House Calls

Aspects Of Prayer, Pt. 1

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Lomacang (Host), John Stanton

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Series Code: HCL

Program Code: HCL120005


00:01 Hello, friends, grab your Bible and a friend
00:03 and sit back as we explore God's word
00:05 together on this edition of House calls.
00:22 Welcome to another edition of House calls.
00:24 My name is John Lomacang and to my right
00:26 is my good friend, Pastor John Stanton.
00:28 And we are in the saddle again getting ready to go
00:32 and carry you with us on an excursion
00:36 through the word of God.
00:38 And it's gonna be exciting because whenever you go
00:40 into the word of God, there are treasures
00:42 that you always discover.
00:43 So thank you for tuning in.
00:44 Get your Bibles, get your friends, get your pens.
00:47 Hit record button and stay for an hour
00:49 of exhilarating Bible study together.
00:52 Good to have you here, John.
00:53 It's good to be here, John,
00:54 and ready to open up the scriptures
00:56 and let the Lord speak to us.
00:58 Praise the Lord. And, you know friends,
00:59 we always like to let you know that,
01:01 whenever we join you, there is a time
01:04 for the spirit of God in heaven,
01:06 to connect to the hearts of humanity on earth.
01:08 But it always happens most effectively
01:10 if we begin with prayer.
01:11 So, John, pray for us today.
01:13 Let's do that. Our Father in Heaven,
01:14 we need You today as we do everyday.
01:17 And we pray for Your presence to be here to guide
01:20 and to lead throughout the program
01:22 to be with every aspect of it.
01:24 And to be with us as we open up the scriptures,
01:26 we look at a few questions, and try to do our best
01:30 to provide the answers that come from on High.
01:33 And so we thank You Lord for the promise
01:35 You've given to us that You would send
01:36 the Spirit to anyone who asks.
01:38 And so we ask believing and knowing
01:41 that we'll receive, in Jesus name, amen. Amen.
01:45 As you know, friends, a lot of this program
01:46 has to do with your questions and your comments.
01:48 Today, I have snail mail, not that it is slow
01:53 but if you could send an email and get here
01:55 in a matter of a nanosecond.
01:58 For those of you who don't have internet,
02:00 we still accept mail through the postal service.
02:03 And we have two of them here today,
02:05 but John has the hi-tech mail.
02:08 And we're gonna begin with the hi-tech question,
02:10 back to snail mail, back to hi-tech,
02:12 back to snail mail.
02:13 And we're gonna have a good time in the study today.
02:16 Amen, amen.
02:17 You know, this question is coming,
02:18 actually it's come to us several times before,
02:21 but I am not sure we really have
02:22 spent time on it here of late.
02:24 And it comes from Andrew.
02:26 And he says thank you for the great job
02:29 you guys are doing, thank you very much, Andrew.
02:31 And my question centers around
02:34 the new and Old Covenants.
02:36 There seems to be so much confusion
02:38 regarding what stays and what goes.
02:43 In specifics, how does eating pork and other
02:47 unclean meats still relate to modern Christians?
02:51 Is it a sin to eat such things?
02:53 And then, there're some other things that he asks
02:55 in regard to like Passover and a feast.
02:58 Should we be keeping those kinds of things?
03:00 And so we'll try and touch on a few of those items,
03:02 but first of all, let's really dive into,
03:07 what the essence is
03:09 in the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.
03:11 Now first, we're gonna start with the heart.
03:14 If you go to Exodus Chapter 24--
03:19 Exodus Chapter 24, you're gonna find
03:23 how the Old Covenant was established.
03:26 And I'm gonna read here from verses 3 through 7.
03:33 Exodus 24:3-7 it says, so Moses came
03:36 and told the people all the words of the Lord
03:40 and all the judgments, and all the people
03:42 answered with one voice and said,
03:45 "All the words which the Lord has said we will do."
03:49 What verse are you in again?
03:50 I am in verse 3 of Exodus 24. Okay.
03:53 And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord
03:56 and he rose early in the morning and built an altar
03:58 at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars,
04:02 according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
04:04 Then he sent young men of the children of Israel
04:06 who offered burn offerings and sacrificed
04:08 peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.
04:10 And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins,
04:14 and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
04:16 Then he took the Book of the Covenant, okay,
04:19 so we're looking at this Book of the Covenant
04:21 now that has been established and read it
04:24 in the hearing of the people.
04:26 And they said, and here's the second time,
04:29 "All that the Lord has said, we will do, and be obedient."
04:35 And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people
04:37 and said, this is the blood of the Covenant
04:40 which the Lord has made with, excuse me,
04:43 with you according to all these words.
04:45 Talk for a second, John, because--
04:46 Yeah, you got--you've got crud going on in there.
04:49 Well, you know, the Lord makes the covenant, John.
04:51 This covenant that He makes first of all is a covenant--
04:54 if He makes a covenant, He is the one responsible
04:57 for keeping the covenant.
05:00 But also, covenant can't be made with just one person.
05:02 A covenant is a two-sided agreement.
05:04 You know, for example, if you go and purchase a car
05:07 you make a covenant with the car manufacturer
05:09 when you sign the dotted line
05:11 as we use that phrase, the dotted line.
05:13 Well, when the covenant is made,
05:15 the covenants have to be first of all put
05:19 that is constructed, agreed upon, and ratified.
05:25 And so you see every time there was
05:27 the shedding of blood in the Old Testament.
05:31 After the Lord established that covenant
05:33 that was a continuation to reiterate that,
05:36 we agree with the covenant that you made.
05:39 You agree to follow your side of the agreement
05:45 and we will agree to follow our side of the agreement.
05:49 But even more than the human side,
05:52 one of the things that makes the covenant
05:53 so wonderful is when one high priest died,
05:56 the covenant still continued.
05:58 When the people or the leaders of the tribes
06:01 of Israel passed on from generation to generation,
06:04 the covenants still continued.
06:06 Because the most important part of the covenant
06:07 it is made by God and God's covenants
06:10 are eternal because God is eternal.
06:13 Now when we speak about Old and New Covenant,
06:17 each of those covenants served a specific purpose
06:20 and had a specific timeframe.
06:22 You're gonna talk about that-- That's right.
06:23 In a moment before we transition.
06:24 Yeah, I think one of the few things
06:26 to remember here as we're looking at the covenants
06:28 is that God has made a covenant with mankind
06:32 and that covenant is an everlasting covenant,
06:35 a covenant that was established
06:37 from the beginning to redeem mankind.
06:39 We find evidence of that in the garden
06:42 just after the Garden of Eden between Cain and Abel,
06:44 we find the two altars there that the only acceptable
06:47 sacrifice was that from the Lamb
06:50 that was put on the altar by Abel.
06:52 The one that was not sac-- accepted was that,
06:54 that was put on by Cain,
06:56 which was the fruit of his own labors.
06:59 And so what we're finding here in the Old Covenant
07:01 is God coming back to Israel and saying
07:04 here's the covenant, the book was read
07:07 in front of the people and the people
07:08 responded saying that they will do that.
07:10 Did you read verse 8, by the way?
07:12 I don't know if you read verse 8, yes.
07:13 Okay. Yeah, all right.
