Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast. If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you. Thank you for joining us today.
All right So in numbers 4 1 through 49 We're going to be talking about designated Israelites who carried who cared for and carried the tabernacle furniture Now that may not seem too interesting I'm a furniture carrier for the Lord, but we'll find out that there is meaning behind all that and it truly is something that sets the Levites apart from the rest of the tribes of Israel so Having said that I will just give you a quick outline of which we'll be delving into
the chapter really highlights God's order and holiness and is and if that is certainly a Familiar scene to us about what it is that we have been learning there is no substitute For the holiness that he provides In his kingdom and then the order in which he executes his kingdom very precise We learned that in everything all the way down to the buttons on the ephod and all the little things that have transpired over the weeks that we have been talking both in Leviticus and now in Numbers and
It it is it ensures the tabernacle that would it would be handled with commitment and Reverence it's something that people commit today But what I find so often is that when they commit they don't finish very well And that's disappointing even in Christendom, you know, if you say I'll do that and then it is never executed or carried out
And that is disappointing because you're serving the Lord. You're not serving one another you are but you're ultimately serving him and then the reverence that We should bring when we approach God and his giftings his callings his ministry Even the idea of just praying and you know We probably have remembered when it was name it and claim it in those days where you just Demand it things of the Lord and that certainly wasn't the way God's kingdom should have worked but people thought that and
you know the peace and prosperity movement came and went and so consequently we have a Need these days to understand if God's moving in Revelation and restoration in his kingdom here on earth and bringing revival That is because the reverence that we have the unity that we have to pray for God to move so the duties of the cathites were again carrying most of the important furniture the ark the table the lampstand and the altar and those items work to be
Covered by Aaron and his sons before they were transported and we'll get into that question in a little bit That the people the rest of the Levites That were to do this administration weren't even to see these things weren't even to view the ark the table the lampstand and the altar and they had to be covered by Aaron in which we'll talk about that and There were strict rules touching or seeing the uncovered holy objects led to death and that's a
Fearsome thing when you think about working around and moving in furniture and all this and all of a sudden you get a glimpse of these Things, you know, you'd be struck dead Well again the duty of the Gershonites then their their tasks to carrying out the Carrying the curtains the coverings and the cords of the temple if you remember the temple it had it had posts It had curtains both inside and outside and they were supervised by Aaron's son
Ithamar to do these things think about wrapping them up preparing them disassembling them carrying setting them up and getting ready for again Another pilgrimage and then the duties of the Maronites They were responsible for all the frames the crossbars the post and the bases of the tabernacle Which again was the outside perimeter by and large and again
They were under the supervision of the same man. And then finally we end up in 3334 through 49 talking about the qualification of these men being from 30 years to 50 years of age for service and The number of the Levites were total
8,580 of them. So that's a brief sketch in the outline thereof so let me kind of just do a Clarification here and maybe you do and maybe you don't remember all priests were of Levites But not all Levites were priests There was the administration which we just covered of those three tribes But there were the high priests that was the descendant of Aaron Aaron and his descendants in the tribe of Lehi again He had the exclusive rights along with his children and their children to perform the
Sacrifices that were required and to enter into the Holy of Holies So again, we we talk about the word Levite and there's many of them in the administration They were one of the tribes of Israel, but not all of them ministered in the Holy of Holies So the Levites versus the priests now So we have Levites that are going to do the service and we have the Levites that are priests that are that enter in
Everyone had their specific duty. They performed we just went over that So the other Levites the non priests if you will the Cathites and the garrisonites and the Maricites were again And They executed the Tabernacle duties, but they could not perform those priestly functions so there is a distinct difference between the two and We just want to make sure we understand the ground rules So the roles of the non priest basically those tribes they carried those sacred
Objects they couldn't touch them. They couldn't see them until they were covered by the the high priests and Again, there was transportation of the curtains and the coverings we said and the Maritites they again had the structural components So that's again a difference of the the two Distinct groups of people within the Levites. So now let's pose a question here What was the significance of being appointed to be a furniture carrier of Tabernacle furniture What was the significance of that?
