Sermon "Back to My Father and Home" by Rick Shabi, March 6, 2021

well as we're three weeks from passover we've been talking about preparing for the passover and as i mentioned in my letter yesterday morning what we do now and what we're doing now is going to spell the difference of how meaningful and impactful this passover is on you it's too late it's too late and you're not going to get what god intends for us to derive from this season the spiritual growth and the spiritual incentive that we have if we wait until passover and just come and go through the rituals that we always have it's what we do now in preparation for that passover that makes the difference in it you know we read last week and i won't repeat the verses in first corinthians 11 25 through 32 there are 23-32 that god warns us not to take the passover in an unworthy manner it's not that we're unworthy because we know that we are all unworthy but he says don't take the passover an unworthy manner examine yourselves get yourselves ready look at yourselves honestly through the eyes of the bible through the eyes of the word of god where are you in the growth period that god has us all in the training period as we have been called repented baptized and now growing in the grace and knowledge of jesus christ i do want to start today back in ephesians ephesians 4. remind us what the goal is if you will or what standard god has put for us as we go through each year of our spiritual life with him remember as we are baptized we are new creations in his eyes babes and he expects us to grow into mature spiritual adults that can serve in the way that he wants us to serve in ephesians 4 beginning in verse 12 breaking into the thought here paul gives us exactly what it is that you and i are to be doing with our lives and this is something we can review but every year we should be getting closer and closer to the standard that god has set for us we are here in his church we are here to be taught by him we are here verse 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry that's service that word the greek word should be translated service there for the equipping of the saints for the work of service for the edifying or building up of the body of christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god till we all come to a perfect man or a blameless man or a mature spiritually mature man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of christ that's the goal not one of us in this room can say we are anywhere near that that goal that god has for us that he can bring us to as we yield to him and as we go through our lives constantly aware of what we are doing constantly aware of what growth we need to do paying attention to what god opens our minds to and not just throwing you know pushing things aside and saying it's not that important but really focusing on what is the standard that god wants us to adhere to and grow toward every year he sets in time this time before passover when we're recommitting to god when we're remembering when we're remembering how when we were baptized we said we will yield our lives to you we will go anywhere you ask us to we will follow you we'll go through tribulation we'll go through trial and we promised god in that baptism we will do it your way we have come out of the way of doing it our way put that behind us and doing it his way last week we talked about how much god loves us if you recall the beginning of the service he loves us the bible tells us in john 15 12 and 17 23 he loves us as much as he loves jesus christ he wants us to be there he wants us to be part of what his plan is and jesus christ tells us if we love god too then we do what his will is we do his commandments we yield to him and year by year as we walk in this path as god leads us and grows us and develops us we are to become more like him more trusting in him more faithful in him weeding out the faults weeding out the attitudes weeding out our own personal weaknesses as god opens our eyes to see those a couple weeks ago we looked at jesus christ's own words on one of the things that we do before we come to the passover in matthew 5 23 he says before you come to the altar if anyone if your brother has anything against you go to your brother and be reconciled to him first then come and offer your gifts we talked about that and i hope that if that applies to us or if there's there's things in our lives or people in our lives that we feel we may have offended or someone that we are not at one with or have issues within the church that will be working on that together whether we're the one approaching or being approached that we do it in the way god wants us to do it always remembering that he is a god of relationships and he's looking to see how we do these things in our lives because when we're with god for eternity he wants people who have demonstrated in their lives that they can get along with one another that they love one another and that they are one one now and one for eternity with him and with each other last week then we continued and we looked at some of christ's own words as we let him lead us into examination of ourselves and where we are on that growth scale remember we looked at luke luke chapter 10 in just that one chapter of luke 10 we saw so many things that we can look at in our lives as christ gives us an education not only on christian living but the things that we can look at and say wow do i do i do those things am i maybe the way he advised his disciples or brought their attention to things do i do things the way christ instructs he is our he is our master he is our savior he is the one who will direct us let me just briefly go through some of the things we talked about last week because repetition is very good to keep it in our minds in case we get caught up in the cares of the world and what we do during the week and forgotten some of those things if you remember in just luke 10 alone we talked about faith and as christ sent those 70 out and he sent them out to to the cities and he told them remember don't take a wallet with you don't take a knapsack you can trust in me for everything that's faith and they did it they followed it exactly what he said and everything went fine it's a reminder to us as we go through our lives year by year our faith should be stronger and stronger in god and less and less in ourselves less and less in the world around us at the same time when he sent those men out he told them when you come to a house and there's peace there when you find the brothers the people that god has opened your minds to stay with them grow with them let your peace be upon them and their peace be upon you he admonishes us love the