Participants: Pr. Kenneth Cox
Series Code: OTR
Program Code: OTR000917
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01:00 Father God,
01:01 we thank you for the power of your Spirit 01:06 and the power in your words. 01:10 We're thankful Lord, for Jesus, 01:12 the author and the finisher of our faith. 01:15 We're thankful for the blood that runs warm in our veins 01:18 and the Spirit of God in our hearts 01:20 and in our lives. 01:21 And we ask that you would be the honored guest here today 01:26 as the word of God is preached with power. 01:29 Bless your man servant who speaks 01:31 and those of us who listen 01:33 that we may be drawn closer to Jesus. 01:36 And we thank you, in Jesus' name, 01:39 amen and amen. 01:44 Since coming to know Dona and Gordon Klein, 01:48 I have been impressed 01:50 that they are spirit filled persons. 01:54 But more than that Dona always carries a smile on her face. 01:59 Whenever I see her, 02:01 she always has a good word to say, 02:03 she's always smiling. 02:04 Now no one smiles all the time. 02:07 So I suspect there are times when she does not smile. 02:11 I just haven't seen them, whenever I see, 02:13 she looks just like that, pretty smile on her face, 02:16 Gordon, a tall, distinguished, good looking gentleman. 02:19 They make an attractive couple 02:21 and our great ministers for the Lord. 02:23 And so our special music just now 02:26 will come from Dona Klein 02:27 and she's going to be playing 02:28 "When God is Near." 05:09 Amen. 05:12 When God is near. 05:14 I know that Dona's own organ. 05:17 Jaime Jorge travels with his violin. 05:20 Danny of course, travels with his guitar 05:22 we have a friend up in Chicago 05:24 that travels with his harmonica. 05:26 But Dona carries her organ with her. 05:29 She's a lot stronger than she looks. 05:35 But praise the Lord and thank you so very much. 05:38 Our speaker really needs to no introduction. 05:40 Because he has served the Lord very, 05:42 a very long time and very, very well. 05:46 Ellen White says that 05:48 "There are no great men in the cause of Adventism." 05:52 But she says, "There are those who are greatly used of God." 05:56 And I think that that title can be, 05:59 be set of Pastor Kenneth Cox, Evangelist Kenneth Cox. 06:03 He has served the Lord so well. 06:06 His schedule is almost unbelievable. 06:10 He told me a couple of years ago 06:12 he spent only maybe a about of month in his home. 06:15 The rest of the time he is on the road doing the work of God. 06:17 And God has given him unusual strength and stamina 06:21 to keep up this schedule 06:23 year after year, after year after year. 06:26 And next year, he has already mapped out 06:28 a very aggressive schedule for the Lord 06:30 and God has strengthened him and kept him young in the Lord. 06:35 He served so very well, for so very long, 06:37 the list of the accomplishments are legion, 06:40 but I guess the best thing we could say about him is that, 06:43 he is a Christian. 06:45 He is someone who loves the word, 06:47 he is the student of the word. 06:50 God has blessed him in the past 06:52 and we are quite sure 06:54 that God will use him again today. 06:56 And so I ask now from you, 06:59 for him your prayerful and undivided attention. 07:05 Thank you, C.A. 07:07 Good morning. Good morning. 07:10 We are very happy to be here at camp meeting. 07:13 Glad you're here. 07:14 We hope that you're being blessed in a special way 07:17 here at camp meeting. 07:19 We are, we're enjoying this. 07:20 It's nice to be able to just come and be here 07:23 and fellowship with everyone. 07:25 We enjoy that very, very much. 07:28 As my custom is, 07:30 before I speak, I always pray. 07:34 And so if you just join me as I pray. 07:41 Father in heaven, we thank you for this day. 07:46 We come before you now, 07:48 asking that as we open your word, 07:51 that tour hearts maybe open, 07:54 that the Holy Spirit may be present 07:57 that it may impress, guide, lead us, 08:01 give us understanding, Lord 08:03 that as we read Your word 08:06 we may purpose in our heart to walk with you, 08:09 for Your blessings throughout this in encampment, 08:12 we pray in Christ's name. 08:14 Amen Amen. 08:21 I'm going to talk to you this morning about 08:23 family and private devotion. 08:27 That's what I'm going to deal with. 08:29 And I'm going to start out a kind of a strange way. 08:34 And reason I'm doing that is 08:36 because I hope I can help you 08:38 see a little bit of the importance of it 08:41 and what's involved. 