56:070322

In Due Season we Shall Reap

    Sometimes we are inclined to be discouraged in our Christian life and work, we find ourselves asking these questions . . .

• Is it worth while to be Holy, to keep Gods commandments

• What profit is there in Godliness?

• Is it worth while to deny ourselves to do good to others, or to serve them?

• What comes of it all?

. . . many of us are apt to have mood in which these questions press upon us with painful stress. It is well we look into the matter that we may be assured that it is worth while to ‘do-well’, that there is profit in it.

   There is an inspired word that says “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal 6:9 – NIV) What is meant by by ‘doing good’? It is doing right, obeying God’s commands, fashioning our lives after the patten revealed by Him in His living Word.
   Let us be kidders here in that it’s not easy to right all the time. It throws up many a big struggle. A of ‘doing-well’, it implies a continual crucifying yourself. These inclinations surely must be restrained? .. Desires must be curbed .. Our will must be yielded to Gods will .. The whole life must be brought into subjection to a law which is spiritual and Heavenly.

“Does it Pay"? … is the deep question? There are many people who don’t put their lives under the Law of God. Who go on their own ways of self indulgences. They will put NO divine command interface with the exercise of their own desires. They will not put NO curb on their inclinations, as we look to these people, it seems to us perhaps that they are happier than us?? . . .
Galatians 6:7-9 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”
. . . They also seem to more out of life than we do. It’ll seem to us that we are denying ourselves, sacrificing our comfort, and cutting off our right hands for nothing. Sin always seem to have the advantage? Worldliness appears to pay the best? ‘Vertue’ seems dreary ~ costly & lonesome. It does not have the good time that self-indulgence has. It will happen that you will grow weary of ‘well~doing’ because there appears to be NO profit in it.

Well~Doing ..means also doing good to others. We are taught that if we are Christians, we must NOT be living for ourselves. Love is the essence of new life, and love is doing ~ giving ~ sacrificing, for the sake of others. Instead of trying to get out of the World al we can for ourselves, we are to give the World all we can possibly give of blessings & good. Until our glorious Lord comes back to look after it. We need to be doing our best to claim His people by showing His glory, and helping all the lost and disheartened back sliders, before time runs out. Then the Lord will say . . 2 Kings 10:30 “Because you have done well in doing what is right in My sight”

   It is easy to see each life is not natural, is not in harmony with Human feelings. Naturally we care for ourselves, and for our own benefit & comfort. We do not intend to put ourselves out, to sacrifice our own convenience in serving others. We might do it the ones we love deeply, but the gospel requires us to love & serve, with all our capacity serving, those that are not amongst our congenial friends. Here’s a contentious thought here .. An enemy who needs us we must serve, even the most ‘debased’ among them. . .
debased:~ reduced in quality or value ..
I.E Immoral ~ Debouched ~ Dissolute ~ Degenerate
and more of the like…
. . . Human life that we find, we must touch with our healing love and help with the hands that have been given by Christ. We are required to hold our life and all that we have at the call of love and of human need. We are to bear one anthers burdens. We’re called to have sympathy with all sorrow and need., to be touched ever with a sense of the worlds conditions. This love of Christian puts us down among men just as was Christ Jesus himself was among men. He never kept anything back, He poured out the blessing of His sweet life on everyone who came near Him, giving His life’s blood for the saving of man.
Ephesians 1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”

   That is what ‘well doing’ means. It is no wonder that some people stop and ask, ‘is worth while’? It is very natural for us to raise the question whether the giving of all the best way to gain all, living together for others is the way to make the most of our own life, as we are requested to do. Look at Christ, for example, and think of his rich and noble and blessed life. Never in any other mind were there such intellectual powers, and never in any other heart were there such depths and heights and breadths and lengths of love such as His.

• What did He do with His rich life .. ?
• He turned away from paths in which the Worlds great men had walked and devoted himself to the one work of ‘doing Good’ to others ..
• He gave all He had to His work ..
• He emptied Himself and made Himself poor that others might be made rich ..
• He exhausted His own strength that the weak may be made strong ..
• He poured out His own life – blood that dead might live ..

   Is that the best that Christ could be done with His wondrous life. His own friends thought not. They thought that he thrown His life away.

   Take those who are following in Christ’s footsteps. A young American, having finished her course in collage, came out with high honours. She had fine powers, good social position, influential friends, a beautiful and happy home. Just then there came a call from some missionary teachers to go to the South to work, among the freed slaves. The Girl heard the call and gave herself to this service. For two or three years she lived among the poor folk, teaching them, telling them of Christ. Then one summer night fever came up from the swamps, from which she succumbed, and soon she died among her despised people of colour, with no mothers hand to smooth her hair, or to have cooled her brow, or to have taken away the pain. They brought her body back, and buried her body among her friends, where they laid her body to rest, many had said of her life .. “She has wasted her beautiful life” .. “it was too rich a life to be poured out in such a costly ministry” ..All this was said whilst standing over the coffin, they ask the questions .. “Could she not have done anything better with her life”?
Ecclesiastes 3:1 “To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven … 2 A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted .. 4 A time to mourn, And a time to dance”

   It is not in vain that we continue our ‘well-doing’ that we obey gods commandments, that we devote our lives in self-sacrificing to men for Christ sake. What ever seem to loss is gain. The good man may seem to have more trouble than his unchristian neighbour. His business does seem to proper so well. His virtues may miscarry, his faithfulness may bring him human enmity and even persecution, but life accounts are not always settled at once . . .