Okay, just you Ron and and Jackie you just do that over here. What is their significance to this? What is what is that significance? Because That's where the priest sits on Okay, the furniture sits but but why did they do that? What was their calling? Am I just a simple furniture carrier? Is there more to this? Because that furniture was holy to God. Okay All right
And so with that there was a calling and an anointing on that furniture. Okay, so let's develop that a little bit alright so These men were entrusted with preserving the holiness of God's dwelling place now, why were they?
designated to preserve the holiness Yes Yes But they weren't originally God wasn't going to ordain them to do this job originally, but look at this Why because there's zeal for defending God's honor during the golden calf rebellion caused them because of their loyalty to get God's attention and So consequently the entire tribe stood with Moses against diagolatry you can read that we we should have gone over that and
God originally chose the firstborn sons of Israel for this task because of their loyalty He then shows the Levites To do the sacrifice to do this service. So again, it was set apart It was special it was to preserve the holiness of God's dwelling
Now let's bring it back to today. We are interested with his glory We are to live a set-apart life and to stand for truth and for service Just like they did there it remember there's a there's the there's the type and the archal type meaning the two Old Testament and New Testament So we are what we are charged to do what? Live a life that is set apart for the service of the Lord Like the Levites were set apart to do the service and the administration of the tabernacle
This role was not just about transporting objects. It was about honoring God's presence Which you alluded to and ensuring his dwelling place remain pure and holy We remember the stories further on down the way what happened to the sons of Israel they didn't adhere to these
Exact laws and what happened they died because they went in the Holy of Holies not prepared. They took foreign fire with them So again, these are the reasons that they were chosen There's a sacred responsibility to all that we do and the tabernacle Also was the dwelling place of God and Transporting its furniture required strict reverence meaning our responsibility is to reverence him in our being
Not casually come in Lord. I need this or I need that or pray Centric to your needs but worship him and the sacred responsibility that we now even have because we are considered holy And we'll talk about a little bit about that in a bit now the symbol of worship They were carrying the ark the lamb stand the altar and the other furnishings represented Israel's devotion to God like our devotion to him and
When we're not devoted to God God certainly doesn't use us like if we would be completely devoted to him So the beati obedience to divine order again something we need to live in each Levite family had specific duties Well, you know Gail's over here She's in charge of the the lamb stand and I think I'll go over and help her well if I supposed to take care of the cords and the and the and the other tabernacle things I can't do her job and That's like the kingdom of God
God calls you with specific ministries to do certain things with your creative being and I can't come in and Displace you Because it's your calling we all have unique callings we all have unique gifts and Consequently, we have to respect that so each Levite family had these specific duties Entrusting the holiness of God to be preserved. That was the goal So now let me ask another question for you Why was covering the fixtures required before being moved?
Why couldn't the remainder of the Levites see these things?
Again, it's that same thing about the holiness of God and so only Those Levites that and Aaron especially that were permitted to go into the Holy Place They were the only ones that were allowed to look upon those things So nobody else could even look upon them let alone touch them Think about the anointing that comes with calling We're all called to do something and In walking or calling that calling there is an anointing that we walk in no matter what this is in the kingdom of God
And so I can't go over and help again that the example I can't help Gail Because her anointing for doing what she's doing is different than mine and God when he gave each unique Responsibility to each grouping of people You can't go over and get into that anointing because God's not going all out of that God won't give you grace for that or calling for that now You may want to do that because gee you have a public ministry and I don't all I do is haul furniture but there is a
Separation between those that are high priests because the anointing they had they could go into the holy of holies They could do the worship they could do the sacrifice But the rest of the Levites as we talked about couldn't so they don't have capacity To be able to begin to do those things because it wasn't in God's providence There's a frown on your face thinking We talked about Levites Divided into two groups the Levites that were high priests could go in and out of the temple
The Levites that were carriers of all the furniture and things they couldn't even see the because they had to be covered up So we're distinguishing why couldn't they see why weren't they allowed to see because they didn't have the anointing for doing that because remember
It goes back to Gail's statement. It's the holiness of God. It doesn't get any more holier than that Because he visited that place and he dwells in that place You know, sometimes I think we don't reverence God enough In the flippant things sometimes we ask selfishly or their attitudes that we have But God is a holy God and We have to respect that so that anointing which anointing I'll define for you is empowering and the Concentration of individuals Does excuse me the empowering and
Consecration of individuals does not come without the calling of God to fulfill the specific purpose In other words, like we said we can't walk and someone else was calling so we got that out of the way what thought comes to me about the Levites about their ministry was this verse and And I'm to the point in time in my life where there's no other thing that I'm interested in I've given up all my hobbies, you know put them aside You know, you ready to give you a motorcycle up yet? Oh
I'm just kidding. So Here we are and and this verse really came to me and understood and I understood why they were the way they were Psalm 84 10 for a day in your courts is better than a thousand years elsewhere And I would rather be a doorkeeper a simple doorkeeper in the house of God Then dwell in the tents of the wicked You know now I engaged in sin and I thought sin was fun for a season But after a while it got old but God doesn't get old
He renews our passions and our interests for him every day as we as we come before him So that's that's our verse that kind of connects those two alright Let's look at the application for us as individuals in preserving the holiness of God What does that look like? Jesus himself is described as the true temple. We are also called the temple of God It says in Corinthians. Do you not know that you? yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you
That's an awesome thought in 1st Peter. It says be holy in everything you do Just as God is holy. He is the one who chose you Thus here we go if we are to obey and be holy that simply means that we have to be set apart and We are to reflect God's holiness Now I won't ask the showing of hands, but how many times have we failed in reflecting God's holiness?