brotherhood love the people in your church be with them grow with them it's an individual calling we have but also the calling of the body and the growth of the body that jesus christ is looking for i think one of the notable verses there in in chapter 10 was when the when the 70 came back and they said lord everything everything was done exactly the way you said even the demons even the demons were cast out in your name i remember christ said i saw satan fall from heaven like lightning no matter who we were in the past no matter how good we thought we lived our lives no matter how bad we thought we lived our lives satan was the one under whose influence we were he had control of us when we yield to god when we truly yield to god and give our lives to him and say i'm forsaking my way the way i've done things all my in my past and we yield to god and his holy spirit is put in us satan is deposed from that throne satan is deposed from that throne of course we talk about in revelation when satan will be cast down to earth no longer with an audience to god we have to come in our lives to to make sure that satan no longer has an audience in us that doesn't happen overnight certainly at baptism our way the way of the world the way we all did things in the past has to be put away and we have to do things the way god said that's how and only with his spirit and only as we love him and do the things that he said can satan be deposed in our life god has to be supreme jesus christ has to be our king we have to do things his way and come little by little out of the world as god leads us to the time that we become a perfect man to the measure of the stature and fullness of jesus christ we were we learned in in chapter 10 there about appreciating and holding in the highest esteem jesus christ something we've talked about a lot as we've gone through the book of hebrews i hope i hope for all of us as we have gone through the bible studies and as we've talked about it a lot that we are really focusing on how much we appreciate jesus christ this year as we go to passover and we take of the body and the blood i hope that all of us have a different feeling and a different view and a more advanced view if i can use that term of jesus christ and just how important in our lives and in our futures he is how much he gave up how much he loves us and how much we need to yield to him jesus christ said if you appreciate me if you love me do those commandments remember he talked to the lawyer and the lawyer asked what do i have to do what do i have to do for eternal life and the law and and he recited the lawyer did love the lord your god with all your heart mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself christ said do these and live only one way to eternal life doing it god's way no longer our way we talked about justifying our actions you remember that same that same section where the lawyer was talking about it as he thought about well do i love my neighbor as myself christ knew he was trying to justify himself how many times do we try to justify ourselves we know what's right but we have well but this well but that do i really need to do that i think we all and all these things can look at ourselves and say do we justify are we watering down god's words are we giving ourselves permission to do things we know we shouldn't do justification is no excuse for not doing things god's way something we need to we out of our life we talked about the good samaritan learn to love all mankind and we talked a little bit about the difference between neighbors and brothers and when we talked about mary and martha in luke 10 we talked about how martha invited jesus christ into her home murray though was the one who sat down to listen to him while martha was worried about you know the food worried about the tablecloths worried about what the house looked like and jesus when she came to christ and said can mary come and help me he said martha martha don't be worried don't be distracted by these things look what is important how many times might we allow ourselves to be distracted by things in life that we don't put god first every single sabbath he's here with us in this room i absolutely believe this whether it's this congregation or any of his congregations around the world what distraction might we ever be putting in our lives that we don't come before god's presence there's plenty of them there's plenty of them that we might have apart from sickness and illness and the situation that we're in you know there's nothing that should distract us from being in god's presence martha was quite or christ was quite clear as he mentioned to martha so we ended last week and just in one chapter in christ's words we have all these points that we can look at the things that we need to be paying attention to in our lives and asking the question as we examine ourselves well what about this what about that am i that way we can ask we i can ask god is this in me open my eyes and let me see what it is you know david gave a very thoughtful prayer many times we'll ask god and we might just standardly say forgive my sins but a lot of times we have to ask god what are my sins search my heart show me what it is where i'm not in concert with you show me where i need to approve we'll get into that a little bit because we're going to continue into chapter 11 here today and look at some more things again christ's words are very very instructive and as we look into the gospel and we look into the detail of his words we learn a lot about what we what he expects us to do and some questions that we can be asking about ourselves in chapter 11 right after we talked about mary and martha it says in verse 1 of luke 11. so as it came to pass as christ was praying in a certain place now you know that the disciples they would they walked with jesus christ they were with him day in and day out for three and a half years they saw how he handled things they saw how he responded to things they saw how he was around people a tremendous education they studied his words they studied his manner because he was perfect in all of those things and they would see him go off and they would see him pray it came to pass as he was praying in a certain place when he was done when he ceased that one of his disciples said to him lord teach us to pray as john taught his disciples now that may that may seem like an interesting thing and certainly in the disciples times things were changing jesus christ they would come to understand is the son of god they would learn later he would be the sacrificial lamb he was the savior is the savior is the messiah and the way we approach god would be different than it would than it was