“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. 2. With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love. 3. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
I guess that we would all like to live what would be considered “a worthyChristian life.” We probably think that to live such a life would entail being a super-spiritual person who talks holy talk and knows all of the holy moves. By that description, Jesus would have lauded the Pharisees as living a worthy life. But instead of praising the Pharisees, He compared them to a bunch of snakes. Paul, who was once a Pharisee, but got over it after Jesus took over his life, gave the ideal description of the worthy life in Ephesians 4:1-3. In order to live a worthy Christian life, we will live humbly – in “lowliness and meekness.” In our affluent society the worthy life can be described as seeking greatness in the eyes of the world. But the worthy Christian life is not the result of seeking personal greatness, in fact, it is the opposite. It is seeking humility. Humility is not something that we can achieve, because if we think that we have achieved it, we are not humble anymore. This does not mean that humble people must have inferiority complexes. We have a great misunderstanding of what Christian humility is. We seem to think that it entails being a doormat for the world. Nothing is further from the truth. In fact, in order for people to live humbly in this proud world, they have to be secure in Jesus and in themselves. Humility does not come from a sense of inferiority but or insecurity, but from a sense of personal well-being and security. In order to let other people go first, one really has to be secure in oneself. That sort of looks like Jesus, doesn’t it? We can live humbly when we realize that that we do not need to be “number one” in order to feel good about ourselves. In fact, the Greek word for “meekness” means to be under control, not to be weak and beggarly. In our case, it means to be under God’s control. In order to live a worthy Christian life we will live patiently – “With longsuffering, forbearing one another in love.” The Greek word translated “longsuffering” could be called “bulldog tenacity” today. Patience, or longsuffering, is not just sitting and waiting, taking on a martyr complex, or spirit of resignation. It means to persist in Christian living, meeting life’s hardships without bitterness and complaint. It appears today that few people are aiming for this kind of patience, even in churches. It also means that we should “forbear one another in love.” This does not mean to merely put up with people; it means to forbear because we love people. We get “out of sorts” with each other at times, but we do not have to stay that way. Patience, love and forbearance go hand-in-hand with worthy Christian living. In order to live a worthy Christian life, we will live in unity – “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Humility, patience, forbearance and love are results of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Only He can lead us to humble and patient living, and only He can lead us to unity in Himself. If we follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will not be led into disunity. Because we are human, we will have disagreements, but in spite of these disagreements, the Holy Spirit will not lead us into disunity. If we are divided in our fellowship it is because of us, not because of the Holy Spirit. Disunity is Satan’s domain. Certainly a worthy Christian walk will not lead to disunity. In light of this text, will you live humbly, patiently and in the unity of the Spirit? If you will, you will live a worthy Christian life. Bro. Joe
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“And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying The Will of the Lord be done.”
Paul had ended his third missionary journey and was planning to go to Jerusalem, then from Jerusalem to Rome. But along the way people were telling him that he would be in trouble in Jerusalem, because they heard that he had given up the Jewish way of life, and was teaching other Jews the same. A Judean prophet named Agabus came to him at Phillip’s home in Caesarea and warned him that the Holy Spirit said he would be delivered unto the Gentiles. They begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem and Paul answered them: “What do you mean to weep and to break my heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” That is when they gave up and said, “The will of the Lord be done.” When they heard at first from Agabus that the Holy Spirit gave the warning about going to Jerusalem, they evidently assumed that the Holy Spirit was telling him not to go. Paul interpreted it as the Holy Spirit warning him about what would happen when he went to Jerusalem, not to get him not to go, but to know what he had in store. Ensuing events proved Paul to be correct about this. When they heard Paul’s heartfelt reply, and realized that he was going to Jerusalem regardless, they turned it over to the Lord. They came to the point that they were ready to let the Lord handle it, because they knew they were putting Paul in good hands. At some point in our lives, we will have to just surrender everything into God’s hands, and let Him handle it. I think that one example of this is when David decided to fight Goliath. The Bible tells us that David was insulted that this heathen could challenge the army of the Lord. He was ready to take Goliath on because nobody else would. At some point David had to make up his mind that this was what he was going to do. The whole idea behind his decision was that God would handle it. In 1Samuel 17, Saul questioned whether David should do this. David gave his answer in verses 34-37: “But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35. I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from his mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he defied the armies of the living God. 37. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine.’” (NIV) That looks to me like David let the Lord handle it. Surrender your decisions to the will of the Lord – let the Lord handle them. Let’s go back and see what took place when Paul’s fellow Christians quit arguing with him and put him in God’s hands. It would seem that if the Holy Spirit was telling Paul that bad things would happen in Jerusalem that he should not go. This would seem to be the conventional wisdom, but as we saw above, warning of danger did not mean that Paul was forbidden to go to Jerusalem. Bad things did happen to Paul, but God used that means to get him from Jerusalem to Rome. Paul had planned to go to Rome, but he had no idea that this is how God would do it. Suppose Paul had agreed with his friends and had not gone to Jerusalem at this time? We will never know, but God’s will proved to be the best way to get the Gospel message to Rome that God wanted him to deliver. In Acts 23:11, in the middle of the troubles Paul encountered in getting to Rome, the Lord said to him: “Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.” Keep in mind in your own life, that when it is difficult to determine which way to go, surrender to God’s will and let Him handle it for you, for He always will. Bro. Joe “Wherewithal (how) shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed therein according to your word. 10. With my whole heart have I sought you: O let me not wander from your commandments. 11. Your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
Living a clean life does not seem to be the goal of many people today, but it is certainly still possible to live that kind of life. Living a clean life makes sense spiritually, of course, but it also makes sense physically. Many ailments today stem from people living unwholesome lives. These three verses from Psalm 119 tell us how we can live a clean life. First, we can heed the word of God. To the psalmist the word of God was the Ten Commandments and other laws that were given to Moses on Mt. Sinai and written down for the enlightenment of the people of God. To us the word of God is both the Old and New Testaments, and also Jesus, who fulfilled the Old and New Testaments and made possible the New Testament. John refers to Jesus as "the word,” and Hebrews 1:1-2 declares Jesus to be the ultimate word of God. In order for us to live clean lives, we need to heed what is in the Bible, for there in is a moral law, and we need to heed our relationship with Jesus, for therein is our moral compass. Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to guide us in the study of the Bible and in the way we live our lives. We cannot ignore the word of God and expect to live a clean life. There are many frustrated church members out there who think that they can live a clean, Christian life and ignore the Bible, and not nurture their relationship with Jesus Christ. Second, we can obey the word of God. The psalmist declared that he sought the Lord with his whole heart. I think that a lot of our spiritual problems arise because of a half-hearted seeking of God in daily life. How do we seek God? One of the main ways we seek Him is by the reading and studying of God's word. It is impossible to stay close to God and ignore His word. Furthermore, the psalmist pleaded: "O let me not wander from your commandments.” We are not saved by keeping the commandments, but we are saved in order to be able to keep the commandments. We can’t take straying from the word of God lightly. This is what happens too many times in the lives of people who are struggling to live a clean life. David always serves as an example in this matter. David did not write this psalm, but he wrote many, if not most of them. We see what happened in David’s life when he wandered from God’s commandments. One night, while he was at “loose ends,” not out with his army, David saw the beautiful Bathsheba and just had to have her. In that weak moment, he strayed from God’s commandments, and his life was never the same afterward. We have to watch those weak moments, for we all have them in one way or another. It is at these times that Satan enters the picture and makes sin look so pleasant to us. This is why we need to wholeheartedly seek every day of our lives and be careful that we do not “wander from (God’s) commandments." Third, we can internalize the word of God. The bottom line was that the psalmist did not just read and study God’s word; he digested it and made it an integral part of his life. This means that we need to read and study the word of God until it becomes part of us. We can memorize scripture, but I prefer to read it until it is stuck in my mind and heart. I do not call this memorizing; I call it internalizing. He hid God’s word in his heart so that he “might not sin against God.” In the scene of Jesus’ temptation in Matthew 4, Jesus defeated Satan by quoting scripture to him. Jesus wasn’t just quoting words that he had memorized, but words that were ingrained in His heart and mind.. Read these three verses again and ask God to help you to use them to live a clean life. Bro. Joe “God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble…”
This text is easy to read and easy to preach, but it is awfully hard to remember about ourselves. I think that pride is one of the most difficult things for us to deal with. I guess that one reason for this is that pride can be good and bad. We certainly want to take pride in our families, in our appearance or in doing a job well. But it becomes bad, even harmful, when we begin to internalize our pride. It is at this point that we begin to think, “It’s all about me.” It is difficult for us to overcome this syndrome, if that is what it is, because we are so prideful that we think that we could never think that it’s all about us. Satan is a wily old tempter, and he will help us to lie to ourselves about our own pride. Let me begin with a personal example. When it became obvious to me that the Lord was leading me to retire, I balked at the idea at first. I tried to tell my Creator that I was not ready to “get out of the loop.” I want to tell you, it is hard to imagine that we can be replaced. I began to pray about this, and the Lord