Harvest does not follow sowing Immediately

. . .in the end righteousness succeeds, just look here ..
NKJV Galatians 6:7-8 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life”
NIV :~ “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life”
. . .this leaves us with no confusion as to what we need to do for the best of ourselves but for others to. Destruction or everlasting life .. Your Choice
1 Corinthians 9:11 “If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things”

   There are days & months when the seed seems to have perished. Afterward, however it yields fruit. It is the same in spiritual life. For a time there may seem to be NO blessing in ‘well-doing’. But, in the end righteousness succeeds. V8: “ he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” .. Every kindness we do in the name of Christ Jesus, is sowing a good seed unto the Spirit. Every deed of Love ~ every act of unselfishness ~ every self denial ~ All the things we do to help ~ to comfort ~or to just simply bless others, are seeds which we sow into the spirit .. “at the proper time we will reap a harvest” .. [Galatians6:9] a time it may not appear any good, Or, blessing comes form the act of love or word of kindness spoken. But the seed will not perish, it has in it an immortal germ.
   We dare not shut our hearts, that would mean surely, a moral and spiritual death! So we must always be giving and doing. We can keep nothing long for ourselves. No soon as it in our hands, than we are asked to give out again, because the Lord has need of it in some other life, so as to meet another need, or to some work of love for Him. One thing to bear in mind is, never fear anything, the smallest thing we can do for another, with love for Christ in our hearts.

Example to bear in mind ..

“When you do anything for God, the very least,

thing, you’ll never know where it will lead,

or what amount of good it will do to them. Love’s

secret therefore, it is always doing things for God .

We know how a thing done by us, it may blessed a

life and stay in ti as a benediction forever.”

   It would be amiss of me if I did not recommend having a close and true walk with Christ. There is a story that a teacher wrote about once .. “As I came out of the schools front doors after the usual trying day in my first school, you were passing waiting for me. As you walked with me a short distance you spoke sympathetically about my work. Your manner and voice cheered and comforted me, I never forgotten it”. She then goes on to say that in the years since the memory of His kind words stayed in her heart. The incident is full of comfort for her. We must always to remember to keep sowing, so that you can reap many harvests, God wants not to just bless us once, but for ‘ALL’ of our days. For we know not how small a word may bless a life.

Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” . . . such a well known verse amongst Christians, but did you see that .. “pressed down, shaken together, and running over” .. God is good all the time. Sometimes you only have a little, but God’s waiting to see how we use this ‘little-bit’ before He increases it.

   We should always ready our hearts & minds for what ever ‘little’ ministry we may have an opportunity render. The smallest word of good cheer may start a song in a heart, which shall sing forever. The good may drop conscientiously from lip and hand, you may never think of it again, and yet it shall not be lost. The sentiment carries in it the life of God and is immortal.

   There is a difference in the different-ways in which we give, though the gift ~ or favour, or act be precisely the same. One gives only help, the other gives part of themselves in the help. There are some beautiful flowers that have NO fragrence, but how much more a flower means, that it has in perfume as well as loveliness. We should be giving part of us with the gifts that we give. We need to impart part of ourselves with the gifts we bestow, part of our own life flows out with every deed of kindness we do. Love is the fragrance of the flowers of the heart and what ever we do in love, love for Christ and love for man shall never be lost.

   Who knows what the person is going through? Just think how much the World will be richer and better for even the smallest deeds of Christ like charity. We may not reap the harvest in this World, but beyond the sky's, we shall reap the sheaves in our bosom. So then throughout our lives be in perfect in ‘well-doing’, as we shall know that our Master in Heaven will accept the humblest things we do for Him, even though it only be a fragment in the building up of His Kingdom.

So always remember this ...

Ecclesiastes3:1 “To everything there is a season, 

A time for every purpose under heaven .. 2 A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted”

56:220322

Praying In Disguise

1 Kings 14:1-17 [Judgment on the House of Jeroboam]

“At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick. 2 And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please arise, and disguise yourself, that they may not recognize you as the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. Indeed, Ahijah the prophet is there, who told me that I would be king over this people. 3 Also take with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him; he will tell you what will become of the child.” 4 And Jeroboam’s wife did so; she arose and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were glazed by reason of his age. 5 Now the Lord had said to Ahijah, “Here is the wife of Jeroboam, coming to ask you something about her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus you shall say to her; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another woman.” 6 And so it was, when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came through the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another person? For I have been sent to you with bad news. 7 Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, 8 and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes; 9 but you have done more evil than all who were before you, for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back, 10 therefore behold! I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, bond and free; I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone. 11 The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field; for the Lord has spoken!” 12 Arise therefore, go to your own house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. 13 And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. 14“Moreover the Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam; this is the day. What? Even now!”