in the old testament so as they watched jesus christ and they knew how they were taught to pray they saw a difference what was the effect after jesus christ prayed what was he like after he prayed john had taught the disciples how to pray but as jesus christ responded to them notice there's a difference there's things that they would not have heard from john about how to pray things that we made call very common today so christ said to them in verse 2 when you pray say our father in heaven i dare say john never said when he was teaching them how to pray our father in heaven so when the disciples heard that it would be whoa who is he praying to they may have prayed to god whatever term they were using yhwh yahweh elohim whatever they were using but jesus christ said when you pray pray to say our father which art in heaven hallowed be your name their ears perked up this was the god they were praying to that jesus christ was praying to that they didn't know before remember back in matthew 11 jesus christ said no one knew the father until jesus christ revealed him so here as he's teaching them to pray they're getting an education maybe as they saw him pray and saw the effect it had on him they realized whatever you're doing in prayer is different than we're doing in prayer it doesn't seem to have the same effect on us i think these verses if we put ourselves back in that time and understand what the disciples were hearing as jesus christ said these words that were different than the way that they were taught to pray made them realize as should with us just like we have to grow in the grace and knowledge of jesus christ just as we grow in the understanding and the application of god's way in our life we should be growing in prayer every year the disciples were going to learn this is the way to pray this is the way to pray i want you to pray to your father in heaven and i want you to talk about the kingdom to come and that to become part of what your belief system is and part of you what it is that you will pray for his kingdom to come now remember at that time they thought the messiah would come and there would be a physical kingdom set up at that time they would learn that wasn't the purpose for jesus christ's first coming that was going to happen thousands of years down the road when jesus christ would return you're going to pray for god's will to be done god the father's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven so they would learn in prayer there's a there's there's god the father we're talking to someone different and when they would hear the word father what would it conjure up in their minds well the same thing if we had a a good upbringing right a good father so we talked a little bit about that on the bible study this past this past wednesday if we had good father figures in our lives a father would be here's a kind figure here's one who's provide here's one who loves us who's here's one who is is there for us all the time here's one who has our best interest at heart he's always there in time of trouble i can go to my father he may not always give me the answer i like but he knows what i need and he's the one who is going to direct my past because he is very interested that i become a very viable and productive member of society here's a father who loves me maybe different in a way that the mother loves but together they provide everything that child needs to become the elite or the special or the ideal member of society so here jesus christ is saying you have a father in heaven who loves you that's who i'm praying to i need to listen to him i need to do things his way not my way not my friend's father's way in many cases not even my physical father's way because many of us didn't have fathers in the church and none of us had a perfect father we have one perfect father and that's god the father in heaven so as the disciples were being taught teach us to pray they were going to learn lessons about prayer the same things that we should learn we can ask ourselves is our prayer life today different do we feel closer to god today when we pray than we did a year ago have we learned things through the course of time that you know it's it's the way we've prayed needs to grow with each passing year we're closer to god when we ask him to order our steps we really mean it it's not just words that come out of our mouths but then we go and do things our own way it's really order my steps direct me in your way teach me i don't get that open my eyes and help me to become what you want me to become where do i have faults where do i have weaknesses where am i not following you exactly the way that you want followed he's a faithful god he's not going to overwhelm us and and and and discourage us but when he sees that we want what he wants that we want to go where he wants us to go he'll provide we just need to be sure that we are following it so do we do we follow him and as we're praying do we understand that for god to hear our prayers and really pay a knowledge to him it has to go hand in hand with the way we live we can't be asking god on one things in a prayer and having words but then living on our lives in a totally different way than what jesus christ's spouse the two have to go hand in hand we have to be living we have to be living the way god said and striving to live that way and then our prayers are heard by god and he knows that all of us all our heart all our mind all our soul are marching in that direction let's go back to leviticus for a moment here leviticus 16 this is the chapter we often refer to on the day of atonement and you'll remember on the day of atonement israel would come before god and one man the high priest would go into the holy of holies he would be he would be able to go behind the veil only on that day of the year and only him no one else could come to where god's mercy seat was he would be there on the behalf of all of israel and as he went in there you remember about the azazel goat and you remember about the goat that was sacrificed we know that we talk about that on the day of atonement but remember that aaron had to cleanse himself too because he wasn't the perfect high priest so he had to go through the ritual of cleaning cleansing himself and before god before he could do that for the congregation of israel in verse 11 of chapters 11 or chapter 16 in leviticus it gives us a little bit of insight as we focus into what aaron and the high priest that followed him did verse 11 says aaron shall bring the bull of the sin offering which is for himself this isn't the one the pictured the sacrifice of jesus christ this is the one that he would sacrifice as his personal sin offering aaron shall