08:44 If you go back in your Bibles 08:45 and start right back at the beginning, 08:48 you'll find that God, 08:50 after the death of Abel and then Seth was born. 08:56 And it says that, "With the birth of Seth," 09:00 after that, "men began to call upon God." 09:04 That's what the scriptures says. 09:06 And the Lord hoped or chose 09:10 that through the descendants of Seth, 09:13 to take the message of God's love to the people. 09:18 This is what He chose, this is what He was to do. 09:21 These people were to be representatives of God 09:26 and they became known in the scripture, 09:28 as the sons of God. 09:31 That's what they were called, the sons of God. 09:34 And God chose to try to make the plan of salvation 09:38 available to people through these people. 09:41 But the Scripture says 09:43 that the sons of God 09:46 began to take the daughters of men. 09:50 Now what that simply means is they married women 09:54 that were not followers of the Lord. 09:57 Simply what He is talking about 09:59 and it drew them away from God 10:03 and what the word said, 10:05 "And man became so violent," 10:10 so bad that it says that " 10:13 God was sorry that He created man." 10:18 And the flood took place and they were destroyed. 10:22 And God decided to take, 10:24 Noah and his sons and through them 10:28 hoping to be able to bring salvation to mankind. 10:34 And Noah and his sons chose to follow the Lord. 10:39 But the descendants of Noah, Sham, Ham, Japheth, 10:45 they separated and went different ways 10:48 and some of them followed the Lord and some didn't. 10:53 Ham, one of the sons of Noah, 10:57 it says that his descendents went down, 10:59 and they settled, what became known as Canaan. 11:05 And they were known as Canaanites. 11:08 These people were idolaters. 11:12 They were not worshippers of the Lord, 11:14 they went contrary to the Lord. 11:17 And since, there wasn't 11:20 what God needed to take salvation to mankind. 11:24 God said, "Okay. 11:25 We'll take and form a nation. 11:29 And out of that nation 11:30 we will take the gospel to the world." 11:33 And so God called the man by the name of Abraham. 11:39 And he said, "Out of you, Abraham. 11:41 I will make a great nation. 11:43 And these people will be followers of mine." 11:47 And they will take the gospel to the world. 11:53 Called Abraham, and told him 11:55 He said "Now if we're going to make a great nation, 11:58 we've got to have a place where the nation exists. 12:01 We've got to have a land for them. 12:03 So Abraham, I want you go over into the land of Canaan." 12:09 Now, folks when God said, 12:13 "Abraham I want you go over land of Canaan," 12:15 God was asking Abraham to move into a very violent, 12:21 a very place where people didn't follow the Lord. 12:28 In fact, it went against everything that God taught. 12:31 The Canaanites were idolaters. 12:34 They were not only that, 12:35 they even offered human sacrifices. 12:38 Their immorality was absolutely horrible. 12:42 Everything that went against Christian principles 12:46 in the following of the Lord existed in Canaan. 12:50 And God said, "Abraham 12:51 I want you to go over into the land of Canaan. 12:54 And this will be your land." 12:57 Why would God do that? 13:00 Why would God put him in such a situation? 13:04 Well, if you take your Bibles and turn over to Genesis. 13:08 We're going to take a look 13:09 at number of verses here in Genesis. 13:11 Genesis the 18th Chapter. 13:16 And we're going to take a look at verse 19. 13:21 Genesis 18:19. 13:28 God speaking of Abraham 13:31 and He said, verse 19, 13:36 "For I have known him, 13:39 in order that he may command his children 13:42 in his household after him, 13:45 that they keep the way of the Lord, 13:47 to do righteousness and justice, 13:49 that the Lord may bring to Abraham 13:51 what he has spoken to him." 13:54 So it says clearly that God knew Abraham. 13:57 And what did He know about Abraham? 14:01 Well, He said one thing I know about Abraham is that 14:04 he will raise his household right. 14:09 That's what He said, 14:10 "That I know about Abraham 14:11 that he's going to raise his household right." 14:16 And you'll find that Abraham did something 14:19 that made a great, great difference. 14:23 And what I'm trying to get across to you today, 14:25 it'll make a great, great difference in your life 14:30 if you do it. 14:32 And so we're going to take just a moment to follow 14:35 the path of Abraham a little bit here in Genesis 14:38 and if you'll turn over to Genesis the 12th Chapter 14:41 and see what happened here with Abraham, 14:44 'cause he's coming into the land of Canaan. 14:47 That's what he's doing. 14:48 And the first place that he enters 14:50 in the land of Canaan, is to a place called, Shechem. 14:54 That's the first place that he came there. 