(Normally I would not show much text, but this time I felt a need to do it this time around)

“Prayer against his absolute decree,

no more avails then breath against

the wind, blown stifling back on him

that breaths it forth. Therefore to his

great bidding I submit” - Milton

I’ll be looking at 4 elements from 1 King 14 They’ll be . . .

1. Knowledge of God ..
2. Feeling a need ..
3. Disguising of Character ..
4. Complete failure ..

   The more deeply imbued with spirit of prayer the more simple and child like shall we become. ‘Sublimity always is simple’, is how *Longfellow once wrote. Eloquent prayers may be the haughtiness of the Human heart in disguise. The wife of Jeroboam is not the only one who has put on the mask whilst making their requests known unto God. Purity of Worship was at a very low ebb while King Jeroboam made the lowest of people priests and consecrated ‘who ever would be one’ .. [1 Kings 13:33] ..is by no means the only qualification for the service of God. It’s not like he had not sent warning cry against this Holy alter ..
1 Kings 13:2 “Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said, “O altar, altar! Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones shall be burned on you”
… now the jealous God of Israel visits the iniquity with judgement. The attempt to out wit and elude the prophet of the Lord has it’s lessons for us.

*Henry Longfellow lived in America 1807–1882 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the most widely known and best-loved American poets of the 19th century. He achieved a level of national and international prominence previously unequalled in the literary history of the United States and is one of the few American writers honoured in the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey.

    1:~ Knowledge of God

   Jeroboam could not be a stranger to the great things Jehovah had wrought for His people Israel, and had not the prophet of the Lord not foretold him that should be King .. “King of this people” .. But the revealed will of God had been set aside. His acts of worship were new according to his own thoughts and convenience, so he made Israel to sin by the substitution of his own ways for the ways of the Lord ..
1 Kings 12:33 “So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense”
. . . there may be a knowledge of the ways and will of God, while the daily life is a presumptuous denial of the divine revelation.

    2:~ Feeling a Need

V1 “At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick”
   They were very anxious to know .. “what shall come of the child” [V3] Our dearest, and our best are never beyond the withering touch of God’s finger. Every sorrow disappointment may be to us as goals to drive us nearer to God, if our hearts right with Him. There is a bitterness of heart that cannot be spoken into the ears of ordinary mortals, that needs the touch of the Eternal. The yearning of the soul at such times is to know what the will og God is concerning us.

   The main thing is not to miss, is Jesus will be our comforter, our shield against all of the devils trials for us. Young or old, fit or disabled, God will be waiting, to take up against your foes, He only asks 3 things from us are .. Praise .. Worship .. Faith.

    3 :~ Disguising of Character

The wife of Jeroboam changed her appearance and went to inquire of the man of God.

1 Kings 14:2&3 “And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please arise, and disguise yourself, that they may not recognize you as the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. Indeed, Ahijah the prophet is there, who told me that I would be king over this people. 3 Also take with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him; he will tell you what will become of the child”

   Perhaps the King knew that the prophet Ahijah was blind by a reason of age, but both he and his wife seemed to forget that God was not blind. It was utterly needless for anyone to come to God feigning themselves to be different from what they are, and yet this disguising of the true character, while making requests known unto God, is a common pious friend. On our knees we may pretend to believe all that the Lord has spoken, then among our fellow man we put on our self-magnifying glasses, and forget what the Lord that bought us.

Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he”

    4:~ Complete Failure

   As soon as she came to the door of the prophet she heard these scathing words .. “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another person?” [V6] .. The veil of disguise was rent [ripped] from the top to the bottom, and the light of Gods presence shone in upon her. Saul had his ripped off on the road to Damascus. The Pharisee that went up to the temple to pray *feigned himself a righteous man, but he went away as he came, with his mask untouched and his soul unblessed ..
Luke 18:14 “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted”

*feign:- feigned, Simulated or Pretended
1)False impression 2) ‘He feigned that he was not feeling to well so that he could leave the party early.

   Jeroboam and his wife desirous of knowing the mind of the Lord about their child, but they were afraid to face the will of God concerning themselves and their ungodly lives. The disguise was evidently an attempt to avoid the dreaded prediction of the man of God, in the preceding chapter. Is there anything in the background of our own lives that we are afraid of God should deal with, thing that make us put on a mask whilst we venture to seek divine light or guidance?

   For 20 plus years I was a night-club DJ. Every time whilst I out on my mask, called the fun time guy, I was smiling ~ mixing ~ making ones have fun dancing. Yet at home I was the complete opposite, a very quite man. Every day we pull on some resemblance of a mask, for some reason or another. In the presence of God, it will NOT improve matters it we try to hide them, as God will deal with us accordingly to our deal life before Him. Therefore come to the light that the evil deeds may be reproved, confessed, and cleansed for be sure youe sins will find you out.

John 3:19-21 “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practising evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God”

Prayer

Heavenly Father thank you for your living Word, to guide yes, to help show us the right ways to live our lives in your presence, We live our lives a s a sacrifice to you. You know all our ways. Thank you Father God, amen,

Sermons in April 2022

 

April 2022

Coming this friday is my next sermon called .. 

[8th] In Due Season we Shall Reap ..then ..

[18] Why be a Servant