bring the bolt of the sin offering which is for himself and make atonement for himself and for his house and he shall kill the bull as a sin offering which is for himself forgiveness of sins comes by blood in hebrews we've talked about that without blood without blood there is no forgiveness of sins the blood of the animals could not forgive sins only the only the blood of jesus christ was such that sins could be forgiven when we claim that and not just claim it but live it as well and live the way of christ's so he had to go through this and kill this to kill this and this this bull as a sacrifice for himself as a witness to cleanse cleanse my sins or acknowledge them and then in verse 12 there was something else he had to do then he shall take a censor full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the eternal with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine and bring that inside the veil so he had the sacrifice of the lamb he's got the blood of that or the bull and then he also had to bring in this incense beaten fine i don't know much about incense maybe i need to learn something about it but my sense is is that if the incense is beaten fine beaten really fine it offers a very sweet smelling aroma before god because he talks about incense beaten fine and to aaron he doesn't say just bring the incense beat it fine he shall take a sensor full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the eternal with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine and bring it inside the veil so when he went inside the veil into the holy of holies where god's presence was at the time of the old testament in that temple he would have these things with him and he shall put the incense on the fire before the lord that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the testimony lest he die whoa do it exactly the way i said aaron this is the way you approach me this is the way you approach me this is the way you make atonement for yourself those what he was doing didn't bring about the forgiveness of sins only christ's blood could do that aaron had to do things exactly the way god said he shall take some of the blood of the bull sprinkle it with his fingers on the mercy site on the east mercy seat on the east side before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times so as he went in to god he was there with the blood he's also there with the incense you can mark down in psalm 141 verses 1 and 2. david tells us that incense is as our prayers to god aaron had to go in and he had to ask forgiveness if you will if i can put it in new testament terms atoned for his sins the way god prescribed in the old testament and those had to be matched with sweet incense beaten fine had to be matched with a prayer life do it and develop that relationship with god without prayer and a growth in prayer we're missing some of what god has to say our prayer life is so important we could literally i think have a sermonette or a sermon for the next 52 weeks and i'm not sure we could cover every single aspect of prayer maybe we need to have a discussion group on it sometime on zoom to talk more about it so that we can so we have the time to air some of the things prayer is extremely important you and i don't you and i have access to god's throne as we know every single day 24 hours a day seven days a week we have access to god's throne we come before him in prayer that incense we read in revelation 8. those prayers in revelation 8 says at the time of the end they come up as sweet incense before god he loves the prayers the sincerely beaten fine prayers of his people that show that their heart is with him and they genuinely want what he wants that they are genuinely seeking his way in their life genuinely seeking to be like him genuinely committed to this way of life and not just playing games genuinely coming out of this world genuinely developing more faith in him and when we read about incense being beaten fine those are detailed prayers you know christ in luke 10 and back in matthew 6 he gives us a very general prayer if our prayers are still of the same manner in luke 10 and matthew 6 we haven't grown our relationship with god has to grow we have to be at one with him we have to be in communication with him we need to be learning to pray we just need to be examining our prayer life and be becoming more and more at one with him beaten fine you've heard me say a few times you know god is very interested in what we're doing when we come before his throne we can he already knows all of our weaknesses he already knows all of our faults he already knows all the areas that we need to overcome and all the areas that we have strengths in and all the areas that we still are unaware of he's waiting for us to let him open our eyes so we can ask him detailed questions we don't have anything to hide if we think we're fooling god by saying forgive my sins and yet we're ignoring things in our lives that we may hear as we look at the word of god as we look at our lives honestly through god's word as we hear what our spouses and our friends and you know even the bible says to us if we're burying those things and i'll forgive our sins and whatever you know god wants to hear detail he wants to know what we know you know as we are as as we as i i work worked with people in in in my prior career well i guess even maybe today to some extent but more so there i always knew when people were doing their job because of the detail that they would give me if they were very general i thought yeah i know that that's that's that's what you want me to hear give me some detail because i want to know that you're actually doing what we have to say if i could tell in five minutes conversation whether they're just kind of glossing over the things that um they should be doing or they were really involved in it by the detail they gave god is the same way with us they really want what we have there's nothing wrong with asking god in fact i think he really appreciates when we admit to him we don't know what we're doing we don't know what you mean by this teach us the disciples said maybe it was embarrassing for them teach us to pray maybe we can ask god teach us to pray am i praying the way that you want me to because without prayer without prayer we're not going to be in god's family prayer and living the way doing the things and when we ask for forgiveness doing what christ said when he would forgive someone he would say go and sin no more god was just to forgive he will forgive our sins but what he wants is go and sin no more when we pray we're asking him for that we'll see this again here as we get into a little later in luke 11. so i i hope that we can