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Being Tempted

[NIV] James 1:13/14 “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed”

   The bible tell us that ‘Temptation comes from 3 sources .. 1) from the devil [Adam & Eve sinned when they gave into temptation, also the devil temped Jesus Himself] .. 2) From the World .. 3)From our own evil, fallen hearts.

   It is a misconception among newly saved Christians, that all their temptations have all gone away. Then become disheartened when they find out their old temptations have not gone away. In fact your old temptations will always be part of your every day life whilst here on Earth. Before you become disheartened The Bible promises .. “God is faithful, He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear” (1 Corinthians 10:13) [NIV]

   Look at this way, God has given us His Gifts ~ Gracie's ~ Promises, and so much more besides. God will never leave us, to fen for ourselves, nor forsake us. Watch .. “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” [Psalm 23:4]


Prayer

Hallowed father God in Heaven, Strengthen us by your spirit, and help us to resist ‘ALL’ temptations. In the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, we pray.

Amen

Whilst I was waiting

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Whilst I was waiting

Psalm 40: 1-5 “..I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust, And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered..”

   Sadly we all to often these words ‘Your God must be very cruel, to let this person suffer this way’. I then would reply our God Almighty has a reason for keeping us around’. It may not be the answer they want, but I want you think of this way …
Genesis 3 : 1-8 ‘The Temptation of man’
… I’ll not show this chapter because it is a lot. It tells of the conception of Adam & Eve, how God gave them all they needed to eat, with exception of one tree. They had free will to as they pleased, but we know man can’t help themselves to do wrong. So you see it’s not a cruel God it’s man and his free will.

   This kind of conversation happens more than you think. I actually have a confession here. I do have to wonder myself from time to time, and more so when our Heavenly Almighty father is not forth coming to help comfort with a reply.

    In life it seems that we are always waiting, waiting for that special person to come along, waiting for the perfect job to come along, or tell you that your hired. When waiting it seem like an eternity, (as the old saying goes ‘ a watched kettle never boils’). These feeling often end up with impatience, and if unchecked these feelings will send you to being out of control with Anger/Frustration. These feelings if not sorted out will stop you from sleeping.

    We all are waiting for something, today what is that you are waiting for? Might it be one of these …

• Something exciting, like the birth of your first baby being born..
• It might be those all important test results..

   I know some of you might not want to praise the Lord, when you can’t see what to be joyful about, and not want to be joyful at all. OK, lets say your anticipating that holiday you have paid for since last year. Give praise for your job, and thus the means to pay for it as many are not able to do this. If you take time to stop and think there are many many things to give thanks for, green lights – when you to get somewhere in a hurry, you partner wishing you to have a good day at work, am I sinking in yet?

   On the other hand you could be waiting for your exam results? You could be waiting for a partner – to share your life with. NOW is the time to praise the Lord. Those of you that know how I met my wife. (One of these days I’ll share how we met & my testimony).
Psalm 27: 13/14 “..I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord..”

I hears a prayer that goes like this…

“It is hard to wait Lord, sometimes waiting takes a big toll on me, 

and in the midst of waiting and yearning I forget to praise you, 

help me to remember you whether I’m waiting for something 

potentially painful. Teach me patience and the gift of 

resting in your goodness as I fix my eyes on you”

   I’m sure that ‘discouragement’ is not discriminating, or does not matter which Country you come from, some seem to suffer more that others. For when evening falls across the land and a hush comes over the night. When getting ready for bed, which we all have our rituals, like washing your face; cleaning your teeth; letting the dog out; making sure the doors and windows are locked; even alarm set. ‘Discouragement’ comes in many guises, it could be a fit (like Epilepsy), that has been going on for years, it may also be born out of tense family feuding, or a physical ailment (of which I bear witness as I have a broken spine), or it could be a career that has left you some what down. May be your discouragement comes from a recent moment that has left you feeling discouraged and deflated.

   Oh dear, we have all felt the discouragement at one time or another. The question is what are we going to with it? It’s all to easy to to wallow in discouragement and turn your face away from hope. This sort of apathy is not of the Lords thinking. However it does deliver you straight into the devils hands, now the devil is laughing as your 100% focus is on the problem, instead of on our Saviour. Instead of wasting time & energy on things we need to worry about.
Psalm 31:9/10 “..Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; My eye wastes away with grief, Yes, my soul and my body! For my life is spent with grief..”

   I know many of you have felt this way, with many of you going through these times right now. If you are, before we go any further, stand up (come on don’t be shy), now shake your arms, now shake your legs, OK now your body, now sit and continue reading*. Having shaken off your old feeling, it’s time for a new feeling a new attitude. Now to help[ with reading the following I want you to stand again, then read the following Psalm ...
Psalm 31:14/17 “..But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, And from those who persecute me. Make Your face shine upon Your servant; Save me for Your mercies’ sake. Do not let me be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon You..

