Applying God's Word

Morning guys Lord this is the day you've made we choose to rejoice and glad in it Let's pray father that you would encourage us As we seek to move forward in our walk with you and to lead our families in the ways of the Lord Help us to understand your ways To know your will That we wouldn't be stubborn that we would walk in it Humble ourselves and receive correction in Jesus name Psalm chapter 2 Verse 1 says why do the nation's rage and the people plot vain things? the kings of the earth Set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed Sometimes we don't even realize our nature and how we are conducting ourselves and how we live and the way we Speak to others how we respond Sometimes we realize it and we don't care but quite often we're ignorant of our dealings with one another and with others and It's really the root of it is pride But we don't we can't see it so we'll speak rough to Someone or we'll just speak our mind or what we think And other people will will just they won't speak what they think they'll gossip to other people what they think And it's all rooted in pride Everything's rooted in pride We can't see it And I'll just skip To Verse 10 it says now therefore be wise O Kings He's called us a kingdom of priests unto our God right be wise O Kings be instructed you judges of the earth Serve the Lord with fear. Let's not lose the fear of God. We lose the fear of God.

We just start to speak without thinking and Rejoice with trembling So we're supposed to fear the Lord and we're still supposed to rejoice without losing the fear of the Lord to be happy to celebrate to enjoy Fellowship one with another without becoming foolish and speaking proudly and arrogantly one toward another trash-talking Which sometimes happens during the games that get played? Rejoice with trembling verse 12 kiss the Sun lest he be angry and you perish in the way Then in my Bible here kiss the Sun Sun is so in Speaking of Christ to me lest he be angry. Now, how can we make the Lord angry? Well, the scripture says he's angry with the wicked every day When we speak from pride and we act proudly and we behave rudely That's wickedness But we might do it in ignorance you might not even realize You know when you meet someone is very proud and arrogant. They don't even realize that they're like that Others see it, but they themselves don't see it So, yeah, we can pray for them But also it's love also to talk to someone about it if they're ignorant about it, especially if they're so-called brother or a sister Because love doesn't just cover over sins love covers a multitude of sins by You know saying hey, you know, we've seen this thing.

I see this thing in your life And I just want to bring it to your attention it says if you see a brother sinning Right from James 5 and you turn him from the error of his way You'll save his soul from death and Cover a multitude of sins So it's not just saying oh, you know, well, we're just not going to deal with that. That's not what covering over sins is Love will confront in a humble way So if you're exhorting someone as a father Then you'll do it Right in a right way from love and if you're exhorting someone as a brother the way that you would want to be exhorted That's the way you should exhort someone else and if you're exhorting a younger brother or a younger sister You still have to remember when you were exhorted or the way you were treated when you were younger by your older siblings And so there's a right way in a wrong way in which we can respond to people even people at work Now we all fail in many things but the Lord has his way of showing us our pride and It's usually It's reflection Kiss the Sun lest he be angry and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little Blessed are all those who put their trust in him Uncle Sean you shared about how You know, you were just working doing your thing and all of a sudden you got woozy and you could have perished in the way Pride is like co2. I've shared it many times.

It's the silent killer And we can think we're doing great until all of a sudden we're not and It's good That we were afflicted because now what do we do we self reflect? Self-reflection at first glance it can be discouraging But Afterwards it can yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness if we learn from it So don't despise discipline or the chastening of the Lord Kiss the Sun Lest he remain upset with you and we perish in the way Let's take a look at Psalm 119 Starting at verse 65 I Mean I think most of us can say as a whole if we look back over our life That you have dealt well with your servant the Lord has dealt well with us from where we came from and where we are now He's done he's done good things for us and we're glad But if we look in the moment or we take a slice in the moment in time and we're going through things our things We can say Lord You've not Treated me fairly or I don't understand what you're doing right now, and I'm not happy with you We can become bitter toward the Lord in his dealings with us But we have to remember something that the Lord is good Every day all the time 365 and even though I'm going through things. I don't understand He has a purpose in it He's trying to teach me something from it, and it might take me some time to get it but he has my best interests in mind and Years from now you'll be able to look back through the years and see how he's dealt with us in discipline in correction And if you look at things that we've gone through some of us have gone through some hard things we'd have to say his discipline Is very swift and severe And some of us don't really agree with discipline we don't understand discipline yet the Lord disciplines us And we don't even know what we did That's why we also need to discipline our children If we don't discipline our children and correct them properly according to scriptures when they're young When they're wild and free when they're old we have only ourselves to blame and The Lord has to teach us discipline So that we learn to kiss the Sun lest he be angry and in the same way we have to teach our children discipline So that they learn the respect That is due To those who are in authority over them if we don't learn to submit ourselves to authority It will not go well with us in the end Because the Lord is against the proud But he gives grace to the humble So we have to learn to humble ourselves You know whenever I'd correct my children. I had nine.