14:57 All right, Genesis the 12th Chapter, 14:59 let's take a look at verse 6. 15:03 "And, Abram passed through the land to a place of Shechem, 15:08 as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. 15:11 And the Canaanites were then in the land." 15:15 These were idolatrous people. Okay. 15:19 "Then Lord appeared to Abram and said, 15:23 "To your descendants I will give this land." 15:25 And there he built an altar to the Lord, 15:29 who had appeared to him." 15:32 Now, it says that he moved into Shechem 15:35 and the first thing that Abraham did 15:37 is he built an altar. 15:40 Now folks, the altar was where they brought sacrifices. 15:45 But that was not just the purpose of the altar. 15:49 That is also where they had 15:51 morning and evening worship. 15:55 Their whole household came together every day, 15:59 morning and evening and had worship there. 16:02 That's why, it says that he build an author 16:05 and if you read through the Scripture, 16:08 you can see his travels and every place he went, 16:11 he build an altar. 16:13 Look at the next verse here. 16:14 Look at verse 8, 16:16 "And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, 16:19 and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west 16:23 and Ai on the east; 16:24 there he built an altar to the Lord 16:27 and called on the name of the Lord." 16:29 So as he went from place to place, 16:31 you could follow his travels, 16:33 literally by the altars that he built. 16:37 As people went through, these 16:39 foreigners or these Canaanites, 16:41 as they went through the land, 16:42 they could say well, "Abraham's been here." 16:45 Because there was an altar there, 16:47 but that's where they met as a family and worship God. 16:52 Now what it says that his household. 16:57 Abraham would raise his household. 16:59 You mustn't believe that that was just a couple people 17:03 'cause, Abraham's household was large. 17:07 In fact, his household 17:10 would number over one thousand. 17:16 So when he's traveling, 17:17 he's taking a bunch of people with him, folks. 17:20 Not just a few. 17:21 That's a lot. 17:23 You remember the case, don't you? 17:24 You remember when those keys came down to Sodom and Gomorrah 17:28 and they carried away Lot and his wife in the family. 17:32 And they told Abraham and he went after them, 17:35 do you remember that? 17:37 Well, take your Bible turn over the 14th Chapter of Genesis. 17:43 Look at verse 14 with me. 17:47 "Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive" 17:50 that's his nephew actually. 17:52 "He armed his" what? 17:57 "Three hundred and eighteen trained servants 18:02 who were born in his own house, 18:06 and went in pursuit as far as Dan." 18:09 So I mean, we're talking about 318 servants here. 18:15 These were in his household, 18:17 this not talking about their wives 18:18 and their children, you know. 18:19 So there's over a thousand people 18:22 that are traveling with him 18:23 and that is part of Abraham's life, 18:27 is every day 18:30 bringing his household before God to worship, 18:34 every morning, every evening. 18:37 Now not only did he do that 18:39 but he passed that on to his descendants. 18:44 He passed that same thing on to Isaac. 18:48 That this was necessary, that he should have 18:50 morning and evening worship. 18:53 Follow again. 18:54 Genesis 26:25. 19:10 And this is speaking of Isaac, 19:12 "And so he built an altar there 19:14 and called on the name of the Lord, 19:17 and he pitched his tent there; 19:18 and there Isaac's servants dug a well." 19:21 Now what I'm trying to get across 19:25 is Abraham and his family, 19:28 Isaac and all of them are in the land of Canaan. 19:34 This is hostile. 19:37 This is hostile to their belief. 19:40 This is against what they stand for, 19:42 this teaches something completely opposite. 19:47 And God knows the only way 19:50 those people are going to make it 19:52 and be sustained is to have 19:55 morning and evening worship. 19:59 I hope you're catching on. 20:02 You are living in a hostile world. 20:07 It's not in accordance with what you believe. 20:11 And if you think you can go through day by day 20:15 and not spend the time with the Lord 20:18 and your family... 20:20 Amen. 20:22 You are just in trouble. 20:24 Amen. 20:25 It is vital that you spend time 20:29 with the Lord every day. 20:33 That's, it's necessary. 20:35 Because it's just as bad or maybe worse 20:40 than it was in Abraham's day, 20:42 hostile, contrary to it. 20:47 Isaac was faithful. 20:49 Every place he went, he built an altar. 20:52 They not only build an altar in his day, 20:54 when they built the altar they dug a well. 20:57 So you could find everywhere Isaac went 20:59 because there wasn't just an altar there, 21:01 there was a well there. 