3ABN On the Road

Family And Private Devotion

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Pr. Kenneth Cox

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Series Code: OTR

Program Code: OTR000917


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.


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Revised 2016-03-10