I have nine children Some of the ones when I was first learning how to discipline properly I was too harsh But my gauge was the measure that my dad used with me And so I took my dad's measure I cut it in half and I went with that so you have an idea where I came from I Discipline the older two With the half measure that I received and I thought that was the right measure But it wasn't the right measure Was the wrong measure and now it seems as the younger ones don't seem to get any discipline, but they do get discipline but I've learned better now how to discipline for the attitude not for the mistakes and And learning to discipline not one-size-fits-all But each one has an individual personality and character and so some need less discipline and Others need more to break the rebellion and the pride I Had one son recently He lied to me, and I said okay, you're going to get five spankings because that's the maximum that we give and It's for lying Because if trust breaks down We have nothing with which to work from because everything is has to be is questioned all the time. There's no trust In a relationship there must be trust and trust takes time to build and so I gave my son his discipline and after the discipline He looked up at me, and he said when your dad used to discipline you did it hurt I? Said son, that's the wrong response right now after you received a discipline. We're gonna start fresh You see the purpose of the discipline is to bring about a humility To bring about some good fear some respect And that is why the Lord disciplines us to bring about humility some good fear and respect He doesn't discipline us because he hates us He disciplines us because he loves us in fact Hebrews 12 says he disciplines every son he receives and If a son does not receive discipline, then he's a bastard.

That's King James Version. He's an illegitimate and That can't happen so we need to father Dad's we need to father our children correctly, and we need the Lord to help us to know what that looks like Because we have a window in which to teach them and to correct them properly and If the discipline is not working You may not have won the battle, but you will win the war Against rebellion and against pride and against this kind of stubbornness and all that you don't have to win the battle Because it's gonna take some time But you know what? That strong will Will be broken. You're not gonna break his spirit, but you're gonna break his will and You know what? This is what the Lord is working on.

We come to the Lord But you were coming as we are but he has to break that strong will to bring us to that place Where we're become yielded Unto him so that we obey quickly When we get a revelation We have to yield our will quickly When you think of the dealings that God had with Abraham, it doesn't speak of them all but it speaks of some Decisions he took in the flesh decisions. He took for himself. He took them maybe from pride He took them from fear whatever decisions he took and he came to a place where he received one of his last tests to offer His son Isaac on the altar to the Lord and it says he rose early the next morning He didn't talk to his wife about it didn't talk to family members.

He didn't get a second opinion He knew the Lord's voice by that time in his life. He rose early. He saddled his his mules.

He took some servants He grabbed his son and they went to the mountain He didn't know where he was going the Lord would show him and he was willing to sacrifice His son whom he loved Isaac on the altar to the Lord He didn't understand it, but he was willing when you Choose to say, you know what Lord I don't understand discipline. I never my father didn't do it the right way Maybe you don't think it's necessary Maybe you run out on the same page with your family about these things But it is necessary and you don't have to understand it but you need to just do what the Bible says to spare the rod is to spoil the child if You raise spoiled children. What kind of damage can they do? I think of when I was raised up and The selfishness and the pride and the greed that all was in my heart all that translated into a terrible marriage terrible marriage Because of selfishness because of pride because of greed and the Lord had to take me from that point when I got born again And teach me how to become a father.

I Didn't know how to be a father When I was young, I would teach my children I would hold my son by the head and I would teach him to be tough So he wouldn't get picked on and and he would throw punches at me and I would hold him back When we would play soccer, I would never let him score on me I would always score on him to toughen him up. This was absolutely demonic wisdom we need to learn how to father our children the way that the Lord wants us from the scriptures and To teach and to discipline from love. We don't know how but you know what it's necessary Otherwise, we'll just go through life experiencing hard things and not understanding why and Saying it's not fair.