21:02 And this is where they worship the Lord. 21:06 But he got that across to Jacob. 21:13 Didn't get it across to Esau. 21:18 But he got it across Jacob. 21:20 That it was necessary, 21:22 and so you find Jacob going down to Laban's house 21:26 and spending 20 years there at Laban's 21:29 and then God said, "Okay, Jacob, 21:31 it's time for you to go back to the land of Canaan." 21:35 And he comes back to the land of Canaan. 21:37 Take your Bible and turn over here 21:38 to the 33rd Chapter of Genesis. 21:46 Look at verse 20 with me. 21:49 Speaking of Jacob. 21:54 Oh, let's go back up verse 18. 21:57 "Then Jacob came safely to the city of" what? 22:00 "Shechem" all right, 22:02 "which is in the land of Canaan, 22:05 when he came from Padan Aram; 22:08 and he pitched his tent before the city." 22:10 Verse 20, 22:12 "Then he erected an altar there and called it El Elohe Israel." 22:18 So you find that you build an altar. 22:20 But he came to Shechem. 22:22 Did you put something together? 22:25 When Abraham came to the land of Canaan, 22:30 where is the first place he showed up? 22:32 Shechem. Build an altar there. 22:34 Jacob's coming back, first place, Shechem, 22:38 built an altar there to worship God, 22:41 rather interesting, 22:44 they had dug a well there. 22:48 You know, right there they had dug a well. 22:50 And they drank the water from it. 22:52 It speaks of it in the Scripture 22:53 that Jacob and dug a well there. 22:57 Seventeen hundred years later, 23:01 you have the son of Jacob through the line, 23:08 the Savior drinking water from that same well. 23:11 Amen. Okay? 23:13 So you find that over and over, 23:15 these people serve the Lord, 23:17 and they had morning and evening worship. 23:22 Now I want you to look at the circumstances, 23:25 the consequences of not having morning and evening worship. 23:32 Because there's a person in Abraham's household, 23:38 that is a good man. 23:41 The Scripture even refers to him as a righteous man. 23:45 But he didn't see the importance 23:49 of having morning and evening worship. 23:52 That just wasn't really a big thing evidently to him. 23:56 And so you don't find any case in Scripture of him doing it. 24:02 And that was Abraham's nephew Lot. 24:08 And you read here in Scripture. 24:10 Take your Bible back. 24:12 Go back a little bit in Genesis, 24:13 Genesis the 13th Chapter 24:18 and look at verse 11 with me. 24:26 It says, "Then Lot chose for himself 24:29 all the plains of Jordan, Lot journeyed east. 24:32 And they separated from each other. 24:35 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, 24:37 and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain 24:39 and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom." 24:43 So Lot takes his family. 24:44 They moved down in their area of Sodom and Gomorrah. 24:48 But 24:51 Lot, like Abraham, is in a very, 24:55 very hostile environment. 24:59 But he doesn't put the importance 25:02 on taking time for worship. 25:05 Just doesn't do that. 25:07 And so the city of Sodom and Gomorrah 25:11 begins to be more wicked, 25:14 more wicked until finally God says, 25:17 "Their cup of iniquity is full. 25:19 They'll have to be destroyed." 25:22 And so you read here, in Scripture. 25:25 Go over to the 18th Chapter, Genesis 25:31 and look at verse 20 with me. 25:34 Genesis 18:20. 25:39 "And the Lord said, 25:40 "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, 25:43 and because their sin is very grave, 25:46 I will go down now and see 25:48 whether they have done altogether 25:50 according to the outcry against it 25:52 that has come to Me; 25:54 and if not, I will know. 25:56 And then the men turned away from there 25:58 and went toward Sodom, 26:00 but Abraham still stood before the Lord." 26:05 Now these two angels actually, 26:08 they are on their way to Sodom and Gomorrah. 26:10 Abraham standing in front of the Lord. 26:14 He just evidently, the Lord, if He went that way 26:17 where Abraham stood in front of Him, 26:19 you know and talking to Him. 26:21 And I want you to notice what takes place here 26:24 because it's rather interesting. 26:27 And it says, 26:29 "And Abraham came near and said, 26:31 "Would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked." 26:34 verse 23, 26:36 "Now suppose there were 26:37 fifty righteous within the city, 26:40 would you also destroy the place 26:41 and not spare it 26:43 for the fifty righteous that were in it." 26:45 And you remember the story, 26:47 you member how Abraham takes the Lord's 26:49 step by step down, down, down until, 26:52 he even gets down the ten. 26:54 And said, you know, and the Lord said, 26:56 "No, I won't destroy the city 26:58 if there's ten righteous people in it". 