty three, this is what it says. In the seventh month in the first day of the month shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of the blowing of the trumpets, a holy convocation. And then in Second Corinthians it says examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith and prove your own self. As I grow older I'm reminded of the fact life is short. I I remember when I was twenty years old, I thought, wow, I got a long life in front of me. Now I'm seventy-eight looking back, that was short. What happened? one day you wake up and you're thirty years old and you you go, Wow, I I expected more out of life than this and then next thing you know you're fifty, wondering, how much more life do I have? And now that I'm seventy-eight, even if I were to live to be a hundred, twenty, what would that be? Twenty-two years is not really a long period of time, is it? When you stop to think about it. And God wants us to be prepared to face Him. And so When you when you look at what God had planned in all of these feasts, it was part of the the plan of salvation. the first four feasts have already been fulfilled. We had the Passover, Christ fulfilled the Passover, we had the first fruits, We had what what was the other one? yes, that one and then Pentecost or Feast of Weeks which was after fifty days after Passover. And only three feasts are left to be fulfilled and one being the trumpets and Here I'm gonna give you some theology according to Truett right now. I believe we're in the feast of the trumpets because it's a period of time that God blows the trumpet and he says, Prepare for what is coming. Get ready and to repent and get yourself right with God. And in Colossi or in Corinthians it says to examine ourselves. And that's what was supposed to be taking place during the Feast of the Trumpets. They were to examine themselves and come to a point of repentance, getting ready, so when God came down to judge them, they would be found guiltless of the sin. So looking at life, we need to examine where we are in the faith. And I think that's very important. there's things about God's word. And I I've spent my entire life studying the Word of God. long before I was married, the Bible was very important, very important in our family. And This is what I have come to to realize. The more I know, and I know a little, the less I realize I know. And I I have come to the place I do not understand, and I know that might sound weird, I do not understand the greatness of God. I I cannot get my head wrapped around How God could love us to the point that He has done what He has done for us. And as I look back over my life. There are times I made choices I probably should have made. You've never been in that situation, I understand that. But I I made choices that I thought I was doing the right thing and find out I'm not and had to change. And I I am thankful that God looked out after me. I I probably shouldn't put it this way, but there were times I was just plain stupid. I I did things that I thought this is the direction I should go in and this is what I should do and then find out no I shouldn't. And sometimes God puts people in your life to help you make right choices. There are people who will tell you, you know, you shouldn't be doing that. This is a better way. And then there's those times that you're reading God's word and he he reveals to you this is what I want you to do and this is the direction I want you to go in. As I look back over my life I wonder where I would have been if I'd have made permanent some of the choices that I made when I was young. Probably wouldn't even be here today. I I remember a friend and I decided we were gonna do something and I am so glad it didn't happen because I as I look back I thought I probably wouldn't have lasted another year. I I would have been dead. God looks out after us and it's amazing how we can see what God does. But the thing that is important is that we have the right relationship with God. And sometimes what we have to do is listen to the trumpet, and the trumpet is calling us to examine ourselves, and we have to Look at what God wants us to do. The feast of the trumpet was a call to prepare, to prepare yourself to meet God. And Paul, writing to the church there at Corinth, he said to examine yourself. It's easy for us to examine everybody else. I think Jesus had a parable about looking at the moat in somebody's eyes when you got a beam in yours, or looking at the speck of sawdust when you've got a bigger problem than they do. So He's asking us to examine our own life and to look at what we should be doing. And there are some things that I think are important for us to look at. I don't know if you've ever taken personality test. I used to enjoy taking those to find out what I was really like. And sometimes I wouldn't tell the truth because I wanted to see what would happen if I w what would they come up with. And invariably it didn't matter whether I told them the truth or not. It came out to the same stuff most of the time. So I didn't have a whole lot of faith in the them actually knowing what I was personally or what my character was, but spiritually there are times that we have to examine ourselves to see if we're still in the faith. There's a lot of times we have preferences that we think this is what God wants us to do, and it has nothing to do with our salvation. And looking at what we believe is very important. There are things that I believe for me that I cannot do, that I can't tell somebody else if you do these things it's sin because I can't show any place where it is. It's a preference. It's not a conviction that I would necessarily die for. It's just what I feel comfortable with. It's like somebody going out to buy a car. like Max wants to buy a Ford and the only thing they have is Chevies and now he's got a Chevy. his preference was something else. It doesn't mean that he's gonna die because he couldn't get a Ford, but He might. But when we look at some of the things in our life we have to examine our life to see is this a preference or is this a conviction? Is this something that God wants me doing and this is the direction I should be going in? Lamentation says let us search out and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. That means I have to examine my own life. I have to look at who I am spiritually. I've said this many times. One of the main doctrines of Christianity is forgiveness. We all agree on that. And it's easy for us to accept forgiveness, but sometimes it's very difficult for us to forgive. And we hold on to that bitterness and that malice and anger and all of this builds up inside. And then when we try to be a testimony for what God can do that shows up and defeats the purpose of us being the witness that we should be. We have to examine ourselves and to see if there's things in our heart that is keeping us from coming To a spiritual place that God can use us. There's qualifications in prayer. If you look in the book of James, James talks about this. He says, if there be any sick among you. Do you remember that verse? If there be any sick among you, let them call for the elders of the church. Now, the first thing. he's saying is to call for the elders of the church. But if you continue reading what James talks about, James talks about examining