This is when I discipline some of my children the first thing they do. It's not fair. I did nothing Well, we've missed the point if they don't understand what they did and why they were disciplined now I explain it to them Now I explain it to them, but they disagree with me.

You see I Say well you lied why I didn't lie we unless you admit that you're you lied and so we have to explain and show how they lied and what they did and Unless they say okay. I lied. Okay.

Now you've got something to work with But just disciplining if they don't own their mistake or their sin, it doesn't produce any humility Next time this exact same thing Gerson you shared interesting verse and I'd like to expound on it You talked about a man looking at himself in the mirror and then forgetting what kind of man he is. We call ourselves Christian Yet our behavior is not always Christian And so when we look in the mirror if I've got something this last week I was stressed out when I get stressed out. I start picking on my face So I had like three scabs on the side of my face.

I had to realize I gotta stop doing this I got to start to bring my Anxieties and things to the Lord instead of picking on my face. So when I look and I see these scabs I realize that it's unbelief is going on and so I have to take it to the Lord I have to repent and then I have to keep my hands off my face and now it's healed And it can heal in a short time, but if I learn from it That's what the mirror is for and James also says faith without works is dead We often drive down the road and we have a ritual or a good habit when we're usually going somewhere we pray with the children as a family and The prayers are always very good, but I don't often see a change in the behavior. It's one thing to acknowledge That there's something not right in my life, but there has to be mixed that faith has to be mixed with something Genuine faith has to be mixed to translate into works Because James says show me your faith without works and I'll show you my faith by what I do so if you're an angry brother and And and you never you you confess.

I'm an angry brother, but you actually there's no change in your life Then is it genuine faith because the actions are not changing. So something else is needed Perhaps there's not a genuine repentance. It's just an acknowledgment You know, sometimes my kids get a break in Discipline if they'll humble themselves and just admit them that they were they were wrong.

I'll say okay instead of this I'll do this instead and I relent So I relent because it's not in my heart to want to hurt them or to bring them to humility But I want to see a change of heart It's not enough just to Confess your sin You say well if he confesses sin, he's faithful and just to forgive me my sin and cleanse me of unrighteousness But he also says in 2nd Chronicles 7 14 if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves So when you confess you're humbling yourself and pray that's what we do in the car Lord help me not to be angry help me not to be proud help me not to fight and help me not to trash-talk Help me this help me that To seek his face you have to get into the word and you have to start spending time with the Lord in order for your nature to change and Then as you get conviction, there has to be a turning from your wicked ways. That's the works part Turning away from those situations. So when God brings something in your life a test You have to pass eventually you have to pass these tests In order for your character to change if you don't pass the test you keep failing you can tell yourself why I'm in school I'm a smart guy and you keep failing your tests What does it matter? You're in school and you're a smart guy What have you accomplished? So we as believers it's not enough just to confess there has to be a turning away from and That happens as we look into the perfect law of Liberty.

This is our mirror We see what kind of man we're supposed to be and then we have to ask the Lord to change my heart. Oh God Give me a new heart Give me a new spirit Give me grace so that when I get angry I don't respond the way that I used to respond and what you'll find is in the trial. You'll have a 1-1,000 Opportunity to bring that thought captive rather than to respond the way you've always responded That's grace to get an opportunity not to say and to do what you'd normally would do and Then you'll realize the power of God is at work that the discipline is actually producing proven character and it'll bring hope And you'll set you on the right course Psalm 119 65 You have dealt well with your servant.