In our concourse of our spouse our friends Business and whatever and I'll leave that to you no show of hands There are no exceptions then to the qualities of holiness We are the expression of God and his government and we must now honor his sacred nature That's what the scripture says So we are to live a lifestyle holiness So my question that is how can one develop a lifestyle that is holy? How can we?
mortals that we are Develop this and he takers Well, it says in Hebrews as you think about that in Hebrews 10 encourages believers to draw near to God with a sincere heart That's one aspect second Corinthians 7 purify yourselves from everything that is That contaminates the body and the spirit So you have the idea of drawing near to God because he's holy and that the idea of purify yourselves you do it So where is the dilemma? Where is the answer?
Okay, I won't leave you hang All right, let's look at lifestyle holiness Let's parse this up and see what this looks like it is a process it's not an occurrence of purification Well First of all, there is part of us as we come to the Lord as a little child accepting him and Beginning to know him know his ways know of his ways not necessarily walk in them but at least know them as we read and as we give ourselves to the Lord and two offshoots of
that are basically the worship and the reading of his word that bring us to an understanding of who he is and Then second of all spending time in his presence and we have talked about these things many times That's what induces you to begin to live the different life It's the groundwork that's being laid in Christian's life to be able to bring them to maturity When people don't pray when people don't read the word when people don't worship when they don't spend time
They don't advance in the kingdom. I hate to be harsh, but that's the way it is God says what if you seek me I will be found He sought us at salvation. But now he says, okay, here you go. What are you gonna do? And as you come you begin to be like this little child The second thing as we begin to grow up we grow in Christ we begin to understand What he's like his character what he does what he doesn't do what he likes what he doesn't like
I mean, sometimes I get up in the morning. I think I've said this and I say Lord, what do you want to do today? What's on your what's on your agenda instead of me giving me him mine. What do you want to do? What do you want me to do just open-ended conversations?
That's the teenager in us as we begin to learn and we begin to understand his precepts in his ways and Again, we are nurturing our Talents We are beginning to see that we then have certain qualifications being fulfilled in our life certain ministries certain callings and We're again being motivated in Either mentoring or discipleship whatever you want to call that there are various programs that we have in this church to bring you along
to help you to encourage you and as you begin to grow up you begin to be more of an offense to the kingdom of darkness now The third element is shaping the lives that we have again, this is our adult life and you know those of you that have had children as Children grow up and they're needy and all they do is poop and yell for food You know and after a while all of a sudden they've grown up and they're in college and they're independent They don't need us anymore. Oh, don't we feel lonesome?
But we feel proud that they were able to bring about a transformation in what God wants to do in their life So this is the adult life. So what attributes begin to develop there?
again Activating the sphere of influence your influence you each one of us have an influence in our relationship with friends with people we work with people we have coffee with obviously people in the church But you want to cultivate that field of opportunity because that's where that's where the missional spirit of God begins to work Yeah, we can go out and we can go to the hinterlands of the of the Bahamas
I always used to say if God ever called me to be a missionary. I'd like to be in the Bahamas So he gave me that and he gave me four years in Bermuda, but I wasn't following him but anyway We are Activating that sphere of influence by virtue of beginning to step out of ourselves and our interest in who we are and begin to relate to people to influence them for Christ and we practice then Authentic love we now understand what real love is because we've understood from the father
What love is how he has come how we are children of him how we adore him Sometimes in the morning when I get up and I go into our Sun room. I just Lord. I just love you You know, sometimes I cry sometimes I don't but you know the expressions that we could have for our father Because he's really he really is our father So again, those things are developing and then we have what I call the reproduction cycle of ourselves living beyond ourselves
Not just having a free ticket to heaven as I have spoken about before but producing more than you consume. I Mean how many people sit in congregations year after year week after week day after day receive the word of the Lord And there's nothing wrong with that and you get filled up. But where's the outflow of that? Where do you have opportunity to let that stuff flow out from your being? And that's important because after a while you get so full
Wasn't that good another sermon Chris preached or I heard something on the radio or this or that. Okay, what good is that doing?