27:00 Well, there weren't. 27:02 And weren't even ten righteous people in it. 27:05 And so finally, the city of Sodom 27:07 we are Gomorrah going to be destroyed. 27:10 God sends His angels and because of Lot 27:16 and because of Lot's love to the Lord, 27:21 he spares them. 27:23 And actually read the story, he almost had to 27:26 go and drag him out of the city 27:28 to get him out but he did. 27:30 But, watch what took place because that's, 27:33 that's the thing that kind of touches. 27:37 Chapter 19:14. 27:41 "So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law" 27:46 Now, he's going out talk to these young men 27:49 that had married his daughters. 27:51 "Who had married his daughters, and said, 27:54 "Get up, get out of this place; 27:58 for the Lord will destroy this city! 28:00 But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking." 28:06 Paid no attention to him whatsoever, 28:09 seemed to be joking. 28:11 And the two daughters that were in his home 28:14 were led out with Lot and his wife. 28:20 They, the Lord told them to get up into the mountain. 28:23 Because we're going to destroy the city and Lot said, 28:26 "Well, can I go over here to the town of Zoar?" 28:29 And we can read here, in the 30th verse. 28:33 It says, "So Lot went up 28:35 out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountains, 28:37 and his two daughters were with him; 28:41 for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. 28:43 And he and his two daughters dwelt in a cave." 28:50 Terrible. 28:52 I mean, what takes place here? 28:58 How should I say it, folks? 28:59 It didn't, it didn't just affect right there, 29:04 it has affected things for centuries. 29:09 Because his two daughters said, 29:11 "Well, we're going to be here. 29:13 We're not going to have any descendents. 29:16 Let's get our father drunk 29:19 and I'll sleep with him tonight, 29:22 you sleep with him tomorrow night. 29:23 And we'll bear children as descendents. 29:28 And they did. 29:30 It said that Lot was not even aware 29:33 what had happened. 29:35 But nevertheless, both of them became pregnant. 29:38 And they gave birth to sons, each of them, 29:42 they gave birth to son. 29:44 One of them gave birth to a boy, 29:47 that they named Moab. 29:51 The other one gave birth to one 29:54 that they named Ben-Ammi. 29:56 Now what happened? 29:59 Out of the son by the name of Moab 30:03 came the Moabite people. 30:06 Out of the son by the name of Ben-Ammi 30:08 came the Amorite people. 30:11 Two Nations of people 30:14 that constantly opposed God's people. 30:19 Simply, folks, 30:20 simply from the fact 30:22 of not feeling it was important enough to have worship. 30:28 I mean, Lot just didn't put that importance on it, 30:31 lost this family, 30:33 just wasn't willing to take that step. 30:37 It is of utmost importance 30:42 that you take time, 30:46 there's nothing else 30:47 and I must tell you it's not easy. 30:50 Because if there's anything, the devil will fight, 30:56 it's family and private devotion. 30:59 Amen. 31:00 He'll do everything in the world 31:03 to keep you from having it. 31:07 You have to do as Abraham did. 31:09 You have to put it, first place 31:12 you have to make it a priority and say 31:13 "This I will do." 31:17 And it becomes vital 31:19 that we have worship in our homes. 31:21 It will make a great, great difference. 31:24 And if we do that, 31:26 then we can read it over here and Isaiah 31:29 if you like and turn there. 31:32 Isaiah the 54th Chapter. 31:39 And it says here in Isaiah 54:13, 31:48 "All your children shall be taught by the Lord, 31:53 and great shall be the peace of your children." 31:58 So don't let anything keep you 32:02 from having morning and evening worship. 32:05 Let me just share a statement or two with you. 32:09 This comes from Testimonies, Volume seven. 32:12 Page 42. 32:14 I want you to listen what is said. 32:18 "By sincere, earnest prayer 32:22 parents should make a hedge about their children. 32:27 They should pray with full faith 32:30 that God will abide with them 32:32 and that holy angels will guard them 32:34 and their children from Satan's cruel power." 32:39 Now listen, 32:40 "In every family there should be a fixed time 32:46 for morning and evening worship." 32:49 Amen. 32:51 In every family there should be a fixed time 32:56 for morning and evening worship. 33:00 It's vital, absolutely necessary. 