Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Our Father's Gift Pt.4

It's always exciting, as the one utterance was coming forth, to just realize how we are loved. Amen? We started this series that we're in right now just looking at the love of our Father for us and that it's unconditional because God is love. He can't help but love; that's who He is; that's what He is. In this study, we began to see that along with that, God is infinite so His love towards you is infinite. It's inexhaustible, it can't be comprehended. It transcends every other aspect of our knowledge, of our experience--the infinite love of God for you. And He's immutable! He doesn't change, He doesn't have bad days. Every day, God loves you. I don't know about you, but that's a hard one for me to get hold of. Every day He loves you, you old ugly thing, He just loves you anyway, Amen? Aren't you glad you're loved? How many of you are glad you're loved without having to earn it? How many of you are glad that you're loved by this immutable God who is just and He is no respecter of persons so He loves you the same that He loves everybody else in here. God doesn't have any favorites. God doesn't have any favorites and He loves you, praise God. He loves you just like He loves everyone who's ever existed. From the first man through His friend Abraham and David and John, the one who would rest upon the bosom of the Lord. And then you can put your name in there, praise God, and He hasn't loved one any more than the other. No respecter of persons, God's absolutely just.

When we look at the love of God and we see, then, that He says that He loves us beyond our understanding, the Scripture also says that it's your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. I want to contrast what Father wants to give you and what you think you want this morning, because in hearing the voice of God that's where we get ourselves into trouble. In Wednesday's teaching, we drew something for you and me to spend a little bit of time meditating upon--We addressed it in the men's breakfast yesterday--and that's the fact that we can really begin to understand our hearts by understanding, of course as the Scripture says, where our treasure is. We said with that as a biblical principle to work off of, where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. We talked about how we, all of us, have that tendency to look for the ideal in life. We talked about how that really is a problem in our society today, how we've become so idealistic. We think that everything needs to be perfect and everything just needs to be exactly the way we want it. We live in these idealistic dreams, these fantasies. Much of our Christian life is spent trying to bring into reality these idealistic fantasies that we have and think that God's purpose for existing is to accomplish those things. Now, we wouldn't say that, it's not part of our doctrine; the only problem is we live that way.

So, here we are idealists about our work environment, idealists about who the mate is that we're looking for, our life's mate. We've talked about those lists and, "Your will be done Lord as long as they look like this and act like this." We're idealistic about the schools that we want to attend and the vocations we're going to have. And then when it comes to our walk in the spirit, we just settle. We just settle. "Well, praise God, I'm as good as that person." We want the absolute best, the ideal, in every other area and then we settle in our Christian walk for whatever time is allowed when we're not pursuing the secular idealistic part of life. When our mind isn't bummed out over the fact that life is not ideal and all of the energy and time we spend worrying about things--taking thought for things, being anxious for things and absolutely denying the fact that our heavenly Father cares--because every time we worry about things we're just denying the love of God, we're not believing the love that God has to us. We don't believe the anointing of God that says, "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6). Be careful for nothing. Be anxious for nothing.

As we look at this, then, we're going to see that's the reason why many of us can't really hear the voice of God because we're seeking the voice of God in an arena where He doesn't speak. Now, we'll deal with a couple of the exceptions of that as we go on in the study, but primarily, here's what I want you to see: Most of us spend our time praying, seeking, listening for things God isn't talking about. Then in our study we saw that when we do that what happens? We get answered according to our (what?) idols. So, you will hear a voice and we said that the main problem that most of us have is we hear this voice and it's leading us and it's guiding, but it's the voice of self, beloved. It's the not the voice of God. I don't have time to develop it this morning, but the one thing I want you to understand is that the voice that many of us are hearing is part of that voice that's called conscience.