convinced me that it was time to step aside into retirement. He also convinced me that I wasn’t being “replaced” but moving on to a new era in my life. The Lord reminded me that "my" work was not "my" work, but His. Does it surprise you that for a little while there I thought that it was “all about me”? Well, you shouldn’t be surprised because you probably have to deal with the same thing in your life if you will be honest with yourself. I still have to be careful about it, but don’t you go getting self-righteous on me, you do too. Who taught us more about this than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Remember, now, that if anyone had a claim that it was all about Him, Jesus certainly did. In the prologue to his gospel, John wrote: “In the beginning was the word (Jesus), and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” (John 3:1-3) Do you see what I mean that He had a real claim that it was all about Him? Then we can go over to Philippians 2:5-9: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6. Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7. But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8.and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Don’t miss this point: He who could claim that “it was all about Him,” made it all about us instead. If this doesn’t humble us, nothing else can. When Jesus made it all about us, it was written of Him in Philippians 2:9: “Wherefore God has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name…” Wow! Does this ever give new meaning to our text: “God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble?” It becomes plain to us that we need to fight this temptation to think that everything is all about us. In order for us to get to that point, we need to confess our false pride, and start thinking like Jesus. We would do well here to remember what Paul wrote in Philippians 2:7: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” If we want to be like Christ, we must humble ourselves, get off of our “high horse,” as my Grandma Cooper used to say, and remember that it is not all about us but all about Him. I am not “preaching down” to you about this. It is something that I still have to deal with, and you will too, but it is worth the effort. When you start feeling all self-important, just say to yourself: “It’s not all about me.” It is, however, all about Jesus. Bro. Joe “If anyone considers himself religious and does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
It is not our aim to be religious, but to be genuinely Christian in our outlook on life. James was writing to converted Jews who were struggling to be authentically Christian, and yet practice their religion. In these two verses, James differentiates between being religious and being authentically Christian. The first thing that James points out is that if we are to be authentically Christian, we need to keep a tight rein on our tongues. When we are saved, our tongues are saved as well; therefore, we should watch what we say. We should watch what we say to people. The old adage is not altogether true: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” We can say things to people that will devastate them, and this should certainly not be our aim. It should not be our only concern that the words that other people say about us can hurt us, but that the words we say about other people can hurt them. Once a word is spoken it cannot be recalled and it does its work whether we want it to or not. We also need to watch what we say about people. We call this gossip. We can use our tongues to destroy a fellow Christian’s influence by just saying ugly things about them to other people. If we are having problems with our fellow Christians and church members, we should talk to them about it and not broadcast it to the world. The second thing that James points out is that we need to think about somebody besides ourselves. He used two of the most obvious examples of his time – orphans and widows. Children who did not have parents had no social underpinnings to catch them. They either had to sell themselves as slaves or beg on the streets. It was the same with widows. When a woman’s husband died, if she had no family to take care of her, she was completely without resources in this world. James was pointing out that this should not be the case in the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not just think of Himself when He lived on this earth. He set the example of caring for all people – the rich and the poor. We Christians do not live in a vacuum that consists only of ourselves and our families; we live in a needy world that demands that we care for others. The third thing that James points out is that we need to keep ourselves from being “polluted by the world.” We need to be careful at this point that we do not become self-righteous. It does not mean that we are not to love people in the world, but that instead of being influenced by the world, we will share our Christian influence with the world. It is one thing to be in the world, it is another thing to be of the world. We need to be careful that we do not compromise our faith with the world system until we have no faith remaining. Too many churches and denominations have compromised authentic Christian living because the world system does not agree with biblical concepts. Keep in mind that the world system is under Satan’s control, and that Satan is at war with God. He never has the best interests of people at heart. In His prayer in John 17, Jesus prayed that the Father not take His disciples out of the world, but that He would “keep them from the evil” – or the “evil one.” To be authentically Christian we need to love people, but we cannot compromise our Christian principles in the name of love. We have not been called of God to be religious. We have been called of God to represent Jesus to a lost and dying world. Included in this representation is: (1) to watch our tongues, (2) to think of someone besides ourselves and (3) to not be polluted by the world. Bro. Joe |
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