do that you know as we talk about prayers you know paul says pray without ceasing and for a long time that that kind of fascinated me how do you pray without ceasing and i knew he didn't mean be on your knees 24 hours a day we have lives to live i've come to understand that we're with i mean we should be in contact with god through the whole time you look back at nehemiah when he was faced with the king what did he do when the king asked him the question the first thing he did was ask god give me favor and his sight give me the right words to do he was in contact with god every step of the way there's times we schedule our prayers and we should be doing that to make sure that during the day we have time dedicated time that free of distractions in a place that we aren't going to be bothered by phones and what's going on outside that we can pray to god and dedicate that time to him and let his holy spirit as it says in romans 8 verses 26 and 27 teach us to pray and utter the things that he wants us to do and when you allow that to happen it's amazing it's amazing what god can bring to your mind but there's other times there's just spontaneous prayers i think we're still here in luke 11 or let's go back to luke 11. and one chapter before in chapter 10 and verse 21 we see jesus christ in one of those elements certainly he went away to pray the disciples saw him do that and they knew to leave him alone during that time but there were other times where something happened and he was just in immediate contact with god we find one of those in luke 10 verse 21. we didn't talk about this last week in verse 21 it says in that hour when the when the seventy came back and they said you know everything was exactly as you said they did things exactly the way that god said to do it and all went well and jesus christ rejoiced at the fact that they followed his followed his commands and his admonition so thoroughly in that hour verse 21 it says jesus rejoiced in the spirit and said and here's what he just spontaneously said to god i thank you father lord of heaven and earth that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and reveal them to babes even so father for it seemed good in your sight he just paused and and thanked god do we do that when we see god involved in our lives do we just pause and thank god for being there when we say something beautiful you know we're walking through a forest or we see something you know that's blooming in our backyard do we just ever stop and thank god for what he's made possible to us these spontaneous prayers are a way of constant contact with god making him a part of every part of our life when we find ourselves tempted when we find ourselves really wanting to do something the way we used to do and we know we shouldn't do it that way anymore we shouldn't justify any more we have to do it god's way and trust in him that when we do it'll it'll become the way that he wants us to do we stop and ask god give me the strength to do things your way give me the his gives us the power the spirit of power love and a sound mind do you ever stop and ask him give me the strength to resist this give me the words i need to say now give me the direction i need to follow and how to how to be in this situation here jesus christ just stopped and thanked god for what he saw as his disciples followed him and the joy it brought to him you notice in verse 23 he prayed that prayer right there in verse 23 then he turned to his disciples and said privately just paused and thanked god making him part of everything in our lives if we go forward in luke 11 spending more time in prayer than i intended we'll see how far we get here luke 11. if as we go on in verse 11 we find jesus christ in verses 5 through 13 talking about being persistent with god you know ask him over and over again continue to continue to do that you know in our when our children were younger like all parents they would see something on tv or a toy or a game that a friend had and oh i want this oh i want that right and i learned okay we can we can give them all these things they look at it for once or twice and then it goes in the closet that i thought you know we'll see see just how long they ask for this and after a week you wouldn't hear anything about it anymore but f on some of the things would be i thought they really want that they keep asking for it's gone on for a week or two or three weeks and i thought fine now we can have it god wants us to build the faith in him that we would ask and always remember ask right i don't know that i'm going to get to that later on here as i look at the time already where we are god wants us to ask we can ask him for healing we can ask him for how to deal with this relationship this problem in our lives but if we ask just once and never ask him again how important is it to do things his way he might wonder that as well we read in luke 11 later on in luke 18 jesus christ repeats the same parable of the widow who just keep coming back to the judge and saying please give this to me please give this to me and the judge could see in luke 18 she's really important or she's really interested in this and he gave it to her god is the same way with us notable verse down in luke 11 verse 13. as he talks about the friends who come and ask for something in the middle of the night and they would give him that or if a child asks you something in verse 13 christ says if you whenever you read the word think of us he's talking to us as well as he was to his disciples back then if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask him how much more will he give the holy spirit to those who ask him we all want god's holy spirit it's given to us when we genuinely repent and when hand and are we're baptized and hands are laid on us but even at that time the prayer is asking god to put his holy spirit in that person who was just baptized how much more will he give the holy spirit to those who ask him we might look in our lives how many times or how often do we ask god give me your holy spirit help me to have the strength to do what i need to do the strength to overcome this the strength to put this relationship back together the strength and the patience to put it back together give me the strength to forgive and forget in some cases and start anew and start the path to the reconciliation that god wants and lives start the path to a life without this fault that has to be overcome bit by bit and some for the rest of our lives that they're going to to take us to to be over overcoming it so we can ask for god's many things he's very pleased when we ask for his holy spirit and all the things that his holy spirit gives us not just generically