   Our enemies are wanting us to give up the fight, and for us to look down cast at the days to come ...1 Peter 5:8 .. “..Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour..” … The devil is sleeked, and wants nothing more for us than to trip us up and lying face flat down in the earth. He will use every trick up his sleeve to keep us there. It is time to put on those work books because no matter how discouraged we may feel there is always new hope for a better hope for tomorrow.

   In Romans 5:5 it clearly says that this hope does not disappoint us, God’s love has already been poured out in to our hearts .. Romans 5:5 “..Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us..”

   You may not feel a lot of love right now. You may not even see any victory a head of you, you don’t even know how you can change thongs. Because of this you may not have any thing planned out yet. Even not sure what it is you can do to turn things around. The thing is you don’t need things figured out yet, just lean on the only One who is the author of your unique life’s story. He will how ever use this disappointment your feeling, and turn them around for good. Always remember when your down, the good times are just around the next corner.

   When hope is your heart and the unfailing love of God is on your side, you can over come every obstacle in your path, for God is with you where ever you go. I read this next statement along time ago, but concludes this sermon perfectly …

“You may feel an over whelming sense of God’s hope permeating 

in your spirit tonight , as you approach the Lords throne, 

you may see God for He is - king over your life - and worship 

Him in gladness for He is doing a good work in you”

Settled in Righteousness ...... 55030820

55030820 

Settled in Righteousness 

   Holiness is a fruit that comes forth out of our acceptance of a thing called ‘Grace’. Grace is a root= Holiness is the fruit. Some will say being Holy and then these things are able to happen to you. Wrong. Being Righteous by faith and then Holiness will be your faith.

   Think about this for a moment … ‘If you don’t believe in what Jesus Christ our Lord has done, you ain’t going to see him. You need to believe in Him, then the by product will be Faith. You should always walk in uprightness, this is why .. You should live a life of holiness, because without Holiness, no-man will see the Lord through your witness.

Here’s something you should say every morning before getting out of bed….. 

“ Jesus Christ is my Everything” 

Romans 5 v 12 (Because of Adams decision he infected the whole human race to follow him). “..Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned..”

AMP - V13 “..Sin was [committed] in the world before the Law [was given], but sin is not charged [against anyone] when there is no law [against it]..”

Q: “So what happened to all the people back then, before the law was given”?
A: Can you only transgress against something to transgress?
ie.. your not speeding when there is a speed limit ..

… But we know that without being told, the faster we go the more dangerous/ wrong it is. We have been taught to know it might not be good, like standing at the cliff face, it’s going to hurt if we jump.

   An important thing to note, not all that we did has not been put on your record when we stand as a Christian before the Lamb of God, before we were saved, as it has all been washed clean by the blood of Christ, when we accepted Him into our lives.

Romans 5: 14 “..Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come..”

   If a free gift given to you, and you turn around and say ‘you don’t deserve it’ OR ‘Your not supposed to deserve it, is this free gift’? V15 “.. much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ..” in other words the unmerited favour from God, especially this free gift, you feel you don’t deserve it. But instead God is telling us that “I know you did nothing really to deserve it, but this free gift I give to you nevertheless.

V16 “..one offense resulted in condemnation..” We see clearly how Adams actions brought about Gods condemnation, so we can see how sin was brought into being, and how every man was born in to sin.

   Then God said I’m going give you a precious gift, even though I know you don’t deserve it, through my Son Jesus Christ you may never ‘earn’ it, but by my graces you can ‘freely’ receive it. V17 .. “..much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ .” If you receive ‘the gift’, called righteousness, you will reign in your life, by the one Jesus Christ. This wonderful gift from Heaven is Gods graces, as we were saved by Gods grace. Now you can receive the gift, that is called ‘righteousness’ though grace.

Amp V17 “..much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in [eternal] life through the One, Jesus Christ..”

“Will you receive the Gift” 

   Let us pause and take a look at the meaning of the word ‘receive’ to take into ones possession. Something that is offered or delivered.  So to take into possession something that is offered or delivered, we find that it was through ‘Grace’ that offered us the gift of righteousness, which can now be taken into our possession. Please pay attention closely, NO matter what life has to throw at you, DON’T give up this wonderful  gift from God easily. I hear you scream at the screen “..it’s easy for you to say..’’. Let me tell you it has not been easy, as life is a sea of great tempest’s. You can take a ‘physical’ thing into possession, for example: Money – Sofa’s – Cars – Homes etc. So how do we take hold of ‘righteousness’ into our possession? Purely by Faith alone.

   Only when we grasp ‘Righteousness’ fully, in every area of our lives, like ‘Eat/Sleep/Drink', will we see a difference and so will everyone else. Once you realise how good ‘Righteousness’ can be for you in your life, you’ll want to make sure you have it locked down in every area of how you now live. Then everyone will ask you ‘what your on?’ As they now want some, be aware some will be scoffers, and not believe you. All types of crazy things will happen to those who never ‘relinquish’ Gods free gift for you.

If ever in doubt repeat this to yourself daily... 