Conscience is not the voice of God; conscience is the voice of self, either affected by environment, primarily family, cultural. Conscience is something that is culturally and environmentally established, conscience. At the time of regeneration--because, see, conscience goes along with culture, it goes along with that society that you're in. In some societies, it's all right to eat people (so, let your conscience be your guide.) In some societies, conscience lets you have multiple wives. In some cultures, we have all of the different aspects of mutilation of the flesh and all of these things. Then we have people that have encountered Jehovah God and the law, then, begins to feed into conscience. Conscience is the voice of self, the knowing that is affected by external input of culture, of environment or the law of God. Don't mistake this: Conscience is the voice of man; it's not the voice of God. It's influenced by God when you begin to feed the conscience with the Word of God and you begin to submit to the will to the lordship of Jesus and then our conscience begins to have the external influence that is holy and righteous and good.

So, what is that voice that's speaking to you? What is it you've put confidence in? We said that one of the main problems that you and I have is this: That in looking and not recognizing the fact that every one of us is under the most powerful force that a human being can be affected by, outside of the presence of God, and that is the power of sin in our lives. Sin: Missing the mark, broken fellowship with God. Sin: Self reliance. Sin: Self-righteousness. Sin: Self, self, self. So every one of us, then, is confident--since our eyes have been opened, we are as gods, the natural man--we are confident that my perception, my knowledge, my conscience is god, is right. We run into conflicts because we expect other people to respond to our conscience, "Because after all, my conscience is the voice of God. Why are you not obeying God (my conscience)?" Do you know what's interesting? Do you know what your conscience is usually dealing with? Things that God isn't talking about. So, let's pick up this morning the subject of what God really wants to talk about.

It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the (say it) the kingdom. God talks about the kingdom. (His kingdom, not yours.) The voice of God doesn't talk about what house you're supposed to live in, what neighborhood, how much money you're supposed to make, how much clothes you're supposed to wear. What label is supposed to be on it. What's God talking about? Do we have ears to hear what the Spirit's saying? It depends on where your heart is. Where are you looking for the voice of God? So, we pick this up for this morning and I want to take a look at a couple of different aspects of the voice of God and how He does relate to us.

John, chapter 16, let's start off there and we'll begin to look at verse 13. I want to give you a couple of biblical illustrations this morning that hopefully will help you in your not seeking the voice of God amiss. God is speaking constantly to us. The problem that most of us run into is this, and I'll make the statement and then show you the Scriptures along these lines. We pray and we're wanting the know the will of God. "God what is Your will for me? Lord what is Your will for me in this area? Lord what are You saying at this moment?" The fact of the matter is everything God is going to say has been said, because the Spirit of Truth leads you into (say it) truth. "Thy word is truth." The Spirit of Truth leads you into truth. "And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." Amen? "The Spirit is not come to speak of Himself but of that which He's heard." "He is come not to speak of Himself but to speak of Me." What Jesus means by that is, "to speak of what I accomplished." What did Jesus accomplish? What was it that Jesus accomplished? Jesus accomplished, through regeneration, your deliverance from satanic lordship, your deliverance from the dominion of the flesh. He has delivered you to be able to now hear the voice of the spirit that lives in a new kingdom, that walks in the light, that walks in the spirit and does not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Everything else that you're going to hear, every other voice that you're going to hear, is going to have to do with the temporal--what you're going to wear, what you're going to eat, what you're going to put on, where you're going to live, what kind of job you're going to have, who you're going to marry, etc.--and everything that is of the voice of God will be eternal. It will be of the kingdom, it will be about character, it will be about the gospel. And we're spending all of our time over here and wondering why we can't hear the voice of God.

The Spirit of Truth. John 16, look at it, verse 13, "...when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come." What's coming? "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." He will show you things to come. What's going to come? Old things will pass away, all things will become new. He will show you things to come. What's going to come as it pertains to you as an individual? Mortality shall take on immortality; corruption, incorruption. You're going to be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. You're going to see Him and you're going to be like Him. Can you say, "Praise God" to that? He's going to show you things to come. He, the Spirit, is other-worldly. He is eternal. He speaks of the things that are the treasures of God, not the things that are going to pass away, not the things where thieves can break in and steal. The Spirit doesn't concern Himself with those things.