yourself to see if you're in a place where you can actually approach God and ask God to perform a miracle. That we have to prepare ourselves before we can even ask God to do something. The disciples came to Jesus one day and they said, We got a problem. We've been out here casting out devils and everything, and we came up on this one kid. We couldn't cast out the devils. What's going on? And what did he tell them? Some things will not happen unless there is prayer and fasting. Unless there is an examination of your own heart. To know where you stand in the presence of God. You have to ask yourself, is the reason my prayers are not being answered is that there is something in my life that is keeping me from approaching God the way I should. He said, You ask not. And sometimes when you do ask, you ask amiss. You're not asking the right thing, or you're not asking in the right way. There are procedures that God has laid out. When he told Israel, I want you to have this feast of trumpets, he was telling them, I want you to prepare yourself because I'm going to come down and I'm going to examine you on today, Yom Kippur. Okay? The day God judges and men dies. I'm coming down to bring judgment upon you. And you need to be ready for that judgment. And if you find yourself prepared, you don't have to worry about the judgment of God. Now, here's here's a verse that a lot of people I think misread, and that that is perfect love casteth out fear. Have we heard that? Do you know the fear that he's talking about? It's not being afraid of things, it's being afraid of the judgment. That's what it is. Perfect love casts out the fear. I am not afraid to have to stand before God because I have examined myself and I have prepared myself for what is coming. And I rely upon the fact that all that I have done that is wrong, God has forgiven me and I have taken care of that by examining my life. I think sometimes people come to the Lord and they go through a a little prayer and they say, Forgive me and God says, Okay, you're forgiven, and there's no transformation taking place in their life. And they go on thinking that the their life is okay because they ask God to forgive them. But what happens when God forgives us, He transforms our life. He changes who we are. And that's what we have to look at. We have to look at have I been changed? Do I have this transformation that takes place that puts me as being a new creation in Christ? That's what's important. And it doesn't happen Once it's every day that we have to t examine ourselves. We have to get ourselves prepared to meet God. pray without ceasing. What are you gonna pray about? Lord, am I where I should be? Isn't that a good prayer to pray? Examine me, search me, try me, see if there be any wicked way in me. Help me to know your ways. Help me to surrender to your will. So Jesus said that If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. John in first John, John says, Hereby we know that we know him, and we know that because we keep his commandments. So we search our heart, we examine ourselves and ask ourselves, Do I keep the commandments of God? Now the scripture tells us that God's commandments are not grievous. They're not hard to do. All we have to do is surrender ourselves. The problem is sometimes we allow our pride and our arrogance to get in the way, and we have a difficult time surrendering to the will of God. So we come today to ask ourselves this question Am I in the faith? Am I doing what God wants me to do? Am I where I should be spiritually? Now It's easy for us to examine other people's lives. Right? I'm glad I'm not the one that's gonna be the final judge of things. Yeah, you better be happy too. Because if I were the one that was the the final judge, I'd be saying, Well, Lord, some of my preferences are very important and I think they should have been keeping them now we don't want them in heaven. You should be glad that God does not allow us to be the judge. He is the judge. Wi man looks upon the outward appearance. He looks upon things and he makes his decisions, but God looks on the heart. And that's what is important. If my heart is right with God and I have no problem between myself and God, that's all that matters. It doesn't really matter what you think, does it? No. And here's something else that I think is very important as for us to understand. Not everybody has the same light. Not everybody is going to be at the same place spiritually. There are going to be people that are struggling and you're looking at them saying there's no way they could be a Christian. Well, they're doing everything they can to please God, and God looks upon the heart. He's not looking upon the outward appearance of I know a lot of people growing up I probably shouldn't say this I I can remember when I was sixteen years old, I was sitting in church, there was the evangelist was giving an altar call and I looked around and I go, they need to go to the altar. And they call themselves Christians. They need to go to the altar because I wasn't allowed to use slang. We couldn't use slang at home. My dad said that's just Christian cussing. And we slang was out. And there were other things that we we just didn't do. And I looked around and I'd see people and I'd go. They do this and they do this and I'm a whole lot better than they are. And I was sixteen years old. I had to get beyond that and realize I had to examine my own life, not somebody else's. And God wants us to look at our own self. And so the Feast of the Trumpets was a time that He gave them the opportunity to prepare. for what was coming. As I look at what is taking place in the world today, I think the message is going out, time is short. You may not agree, but there are things happening that is rapidly changing the whole face of humanity. And we need to be ready. And The scripture tells us that We are children of the day. We're not children of the night. And because we can see the signs of the time, we can understand the shortness of the time. One of the the biggest problems that we have in the world today is people being deceived and thinking that they are doing what is right. That's the big issue that Christ first said when his disciples said, What's going to happen when you come back? Very first thing he says is deceit is going to be everywhere. Not to be deceived. And the only way is that we can examine ourselves by the word of God to know where we stand, not by what somebody thinks we should be doing, but by God's word. And that's what I'm admonishing you to do today is to look at God's word and compare your life to what He has. If you love me, you keep my commandments. The trumpet is sounding. Prepare. Let's bow our heads. And Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the warnings that you have Provided us the opportunities to examine ourselves before judgment comes. We're thankful, Lord, that you provide a plan of salvation that changes our lives, that transforms us, and makes us a new creation in you. We ask that each one here today look at their own life and find out if they're still in the faith. Still doing the things that you've asked him to do, that you see a surrendered soul. We thank you, Lord, for all that you do. Now go with us and keep your hand upon us in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.