07:15 Yeah, and so as you look then at this covenant
07:19 established or ratified, I guess, you would say
07:22 with the people of Israel what they're communing to do
07:24 is to obey that covenant as we read from verse 7.
07:29 Well, the problem with the Old Covenant
07:31 is that asking a sinner to-- in his own power
07:38 to obey something that God has given is impossible.
07:42 And that's the situation that Paul writes about
07:45 especially in the Book of Romans where he says,
07:47 you know, we're carnal, we're sold under sin.
07:49 It's not possible that we would even
07:51 be able to keep the law of God.
07:53 And so the Lord knew that He would need to do
07:57 more than just ask the people
07:59 to keep their end of the deal. Right.
08:01 And so what He did was He sent Jesus who is the seed
08:06 that would come and be established.
08:08 He would be the one individual that would be
08:10 established, the New Covenant
08:11 would be established upon, and that He would
08:14 bring about all of the blessings and the fruit
08:18 that would come as a result of the covenant,
08:20 the everlasting covenant,
08:22 as it transitions from old to new,
08:24 and so what we find here in Ezekiel Chapter 36.
08:29 If you look at Ezekiel Chapter 36 here,
08:33 and starting around, I think, it's verse 27, okay.
08:44 Okay, I am there. All right, it says--
08:50 in fact, let's start with verse 24, okay,
08:52 for I will take you from among the nations,
08:54 gather you out of all countries
08:56 and bring you into your own land.
08:59 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you,
09:01 when you shall be clean, I will cleanse you
09:03 from all of your filthiness and from all your idols.
09:06 I would give you a new heart
09:08 and put a new spirit within you.
09:10 I will take out the heart of stone
09:12 out of your flesh. And give you a heart of flesh.
09:17 I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk
09:20 in my statutes and you will keep
09:22 my judgments and do them.
09:24 So what we have is a transition here
09:28 from the Old Covenant, which was an outward
09:31 obedience and effort that the people
09:32 would go into engage in to obey God.
09:35 To where God would takeover, put His spirit within them
09:39 that these commandments that were on stone
09:43 now are written on the heart and then
09:46 the heart of each individual then now empowered
09:48 by the spirit of God will be able to then keep
09:50 the commandments because it's not they
09:52 who are doing it in their own flesh,
09:54 in their own power, it is God in them
09:57 who was going to work to will and to do
09:59 according to His good pleasures.
10:01 You read in Romans-- or Philippians Chapter 2:13.
10:05 And so you'll see that Paul wrote about this
10:09 in 2 Corinthians 3:5-8. This is the last one.
10:11 I'll kind of transition it over to you,
10:13 John, to make some comments, but if you look at
10:15 2 Corinthians 3:5-8, you'll see that this is exactly
10:20 what Paul was talking about and writing about.
10:26 It says, not that we're sufficient of ourselves
10:28 to think anything as being from ourselves
10:30 but our sufficiency is from, who?
10:32 From Christ. From God.
10:35 Who also made us sufficient as ministers
10:39 of the New Covenant not of the letter but of the Spirit.
10:42 For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives what?
10:46 Life. Gives life, but if the ministry of death
10:49 written and engraved on stones,
10:51 do you see the trends, the same language here?
10:53 Was glorious so that the children of Israel
10:55 could not look steadily at the face of Moses
10:57 because of the glory of His countenance,
10:59 which glory was passing away.
11:01 How would the ministry of the spirit
11:04 not be more glorious?
11:06 For the ministry of condemnation had glory,
11:08 the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
11:10 In other words, when the Holy Spirit comes
11:13 and takes over under the new covenant
11:14 and brings Christ into the life, the individuals empowered
11:18 then to keep the covenant that God has established
11:23 with and to obey Him, and in response to
11:27 the great love that God has for him and her,
11:29 they are able to give back to God the obedience
11:32 that comes from the heart because now
11:33 it is the spirit driving that obedience, that's right.
11:36 That is the essence of the internal transition
11:39 from old to New Covenant.
11:41 Now, I recognize we're going to get into
11:42 some of the aspects of the Old and New Covenant
11:45 because-- some of the other aspects
11:47 because the question was in regard to certain things
11:49 to eat and other stuff too.
11:51 So we'll comment on that here in just a minute.
11:53 But do you wanna add anything,
11:54 John, on the stuff we're talking about here so far?
11:56 Well, when you speak about the covenant,
11:57 Hebrews--the Book of Hebrews is wonderful.
12:00 If you look at Hebrews Chapter 9,
12:02 it speaks in detail about the first covenant.
12:05 Then Hebrews Chapter 10 introduces the second covenant,
12:08 but the point that's made is both covenants are ratified
12:12 or brought into effect
12:16 by the shedding of blood, really important.
12:19 But some of the differences is what I want to point out
12:22 because you'll find one of the reasons today
12:24 we don't sacrifice animals, blood of bulls,
12:26 and goats, and calves, and doves.
12:28 The reason why we don't do that any longer
12:30 is because each of those aspects pointed to the coming of Christ.
12:33 Letting you know that the first covenant was temporary.
12:36 That's why Galatians says when the fullness
12:39 of time had come, God sent forth his son,
12:41 born of a woman, born under the law.
12:43 Jesus even made it very clear He says.
12:45 Not one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass
12:48 from the law, till all be fulfilled.
12:49 Lot of times we only apply one covenant there
12:53 but He was speaking about
12:55 all of the aspects of the old covenant
12:57 was to be fulfilled through His life.
12:59 But the commandments were to continue that's why
13:01 He says not one jot or tittle
13:03 shall in no wise pass from the law.
13:05 And then He says if anyone therefore shall break
13:07 one of the least of these commandments.
13:09 So He's put up the law and the commandments there.
13:11 But one of the points I wanna make here
13:13 in Hebrews 9, look at verse 1,
13:17 then I am going to go through a few of those
13:20 and then probably around verse 10 stop.
13:23 Hebrews 9:1 it says, "then indeed even
13:26 the first covenant had ordinances of divine service
13:29 and the earthly sanctuary for a tabernacle was present."
13:33 The first part it describes all of the tabernacles.
13:36 Verse 4, which had the golden altar
13:37 describing all the articles of furniture.
13:39 And verse 6 says, "now when these things
13:41 had been thus prepared,
13:43 the priest always went into the first part
13:44 of the tabernacle performing the services."
13:47 Then it was an earthly priest.
13:49 But under the second covenant,
13:51 it's Jesus the High Priest.
13:53 That's the difference, a major difference.
13:55 One is as an earthly priest,
13:56 which was replaced over and over and over again.
13:58 That's why the Bible says, Jesus is a priest
14:01 after the order of Melchizedek.
14:03 He didn't need the temple and the tabernacle
14:05 and all that to be the High Priest.
14:07 Melchizedek was a priest before this was established.
14:10 So Jesus is that priest which meant eternal priesthood,
14:15 not one that sits up and sits down
14:16 because there's a tabernacle or not.
14:18 Goes on further he says in verse 9,
14:24 "it was symbolic for the present time
14:26 in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered,
14:29 which cannot make him who performed this service
14:32 perfect in regard to the conscience."
14:34 And here is the difference,
14:35 "concerned only with foods and drinks,
14:39 various washings, and fleshy ordinances imposed."