Let me show it to you in the most simplistic possible way as Jesus spoke to us. He said it this way, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; [That's what He said to seek. What do you seek? We seek first the (what?) kingdom and His righteousness. Character, relationship, the eternal treasures and then when you will seek them first with all of your heart, when you're seeking them as your treasure, when you love them, when you are trusting in the character of God, the care of God, then what about all of these other things that we spend all of our time on?] and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). Problem solved. We don't believe that. Now, we're talking about coming to the truth. Admit it. If you're not at peace this morning, you don't believe that! You don't believe your Father loves you. You do not believe that God can pick you a better mate than you can pick for yourself. You just flat out don't believe it, so admit it. You do not believe that God can provide for you better than you can provide for yourself (Now own up) if you're anxious, if you're careful. "Be anxious for nothing."

When we're caught up in all of this anxiety and we're seeking all of these idols and all of these treasures and all of the cares of the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life--we're seeking these and we're praying, "God, which lusts do you want me to have first. Speak Lord! What is Your will for my lust of the eye? What is Your will for my lust of the flesh? What is Your will as I seek to be elevated, the pride of life? Speak, Lord!" "I just can't hear from God! I just don't know whether He wants me to buy this lust castle or that lust castle." He doesn't care where you live if you're seeking first the kingdom of God. You know what? He doesn't care where you live if your family is in order in the house. Amen?

That's what I want to get across to you this morning. What God's going to talk about is not the house you're living in, but the household. That's where you're going to hear the voice of God. God's concerned with whether you're loving your wife. As we look at the mandates of the voice of God, the Spirit of God, the Spirit will lead us into all truth. Basically, we've been told everything we need to know. Here's all you need to know: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your neighbor as yourself. Fear God and keep His commandments. You're equipped! Amen? Now, it's in those areas that you're going to hear the voice of God. That's the whole duty of man. So what's He going to talk to you about? If that's your duty, then what's God going to be talking to you about? Jobs? Cars?

Seek first the kingdom. It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Seek first the kingdom. Seek to be righteous. And the things that the Gentiles, the pagans, care about--Your Father knows that you need to eat; He made you. If God didn't want you to eat He wouldn't have created Countryside Pizzeria. He wants you to eat. He intends on you being clothed. He knows. And at certain times God will supernaturally not only provide but sustain. So, therefore, I've shared with you, I've never prayed about any of these things. I've never asked God for any of these things. I've never asked Him in those areas. I just believed that if I would be busy about the kingdom, if I would be seeking personal righteousness, if I would be sharing the gospel with everyone I had opportunity to share it with, if I was seeking the face of God, if I was jealous for the anointing of God, the presence of God in my life first, and everything else subordinated to me hearing, knowing the voice of God, the presence of God, the peace of God, all of those other things are going to be taken care of. I believe that this morning. Do you believe that? I believe that! I've lived it for years and years and years. Father cares for you. Can you hear that voice? When you get down to pray, can you just hear, "I know what you have need of. You don't know. Now be quiet and listen to what I have to say to you. You're encumbered by too many of these things. Seek the better part. Get at My feet and worship Me."

Here we are looking to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth as He's desiring to lead us and yet, we're so taken up with these other things. I shared with the men the other morning: What an indictment against us to think that we're so--we have such high standards for everything else and such a desire to live in a certain lifestyle, to live in a certain type of house, to drive a certain type of car, to have a certain income bracket to participate in certain recreational activities, whatever it might be. And we have these high standards and these things that we believe we deserve and that if we had it we would be content. We know the biblical principle that if you're going to be a master in anything you're going to have to be temperate in everything else. When we want to be masters in the temporal/secular then we're going to be temperate in the spiritual because there are only two arenas. If we're going to be masters in walking in the spirit and hearing the voice of God, then we must begin to be temperate in all of these other areas.