“I have hold of Gods Righteousness by Faith alone” 

   For, when the Angels in Heaven hear this they come running with all kinds of provisions, for you and yours. There will be NO mistake, let Heaven & Earth & hell know that “I am the Righteousness of God”. From now on no matter how many times you may stumble and fall always get up saying this, and you will get stronger every time. Until one day when you realise that you hardly stumble, or you can’t recall the last time you did.

V18-19 ...”Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous..” 

   Although we did nothing to be righteous, we were all born into sin by the actions of one couple, Adam & Eve. So to counter what they did in the garden of Eden, Jesus Christ came to correct this. The God of Abraham – Jacob & Moses, His favour will always bless even when you feel have done nothing to warrant such kindness.

Q: “Can I sin away my righteousness?”
A: If you can sin away your righteousness, then it would be a foolish act of your own making.

   If someone came along and gave you the ‘Euro-lotto’ jackpot, would you just leave it laying around for someone to find it? As sinning away Gods righteousness would be the same. When you could be living out your righteousness, which is by faith, and enjoying the glory and manifestation of God.

Q: Why do we keep sinning?
A: Because it keeps bringing about ’Human’, not Gods, natural consequences like .. shame – condemnation, bad feelings, all things we are used to. Be honest, who really wants to willingly live this way? 

   Who wants Shame – Guilt – living under the curse, or would you rather be spending you time being happy and rejoicing over the glory of your relationship God? I know which I choose. That’s not giving you cart-blanch to sinning, but the feeling of wanting to sin will go away eventually. I heard it said that ‘if we were to eat the same amount as we read our Bibles each week, we will be skeletons very quickly and die through malnourishment’.

Slowly but surly sinning will erode away …
..Your confidence in God.. 
..Your beliefs..& 
..Your faith in righteousness. 

   Once your confidence & faith in God goes away, then your going to find it harder to break away from those chains of bondage a second time around, the devil now has you bound down with. So after breaking away from his grasp the first time, would you leave the back door open leaving cookies on the worktop with a personal invite to come back.

   How many times whilst growing up, your (Earthly) father would say ‘don’t be doing that as it will make you unhappy’. But you always seem to know better than him, and so go on to make the mistake anyway. Our (Earthly) father now has to sit around and wait, and be there for you. Well surprise the same thing happens with our Heavenly Father.

Then God will say..
God: You know I love you?
You: Yes Heavenly Father
God: You know I ain't mad at you?
You: Yes Father, now what happens? I am truly sorry I let you down like that,
God: You ain’t let me down
You: Yes, but I want my holiness to be a demonstration of my love to you.

Hebrews 12:14 “..Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord..”

2 Corinthians 7:1 “..Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God..”

   We should want Holiness in our lives so bad, so that our hearts can no longer torment us. We should all want to be Holy and pleasing unto God. Everyday we should want God more & more & more, as much as God wants to love us. We should want to be with Him, not looking for Him do something for us, but just because we want to spend time with Him.

   If we keep doing this, then there will come a time, that NO matter the temptation, it will go straight on pass, because you will not be tempted or see the temptation.

May the Lord bless this to your hearts,

in Jesus Christs name

Amen

Proverbs 6 - Becaus of Adultery (pt 1)

   4 .. Because of Adultery (pt1)

V20 “..My son, keep your father’s command, And do not forsake the law of your mother..”

Ephesians 6 v1&2 “..Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honour your father and mother..”

Tell me this, growing up did your parents say, ‘hey, look, did you know when you get married, you can still play, behind you partners back?’ NO. But kids do mirror their parents behaver & language. “..do not forsake the law of your mother..”

V21 “..Bind them continually upon your heart; Tie them around your neck..” Here where it says to “..Bind them continually..” It means to Perpetually ~ Forever more ~ Eternity, or to stretch out for all time. When tells us “.Continually.” He means ‘without stopping’. “.Tie them around your neck..” For all to see.

V22 “..When you roam, they will lead you; When you sleep, they will keep you; And when you awake, they will speak with you..” When God tells us how to avoid temptation, like with today’s phones, that let us face time, no matter where you are Gods green Earth, with loved ones. Whether it’s staying up Country over night, in Europe some where, or half way round the World. “..When you roam..” Today there are no excuses. 

V23  “..For the commandment is a lamp, And the law a light; Reproofs of instruction are the way of life..” No matter where you go, no matter what you are going to do, DON’T. Have your Bible Not on a devise. You need your bible on your bed open, in your Hotel room, and left closed in your bag/suit case.

V24/9  When your constantly on the road, men & women, it can easily get loanly, whilst separated. I know us men are historically most guilty of this. V25 “.do not lust after her.” Once the line is crossed, there is NO going back. You partner will notice the difference in you, and the truth will always out. Remember, ‘it only takes ONCE to make a nuclear bomb, and everything will be destroyed.

“Keep you from the evil woman .. do not lust after her beauty .. nor let her alure you with eye lids..” (V24/7)   Before your eyes lock, before her perfume fill your nostrils, even before she laughs at a silly joke. Remember this, ‘there is expiry date on Adultery’. Keep this in the fore front of your mind, “..can a man take fire to his bossom, and his clothes not be burnt..” (V27)

#Was it worth it?#