14:43 And here is the key "until the time of reformation".
14:46 And look at the transition, the time of reformation,
14:49 "but Christ came as High Priest.
14:51 Of the good things to come with a greater and more
14:54 perfect tabernacle not made with the hands,
14:59 that is, not of this creation."
15:01 And I like this here in verse 12,
15:03 "For if the blood of bulls and goats,
15:06 the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean
15:08 sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,
15:12 how much more shall the blood of Christ,
15:14 who through the eternal spirit offered Himself
15:17 without spot to God, purge your conscience".
15:20 And here is the covenant here,
15:22 "from dead works to serve the living God."
15:25 And for this reason, He is the mediator of the,
15:28 what covenant? Better.
15:29 A New Covenant in verse 15. The New Covenant.
15:32 So verse 18 therefore not even the first covenant
15:35 was dedicated without blood.
15:36 So you clearly see that there could be
15:39 no covenant unless there was blood.
15:41 But now go to Hebrews 10 and we begin to see in
15:43 two places the New Covenant spoken about.
15:46 Hebrews 10 particularly verse 16.
15:49 "And this is the covenant that I will make with them
15:52 after those days," says the Lord,
15:54 "I will put my laws into their hearts,
15:57 and in their minds, I will write them".
15:59 Then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds,
16:02 I will remember no more."
16:03 Now the reason why He mentions that,
16:05 remember no more is because in the
16:08 earthly tabernacle, this is powerful.
16:11 He says, every year there was a remembrance of those sins
16:14 because all these blood, all these sacrifices.
16:17 It was a constant remembrance
16:19 in the most holy place the sins linger there
16:22 all year long until the-- Day of Atonement.
16:27 But it said in Christ though there was
16:29 no remembrance of those sins.
16:31 He, as the Bible says, puts them into
16:33 the depths of the sea and remembers them no more.
16:35 Their sins and their lawless deeds
16:37 I will remember no more.
16:39 And so one, an earthly priest,
16:42 secondly Christ, a Heavenly High Priest,
16:46 the major differences in the covenants.
16:48 Now as we look at the covenants
16:50 and we apply to some practical aspects.
16:52 'Cause the question is here with
16:53 what about the eating of pork.
16:55 And say the festivals and other thing that were
16:58 associated with the Old Covenant.
17:00 Because as you look at Exodus,
17:02 as you look at Leviticus, you see clearly
17:07 in those two-were in politic in general,
17:12 a delineation of the things that
17:14 were under the Old Covenant. Right.
17:16 Now one of the things you're finding there is,
17:21 I'm gonna search for the best word to say this here.
17:23 You'll find basic principles that God had
17:27 given his people back then that will place
17:30 within the context of the Old Covenant.
17:33 That still remained under the New Covenant
17:37 because their principles are good, and pure, and holy.
17:42 Okay.
17:43 So there are things that are-- that foreshadowed
17:47 the coming of Christ and what He would do
17:50 as He took over his ministry
17:52 that pointed directly to His ministry yes.
17:55 Those things were done away with.
17:56 Specifically, those were the ceremonial aspects
17:58 of the law, the sacrifices of bulls and goats
18:02 and the shedding of blood.
18:05 Even with regard to the feast,
18:07 we do not keep the feast today
18:08 because the feast pointed to the various ministries,
18:11 the things that Christ did when He came
18:13 as a minister of the New Covenant
18:14 that He has already fulfilled.
18:17 And He is still fulfilling.
18:19 But still in Christ is where we stand
18:21 not on those things.
18:23 But now let's talk about a couple of aspects,
18:26 few aspects, with regard to the Old Covenant
18:29 that are good for us to still abide by.
18:31 Number one, you'll find throughout
18:33 the Old Covenant, John, this constant commandment
18:36 to continue to wash, to be clean. Right?
18:40 And I'm not talking about
18:41 the ceremonial aspects of being clean.
18:43 I'm talking about just the
18:44 general cleanliness of individuals.
18:47 God knew what sin was going to do.
18:50 And He repeatedly was trying to instruct
18:51 the people in many areas of life,
18:53 how to live a full and abundant life?
18:56 To not allow the diseases to come upon them,
18:59 like another thing you could say is that
19:01 He did not want His people to eat a lot of meat
19:07 or to even meat at all.
19:08 But the people asked for it.
19:10 God gave permission for them to do that.
19:12 But He did so knowing that they would suffer
19:15 as some consequences as a result of that.
19:17 I think consequences we're still suffering from today.
19:20 So these things were put into
19:22 the confines of the Old Covenant.
19:24 But they weren't ceremonial per se.
19:26 So when you talk about eating pork,
19:28 God says in the Old Covenant that,
19:31 that was something that was unclean.
19:36 The animal itself was unclean
19:37 and therefore was not fit for food.
19:39 Now John, one of the things that I've been
19:41 studying here lately or a few months ago,
19:44 actually did some study on it,
19:46 was the subject of clean and unclean foods.
19:49 'Cause this question comes up from time to time
19:51 and I know that many of those
19:56 who are out there who are listening
19:57 or viewers of this program,
19:59 probably do eat some of these things.
20:01 But let me try and give you kind of
20:03 a synopsis what I've discovered.
20:05 Within the Bible from the very beginning
20:08 even in the day of Noah, He took seven clean animals--
20:13 of each of the clean animals into the Ark,
20:15 he took only two of the unclean.
20:17 Part of that was I think because ceremonially
20:21 they were to only sacrifice clean animals.
20:23 Right. Because only Christ could be represented as clean.
20:26 As something clean.
20:27 The secondarily, I think he was looking ahead as well
20:30 in the reproduction of these animals
20:31 that they would be available or that He would get
20:34 permission to use them for food.
20:36 I think that's probably the lesser of the two.
20:38 But still here is the principle.
20:40 When God said you can eat, all of the animals
20:45 that are from the clean line as food,
20:50 but you could not eat any of the animals
20:52 that were from the unclean line for food.
20:56 What He was saying was
20:58 that the unclean animals are not food.
21:04 The clean animals are food so when you use the term
21:08 or anyone uses the term unclean meat
21:11 or unclean food, it's a misnomer.
21:17 It's kind of an oxymoron there.
21:18 Because if it's unclean-- It's not food.
21:20 It can't be food. Right.
21:22 So all this arguing we do sometimes back and forth
21:25 about whether or not we can eat now unclean foods.
21:30 If you look back at the principle,
21:31 it's an oxymoron.
21:32 There is no such thing as unclean food.
21:35 Right, people don't even eat in unclean plates
21:37 let alone unclean food.
21:38 Every bit all the food that was spoken of
21:43 and debated over as being clean or unclean
21:45 in the New Testament especially in the writings of Paul,
21:48 they are in regard to food sacrificed to idols.
21:53 By virtue of a clean animal being sacrificed to idols
21:57 that are not part of the--
22:02 all those things that are sacrificed many were
22:05 debating over as to whether or not you could eat them
22:07 after they were offered to idols.
22:10 And so that was the debate within the church.
22:13 There was no debate on whether or not you could
22:15 eat from the line of unclean animals
22:18 and use them now as food.
22:19 It doesn't make any sense. Right.