Well, it is building you up but at some point in time you begin to choke in your own saliva so to speak there has to be an outlet no matter how small that may be and Then finally meaningful and relevant Lifestyles that you communicate and that's where we are at in our community is not Going and button-holing them because it's their last trip because they're all retired Yeah, you're going to hell if you don't come to Jesus, you know that that doesn't play these days
What does play is lifestyle evangelism have him for dinner talk with him be friend with them
And as they get to know people begin to come to the Lord. I mean, it's just wonderful. It's it's such an easy thing There's more clouds and things that come up gail So so so here we have we have I'm saving you some time on your on your iPhone You can take pictures at what you want thus in all this a transformation takes place in our lives in Romans 12 1 it encourages believers to be transformed by the renewing of their mind Rejecting worldly influences and embracing God's standard
That's what the game is about Now there are impediments to this life cycle Because not all of us get through that I'm speaking of Christendom now There are perhaps sinful practices that you indulge in that are secret sins Worldly focuses that draw you. Oh, I can't help but I mean, you know, there was was this one lady we were kind to and as she got More needy and couldn't do things. I was helping her and she would receive
One or maybe two packages from Amazon every day. Her house was full of junk So we went over there to help her clean out. I will tell you because she's deceased now So if there's no stories out of school if she had one curling iron, she had eight of them in a drawer If she had one pocketbook, she had two or three dozen of them
She had clothes with tags on hanging in the closet. She never wore so she was being fulfilled by Amazon You know that eternal need for something and you see it what I call It might in my terms garage theology if you're if you're passing people's homes and their Garage doors lifted up seldom they have room for cars
It's full of stuff either going into the house or coming out of the house. It's a staging platform for things and When you come to the end of life and you begin to retire and move and You get rid of things and some people don't ever move into Meadowood because they just can't get rid of their things So there is a workly worldly focus that inhibits us second of all this sinful practice again, our actions that go against God's will and
Sometimes his moral teachings these behaviors can lead us away from righteous living and consequently we can become ineffective tools that God cannot use because of our focus He wants to use you But he can't Why holiness? The objectivity of that the priority of your life Now another thing if you can't if Satan can't get you drawn back into sin
And getting away from the Lord. Sometimes he'll do just the opposite He'll create such a false Spirituality in you that you're no good to your brothers and sisters and I'll cover these things That's focusing on yourself not the Lord false spirituality are lies and deceptive actions that can leave emotional scars and Some of us may have suffered from these things The result can be abuse and disappointment Which really destroys lives that otherwise could be tools for God's use
He doesn't use us unless we do you want me to pull these things down or do you want it this way There That or do you want this That okay Photo shot All right, okay All right now Question in all this we got the life cycle. We know where we're supposed to be. We know the impediments So, how do we purify ourself? How do we purify ourself? Nobody want all we got two. Okay. All right, right on
Well, I would like to rephrase the question more. So like how does God purify us and I would say there's a scripture in my head But I don't remember it exactly But I know it's something about the how the word of God purifies us washes us clean by the word
So yeah, I say it's the word of God. All right, you're getting close and you got half the component Okay God Again does work and we'll we'll add to that Well, we have to Another sort of like turn over ourselves over we have to yield ourselves completely So the Holy Spirit can have his way to do whatever he needs to in us Well, we have to get out of the way The Holy Spirit Yeah Taking heed unto his word and being devoted and being it's not just believing it's
It's got a heart thing to it where you just want to Take heed and yield and whatever Let's put some of these things together. So how do we do this? We do this in two ways God's role in purification is positional
Hear me. He declares us Like you said to be holy God cleanses us through Jesus 1st John 1 7 the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin So that's where you were probably coming from maybe God's grace again transforms our hearts Ezekiel 36 it describes how God gives his people a new heart and a new spirit So that's God's proposition the Holy Spirit Then sanctifies believers in 2nd Thessalonians
It says that we are saved through sanctifying work of the Spirit of God. So we've got God We've got the Holy Spirit coming That's again part of what we're doing and our role in purification and like you said Gail is the experiential role
We grow into holiness. We are holy Positionally by God, but we have to grow in that How do we do that it says we are called to Purify ourself 1st John 3 3 everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself Just as he is pure Jackie you were getting there and some of the thought that you had Obedience and repentance matter James 4 8 it urges believers to cleanse your hands You sinners and purify your hearts So there is two components to this what God is doing has done
Positionally what we have to do by yielding to the Holy Spirit So the question then how can we fully experience this purity and holiness for ourselves? How does this mechanical thing work out you were going through this and you were thinking that you know I could see your mind working and and how does that all come about? Do I give the answer now or anybody? Okay, all right that had some of it