"Temperance" just means to have it under control. Temperance is not abstinence; temperance is control. It doesn't matter whether you have much or little. Let me ask you: Is it under control? Is it under the lordship of Jesus? Do you want me to tell you how you can know? If it's under the lordship of Jesus you're not worried about it. You're not worried about getting it; you're not worried about losing it, you're just enjoying it. You see it for what it is: It's a blessing that's overtaken you. Beloved, it's all mercy, it's all a gift, it's all grace; but everything beyond one outfit of clothes is a blessing (Amen?); you don't need it. "Yeah, but Father knows what I have need of. Your perspective of need and God's perspective of need are two different things. You know what you need? You need one more garment. Do you know what it is? The robe of righteousness. Why don't you go shopping for that? I want to tell you something. You ladies need a new pair of shoes--And all the women said, "Amen." , pair on? To have your feet shod with the (say it) the preparation of the gospel of peace. Are you hearing the voice of God? Dear God, It'll spread like wildfire if there's a sale at the shoe store, and what are we doing with the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ? How fired up are you to get out and tell somebody about that? Which voice are you hearing?

We've been deluded that this inner voice that we're hearing is the voice of God and it's just your lust, it's your will, it's your conscience. Those are the voices that will go off inside us. So, whenever that voice goes off inside of you, ask yourself this. If the Holy Spirit came--He is the voice of God to us. He's the author of the Word of God to us. Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. I like what it says prior to that. They did not speak--it's not of men but holy men of God spoke as they we're moved by the Holy Ghost. Not of men. This isn't the voice of a man, this isn't a humanistic philosophy, it is not one of many philosophies. It is the truth and everything that opposes it is a lie (Amen?) including your conscience, your intellect, your practices, your lifestyle. So we look at the Word and the Spirit of Truth then will always point us to the Word of God. How is what I'm wanting to hear right now ("I need to hear the voice of God"), how does that relate to my righteousness, to my obedience to the spread the gospel, to my having no other gods before me, to my loving God with all of my heart, soul, body, mind, strength and my neighbor as myself? What does this have to do with that? And if it has nothing to do with that, do you know what I'd suggest? Shut those thoughts off, start thinking on these things: Holy, just, pure, true, and all of these other things will be taken care of. Do you think that will work or not?

Somebody pretty reliable gave us some good advice on that. So what's the real issue? We don't believe God. We don't believe in God. We believe what we heard about God but we don't believe in God. We don't have a relationship with Him. We're not alive in the spirit. His words are not freshly bringing life and peace and strength to us at this moment. We're in that unbelief that the utterance made reference to this morning. 1 John, chapter 2, verse 27, "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: [including yourself] but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." Look what the Spirit is saying to us here. There's an anointing. This anointing is speaking of an empowering, an illumination, a knowing, an equipping, a gracing. There's an anointing that's available to us if we would hear the voice of the Spirit. Now, what are we warring against? If the Word is truth, if the Word is the voice of God to us, if this is where we're going to hear and know the will of God and walk in the wisdom of God, then Jesus in His parable said, "And the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in [do what?] choke out the Word of God."

Oh, so if I'm going to hear the voice of God without prejudice, without pollution, then what I have to do is recognize that all of those other voices are the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lusts of other things, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life. You're only getting input from one of two sources. Now these are all things we know doctrinally. I'm talking about practically here. How are we going to make our decisions? You want some practical advice? Okay, decision time. Is this going to bring ease, comfort to me, or glory to God? Because the Holy Spirit has come to speak of Jesus, period. God will always be leading us into the course--and see this is where we've mistaken. We think that God's sole purpose for being is to make life easy on us, to bless us, to equip us, whatever it is. It's not about you; it's about Jesus. If you're not careful you're going to miss it.