33:04 So I, I took a little time. 33:06 And just went through the Spirit of Prophecy 33:12 and looked up everything that she said 33:15 about family worship and read it. 33:19 And I just want to share some things 33:22 that she tells you about 33:24 family worship, what it should be. 33:26 So that you and I will make sure 33:28 that we go into it 33:31 with our heads straight on right. 33:36 One, she says very clearly that, 33:39 family worship should be happy. 33:41 Amen. 33:43 That means if you got out of bed as a grouch, 33:45 you need to get back into the bed 33:47 and crawl out on the other side, you know. 33:50 You don't need to come to family worship as a grouch. 33:55 Your kids don't need that. 33:58 They need you to be happy. 34:00 Family worship should be a happy time. 34:04 It's very, very vital. 34:06 And we can't come to it out of sorts. 34:09 We've got to come to family worship 34:11 with the right attitude. 34:13 Got to come there in a happy state, 34:15 because that's going to affect the attitude of your children 34:19 and how they go through the day. 34:21 So be happy, enjoy it. 34:23 Secondly, she should say it-- She says, 34:27 it should be interesting. 34:30 What does that mean? 34:32 That means you need to spend a little thought. 34:35 You need to think about it. 34:36 You need to do a little planning. 34:39 You shouldn't just come down there 34:40 not know what you're going to do, 34:42 you need to think about it and make it interesting 34:46 so the children enjoy it. 34:49 It's very, very vital that you keep their interest. 34:54 So it needs to be interesting. 34:56 Secondly, thirdly she says, 35:00 It should be sacred. 35:03 Now folks, I'm not going to spend much time on this 35:07 because I can get off on this and I don't want to. 35:13 Please when you're having family worship, 35:19 don't mix the sacred and the profane. 35:25 Keep it sacred. 35:28 I, it bothers me to knowing, 35:32 when I even go to churches 35:33 and they mix sacred with profane. 35:35 Amen. 35:37 That's, that's not way it's to be. 35:39 And when I come to the Lord, that is holy ground 35:43 and I need to approach it on sacred ground. 35:47 And so keep that, 35:50 keep that family worship sacred. 35:53 Keep it centered on the Word of God. 35:56 It very, very, vital 35:58 that you and I spend the time that's necessary, 36:01 you know, sing some songs together. 36:05 Do this. 36:06 But the other thing that she says, 36:10 it should be short. 36:14 It should be short. 36:16 It's not to carry on, and on, and on 36:19 until your children saying, "Will this ever get over?" 36:22 You know. No, you should keep it short. 36:25 Needs to be happy, 36:28 needs to be something they enjoy, 36:30 it needs to be sacred. 36:32 But it needs to be short. 36:35 Doesn't need to be long, okay? 36:38 And then, the other thing that she says, 36:40 is it's to be spirited. 36:44 That means that you're not 36:46 to sit there like a bump on log. 36:49 That it needs to be spirited, 36:51 that it should have some life to it, you know, 36:54 so you know, be involved in it make it move, enjoy it. 37:00 Those are things that she tells us about 37:02 family worship and what it should be. 37:05 As we have worship with our children, 37:07 I don't guess it makes a great lot of difference 37:09 if there are no children in the house. 37:11 And if you just want to bore one another well, you know, 37:16 but if there's, there's children there, 37:19 then we ought to make it interesting. 37:24 Another statement from the little book called, 37:27 "My life today." 37:29 Page 33. 37:31 "From these homes morning and evening prayers 37:34 ascend to God as sweet incense 37:38 and His mercies and his blessings 37:40 descend upon the suppliants like morning dew." 37:44 You know, cause it really 37:46 makes a great, great difference 37:49 in my own life as I worship God 37:53 and I can tell you this. 37:57 If you will take the time 37:59 to have morning and evening worship 38:02 with your children, they won't forget it. 38:06 And as the years passed, they'll even remember it more. 38:10 So take that time, spend, spend it there with them. 38:15 And then one other statement I want to read you. 38:20 This comes from Child Guidance, Page 519, 38:25 "Morning and evening the heavenly universe." 38:29 I'm going to read that again, 38:30 "Morning and evening the heavenly universe 38:34 takes notice of every praying household." 38:39 Takes notice of every praying household. 38:43 So take the time. 38:46 Now I'll spend a little time with you on family worship 38:49 that's not enough. 38:51 I want to take a little time 38:52 to talk to you about private devotion. 38:55 Sure you should have family worship with your family. 