asking for it and making that part of our routine prayer but maybe we sense i'd like to have more love for my brethren can you give me that spirit of love so i can develop that fruit i need to have more peace in my life the fruit of the one of the fruits of the spirit is peace the holy spirit is god's mind in us that can direct us teach us lead us into all truth comfort us in all the things that god wants us to do okay okay you got a sermon on prayer let me let me move on here in verse chapter 11. in the next section here we see jesus christ casting out demons and he gives us an if you will an unleavened bread lesson in verses 21 to 25. so let's look at verses here in luke 11. as he's talking to his disciples he he says this as he's casting out demons and as they watch him and observe what's going on in verse 20 says i cast out demons with the finger of god surely the kingdom of god has come upon you of course the pharisees and others are saying he's doing it by satan's power that's not the case in 21 he says when a strong man fully armed guards his own palace his goods are in peace but when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him he takes him from all his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil he who is not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters what is he talking about who is the strong man that he's talking about in verse 21 who is the stronger man that he's talking about in those verses coming off of the context of casting out demons satan living in someone's life we've all been under the sway of satan under the influence of satan our calling is to with god's spirit overcome him overcome self self being so often directed by satan when satan has control of someone in a demon he's in he's in control he's a strong man that person can't cast that demon out himself it appears it takes someone else the disciples went out and they said we even cast out demons in your name jesus christ cast out demons he has complete control of that person now that person along the line may have allowed that to continue in his life or allow that to happen oftentimes we'll talk about letting satan's influence in in our lives and how that can dominate us and keep us from the growth that we need to have but satan is strong in ephesians 2 it tells us we were all under his control we were all slaves of him we're told in romans 6 strong man you and i don't have the power to overcome satan but with god's spirit we do jesus christ overcame satan he's the one who deposed him and with his spirit we have the strength to overcome him jesus christ is the stronger man only jesus christ and only with his spirit can we overcome satan in our lives only then does the strong man disappear when he sees us being loyal and committed to god when his spirit lives in us when we are committed to living his way of life and we're doing things and acting in concert with his spirit the stronger man wins satan falls from the throne that he occupies in our lives when we yield to god so jesus christ says he who is not with me is against me he who's not gather with me scatters let me read those verses from the god's word translation again and some of the times it's helpful to look at another translation keeping in mind what the what the meaning of that verse is and the english can sometimes become a little clearer to us when we read this this is what god's word how they translate those greek words there that are the new king james for when a strong man is fully armed and guards his palace his possessions are safe until someone even stronger attacks and overpowers him strips him of his weapons and carries off his belongings anyone who isn't with me opposes me and anyone who isn't working with me is actually working against me are we working in concert with christ are we having satan deposed from his throne now remember many times that includes self from the throne not many times if we're relying on self in the way we always did things wasting our time time to change time to look at ourselves and start doing things god's way going on then in verse 24 says when an unclean spirit goes out of a man jesus christ cast out demons when we yield to god satan should no longer have the throne in our life and the influence when an unclean spirit goes out of a man he goes through dry places seeking rest he's been cast out he's looking for someplace else to inhabit just like if we were kicked out of our homes we'd be looking for a new home he no longer isn't that man so he's going to go someplace else to try to inhabit that person he goes to dry places seeking rest and finding none he says i'll return to my house from which i came so satan you know might go around to all the people of god and think i'll find someone someone who will yield to me someone who will entertain me someone who will pay attention to what i'm doing i will attract them by their own ideas their own their own lusts their own temptations and i'll enter that but as he goes through he doesn't find anyone the people of god are resolute against satan but he goes back and he goes you know i'll go back to where i came what is that person that the demon was cast out of that satan was cast out of their life what are they doing what have they done to fill up their lives and their house is it just empty you know when we look at unleavened bread we put out the leavening we put out our old ways we put out sin but the lesson of the days of unleavened bread is we put back in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth we eat the unleavened bread all the days of our life we don't leave it empty we don't leave it empty because if we leave it empty satan will be back to inhabit it if we still continue in the same entertainment in the same methods of doing things if we fall prey to the same temptations over and over and over again and make absolutely no effort to overcome and go in a different direction that god has wrecked us in satan will be back and what will happen when he finds says when he comes he finds a swept and put in order well he was baptized god did forgive him all his sins he is a clean human being now but he's not doing anything with that he's not putting in the unleavened bread he's not filling up with what used to be filled of things and ideas and ways of the world in his own ways he's not putting in what needs to happen then verse 26 he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first we do need to be eating the unleavened bread of truth throughout our lives as one of the lessons of the upcoming days of unleavened bread are okay let's continue in luke 11 here let me see where we are okay luke 11 39. you can read through um these chapters very instructive you