Surrender yourself surrender. Yeah, so God you the Lord of my life. Okay. Yeah. All right came the president So I'm surrendered I give my life Yeah, I I also want to just Go back and finish out something here about can I just do something here a minute? It says some in Ezekiel No, no, I think in Ezekiel where he says I'll give you a new heart with new and right desires and then in it it also says He enables us by the Holy Spirit
And I'll tell you I can't do anything without his enabling power. Yes. It's his grace But I have to yield to it as I think my sister is saying the word of God is just the Spirit of God It's the Holy Spirit and it really is that enabling grace that he gives me Revelation from the Bible, which is the written word into us as the spoken word Okay Yes, very much so
All right. Anybody else? Oh, yeah, Ron Well, I think we can have all this stuff in our mind But until we transfer it down to our heart it's not going to mean anything and You know, I think that's a Something that we have to live with and you know, the Holy Spirit His job is to glorify Christ Yes So, let's put some of these more piece some of these pieces together for those of you that came in later I'm drinking in front of you. I don't I'm not trying to be not polite, but I just had a
An implant done it was two and a half hours of surgery and 23 stitches. So I'm kind of like Wandering around here All right Please pray for me
All right. Here we go Our part in this Experiential purification starts in the conscience So the conscience consists of beliefs Values thoughts and emotions The outworking of that which we see in people's lives is the behavior and action So there is subconscious and conscious Now here's a verse of Scripture for you If it'll come up did it freeze I Hope not There we go, okay, we unfroze it and we'll put it in presentation mode again so here's a verse of Scripture in
Second Timothy 3 16. It says this all Scripture will empower you by instruction and Correction giving you strength to take the right way So the Scripture Has these things embedded in them? It instructs us it gives us guidelines It also gives us correction. Oh, you shouldn't do this and do that and it gives examples of how in Correction God came to his people and then it gives us strength to be able to be encouraged whatever things We're going through whatever difficulties were going through
He gives us strength. Not always do we get delivered from? but we have strength to walk through whatever that may be and again To take the right way There's a fork in the road Lord. I need your answer. Is it right or is it left? He's gonna give you that way the right way so now how do we do that? How does that work? Well, let me give you an example of these things that are our subconscious. What's on the inside of us?
the beliefs Are an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists It could be that it doesn't exist, but that's what your belief is and I'll give you an example of this Alex I'm going to use Alex as a as an example Alex tries to master new tasks, but fails
You know, he he has this desire. He has his belief that he can do it, but he fails all the time Next are values values are beliefs that reinforce an individual's behavior and decision-making I believe this just like Alex now avoids new tasks because he doesn't believe he can do it There's something happened inside The Thoughts that he has are ideas or opinions produced by thinking boy, don't we think too much sometimes or
Occurring suddenly in the mind. Oh, we got to do this and do that Friend of mine went out and bought a a new Dodge Ram pickup eight years ago And he was on unemployment and he somehow he got the the okay and he brought the he was proud of it
And I went over there. Yes, how are you gonna pay for this thing? Oh, it'll be alright Well in two months, it was on his lawn for sale and it was foreclosed, you know those sudden impulses and Like Alex, which is our example now Has thoughts of self-doubt Leading to I know I'm not capable of doing these things his thought processes His conscience is working on him Now what our emotions our emotions are a natural state of mind coming from one's Circumstances mood and relationships with others
Alex feels frustrated and now ashamed and embarrassed that he can't do these things So we have all these things underneath of us vying Fighting disagreeing And then behaviors are those things above ground which everybody else sees The way in which one acts or conducts oneself especially toward others now Alex delays or Or procrastinates making decisions and deadlines and his stress increases so now it's manifest to others and
The actions the actions are the act of or process of doing something typically to achieve an aim Alex settles for less Decline social invitations promotions and literally closes down Because why he had these under thoughts underneath of him inside of him now How Do we overcome these sinful practices? The key to winning the battle for holiness is our conscience our conscience speaks to us Good or bad people that don't know the Lord have a conscience
So don't reject what your conscience is trying to tell you. It's your warning system within your soul your spirit That's what speaks to you The Holy Spirit works through your conscience to communicate to your inner voice See now Let's add to that in first Timothy you will be faithful and have a clear conscience Some people have made a mess of their faith because they didn't listen to their conscience
That's the word. That's not me So How do we get from the word through the conscience and change our attitudes and ways? The conscience is not equipped Or acquainted with the law of God or the Word of God. It's just a tool inside of us It's a mechanism of the human soul
Everybody has this the funk to function properly. It must have right information Now this is where this all comes together The conscience doesn't produce its own values It absorbs its values from the Word of God, that's why we read that's why we assimilate It can only let light into the soul having the right information if we don't give it information It's gonna go its own way So holiness now back to our theme comes because of the process of the Word of God
Through the Holy Spirit, which is the means in which to make alive that Word of God Informing our conscience and then our conscience informs us as a person to do the things we should do Does that make sense to you?