38:59 But that does not mean that that's enough for you. 39:04 You need to take time every day for private devotion, 39:10 time you spend with the Lord. 39:13 And if you can't find time to do that 39:17 then turn the TV off. 39:19 Amen. Okay. 39:22 But you need to take time for private devotion. 39:27 And I want to I want to just help you 39:30 get your day going right, okay. 39:34 So take your Bible and turn over to the 4th Psalm. 39:54 There's a little Leo that says, 39:56 gives you some guidance and all. 39:59 It's Psalm 4:4, 5. 40:06 This is what it says, 40:08 "Be angry, and do not sin." 40:13 Now, that word says, "Be angry, do not sin." 40:16 Really saying in stand in awe. 40:21 It's not saying that you and I should be angry. 40:23 It's just saying that we are to stand in awe of God. 40:29 That's what he's saying. 40:30 Understand who God is, do not sin. 40:34 And then it says, 40:35 "Meditate within your heart on your own bed and be still." 40:41 In other words, when you get up in the morning, 40:44 before you roll out of bed, 40:47 you need to just lay there 40:50 and take a little time to talk to the Lord. 40:54 Just pray, talk to Him, 40:56 you know spend some time with Lord there. 41:00 Give your heart to Him, surrender your life. 41:04 Surrender your plans Surrender 41:08 everything you have to the Lord, 41:09 therefore, you get up and give it to him. 41:14 And then it says, 41:15 "After you have talked to the Lord. 41:18 You should be still." 41:21 Okay, because a lot of people talk to Lord 41:24 and then they never listen. 41:27 You need to be still, you need to listen. 41:30 So just talk to the Lord, and then just be quiet. 41:36 Give the Lord an opportunity to speak to you, 41:40 and talk to, you now. 41:43 Verse 5 says, 41:45 "Offer the sacrifices of righteousness." 41:49 You know, what that means? 41:51 That means live for Him. 41:54 Walk with him, follow him, do His bidding, do His will, 42:00 learn, friends. 42:02 Learn to walk in the spirit 42:06 and not in the flesh. 42:09 Learn to walk in the spirit. 42:12 And put your trust in the Lord. 42:15 That is simply the steps that you and I take 42:19 and by that we can become 42:25 more and more like our Lord. 42:27 Now you say, "Oh, Brother Cox, 42:30 I pray but it doesn't seem to be doing any good. 42:34 Doesn't seem to get anywhere." 42:36 Let me tell you something. 42:39 There are no prayers of God's people 42:44 that He doesn't answer. 42:45 Amen. Okay? 42:49 There are no prayers of God's people 42:53 that He doesn't answer. 42:55 He always answers. 42:57 So just put it down, 42:58 your prayers are important in a very, very definite way. 43:05 So take time to pray 43:08 but not only are they important, 43:10 turn over to Revelation. 43:14 Revelation the 8:3, 4. 43:28 This is what it says, 43:30 "Then another angel, having a golden censer, 43:32 came and stood at the altar. 43:35 He was given much incense, that he should offer it 43:39 with the prayers of all the saints 43:43 upon the golden altar which was before the throne." 43:47 Okay. 43:49 Verse 4, "The smoke of the incense, 43:52 with the prayers of the saints, 43:54 ascended before God from the angel's hand." 43:59 So it says, that when you pray, 44:02 your prayers are taken in the hand of an angle 44:07 and presented before God. 44:09 Amen. So take the time. 44:14 If you have children or even if you don't, 44:17 just you and your husband, wife, 44:20 take time for family worship. 44:23 Most important that you do. 44:25 But also, take the time for private devotion. 44:30 Amen. 44:31 How many of you, 44:32 how many of you would be willing 44:36 to spend 30 minutes a day in private devotion? 44:42 Would you do that, 30 minutes a day? 44:46 Have you ever thought about what you can do in 30 minutes? 44:56 Can you read ten pages in 30 minutes? 45:01 Oh, like falling off a log. 45:03 That's not hard, read ten pages in 30 minutes, 45:07 that's not hard. 45:10 If you read ten pages a day, 45:14 how many pages you're going to read in a year? 45:20 Now 3655 pages in a year. 45:25 Now let me tell you what that does. 45:27 First day, don't go into private devotion, 45:32 folks, haphazardly. 45:34 Don't go in it not knowing it were your going, 45:36 what you're going to do. 45:39 You need to go into private devotion 45:40 understanding what you're going to do and all. 45:44 So if you do that and if you'll take that time, 45:48 you can read you're Bible 45:50 completely through in one year, okay? 45:54 Secondly, you can read, 45:57 five volumes of a commentary. 46:02 You can read these, five volumes through in one year. 46:08 Amen. 46:09 By reading 30 minutes a day, that's what you can do. 46:14 I'm the type of person, I can't, 46:17 I can't just go into it haphazardly. 