22:21 They didn't have that kind of debate.
22:23 It wasn't food in first place.
22:24 That's why we're so repulsive to Peter
22:26 when he had the vision in Acts 10.
22:28 Lord, I never--
22:29 I never, never eat anything common or unclean.
22:33 It wasn't an issue because He didn't say
22:36 when He said He never ate anything common or unclean,
22:39 because I know I'm not supposed to.
22:40 It's just unclean.
22:42 You don't eat that kind of stuff.
22:44 And the Lord had to use these examples
22:46 because of the fact that they considered
22:47 the gentiles to be unclean.
22:49 That's why even Jesus had to breakthrough
22:51 the mindset of the disciples when He referred to
22:54 the Samaritans and those who were
22:55 not Jews as dogs or swine.
22:59 You know, "cast your pearl among the swine
23:02 or you give the food of the children to the dogs."
23:05 He made that--He made those statements
23:06 because they didn't dog and they didn't eat pig.
23:09 And they consider these people unclean.
23:11 But the Lord made it clear.
23:12 Nobody that I have created
23:14 human-- humanistically speaking is common or unclean.
23:18 And so to suggest or to argue under the New Covenant,
23:22 that God has taken all of a sudden
23:24 an entire line of unclean that is never been
23:27 available for food, nor has He ever called it food.
23:29 And make it food is simply not Biblical.
23:33 Not scriptural at all. Is not scriptural at all.
23:34 So don't go back and don't get into debates
23:37 over whether something that is unclean food--
23:40 remember that's not a right term.
23:43 Is now food or available for food.
23:45 It's the fact that there is nothing
23:48 in the unclean line that's ever been food.
23:51 And so we shouldn't even be talking about it.
23:52 That's right, you know it's amazing
23:54 that you bring it out. I was looking at some texts here
23:56 because you was talking about wash and the clean.
23:58 There were four kinds of laws in the Bible.
23:59 The health laws, dietary laws,
24:01 ceremonial laws, and moral laws.
24:04 And so you find lot of times people said
24:07 while the ceremonial laws were the ones
24:09 that were nailed to the cross.
24:11 Well, the dietary laws, the health laws,
24:15 the moral law was not nailed to the cross
24:18 because at no point do you say to your children,
24:20 from now on you could be unhealthy.
24:23 From now on, you can eat anything.
24:25 From now on, it doesn't matter
24:26 whether you kill, or lie, or steal, or cheat,
24:28 or violate the Sabbath, or commit adultery.
24:30 Those things were never a part of God's character.
24:33 The only purpose is for the ceremonial law,
24:35 which were the clean and unclean foods
24:37 also couldn't because Christ is not represented
24:41 by anything that's common and unclean.
24:44 So that's the only reason for the
24:45 clean and unclean in a ceremonial sense.
24:48 But there was clean and unclean in a dietary sense.
24:51 That's where the people get it mixed up.
24:53 Dietary clean and unclean, don't eat this stuff.
24:56 That goes back to Genesis, Chapter 2.
24:58 He says, this is what you should eat.
25:00 This is what I've given you for food.
25:02 This is what I've not given you.
25:03 That's way back to Genesis,
25:05 before sin entered the world.
25:06 That's the health, the dietary principles of it.
25:09 The ceremonial were added in Galatians,
25:13 I think it's Galatians 3:19,
25:14 they were added because of sin
25:16 till the seed should come.
25:17 That was dealing with the sin problem.
25:19 So the only thing that was nailed to the cross
25:21 where the ceremonial laws, not the dietary,
25:26 not the moral, not the health.
25:28 Right. Okay. Very good point.
25:29 Galatians 2 speaks of that because it speaks about
25:31 the ordinances that were specifically guiding
25:34 the ceremonial aspects of the law,
25:36 the shadow of things to come.
25:38 Various washings, carnal ordinances imposed on.
25:42 By the way, festivals are in there.
25:43 Yeah, exactly. That's right.
25:46 So all those things were--
25:48 all those were part of the ceremonial law.
25:51 And anyway, but very, thank you very--
25:54 that was a lot of explanation but it was
25:55 very important and very necessary.
25:58 Here's a quick question we have here
26:00 about okay--about two to three weeks ago
26:04 you stated that if a person handled church problems
26:08 anyway beside Matthew 18
26:10 that they were using the devil's methods.
26:13 Let me explain that even further.
26:14 The specific issue we were speaking about is
26:17 brother to brother, sister to sister.
26:21 When it came to issues in that respect
26:23 for not all church issues-- we are not speaking about
26:27 when it comes to building projects
26:29 or settling issues interdepartmentally.
26:31 That's not the issue.
26:32 The issue that we were speaking of is,
26:34 whenever there is a controversy between
26:36 brother and sister, the Bible outlined principles
26:39 clearly as to how those need to be handled
26:41 and that's were Matthew 18 comes in.
26:44 Matthew 18 beginning with verse 15.
26:46 It says "moreover if your brother sins against you,
26:51 go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
26:56 If he hears you, you've gained your brother."
27:00 What I was saying is there are lot of churches
27:01 that are split and divided.
27:03 We get these chiefs and Indian chiefs
27:05 that sometimes when a person is injured,
27:08 socially injured, or spiritually injured,
27:10 or injured however, where they feel that
27:12 somebody has done something against them.
27:14 They go and take it to this person
27:16 and that person and they go take it to the board.
27:18 They submit a letter to the church board.
27:21 And they say we would like you to call this person in.
27:23 Matter of fact, I had a guy once who sent me a letter.
27:26 I was pastoring one of my churches.
27:27 I won't tell you which one.
27:29 And he said to the church board,
27:31 I demand you to call my wife in and say--
27:36 and demand her because in this particular instance
27:39 was another state I was in.
27:40 He says, she wants to leave me because
27:42 she doesn't want to stay with me any longer.
27:44 I suggest you call her and demand
27:47 that she stays with me.
27:49 And I said, well have you spoken to your wife about this?
27:51 Oh no.
27:54 How do you bypass one-to-one conversation
27:57 in a covenant relationship, husband and wife?
28:01 And then says to the church board
28:03 call her in here and demand that she stays with me.
28:06 And the kind of life this guy was living was the kind of life.
28:09 You know, I don't recommend people
28:11 leaving and staying with each other.
28:12 But I said his situation was the most ideal
28:15 if anybody wanted to find reasons
28:17 to not stay with a person,
28:19 she had all the reasons in the world.
28:21 But the point of the matter is,
28:22 when it came to moral issues,
28:24 and lot of people bypassed the process here.
28:26 And they go and tell and I've said to
28:29 many church members when they come to me with an issue,
28:31 I said have you spoken to so and so about it?
28:33 No, I haven't.
28:34 Well, go talk to them about it.
28:36 Uh, but I'm afraid. Well, don't be fearful.
28:38 We'll give you--we'll help you in the method of approach.
28:41 But you must speak to them about it before we
28:43 hit them with the heavy artillery.
28:46 Because it goes through levels.
28:48 First of all, you go one to one
28:49 and then verse 16 says, "but if he will not hear,
28:52 take with you one or two more.
28:54 That by the mouth of two or three witnesses
28:56 every word maybe established."