Turn over to Kings. Let me show you an example of this, of how easily and yet how devastating the consequences can be if you don't listen to God. You all remember the story and I'm just going to bring a couple of segments out of it. 1 Kings, chapter 13, it starts off saying, "There's a man of God that came by the word of the Lord, prophesied against the altar, Jeroboam, the judgment of God came upon the altar, the altar shall be rent, [verse three], the ashes poured out. Jeroboam--they reached forth to take this man and to bring him into bondage, [verse four], and his hand which he put forth against him dried up so that he could not pull it to him again. The altar was rent; the judgment of God had taken place. He's leaving town [verse seven] and a man comes up to him and says, 'Ah, praise God. Good to see somebody's serving the Lord, brother. Hallelujah! Brother, brother, brother, good to see you, brother. Yeah, I believe in Jesus. Brother, brother, brother, brother; yeah, I believe in Jesus.'" That's kind of paraphrasing it. Verse seven, "Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward." Most of us think we need rewards for being obedient. God should reward us for doing what we were told to do. We're unprofitable servants. "If I do the will of God, shouldn't I get some good out of it? Surely it's not God's will that I do good and just remain in a life of mediocrity. Surely God wants to elevate me. He wants me to be the head and not the tail." Beloved, listen to what that's talking about. It's talking about spiritual things. Do you know what it means to be the head and not the tail? Sin no longer has dominion over you. Can you settle for that or do you need a Cadillac?

So here we are. He says, "Come with me and I'll give you a reward. You were obedient. God bless it. It's good to see men willing to do the word of the Lord." "And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee [There's an insult for you.] neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place: For so was it charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water in this place, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel. [Check it out.] Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel... And [he] went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said, I am. [when you are the man of God you know it.] Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread. And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place: For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, [verse 17] He said unto him, [verse 18] I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him...[So, he heard another word contrary to the original word. A word that brought reward, a word that brought refreshing, a word that brought ease, followed the word that brought isolation, sacrifice, no recognition, no praise, no reward; surely this is the voice of God.] And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ass, to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought back. And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him..."

How many of you know there's a lion seeking to destroy you? Satan goes about as a roaring lion seeking--the most dangerous voice you're going to hear is other believers, other prophets. You better let God speak to you through His Word, by the Spirit. The simplistic obedience of what you know to do. If God wants an angel to minister to you, He won't send him by somebody else, he'll appear to you. Now watch. Nothing wrong with angels, nothing wrong with prophets, nothing wrong with teachers, counselors are biblical, prophets are biblical to speak into our lives, etc. The problem was this secondary voice spoke contrary to the original voice of God. God doesn't contradict Himself. What are we to hear? What is it that God's calling us to? We're so taken up with what God's not talking about.

Turn back a couple of chapters in Kings to the third chapter of 1 Kings. This is a great passage. I just love this. I know that it's a blessing to you. And every person in here has dealt with this at one time. Verse three says, "And Solomon loved the Lord... [How many of you would like to be in this position right here this morning?] the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. [Anybody volunteering for that? "I will give you anything you want." Come on now, don't be spiritual on me, falsely spiritual. I'll give you anything you want. What do you want this morning? If you were asked that question this morning, what would you ask for? Now don't cheat; you know what you're supposed to ask for. I'm saying what would you ask for, before you knew that we were trapped here in public with the Bible open? Do you have this integrity? Do you have the integrity of this man? "I'll give you anything you want." I want to show you a great law here, beloved. If only you could believe this, if only I could believe this constantly. I have believed it. I would say I believed it prominently, but I wish I could live it exclusively. Ask anything you want. He said in verse seven, "this responsibility is beyond me."] I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in." I don't know how to conduct my own life. I need help. I don't know, I don't have all the answers. I'm not confident in where I should go, what I should do. I don't know who I should marry. So he got 300 wives and 700 concubines (that's what confusion will get you).