It's it's kind of a long process but Summing it up if we don't read and we don't pray and we don't we're not available We won't have a changed conscience if we don't allow the Holy Spirit to work in our life Our conscience won't change will still have these underlying thoughts the conscience can go bad or can go good it's for us to determine where we are going who we are going to listen to and How we are going to edify ourselves and build ourselves up so that we can be conquerors in Christ
so now our first Impediment to Lifestyle holiness which won that pie chart was sinful practices They are in the heart of all regenerate people All unregenerate people have sinful practices part of Adam was put in this when we were born before we were born I said our Jeremiah 17 the hardest deceitful above all things and desperately wicked
Who can now it and I love these people in TV? Well, you're a kind person you do meaningful and you're gonna be okay and And all this and you know that that's nice, but that's not going to get you where you want to go Because we're deceitful inside Like I tell my wife and she doesn't like it. Everybody's black on the inside dark You know, there's there's a darkness in there. It's it's only because God regenerates us
Romans 8 7 the mind governed by the flesh is hostile toward God. It doesn't submit to God's law Nor can it do so it doesn't have it's neither. There's no ability there. Oh Universal God you just you know you pray and you know, you go here and you you know, you meditate there
All roads lead to home. No, all roads don't lead to home. We know that there is a specific road. It's narrow. It's not wide Romans 7 14 Paul describes the struggle of sin Emphasizing that apart from Christ people are enslaved to sinful desires We can't get away who we gonna be a slave to the Lord or Satan There's no freedom is there? Now I don't want to be free when on this side of life Okay, again, here's our conscience. We talked about that
Here's our subconscious. We have all these things inside us fear regrets stress anger greed jealousy obsession addiction and They're below the surface These are emotions We Can hide them And those weaknesses and flaws That we hide other people won't see And as long as they dwell in the subconscious We can create what I call Sunday morning great you come in the door Sunday morning and I preach preach it
How you doing? You say great, right? Yeah, so what's on the inside there, right? We don't know that You know, we don't have an x-ray to look in there ah He was out late last night and you know, whatever. I mean, I'm just I'm picking on you. I'm sorry. All right, okay So Sunday morning specials are okay. We all showered and we're already us men we shaved Partful part of us. Oh, it would look good. What's on the inside? This secret life Puts up roadblocks
To true fellowship. I will tell you that again and again It stops us from deep relationships. It stops us from participating in small groups it again Doesn't want to get close to other Christians because they may find out There's something on the inside something it's not dealt with So left unchecked with all these things We're not dealt with in layman's terms. They will eventually manifest themselves in the conscience and then become
Behaviors and attitudes they perk up to that level. Remember our arrows going up Now they are seen and felt by others the hostility of other people to us the love of other people to us or Those needs that other people every time I some people you come up to oh, I have this need Okay. Well, you didn't ask how I was
Not that they have to but they're all concerned about themselves all the time. All right now hence in our Sinful attitudes and now these practices that we have it brings distance between us and the Lord Our resistance to being invisibly governed by the agape God limits us from living in his freedom Galatians 5 1 Christ has set us free. This means we are really free indeed when we walk in God's Boundaries life really works for us. It works for us. It works for us. You can see it here
Here we are gathered together in a church in the middle of the week. Some of us work. Some of us didn't But we're here we were drawn here. We want to come here Okay, let's define these things All right fear Debilitating trait excessive or selfish desire for more God's remedy or enabling trait is courage confidence and peace Regret is miss chances and mistakes and the opposite to those satisfaction contentment and fulfillment Stress as we talked about the state of mental and emotional pain
Again, God's economy. It's calmness relaxation and peace Anger is displeasure annoyance and hostility and God's enabling trade is joy patience and forgiveness greed is an intense and selfish desire and God's economy generosity selflessness and moderation jealousy resentment insecurity fear of loss and in God's economy contentment trust and admiration obsession again is persistent intense
preoccupation on things the obsession in the kingdom of God is avoiding extremes and thoughts and behaviors and then addiction is chronic condition characterized by compulsive engagement and Again moderation in all things the Bible says self-control building meaningful relationships instead of seeking escape through addiction So now question What outcomes have you experienced from a character change in your life? You don't have to say it's any one of these things