know the chapters we've been reading through christ gives a lot of detail of the christian way of living in these uh these chapters verse 39 as he's working with the pharisees we know the pharisees they thought they were religious they thought they were doing things god's way he continually upraids them and draws their attention to what they should be doing they didn't listen they just got mad they just got mad and they wanted to kill him hopefully none of us are in that and that that we do listen and we do pay attention to what god says the lord said to him the pharisee that he was sitting down with that detention like why aren't you washing your hands before we eat or whatever rituals they went through and christ said something to him you pharisees you make the outside of the cup and dish clean but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness could we be guilty of the same thing do we come before each other and oh the outside looks really really great we say all the right things have all the right mannerisms but what's on the inside what's on the inside you know we can't fool god we can fool each other and i tell people sometimes you can fool me with what you're doing but you can't fool god and we have to be open with god and honest with him if he's going to grow if he's going to grow us into who he wants us to be if we're going to allow that to happen and so christ gives a word that we can look at are we could we be down in chapter 12 and verse one he talks about beware of the eleven of the pharisees which is hypocrisy could that be us god doesn't call us to be christians on just the sabbath day he doesn't call us to be christians and to look good on just when we're in the company of other church members he calls us to be christians 24 hours a day seven days a week at home at work at play no matter where we are all his principles and always mindful of who we are just a simple fact of life takes some time to get to that point we grow in that year by year by year that we understand everything we do and just because the world and all our co-workers do it one way if it's not right it's not right you know we're we're different i do want to read luke 12 verses 1 through 3. beware of the leaven of the pharisees in christ's words there at the end of verse 1 which is hypocrisy for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed nor hidden that will not be known therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark it will be heard in the light and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops god knows we can't hide from him don't hide from him in prayer be open with him if you have a problem be don't think that you're fooling him he already knows he's waiting for us to acknowledge it an acknowledgement is the first step to overcoming let me take this one step further if you're hiding something in your life if you're one who's hiding this or hiding that to think i've got this you know there should be nothing in our lives in our families that we would hide we all have that tendency to hide things you know but when we're hiding things maybe we want to stop and think is this god's way am i hiding it because i know it's not right i know it's not the right thing to do if we're hiding things to make it appear somewhere else this is what he's talking about in chapter 12 verses 1 through 3. here we might want to keep that in mind we drop down to verse 13 in chapter 12. we see another occasion where someone comes to christ and you know to their credit they're very open about what they want but christ uses as an opportunity to teach them and to teach us then one from the crowd said to christ teacher tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me that seems something if you don't know jesus christ that you would just go out and and yell to someone that you're talking to teacher tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me well sometimes when family members die and there's inheritances at stake you do see families become different you put money in the equation and all of a sudden things can explode and things get said and attitudes come out that you sometimes have never even seen before or or could imagine that someone could be that way christ read exactly what was going on when the man asked about the inheritance he was interested in the money he was interested in what was going to come to him and christ instructed him man who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you and he said take heed beware of covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses and then he gives the parable a parable to highlight that of someone who just continually receives more and more and more but never thinks that god may have given that to him to share with others he's just keeping it all for himself i'll go and build more storehouses in luke 16 he gives the parable of the unjust steward who plays games with his master when he's caught in deception i'll sell this debt to you for this so that he's got always looking out for himself and playing games with money now years ago i gave a sermon on three three examination questions that the jews as they go into atonement would ask themselves the questions weren't do you keep the sabbath correctly the questions weren't you know do you lie do you keep the holy days are you tithing one of the questions was simply this are you honest in business how do you handle your money maybe you tithe maybe you give honor god with your substance how do you handle it outside of church are you honest with your employer are you giving him an honest day's work for an honest day's pay or if everyone in everyone in your company does this and takes that and takes that do you join in with it and say oh it's okay are you honest in business god concludes this section on you can't worship you can't serve god and mammon serve him first serve him first let me just reference us quickly here to psalm 15. psalm 15 always a good sound to when we're examining ourselves to look at you know god inspired david to write lord who may abide in your tabernacle who may abide in your holy hill and he gives some things here not just a list of the ten commandments but he talks about our everyday lives how do we do these things down in verse five now at the end of verse four money is part of it how we handle those situations in our life verse four he who swears to his own hurt and doesn't change well i made this agreement with the person now i've realized it's good i'm gonna lose money on this deal so i'm gonna back out on it those of you who have had any kind of construction dealings here sometimes we run into that you know someone will make an agreement with you they never show up they