28:58 In other words you go-- it wouldn't be your word
29:00 against his any longer.
29:01 It is you were there, you heard.
29:04 You heard his response and there are situations
29:06 you have to deal with that way because
29:08 the Lord wanted everybody to be dealt with
29:10 equitably and that's the key thing.
29:12 No rush to judgment.
29:14 Don't--like the Bible says,
29:16 Jesus said I would not bruise.
29:19 I would not break a bruised reed.
29:22 I would not quench a smoking flax.
29:24 That means if the coal is just about to die,
29:26 you don't take a whole board of church members
29:30 and just go after this person who's barely have
29:33 enough faith and just douse it on them
29:34 and put their fire out.
29:36 Or if they are also injured,
29:37 you don't carry after them a baton with you
29:40 and just break this, break this bruised reed.
29:43 He's preventing these things.
29:45 And lastly, it says in verse 17,
29:47 "and if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church.
29:51 But if he refuses even to hear the church,
29:55 let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector."
29:59 And so it goes-- and whatever you,
30:01 "in this process, this is the process
30:04 where the Lord says where two or three
30:05 are gathered in my name,
30:06 I will be there in the midst of them."
30:08 That's what he was talking about.
30:09 Not just, if two or three people gathered together
30:12 for an evil thing, God is not in the midst of that.
30:15 He was talking about a process by which we deal
30:17 with people equitably and lovingly and kindly.
30:21 He said I'm in the middle of that.
30:23 But I'm not in the middle of rush to judgment
30:24 or mobs to take people to the board
30:26 and beat them over the head.
30:28 That was the context of the statement.
30:30 If we use any other method than that,
30:33 we are using Satan's methods.
30:34 That's what I meant by that.
30:35 One of the big reasons for doing that is because
30:37 often it's said, well so and so hurt me.
30:39 They need to come to me and apologize.
30:41 And you're talking about that on one of our last program.
30:43 You know, and-- the Matthew 18 principle is
30:46 that the one that is hurt goes to the one that
30:48 did the hurting first to let them know
30:51 that they were hurt to try and work out the issues.
30:54 And the reason they do that is because
30:55 in hope that the one that was doing the hurting
30:57 isn't going around, doing a lot of hurting of someone else.
31:00 And you can let them know what their--
31:02 what the problem is in treating people like this
31:05 in the hope that they might turn or change
31:08 and see the error of their way.
31:09 And that's what it is talking about.
31:11 If they hear you and then they change,
31:14 you've gained obviously a brother.
31:17 That's right. That's right.
31:18 Or a sister, but in the context of brother,
31:20 it's a spiritual sense.
31:21 You know, we are brothers in Christ.
31:23 That means a brotherhood, which also include
31:26 "the sisterhood," so to speak.
31:29 Well, we spent some time on our questions today.
31:30 We have some questions coming up
31:32 in other programs that we'd like to address.
31:34 But if you have any questions,
31:35 if you have any comments, if you have any statements
31:37 that you'd like to make, brief please,
31:40 send those to housecalls@3abn.org.
31:42 That's housecalls@3abn.org and we do appreciate
31:46 all you do to follow this program
31:48 and get into the hearts, and homes, and lives
31:50 of those who are supporters as well as
31:53 maybe new adherents to our broadcast station here at 3ABN.
31:59 We're going to transition today into a topic
32:00 that is widely important.
32:04 You know, John, today lot of people pray
32:06 but we're gonna talk about aspects of prayer.
32:08 How--what are the barriers through prayer?
32:12 What are some of the prayer killers?
32:14 Why is it so important to pray?
32:17 One of the things we have nowadays in society--
32:19 I should've done this with my cell phone in the hand.
32:22 But I don't have it here.
32:23 We always turn our cell phones off.
32:25 We like to communicate.
32:26 I mean, we are the most communicating
32:29 social network, computer literate.
32:33 We are electronically bought and sold.
32:38 We love to keep in touch. Generation is just--
32:41 it's truly the generation of information.
32:45 The ironic thing about that though
32:46 and this fits into the topic today is,
32:50 we are one of the most inept generations
32:52 when it comes to personal relationships.
32:54 Yeah, one to one.
32:56 One to one, because the family,
32:57 the child communicates on Facebook.
32:59 I actually saw John-- this is funny.
33:01 This happened in my church office.
33:03 There were two young people sitting on the couch
33:04 and they were texting each other.
33:05 And they were sitting right next to each other.
33:08 They were sitting right-- they're texting each other.
33:11 And they look like this, did you get my text?
33:12 Did you get my text?
33:13 And I'm thinking, could you just
33:15 look at each other and talk already?
33:18 And in this same sense, some of us are so
33:22 computer so bought and sold and we are so controlled
33:26 by devices that we have lost the art
33:30 and the beauty of spending time talking to God.
33:34 And that's something that cannot be replaced by devices.
33:37 I met somebody yesterday that we were having lunch
33:40 at Subway and having a nice pizza
33:44 with all the fixings and veggie meat on it.
33:46 It was really good. It was filling.
33:48 But this person said on Facebook,
33:50 they pray on Facebook.
33:53 They could not do it audibly.
33:54 So they type out their prayers.
33:55 Because they said if somebody says pray for me,
33:57 they don't want to forget later on.
33:59 So they literally type out their prayers.
34:00 I think in that sense for another person it's acceptable.
34:03 And sometimes we write our prayers out for God.
34:05 But today we're gonna talk about
34:06 some of the most beneficial aspects of prayer.
34:09 Why it's so vitally important?
34:10 How and how not to pray and what we can do to
34:16 strengthen our life of prayer?
34:19 The Lord wants us to pray to Him.
34:22 There is no doubt about that.
34:23 He wants us to communicate with Him, to seek Him.
34:26 He is available 24x7, 365.
34:31 He wants us everyday to come to Him.
34:34 And, I think, He longs for us to communicate with Him.
34:38 And how often do we engage in prayer each day.
34:43 Really, I think to a degree it's can measure it
34:45 with how strong our spiritual relation or spiritual walk is.
34:51 Paul gets to-- talks about getting to
34:53 a point of praying without ceasing,
34:54 this constant attitude of this constant attitude of prayer
34:56 throughout everyday that keeps that line open.
35:00 John I-- just a quick story,
35:01 I went through a period of time where I was convicted
35:03 that I wasn't praying enough.
35:06 And it hit me that-- well,
35:12 it was the way that God taught me this.
35:14 I did not use amen at the end of prayers for a while.
35:19 Because--this isn't a theological thing.
35:22 It's not the reason why.
35:23 Because I want to keep the communication line open.
35:27 There are sometimes I felt like
35:28 when I was saying amen that I was saying I'm done talking.
35:32 Oh, okay. Okay.
35:33 You know, to be real--I mean-- It's like the capping off.
35:36 If we pray and all of a sudden we say amen and we go.
35:38 Well, I was feeling like that.
35:40 It was too much a part of amen.
35:42 So I got to the end of the prayer and I said Lord,
35:44 you know, thank you so much for being with me today.
35:47 And I pause and I just getup.
35:51 And I just--I was impressed that the line stayed open.