46:20 I've got to know where I'm going, 46:22 what I'm doing, so I plan out, 46:25 what I'm going to have for the full year. 46:28 I read my Bible through ever year. 46:30 That's just standard, you know. 46:32 But one year, I wanted you to read it, 46:34 not just read it through, 46:36 I wanted to read it where it took 46:39 and put everything about a particular incident together. 46:42 In other words, I wanted to read 46:44 everything it said about 46:45 the birth of Jesus at one time. 46:47 I want to see read everything that it said about 46:50 a particular incident that's recorded in the Bible. 46:54 I want to read that. 46:55 So I took that and put that all together. 46:58 And by putting that all together, I did that 47:03 and it was just a tremendous blessing to me. 47:07 As result of that I was telling Dona about it, 47:10 she said, "Well, I would like to do that." 47:13 So, I shared it with and she read it, 47:15 and then she gave it to Mattie and Mattie read it. 47:18 And they said, "You should put that in a book." 47:21 So that's what this book is "Daily Devotional Dairy." 47:26 This will take you through your Bible, 47:28 and five volume commentaries, 47:31 the Conflict say it in one year by reading 30 minutes a day. 47:38 And dear friend, I'll guarantee you 47:40 it will change your life. 47:42 Amen. 47:43 It will make things completely different. 47:46 So take the time. It's worth it. 47:50 You will find that God will bless you 47:52 and that you'll grow spiritually much, much stronger 47:57 that He will come into your life 48:00 like you have never known before. 48:04 So I encourage you, you're living in a hostile world. 48:10 You've got to spend time with Jesus. 48:14 If you're going to do it, Dona's going to play for us 48:17 a special number. 50:44 Amen. 50:50 Well, I could listen to that a lot longer, can you? 50:52 Yes. Wow! 50:54 What a group we have here this morning. 50:56 It's just wonderful to see 50:59 every meeting attended so well. 51:03 And you look bright, you look, you look pretty intelligent 51:10 and we, we just are having 51:15 a wonderful time together in the Lord. 51:18 Wasn't that a great message today? 51:20 Yes. 51:21 I'm going to ask Brother Cox to come back out 51:22 and join us for a moment. 51:24 And I'm going to ask him some questions about, 51:29 what we're going to be expecting in 2009 51:34 in this series that putting together. 51:37 Tell me little bit about it? Would you? 51:40 What we're doing, Jim, 51:41 is we're going to take a subject 51:44 I personally believe that it takes more than one sermon 51:50 to get something across. 51:52 And so we're going to take subjects like Salvation, 51:58 Holy Spirit, Sabbath, Second Coming 52:02 and we're going to do five presentations 52:05 on each of those. 52:07 And so we'll come here to 3ABN, 52:10 and we will do this on the second week of each month 52:15 and we'll do it on Thursday through Monday night. 52:20 We'll do five presentations on Salvation, 52:24 we're gonna do 52:25 five presentations on the Holy Spirit, 52:27 five presentations on Second Coming of Christ. 52:31 So that we hope 52:32 that people will see the whole picture, 52:34 get hold of it. 52:35 Amen. 52:37 Well, let me ask you, what is your schedule 52:39 for the rest of this fall? 52:40 Where will you be in the rest of the fall? 52:42 Our next meeting is in Little Rock, Arkansas. 52:44 All right. 52:46 That's were we will be holding the meeting there. 52:48 And then, that will take us 52:50 to whole of the last of September 52:54 and then we go from there to Ceres, California 52:58 which is suburb of Modesto. 53:01 Okay. And we'll do the series there. 53:04 These are full series. Full, five week crusades. 53:07 Right, well, we listen, 53:09 we really appreciate the ministry 53:11 of this good man and Brother Cox, 53:14 if you had just a few parting words 53:16 here for our people, what would they be? 53:19 Parting words I would say, is one, stay close to Jesus. 53:23 Amen. You know, He's coming. 53:25 He's coming soon, spend time with Him, 53:28 stay close to Him. 53:32 Would have our prayer for us? 53:34 Father in heaven, we come to You tonight 53:37 to thank You 53:39 for the marvelous plan of salvation, 53:42 for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. 53:45 We pray that You would bless each one here. 53:48 May their communion with You be sweet, 53:54 may they continue day by day 53:57 to become more and more like You, 54:01 that we all may be with You in Your kingdom. 54:05 Not because we're worthy, Lord, 54:08 but simply because we've given our hearts to You. 54:11 We pray in Christ's name, amen. |
Revised 2016-03-10