Glory to God in the absolute highest!
Happy Memorial Day
Giving honor to all branches of military.
Giving special honor to those who have lost their lives serving our country.
Giving honor to and praying for all who serve in every branch of our government presently.
Giving honor to all In Christ who are doing what God told them to do.
To my own family members who are lifers in the military and to those who have served,
Love Y'all and God Bless.
Memorial
Honoring the memory of a person or people and their contribution to the good of others.
Their deeds being preserved in the hearts and minds of men, that they are not forgotten.
We are not forgotten of God.
Your work unto the Lord is not forgotten.
Some may think that they do more than others but God only knows the time that you have spent with and for Him.
Y'all know the Lord lead me to talk about the woman with the Alabaster Box last week who washed the Lord's feet and anointed Him with oil.
How she operated in the anointing of God and that it wasn't her ministry, but the Father's ministry that she was carrying out.
The Father sent her there to minister to His Son.
Jesus said about this woman, that her ministry would never pass away because,
Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, shall also this be told, what this woman has done, it will be told as a memorial of her.
She would in no wise lose her reward regardless of what the disciples thought she was doing because her deeds had been made known to Jesus so that He took notice and honored her.
Never focus on pleasing people, focus on pleasing Jesus, always focus on being noticed by God.
The account of this in Matthew 26 showed that The Lord's own pupils/ disciples were concerned about money being wasted.
It wasn't just one disciple who had questions about money, it was (plural, disciple's) but only one of them would betray the Lord for money.
At this point they were still students of the Lord and 11 of them took the lesson and one didn't.
There are disciples who are not saved.
Gandhi followed the teaching of Christ but he was not saved.
Judas followed the Lord's teaching but he wasn't saved.
There are believer's who are not disciples and believer's who are.
A disciple is someone who will follow the teaching of Jesus diligently on their own they don't have to be pressed.
They have a natural hunger to get before God and feed.
All men who are saved won't be disciples.
Mark 4 talks about the difference between a disciple and a believer as well.
The difference is not on the surface, it's the root that you can't see that determines.
It ain't the suit or the hat baby.
Don't get mad, break open that Bible with a spirit of meekness and check it out.
Jesus showed us in John 17 when He prayed first for His disciples and then He went on to pray another prayer for believer's that there is a distinct difference between the two.
Judas was a (disciple/ pupil) but he wasn't a believer.
People will come to church and follow you around all day long listening to you teach but they are not diligently seeking God, when they leave that sanctuary they have left their search in those seats.
This is why they get frustrated and many fall away, because they came in to get rich, or simply find a mate not to seek the face of Jesus and or salvation.
No where in the Bible can I see where the LORD said, go and make disciples.
Just like we can't make people come to Christ, this is not something that you can make people do.
This is were frustration comes in because we are trying to make folks do something.
We have read books that ain't the Bible and we are allowing something that looks good to the eyes and to be desired, creep up on what Daddy done told us to do.
When all the Lord said was, go teach.
The Lord Jesus said, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel, baptize these folks in the Name of the Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost.
The sower sows the Word.
God gives the increase.
Those twelve went on to be Apostles, and through them teaching Jesus, God made more disciples.
Acts 6 shows how the number of disciples multiplied.
Then the 12 called the multitude to them and said, We have to stay in the Word of God.
They were not mere students anymore they were doing the work that Jesus did.
The Lord is at the right hand of God and these men need to be there as well in prayer and study as Jesus was when He was here on earth.
Jesus set an example for them and us to follow.
It's hard to hear from God if we aren't in His face everyday.
Our heart gets weak and numb to the voice and Word of God and we get caught up in the latest fad in the Christian book rack.
So now we done heard from Doctor So- n-So and missed God completely.
It wasn't because of Stephen that the number of disciples increased it was because the gospel was preached.
Acts 6:7
And the Word of God increased: and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
These weren't just converts, they were serious students.
They weren't coming to try and be rich like Judas must have been.
They were coming to sow a seed that will never pass away.
The woman who came with the Alabaster Box was looked upon with indignation and anger and murmured against.
Why?
Was it about what she had in that box being sold for more than three hundred pence?
They thought, she ain't doing what we would have done, she evidently believes that she is the exception to our rule.
Her ministry won't go anywhere, she'll be by the side of the road, she won't have any money using her resources like this.
That woman's ministry to God is still going and it serves as a memorial, a sweet smelling savour unto God.
It's not forgotten of God.
When you are ministering to anybody you are ministering to God Himself.
Would we be nasty and stank if Jesus was standing in front of us?
We are talking to God when we are talking to His people and we don't want to leave God by the side of the road.
Lolita, when did we leave God?
We didn't leave God we still go to church 6 days a week.
So you think that you haven't walked away from Him because you are in the church building?
You also think that just by going to church you have come to God?
When your attitude walks away from Him, you could be standing in the baptismal pool.
When your words walk away from Him, you could be standing on the podium.
When your heart walks away from Him, you could be in the choir stand or sitting in a pew.
And the ministers asked:
When did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger or naked or sick , in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Jesus said,
In as much as you did it not to one of the least of these, you didn't minister to me.
Matthew 25:44,45
When we open our mouths before people we need to know that it is first God who hears our heart and knows our frame.
So instead of telling folks what they are not going to be, sow the Word and tell them what they can be In Christ.
Tell them that they can be saved if they come and learn of Christ.
That Jesus came to help them along, they might not move when we want them to move but all we are supposed to do is sow the Word, we don't give the increase.
If they don't come, we don't step off of faith and begin to be abusive and nutty.
We are supposed to walk in faith where what we have said and prayed will reap a harvest.
But when we sow funk we reap funk.
When we sow in faith we reap in faith.
God didn't tell those disciples what He wanted that woman to do with that Alabaster Box of ointment, He told her what to do with it.
Ministry
Lord have mercy on us.
The ministry that is going somewhere and the ministry that will never pass away is the ministry of the Word.
Mark 4:14; John 17 :6-19 for Disciples ; John 17:20-26 For Believer's
This ain't my ministry, this is God's and what He began, He is well able to and will finish.
Love Y'all
No comments:
Post a Comment