35:54 And it was the way that I think God was teaching me
35:57 this attitude of prayer throughout the day
35:59 of seeking Him, of communicating with Him,
36:01 keeping that line of communication open,
36:04 not to say that that's the way you should do it.
36:05 I'm just saying that's the way that God kind of helped me
36:08 understand that-- my prayer line,
36:10 the prayer line with God needed to stay open
36:13 throughout each and everyday.
36:14 And the point is here in all of this,
36:17 is that we need to keep the line open.
36:18 We need to keep prayer constantly going.
36:20 It's not just something we do in the morning really quick
36:22 before we leave the house.
36:23 It's not something that we do.
36:25 I mean, come on, all of us have been on our bed
36:26 and we're praying this, we fall asleep.
36:28 We're saying, Lord thank you so much for the day--
36:32 I mean, we have all done that and God deserves our time.
36:38 That's right. And He wants to give us His time
36:42 And so we're gonna spend some time here
36:44 on all these different aspects of prayer
36:46 and how you can improve your prayer life.
36:48 And also the expectancy that God will answer your prayers
36:51 because I think, all of us would like to think that
36:53 we are talking to God and He is hearing us.
36:55 Not, that we're talking to a wall that can't respond.
36:58 I've heard people say as I feel like
37:00 I'm talking to the ceiling, but my prayers
37:02 are going no further than the ceiling.
37:04 We're gonna hopefully try to give you some tools here.
37:08 And this may take a couple of programs, actually.
37:12 Because it's a great, it's a dynamic topic.
37:14 As a matter fact, what I'd like to do is begin with probably
37:19 one of the most famous,
37:21 famous passages on prayer in the Bible.
37:24 And it is in fact, I could sometimes refer to it
37:29 as the blueprint for success.
37:34 Second Chronicles 7:14, second Chronicles 7:14,
37:40 this is the--okay, as a matter fact,
37:44 we were speaking about covenants a moment ago.
37:48 This is the prayer through which the Lord confirmed
37:52 His covenant with the children of Israel.
37:56 And there are certain passages in the Bible
37:59 that have a whole lot more to it.
38:01 At the beginning of it and toward the ending of it,
38:05 but the middle of it is so vitally important.
38:08 I did--I did a study on this and just looked
38:12 at the word over and over my, my, my, my, my.
38:17 And I counted from verse yes,
38:21 I counted from verse 14 down to verse 21.
38:26 And let me just do that one more time.
38:27 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
38:31 eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen times.
38:35 You find though single word my.
38:37 So there was no doubt that the Lord was in essence saying,
38:41 "My people, My face, My eyes,
38:45 My ears, My heart, My statutes,
38:48 My judgments, My commandments, My land, My sight, My name,"
38:52 over and over again.
38:53 There was no doubt as to who was in fact
38:56 pleading with the people of God here.
38:58 So John why don't you walk us through Second Chronicles 7:14
39:04 and at those places emphasize that,
39:06 do you want to say something--
39:07 Well, I was gonna say, I like to start with 12
39:09 to give them the context-- Okay, let's do that.
39:10 How the Lord is appearing to Solomon here? Okay.
39:12 "And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night,
39:14 and said to him, I've heard your prayer."
39:17 "And have chosen this place for myself
39:19 as a house of sacrifice.
39:23 When I shut up heavens and there is no rain,
39:26 or command the locust to devour the land,
39:28 or send pestilence among my people,
39:30 if my people, who are called by my name,
39:34 will humble themselves and pray and seek my face
39:38 and turn from their wicked ways,
39:40 then I will hear from heaven
39:42 and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
39:46 Is that a blueprint or what? As just beautiful.
39:49 But you know, notice what's happening,
39:52 verse 13 is huge because verse 13 is a lot of time
39:57 the experience that people have,
40:00 their plans are not working out,
40:02 everything they do just doesn't--
40:05 it just keeps falling apart it seems like all their savings
40:09 or a being consumed and it talks about here.
40:13 Sometimes the Lord would do that or allow that to cause
40:19 His people to turn and, and go into the direction
40:22 that He wants them to move.
40:23 And that's what I see is happening here,
40:26 read verse 13 one more time and I want to stop you
40:28 at few points there.
40:31 Well, I'll just go ahead and read the socket,
40:32 since you read it first, I'll just reiterate.
40:35 He says "when I shut up heaven," okay.
40:37 Now what happens when heaven is shut?
40:41 Oh, when heaven a shut--
40:42 No rain, no answers to prayer,
40:44 because the flipside of that He says in Malachi,
40:48 "I will open for you the windows of heaven
40:51 and I pour out of blessing that they're will not
40:54 be room enough to receive it."
40:55 So what happens as if heaven is shut,
40:57 the blessings are not coming.
40:58 That's right, even the blessing the Holy Spirit,
41:01 the former and later any power.
41:02 All of that. It's not coming.
41:03 So what's happening here He says,
41:05 if I shut up heaven that means,
41:07 I'm not even responding because I'm just not really into
41:10 what you're into.
41:11 God is saying I'm not into that
41:13 and then He says, and there is no rain.
41:16 "Or command the locust to devour the land."
41:20 So what's happening, that mean you're planting,
41:22 you're waiting for the harvest.
41:24 In Malachi this is such a-- this is such an opposite
41:27 to Malachi here, such a contrast to Malachi because it says,
41:30 "I will rebuke the devourer for your sake.
41:35 Neither shall your tree cast his fruits
41:37 before the time into the field,"
41:39 says the Lord of the host.
41:40 So He isn't saying, when God is blessing you
41:43 He is rebuking the devourer.
41:47 I tell you this brings to my mind so many stories
41:50 about how God rebuke the devourer.
41:52 Can I testify it briefly? Yeah. I've done the same.
41:54 I'll tell you, I remember so often you know
41:57 when you look at the children of Israel
41:58 and they traveled through the desert.
41:59 Their shoes didn't wear out.
42:01 Their clothing didn't wear out because the Lord was with them.
42:03 And I have seen in so many instances where,
42:07 you hear about things that are happening all around you,
42:10 but then you're moving right along in a prosperous way,
42:13 not in abundant way.
42:14 Not in a way where things, you know,
42:17 where your pockets are flowing over with money
42:18 and your fridge is always jam packed with food.
42:21 But God has sustained you
42:22 against all obstacles and all odds.
42:26 And we had a number of instances that way,
42:28 my wife and I, in our lives, over and over and over again.
42:30 As a matter of fact, we would we were considering
42:33 writing a book about just blessings,
42:35 how God blesses us.
42:36 But these are the principles right here.
42:38 He, He keeps the devourer from,
42:44 from eating up all your crops.
42:46 But when you're not obedient He commands the locust,
42:49 I mean, He created the locust.
42:52 He commands them and the pestilence
42:55 also comes among us people.
42:56 So these are, these are opposite to blessings in verse 13,
43:00 but look at how it turns it around, John.
43:02 And walks us through that verse again.
43:03 What does God want us to do?
43:05 I'll try to stop you as you go from one point to the next.
43:08 13 or 14. 14, sorry.
43:10 "If my people, who are called by my name,
43:13 will humble themselves." First thing.
43:15 That's important. "And pray and seek my face." Three.
43:21 "And turn from their wicked ways." Four.
43:25 "Then I will hear from heaven." One.