Oh Lord according to your word teach me good judgment and knowledge Now when we were brought up in the world, we didn't have good judgment and we didn't have knowledge We might have had knowledge might have went to university. My son's university. They teach all these horrible things they teach that bitter is sweet and black is white and Then when we get into God's Word, we realize that black is black black is not white Bitter is not sweet, you know using a worldly wisdom is not godly wisdom They're totally two worlds apart the way they teach So we need to actually relearn His will and his ways so we need the Lord to teach us his good judgment and his knowledge Then once we get revelation, we need to believe his commandments Need to put our faith in what the Word of God teaches not what other people say Some people like to to hear the psychology They like to hear the knowledge of the way they have some tools that you can kind of work with and then they like the Word of God mixed with the human wisdom and they kind of come up with a hybrid Well, you want to know what that hybrid is called earthly sensual and demonic because if you take partial clay and partial iron you're going to still have an unstable foundation and the whole statue will come down from Daniel and the toes clay Whenever you have the teachings and doctrines of men mixed in as your foundation when the house collapses No for certain it's because you set your hope in the wisdom of men not in the wisdom of God That's why it's good to meditate on the Word of God and we have to spend a lifetime Some of us who came to the Lord older to unlearn those things that we learned to have a change of mind and a change of heart in those things that are wise and Those things that are are good and those things that are true And even from our forefathers, we've been delivered some stuff I mean when I was brought up we we learned I mean, I never taught my kids to save money I never taught them these things but they learn from our character They learn from our habit patterns and you know, most of our kids are savers You know, they're they're thrifty with money they'll spend on certain things like we do but at this but but they just won't waste and You say well, how did you teach your kids that well they learn? Growing up but what can happen is when you teach your children to be savers and that what can happen is they can become misers they can become stingy and They can become hoarders For self and that's not the purpose of it.

So teaching some good principles can actually make people become cheap and so in the process of time, we might see someone in need and Then we'll say well, maybe we should help them but then we'll think well, you know what those people don't work Those people haven't saved like I have those people, you know Circumstances have brought them to this place Why should I take the money that I've saved and give to them and then we can find ourselves like the rich man with Lazarus sitting at the gate with his sores and the dogs licking and say You know what the guy put himself in that situation and the Lord's blessed me and he won't share his bread with the hungry And then all of a sudden he dies and he wonders what went wrong He knew the Word of God he said send Lazarus to tell my brothers I have five brothers tell them Don't come here. And what did father Aaron say they have the Word of God and They have the prophets who are preaching the Word of God. Let them hear them because faith comes by hearing the word and So maybe you guys have to unlearn some of the things that I taught you guys growing up because Some of them may not have been good things Maybe some good principles but led to bad character Because we also want to remember the poor and we want to be generous and we want to give We want to set money aside at the beginning of the week So we have something to share even if we don't know where we're going to share it Because that's what the Bible teaches So that we're ready to give if urgent need comes You know because some people live paycheck to paycheck That's why they would say that other people that don't maybe they don't have to set it aside But that's the purpose of it If you live paycheck to paycheck and you don't set some aside Then if you have somebody that's in need and you've already spent it all then there's nothing to help Because the Lord loves a good cheerful giver We're not to give begrudgingly we're to be cheerful in our giving and we can give many different ways But it's to the Lord that we give it never forget that We're giving unto the Lord just like when we work you might work for an unruly boss or and a mean boss But you were working as unto the Lord Everything is unto the Lord.

I believe your commandments That's why it's good to read the Word of God and to trust in his word Now verse 67 before I was afflicted I went astray we lived free we lived However, we felt best We blew money on ourselves. We did all kinds of lavish things. We we we had me days And all of a sudden he put his thumb on that and he says it's not about that.

It's about others It's about loving your neighbor as yourself. It's about loving the Lord with all your heart Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now you got my attention Now I want to keep your word Not just to say. Oh, I read the word for an hour today.

I Don't care if you read it for an hour for 10 hours or for one minute. Whatever you read needs to be applied If you got sores on your face and you don't have ointment and you don't apply the ointment The healing balm of Gilead then there's no healings gonna come He sent his word to heal us Because we're inherently Fallen in nature And we need to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God And he didn't send us this word to analyze but he sent us this word to obey that it might go well with us was reading from Psalm 42 a couple days ago. Why are you downcast? Oh my soul.

Why are you? So quiet within yourself put your hope in God Put your hope in him when you put your hope in the Lord you're putting your hope in his word Can't separate God from his word When he sent his word to heal us he sent Jesus He was wounded for our transgressions. He was afflicted that we might have healing and might experience peace It's good before I was afflicted. I went astray, but now I keep your word You are good and you do good remember in whatever you're going through in life.

You might be going through a season of Encouragement praise the Lord. We want to rejoice with them that rejoice you got a raise things are going well at home You just paid the mortgage down praise the Lord. We want to rejoice with that But some other people are going through hard things we want to also be able to weep with them that weep and suffer with them and Identify with them.