Verse nine, "Give therefore thy servant [Here's what I want. I want an understanding heart. This is what I sought God for when I went into ministry. I don't know how--I can't even take care of me, how am I supposed to take care of everybody else? I need] an understanding heart to judge thy people... [ I want to see Your kingdom established. You see, the Davidic kingdom was the visible representation of the kingdom of God at that time. It was a type of God's being present in His shekinah. I want to properly represent your kingdom. I need to know the wisdom of your kingdom.] And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, [verse 11, now remember who we're talking about. We're talking about God. God the infinite, God the eternal, God the omniscient, God who judges the men's hearts, so don't think you're going to fool God by thinking, "Praise God, if all I say, 'Lord all I want is to serve you,' then I'm going to get all this stuff." He knows your heart. But a pure heart--listen to how God responds to a pure heart that really means that] And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies [vengeance, self-will]; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment, Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days. And if [if, if, if, if if--one of the biggest words in all the Scriptures] thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days."

So, we see here one of the laws of God. You want stuff? Don't seek it. You want life? Lose it. You want abundance? Give it all away. Do we believe that? Do you really believe this morning that God cares? We talked to some of you Young Adults again about life's mates. Give it up. God will give you exceeding abundant above anything that you could ask or think. God will effect His perfect will in your life. There is no peace; there is no joy outside of obedience. And if we could only believe that, then God would be able to lead us again into that eternal realm. "When He," verse 26 of the 14^th chapter of John, "the Comforter comes, sent in my name, [replicating my ministry, finishing redemption's work, empowering you to represent the kingdom, empowering you to live free from the dominion of sin,] he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." What will the Holy Spirit be saying to you then? "You're thinking about the wrong stuff" is what He'll be saying unto you. "Think on these things." You need to go to Philippians and find out what you're supposed to think about. Think on these things. Don't be anxious but think on these things.

As we wind up for this morning, let me capsulize in this: "Father, I need to hear your voice. I need you to speak, Lord, and give me direction now. I don't which house to buy. Lord, this is important, Lord; I don't know which stock to invest in. This is really important, Lord. I saw this woman and she fits everything on the list except she's not a believer. She is, Lord, if you really stretch it, she is, Lord. She used your name the other day. It wasn't exactly in the right context but... Father, this person just--they've sinned against me and they've treated me wrong. I just need your wisdom, Lord. I don't know whether to hire someone to kill them or do it myself. Speak, Lord." What are we going to hear? Whether it's "Lord, which job should I take? I'm just not happy here and they don't treat me right here. The owner's a jerk and he never pays." And you're self employed! The fact is, wherever you go you're taking the problem with you, and that's what we haven't to come to grips with. So what we're going to hear from God is--"Lord, which job?" Here's what you're going to hear from God. You want to know what you're going to hear from God if you ask Him what job you're supposed to take? "Go into all the world and preach the gospel." He doesn't care which job you're working.

"Well, we're just believing the Lord for closed doors." The Holy Ghost forbid them to preach. When the Holy Spirit closed doors, it had to do with the preaching of the gospel. When God was involved and He's directing, it had to do with the preaching of the gospel. I've read through every verse in the Bible, "God said," and you know what? some of you that are in here have had more "God saids" in a month than what is in the whole Bible. "God said. I believe God said. God told me. God spoke. I believe. I felt." You want to know what God said? "Keep my commandments. Love me with all of your heart. Love your neighbor. Love your wife. Submit to your husband. Train your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and in due time He will exalt you. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these other things will be added unto you. The steps of the good man are ordered by the Lord." That's what God said. We've got enough to live in right there. Amen? What else do you need to hear? We need to do. Every other voice you hear is the voice of conscience, it's the voice of preference, it's the voice of self.

So, when I get here and I say, "Which house should I get? Should I get this house or this house?" I'm going to get the best one. I'm going to get the best, biggest, plushest house I can get as long as I can pay my tithes. The fact that I can move up with the Jefferson's means that I have abundance, so I want to always be ready to distribute and ready to communicate. "Lord, if we buy this house then the kids can eat at least twice a week." You've gone against the basic laws of preferring others, of providing for your family, of loving your wife. It's not hard to make these decisions when you make them all in the parameters of what's really important. "Can I do this and everything else that is important stay intact? Am I increasing in my righteousness? Am I increasing in my giving? Am I increasing in my serving? And I can continue to grow and still do this," do it. Don't even pray it. Do it. What are you going to pray about? You've already prayed about all of the important stuff. Do it. It's not going to hurt you. Why? Because you're not ignorant of Satan's devices. You don't love these things. They have no power over you because you're seeking first the kingdom of God and these other things are just being added.