never do what it is you know even when you're not negotiating with them it's whatever you say happy to do he who swears to his own hurt and doesn't change i made a commitment i'm doing it even if i lose money i'm doing it because i said i would he who doesn't put out his money at usury nor does he take a bribe against the innocent that very short psalm concludes with who he who does these things shall never be moved he who does these things not just hears these things not who can just repeat these things but he who does these things shall never be moved well there's so much more i you know i i could literally do sermons for the next month i think and i think as i went through luke you know we're coming to the conclusion of the book of hebrews on the bible studies we may continue through the book of luke after that because there is so much instruction in christ's own words that we need to look at and recall and have as part of our acumen as we go forward that we may conclude with that and certainly i would encourage you to look through look through these chapters because there are some very interesting concepts in there that we need to look at among ourselves but i want to fast forward if you will to luke 15 and conclude with something that i don't normally do i'm talking to all of you in this room and i know you're all here for a reason you believe god you're following him and i i pray that what you receive as services each week is exactly what you need and i need as god teaches me to to grow closer to him and that you will commit in your lives to do that but i realize through the last years we have a wider audience than just the people that are here in this in this room we do have people listening on the web some from other church areas some who have never attended a church service some who have attended church in the past but haven't been at church for a while who are understanding and realizing what they left behind and the truth that is as we live in a world as we live in a world that is inching ever and ever closer to the prophetic times that we read in the in in christ's own words in the olivet prophecy we'll see more and more i pray that we'll realize what they left behind or they will they will grasp onto god's words and do that in luke 15 one of the most popular stories the commentaries stay or parables in the in the new testament is the story of the prodigal son and i'm not going to take the story to time to read the story of the prodigal son you know it well and i might encourage you to go home this afternoon and look at that i am going to draw attention draw attention to it through through a poem if you will i mentioned a few weeks ago that sometimes i wake up in the middle of the night and there's a song in my head and of late there's been a song in my head that used to be in our for those of you who are in the worldwide in our grey hymnal and the name of the hymn and i meant to write down the name of the author but i didn't um it's called it was it was literally called the prodigal son sometimes it's called out in the wilderness wild and drear and several times i've woken up with those words in my mind let me just read to you what the author said and i apologize and i give him full credit for this there's four verses of that song many of you will remember it it's not in our hymnal in fact can't even find a recording of it on the internet which i found was very interesting but i could find the words and paraphrases if you will very well what chapter 15 says it's out in the wilderness wild and drear sadly i've wandered for many a year driven by hunger and filled with fear i will arise and go backward with sorrow my steps to trace seeking my heavenly father's face willing to take but a servant's place i will arise and go back to my father and home back to my father and home i will arise and go back to my father in home you know maybe some even here have wandered back into the world or haven't come out of the world you find that the world is a dreary place young people never ever think the world holds the answers to you only god's way provides the joy the peace the excitement in life that you're looking for the world is dreary like the prodigal son when you go the way the world you will hunger you will thirst you will never be satisfied some who have left the church years of years ago some who may be here who have wandered from god done some of that neglect or drifting away that we talk about in the book of hebrews may be feeling the same thing if you're unsatisfied if you're hungering if you're first thirsting if you're looking at the world and a little bit afraid of what's going on as you see the direction go back come back to god come back and yield yourself to him it's not always easy to do pray to him go back to him repent which is the message of the prodigal son and turn back to him it's the answer go back to him the prodigal son did that he was out there in the world and and everything fell apart and he finally had to bite the bullet and say i'm going back to my father even if i have to be the lowest servant in his household what's what's there is better than what the world has to offer i hope we'll all remember that let me read the last the last phrase or the last stanza of that song as well oh that i had never gone astray life was radiant with hope one day now all his treasures i've thrown away yet i'll arise and go something is saying god loves you still though i've treated his love so ill i must go for the night gross chill i will arise and go back to my father and home never never think that god has given up on you never think that he's going to turn you away he will always be there jesus christ said i will always be there i will always love you he rejoices when someone comes back and learns when we repent before god whether we're here every single sabbath and we have things to overcome it is time to return or to repent and turn to him yield our lives to him go back to him read the words in the bible listen to what he has to say don't continue doing things your way start doing things god's way get off of the treadmill that leads absolutely nowhere and get onto the straight and narrow path that god wants us to have now is the time and as we head toward passover repent that's what the whole thing is about we all make sins along the way none of us are none of us are perfect we all have room to grow let's let's work toward passover grow toward passover and grow grow toward that perfection that spiritual maturity that god wants us to have

Channel: United Church of God Orlando

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Length: 62min 41sec (3761 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 06 2021