43:28 "And will forgive their sin." Two.
43:30 "And heal their land." Three.
43:32 Notice what happens the transition, if then.
43:35 If you, if you wrote a very, very short story,
43:37 if you behave yourself
43:39 then I'll give you the keys to the car.
43:40 It's essentially a trill of things on both. Oh, yes.
43:43 Because I think you're looking at "humble themselves,
43:46 pray and seek my face, turn from their wicked ways,"
43:49 there is three. Right. Right.
43:50 God says, "then I will hear from heaven
43:52 forgive their sin and heal their land."
43:54 That's right. So in giving the three,
43:58 He gives back the three.
43:59 That's a very good point,
44:00 humble yourself and pray exactly.
44:02 That's is one, seek my face two, turn from their wicked ways--
44:05 Well, I was thinking pray and seek my face,
44:06 'cause when you pray that's what you're doing.
44:08 You are seeking the face of God.
44:09 But anyway, you see a trill I think here it said,
44:12 is that if you do this, the trill of things
44:15 I will respond in these ways.
44:17 Okay, I can see that humble yourself
44:18 and pray and seek my face, two,
44:20 turn from your wicked ways, three.
44:21 Yeah, then I will hear from the heaven
44:23 to give you something,"
44:24 that's right three up, three down.
44:25 Yeah. Very cool. Oh, man that's a good sermon.
44:28 You need that. You need that, that's a good sermon.
44:31 You know, one thing John here and when we are ready
44:34 to leave this here and maybe we are--
44:36 I want to show you how Laodicea,
44:38 the last church, is the antithesis of this?
44:42 Because if you look at Laodicea in Revelation Chapter 3,
44:46 the language there is very much the opposite
44:51 of what's happening here, even the language.
44:55 Because if you look at the language there,
44:57 you know, we have obviously initially it's says
44:59 in regard to Laodicea that it says,
45:04 because you say I'm wealthy, I've became wealthy,
45:09 I've needed nothing, I'm rich and do not know
45:11 that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
45:15 Those words you say we glass over them,
45:17 you say, but I say.
45:22 See. So that's the response, you say this.
45:25 But I know you are wretched,
45:29 miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
45:31 But then if you go on a little further,
45:32 you look at Revelation 20, you have the exact words
45:35 that are coming as the result which is
45:38 "behold I stand at the door and knock,
45:39 if anyone hears my voice," what will I do?
45:42 Open the door. I open the door
45:44 and I will come in and I will sit with him.
45:46 And then there-- if anyone hears my voice.
45:50 See sometimes we're so busy just talking
45:54 because you say, that we're not listening what he says.
46:00 And humility here is when we turn from
46:04 what we say and hear what he says.
46:08 And that's what he says, then I will hear from heaven.
46:12 Then your prayers will become effectual before me.
46:17 And I think that's what we're talking about here is
46:19 how do I-- how can I have confidence
46:21 that my prayers are heard by God.
46:24 And that is, make sure we are humble,
46:27 praying and seeking God's face
46:29 and that we've turned from our wicked ways,
46:32 which is put away the sin from our lives.
46:35 That's true. You know the Bible give us examples of prayers
46:37 and so many different aspects, sometimes you will read
46:40 entire chapters where there is a constant prayer
46:43 where David prayed long and lengthy prayers.
46:46 And then you have the opposite of that
46:47 where Peter prayed a three word prayer, Lord save me.
46:50 And both were honest and both were
46:52 responded to immediately.
46:53 So length in prayer and sincerity of prayer
46:58 are not always the same thing.
47:00 If you're heading towards the ground,
47:03 if you are in a difficult situation and your life
47:05 is going down quickly, you don't say,
47:07 "oh Lord, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come,
47:10 the shelter from the stormy blast,
47:11 and our eternal home."
47:12 You don't get into the soliloquize thought,
47:14 eloquently reciting the Bible.
47:16 You know, Peter would've drowned he done that.
47:19 And there are some situations we have to say, Lord save me.
47:23 And He immediately reaches down and He gets us.
47:25 And then there are those, the prayer of repentance.
47:28 John sometimes when we get on our knees
47:31 and I'm speaking to myself to because both of us
47:33 are in a spinning world,
47:36 you know, our world is a very, very fast moving.
47:39 But sometimes you have those moments
47:41 and thank the God they are more frequent than they are rare.
47:46 Where you sit down and you just say,
47:48 I'm gonna just talk to God.
47:50 I remember this morning, I just talking to the Lord,
47:55 last night just talking to the Lord
47:57 before you go to bed.
47:59 We talk to the Lord, our Father,
48:02 you know just speak to Him.
48:03 And I just said, dear Lord in heaven,
48:05 you know, our Father who art in heaven,
48:06 those sometimes fallen to the cookie cut of prayers.
48:10 So God wants us to be sincere and open with Him.
48:12 And that's why we are gonna cover some principles
48:13 about prayer today, how vitally important it is
48:16 in the development of the Christian.
48:20 If you look at your cell phone bills,
48:23 those of you who are communication addicts,
48:26 nothing wrong with that you can communicate
48:27 as much as you can, but if you, if you,
48:29 if you got a bill from the Lord for using your cell phone
48:32 how much would that bill be?
48:34 You know, that is just to prayer line to God.
48:37 Thankfully, He could hear us all without sending us a bill.
48:40 That's the beautiful thing, but how many calls
48:42 would be listed in your prayer call?
48:44 And, or your prayer chart, and that would be really, man!
48:48 How many times have I called God today?
48:51 Look at Jeremiah 29:11 or 13.
48:54 Another beautiful--Similar to what we're talking about.
48:56 About another beautiful, okay.
48:59 Jeremiah 29 beginning with verse 11.
49:01 Hey, I'm almost there, here I am, I'm there.
49:04 It says, "For I know the thoughts
49:06 that I think toward you, saith the Lord,
49:08 thoughts of peace, and not of evil,
49:11 to give you a feature and hope.
49:13 Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me,
49:17 and I will listen to you.
49:19 And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me
49:23 with all of your heart."
49:25 And that is, is really what God was telling Solomon,
49:29 king Solomon that,
49:31 is that when you humble yourselves
49:32 you pray and seek my face, you put away from you
49:35 the sins in your life.
49:36 That's when we can communicate with each other.
49:39 That's when I listen to you.
49:41 That's when I see that you want my will for you,
49:43 the plans I've established for you.
49:46 And when you search for me that's when we engaged
49:50 in this two-way communication to where I lead you through life
49:54 and you know, that I'm with You.
49:55 And I think all of us want that confidence
49:57 that we know God is with us.
49:59 And He is taking us though life working out His plans.
50:01 By the way, the words thoughts there
50:02 in the New Kings James Version, and the King James Version.
50:05 If you look at up in the descriptions here,
50:07 it's intense it's, it's-- that's why it's translated
50:11 in many versions as "plans I have you"
50:14 because it's intentive, it's preconceived. Okay.
50:20 God has something He's already prepared for us
50:22 we just aren't connecting with Him,
50:24 asking for Him to work out His plans
50:27 those good thoughts that He has for us.
50:28 Isn't that nice?
50:30 Jeremiah is also the one he said
50:31 "before any of days who came to pass I saw them all."