So we spend all of our time trying to hear the Holy Spirit's voice about temporal things and He doesn't talk about temporal things. The temporal things, in the case of Solomon, in the teaching of Jesus, the things that are necessities, the things that we have need of, and the things that are beyond that, the abundance of a Solomon all come by seeking first the kingdom of God.

Father, we thank You for Your Word this morning and we ask that You would make this a reality. We say we believ,e but do we? Am I looking for the ideal Christian life? I want to be the ideal Christian. The ideal Christian doesn't wake up in the morning and angels brush his teeth. We take care of ourselves. We walk in this life like others walk, but we don't live for ourselves. We don't speak of ourselves but He that sent us. We don't walk of ourselves but we're empowered by the Spirit, for it's not by might, nor by power but by My Spirit saith the Lord. Without Him, I can do nothing. I'm a child; I don't know how to go in or come out. Without Him I can do nothing. The ideal Christian, selfless, dependent, a slave, an innocent child that says "Abba. I just love You, Father. I want to serve in Your kingdom. What a privilege, Father, to be called the son of God! Just tell me what you want me to do." "Preach the gospel. Live free from sin." The Spirit bears witness with your Spirit that you are the son of God. If you're led of the Spirit, you're the sons of God. What more do you want out of life than to be called a son of God, an heir and joint heir with Christ Jesus? What more do you want out of life than to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant?" What more do you want out of this life than to say, "I always do my Father's will?" What more do you want out of life than to be able to say, "I'm an ambassador of Christ?" What more do you want out of life than to be able to say, "I love God and keep His commandments and they're not grievous to me"? What do you want out of life? There's only two kingdoms. Choose this day who you're going to serve.

Let's stand before the Lord. As Gary plays for us, we'll just take a moment and just worship the Lord. Thank Him for the high calling of God on your life. Thank Him for His love for you and that we are accepted in the beloved. That He looks down on us in all our frailties and our dust and He says, "I'm proud of you. I love you, son. I love you, daughter. I know you think you're pretty ugly, but I think you're beautiful because I see you glorified. I see you without that sin in your members. I see you without all of those frailties and failures. I'll never leave you nor forsake you. My grace is sufficient for you. No weapon formed against you will prosper. I will not leave you comfortless. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me" (Matthew 11:28-29). Are you uptight? You stressed out. Listen! "And learn of me for I am meek and lowly." You need to humble yourself. You need to stop trying to be in charge of your life. You need to stop trying to be God; it's a tough job. Just take the yoke on with Jesus. And like we said before, you put that yoke on and you have the massiveness of Jesus beside you and your feet aren't even touching the ground. You're just kind of going like this (dangling), saying, "Man, look what we're getting done, praise God." Do you believe that this morning? Then let's worship Him.

Just know Him this morning. Let Him touch your heart right now. We want to be like you, Lord. Just lift your hands and worship Him this morning. Thank Him for what He's doing in your life as He reveals Himself to you this morning. Let Him turn your heart toward the eternal. Let Him turn your heart toward the kingdom this morning. All of the other things will be added. As that word of exhortation came to us this morning and it said, "The next generation is watching." The dropout generation of my generation, the drug culture, because of all of the affluence following World War II, the dropout generation rebelling, seeing the vanity of it that there was no pleasure or joy, the latchkey kid was invented. We have a generation looking at us. As the priest of your house, what do your children believe is really important in life? What is the treasure? What is it that we spend our energy pursuing? And the very thing that is counted treasures will rust, will corrupt, will be stolen. Father, help us to believe that You intend good for us beyond our understanding of good. We ask in Jesus' name. Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "The truth will set you free."

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