But what is the character change? What were you and what are you now? See I I I I I I I go down in here and And my big thing is obsession Persistent intense preoccupation had to do things. Well, I learned that that's not the kingdom of God
So he changed me. How did he change me? He brought me down to nothing He took my business away, you know, and all the stories that you heard about that and I had nothing at the age of 49 zero and then God rebuilt me and gave me an opportunity to redeem that time both spiritually and emotionally and financially So that's my short story What is your short story? What are the example that you had that got what is evident now that you didn't have? Nobody wants to talk. Okay. All right Yeah, I go
I got one sure. Let's go. No mine was addiction. I was addicted to nicotine and nicotine Yeah, big time and Oh at least three or four day Well, maybe not maybe not but maybe not quite so much but enough enough But I did what what really broke me was a wonderful thing is the Holy Spirit cuz I did when I became a Christian Is when I became convicted? Yeah. All right. Yeah, and so I tried to do it myself John for three years
I tried to stop smoking myself. I think I had a pack and all my friends houses just in case I couldn't I Did I have my little stash and in none of that stuff worked and I started smoking Cigarillos and cigars anything that would you know, not cigarettes. Well, anyway Make a long story short when the Holy Spirit got ahold of me That's what it really was because I had to really come to a place where I had to realize that
That he addiction was and I it was idolatry for me for me. It was an idol I love the cigarettes more than God I wanted them more than I mean I'd be very angry if the kids when they put pinholes in my cigarettes and I couldn't get a draw I'm Roger for you to go though. Yeah, they go the drug store and get cigarettes for me It was pretty bad for a period of time, but then the Lord just deliver me But you know what? He delivered me by the Word of God And it was a story of Jehoshaphat
When he I just saw it and saw me. He was just totally helpless There wasn't a blessed thing he can do the enemy was surrounding him I did I really felt that I was a surrounded by the evil one, you know And he's just put laid on his face in this and he said, you know, I can't do this This is too much and the Lord says well, that's not your problem It's my problem and he says that the addiction to get over addiction is to submit to me daddy
And I did and he says and I remember the words he used was this battle daddy isn't yours. It's mine
I have done it for you. This is part of your salvation I have done everything for you and that's I believed it and I was set free And that's when wow, that's probably good 56 years ago Well as another story is they were they were healed yeah back to when I was 18, yeah, okay good Anybody else any admissions, you know, I had a friend that I was working with in one of our churches He was an Indian fella and then he used to smoke and now he said he'd like you
I'm gonna give up smoking and he flushed his cigarettes down the toilet. He found some extra He took a puff and he threw it in the toilet. Well a day went by and he came home from work He was so destitute He took that cigarette out of the toilet dried it off and had to smoke that just to get that nicotine
You know and it wasn't until he gave it to the Lord that he that he was delivered from that. Yeah Yes, scale So mine is kind of kind of all of the above but it's It comes from being a woman and having to submit yourself to a husband that you don't really trust hmm, so You know, there's a passage in first Peter I think he talks about women having to You really have to put God first and trust him and
then you can trust your husband because he's under God's authority and you have to be able to put that in the right order and It took me years to be able to do that. It took me to husband number three to be able to do that but He knows all about it but my my first husband was a narcissist and You can't live with a narcissist happily. Uh-uh. My second husband was an alcoholic and he gambled and so we couldn't always pay our bills and
So it was really real. I had a lot of anxiety and then I also had a lot of anger towards them because they're they were making my life more stressful and unhappy, so You really it really all comes back to your relationship with God that has to come first Yeah, so until I learned to do that, I was dealing with all that garbage Not we not us he is the deliverer, okay, so The second impediment to a
Lifestyle holiness is false spirituality and I'll zip through these things because I know that this doesn't affect you Or this isn't you false spirituality are practices or beliefs that appear to be spiritual but lack authenticity depth and true Transformation it can manifest itself in many ways Projection projecting oneself as having great spiritual knowledge or gifting I've seen that many times manipulation some individuals or groups distort spiritual teachings because of their personal bias
Superficial practices Engaging in spiritual activities or even gifts without true understanding of the gift and the Holy Spirit in the guidance of that gift And that's dangerous. Obviously Or deficient emotions instead of facing them Asserting one's presence controlling conversations Directing them to establish their own credibility to feed their egocentric life. So that's what false spirituality look like What's the motivation behind these practices? Well, oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead
Nope. Nope See if you had a computer I'd send you this whole file Oh Well, I'll send it to you Okay, what spirituality look like and I will then this is the last page so hang on here First of all, do not look to man for your answers, but look to God It's Chris. It's the elders. They're shepherds. They're under shepherds. They watch out for you. They pray for you We have different things different people do in the body that support you and mature you and help you get going in life
But we don't look to man as the answer. It's ultimately God Isaiah says stop trusting in mere humans who have but a breath in their nostrils Psalm 118 says it's better to trust in the Lord than put confidence in men Don't try to use God for your own means Bigger plans bigger ministry bigger house. It just shows you how
Much you have not grown up. You need need need want want want Be yourself be real and do not think more of yourself than you should because all we are is humble servants Please allow your character to honor God in all things How I reflect his character reflects on him Well, if that's Christianity in the way you are I don't want it right, you know that we've heard that before Yeah Genesis 17 Jehovah said to Abraham I am the Almighty walk before me and be perfect
Perfect in this case simply means doing the best of your ability and as you want to represent God accurately Not yourself in point but accurately and Then always remember he that you choose your that you don't choose your own path He chooses his path that he wants you to take now whether you yield to that that's up to you Romans 9 20 But who are you all man to talk back to God show what is formed say to him who formed it Why did you make me this way?
Realize that you cannot make room for yourself in your ministry. Only God promotes your ministry the more you push The less he supports you walk humbly recognize your own flaws embrace growth and always seek his truth and then maintain a deep sense of peace joy and contentment which comes from spending time with him and Continually live life with that again a forgiving heart to all who cross your path good bad or otherwise
Luke 6 do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn. You'll not be condemned Forgive and you will not and you will be forgiven so in the last question What does true spirituality look like to you and because of the well I can do two minutes What's this look like? What's true spirituality mean to you? I told you what I think spirituality is in these six points What's spirituality if you define it in words? What is it?
Tough one, it's ten after eight John. Why do you ask such deep penetrating questions, right? I want to go home So do I my teeth hurt My 23 stitches hurt. Oh It was awful two and a half hours in the operating chair No yesterday. I Don't want to go there. I came home grumpy. I would admit that you can ask my wife So what's what's it look like what spirituality look like
Give me one little one little thing. Oh, yeah So I would have related to the last slide that you had about like all those character traits I would say it's like being calm having peace Because I was before that I would stress out a lot I think I was like the counter negativity So he used to stress out because I was playing God You know in my own life and trying to take things into my own hands and getting upset that things weren't working out
The way that I wanted to you know wanted to work out, but I had to realize, you know, I'm not God I'm not Jesus and to just take that back seat Let him handle it and when you change my character to be humble and just to submit to his will not do my own will Everything I started to have a lot more peace and faith and security. So yeah
You learned that at such a young age. I didn't learn it at your age Yes, I Think making him number one priority in your life, okay, and that's how life works for me when I Made Jesus as the Lord my Savior. So things start to work out Do we supposed to you know not on my own strength, but you know with God's presence in my life So yeah, so just making him in the moment purity. Yeah father daddy, right? Yeah, that's it All right
Anything else? All right, yeah I'm just acknowledging the fact that my life doesn't belong to myself any longer Because if I've had asked Jesus into my heart, then he's supposed to be Lord of my life And so whatever I do, whatever I think whatever I say, it should be honoring to him because he's in charge of my life now Doesn't it give you a rest to know that instead of striving and thinking and doing all right Any last questions?
Okay, John say the benediction so we can leave. Okay, we will Lord. Thank you for this time of fellowship Lord we trust that We learned something from your word tonight something that we can talk in our hearts and build upon and Yet again become more holy as you are holy Lord, we know that your demands for holiness come with love and patience and Father not with a whip or a cane Or a struggle as was stated but because of your love to us
Your peace that you put in our hearts that passes all understanding Lord God, we do. Thank you that we can put you there you're on the throne and Dearly beloved we honor you for who you are. Oh God in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for your time Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss his word Don't forget to join us for worship lives Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube Be blessed and have a great day