50:34 Yeah, you know, that's also the beautiful thing about that,
50:37 the Lord has plans for us,
50:39 but if we constantly say Lord, hey check this out.
50:43 I got some plans, You check this out.
50:44 We are doing all the talking like Laodicea is,
50:46 you say, we keep rather doing when He is talking.
50:50 And he wants to say wait, wait, wait,
50:52 like I could tell the story now
50:54 that we're near the still, of Elder Cleveland.
50:56 I was in a convocation,
50:58 that's like a big camp meeting inside of a church
51:01 in Sacramento, California in 1999, 1998.
51:08 I was singing in there and afterwards,
51:11 I was so excited to see Elder Cleveland
51:14 and I ran over to him.
51:15 And I was just pouring out accolade,
51:17 Elder Cleveland, God bless you.
51:18 Love to hear your voice, love your sermons.
51:21 He turned to me and he said, young man, shut up.
51:26 He just said to me, shut up young man.
51:30 And I said, you know--
51:33 Something for appearing is like.
51:35 He said, and he said to me,
51:37 I need to tell you something, you know, he says.
51:40 And I said, okay he says, God has an anointing on you.
51:46 And you know what?
51:47 He said that two more times that evening
51:50 and praise the Lord
51:52 you know, from a person that way
51:53 who doesn't have to give any accolade at all
51:56 who is not a person is bought us all by,
51:59 you know, vexing anybody or complimenting people,
52:02 it was an honor to hear those words.
52:04 But I couldn't hear them, this is a point.
52:06 It's not so much what he said, but I couldn't hear them,
52:08 if I was continuing to talk. Right.
52:10 And so the Lord is, in essence is saying,
52:12 "if you seek me, you'll find me.
52:16 But I've got plans and have you asked me--"
52:19 so one of the things that I like,
52:21 one of my favorite authors Ellen White says,
52:23 submit your plans to God.
52:25 But at the same time, what are your plans for today?
52:30 Wouldn't that be nice?
52:31 If you are working with God to know what His plans are,
52:34 so that you could know that when you go up,
52:36 get up off your knees
52:38 you're actually living in His plans.
52:40 So that's what talking to God is all about.
52:41 Well, it's the foundation
52:43 for one of the most powerful subjects prayer,
52:46 when you do less talking.
52:48 And so I heard people say,
52:50 okay Lord I've spoken to You, now speak to me.
52:55 And some people have just sat in quietude of their home
52:57 and just allow the Lord to,
52:59 to speak to them through His word
53:01 and then some people have done of this way.
53:03 They've read the Bibles,
53:04 then they have had prayer and then they wait on the Lord.
53:07 And the Bible says, "wait, I say, on the Lord."
53:10 And sometimes you do that through quiet solace
53:12 and not humming and being new age,
53:16 but sometimes a meditation is a beautiful thing,
53:19 mediate on God's word and ask God to let you know,
53:23 from what you read today,
53:25 what His will for this day particularly is.
53:27 Yeah, yeah.
53:29 My last, the last two sermons I did
53:32 before I came down here, the title was I'm listening.
53:37 And so it's exactly on this topic. Right.
53:39 And I just-- I learned so much
53:41 in studying for that message,
53:43 on how we can be better listeners to God,
53:45 not just constantly talking.
53:47 You know, David says in Psalms 81 verse 13,
53:53 actually he's referring to what God is saying,
53:56 "oh, that my people would listen to me,
54:00 that Israel would walk in my ways."
54:02 If they would listen.
54:03 "If they would listen to me and walk in my ways."
54:05 Wow!
54:06 And what I found was over and over again
54:09 listening equated with doing.
54:15 Your not a good affective listener
54:18 unless you put what you hear into practice.
54:21 True.
54:23 God biblically listening
54:25 has nothing to do with hearing God's voice only.
54:28 He has everything to do with hearing
54:30 and responding and doing.
54:32 So these words, all that they would listen to me
54:35 and walk in my ways,
54:37 is the model that we should have when we listen,
54:41 when we say I'm listening Lord speak to me.
54:44 We should be also ready to say, what you tell me, I will do.
54:49 And to expect or to not anticipate
54:52 that we will have to do something
54:53 that maybe is contrary
54:55 to our own personal plans in life,
54:58 is not true active listening for God,
55:00 because He already knows the intense of your heart,
55:02 and if He knows you're gonna do
55:03 what you're wanna do anyway.
55:04 Why would He give you any message?
55:06 Why would He speak to you?
55:08 God will speak to those who are not only hearing,
55:11 but are willing to put into practice
55:13 the things that He puts in place
55:16 or puts in their heart, lays upon their heart.
55:19 And there are several ways that He speaks to us.
55:22 John He speaks to us several ways.
55:25 First of all, He speaks to us through His word,
55:28 through the written word. That's right.
55:29 He speaks to us audibly,
55:31 okay now people make, oh are sure about that?
55:34 Through angels,
55:36 through someone coming and giving a message to us.
55:38 Checking out there.
55:39 The third is strong impressions,
55:41 the conscience, He works through that
55:43 avenue two, and then fourth
55:44 through their circumstances of life.
55:47 Those are the four ways God's speaks to us.
55:48 He speaks to us even through the mundane,
55:50 the things are going in life.
55:52 How many of us have pushed open a door,
55:54 forced open a door that God's trying to keep closed
55:57 because we are not listening? True.
55:59 A circumstance in line that He shutting a door on it,
56:02 but we keep pushing it open and once we do,
56:04 we go that way we realize I wish I'd never gone there.
56:07 Oh, man I could tell you some stories about--
56:09 Those are circumstances in life that we've done that,
56:12 the God is trying to speak to us, saying don't,
56:14 I'm not opening this up for you.
56:17 But we push it through and we do it anyway.
56:19 So these four ways He speaks to us,
56:20 I think maybe if we want to cover
56:22 in the next program a little deeper.
56:23 But these are the ways God speaks to our hearts
56:27 and I believe that if we're listening
56:30 and if we're active listeners listening
56:32 knowing we put into practice
56:33 when He speaks then we will hear Him
56:35 in those ways much more clearly.
56:37 You know, Luke I like the way he says,
56:39 "why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord'
56:42 and do not do the things which I say."
56:45 And so we don't just call Him Lord, Lord
56:47 but sometimes we call Him Lord, Lord.
56:51 Yeah. And he says, wait a minute.
56:52 What did you do it I say? Yeah.
56:54 And that's really what prayers all about.
56:56 Sometimes people just in the, they caught in the cycle,
56:59 the vicious cycle of wanting to drive their things home
57:03 and not listen to the Lord what do He have to say to us.
57:06 Yeah. In both cases it is about two or three cases
57:09 where Lord, Lord appears, the double Lord.
57:11 It's always negative.
57:13 I'll tell you. That's right Luke,
57:15 Luke is one, Matthew is another one.
57:17 And so here at House Calls we believe in calling our Lord.
57:20 We're gonna talk about that in one of our upcoming programs
57:22 but know this, if you begin your day with prayer
57:25 and seek God's face, He promises us,
57:27 He will hear from heaven,
57:28 forgive your sin and heal your land,
57:30 have a great day as you listen to the voice of God.


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Revised 2014-12-17