That's why the Lord's taken us through hard things You are good and do good God is good all the time and every day doesn't matter our circumstances The proud have forged a lie against me We don't want to believe lies But I will keep your precepts with my whole heart their heart is as fat as grease Because they're proud But I delight in your law Discipline is to keep us humble to keep us weak to become dependent on the Lord to need him every hour Verse 71 it is good for me that I've been afflicted that I might learn your statutes That's how we truly learn his word when we go through hard things We learn it not with our heads, but we learn it in our heart The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver now people are putting their Investments in gold. It's going higher and higher and higher because of unstable times and in silver, which is quadrupled almost Three times probably Since I've been paying attention Gold and silver Wow put your money in gold and silver. No the Word of God says That we should put our We should invest in verse 72 into the the law of his mouth Into his word we should invest that we should learn his ways and his statutes He's sweeter than honey than the honeycomb his word His word is more valuable than gold and precious silver which perishes it can perish with intense heat It can melt But his word stands true and stands sure That is our sure foundation a rock on which we stand brother shared your hands have made me and fashioned me Give me understanding that I may learn your Commandments Going through these things.

He remakes us into his likeness Verse 74 those who fear you will be glad when they see me Because I have hoped in your word guys put your hope in his word Keep the fear of God when temptation comes Keep the fear of God. I know Oh Lord that your judgments are right and that your faithfulness that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. This is how God is faithful.

He gives us a short leash So that we don't go Go crazy keeps us close Now listen you get a pull back and you remember Some good fear. Let's look in Micah chapter 6 I'll finish here. Oh, sorry.

I meant Hosea chapter 6 Hosea chapter 6 verse 1 Come let us return unto the Lord You know, sometimes we become short-sighted and we lose focus on the big picture We look at what's going on right now we look at what what's coming up we look at the season We look at you know other things we look at financial investments We look at some pleasures a holiday that we got coming And we get our eyes off the big picture the Lord We need the Lord ever before our face Come let us return Unto the Lord for he has torn But he will heal us He has stricken but he will bind us up After two days, he will revive us and on the third day he will raise us up with Christ After we've suffered for a while We die to our will we die to our ways We die to our pride. We die to our bitterness our resentments towards the Lord. Maybe other things And after we suffer for a while he's going to strengthen us and settle us and perfect us That we might learn his ways his precepts And that when those things are learned not here But here and you can share on them Then you have a knowledge of God that surpasses This this kind of knowledge puffs up but this kind of knowledge builds up and Only then when you go through some things Are you able to sympathize with others who were and comfort others with the same comfort that God is comforting us? We're not going to be in this season forever Our seasons change But he remains the same He does not change.

He is like the Zenith No shadow of turning Doesn't matter who we are or who they are He's just and he doesn't show partiality He's faithful That we might live in his sight Let us know let us pursue the knowledge of God And spending time in his word we can know him Paul talked about knowing him the power of his resurrection and The fellowship of his sufferings. This is the knowing not knowing about It's the knowing intimate knowing of his ways of his heart and of his character It speaks of David being a man after God's own heart He knew the Lord He went through things He lost sight of the big picture. He got into selfishness He got into pride and he covered I tried to cover up his tracks But there's no covering up our tracks those things all come home to roost and And the consequences of those liberties that we once enjoyed now, they're coming home to roost And you know what Better that we deal with the consequences of our actions now Than to deal with the consequences of those actions in eternity The Lord is good to all and he has compassion on all that he has made His going forth is established as the morning Verse 3 he will come to us like rain like the latter rain and Like the former rain on the earth Many times are refreshing come from the Lord.

I remember when my kids After they've been received a correction they receive some discipline they run they take off they go in the bathroom. They go to the room They go pray about it They come back and you know what? There's love there It's been dealt with The discipline has happened Good fruits coming from it If you love your children as the Lord loves us He doesn't just let us get away with something this song grace got you. It's like you're getting away with something We're not getting away with nothing What a man sows that he shall reap this is a worldly wisdom May the Lord help us to embrace discipline to kiss the Sun You know, I like to give my kids a hug Give them a kiss every night.

It doesn't matter what happened in the day They come the youngest one still come the last two they come almost every night Come to the door, can you say good night? Well, we already said good night twice, but they come for their kiss And I kiss my sons And they kiss me whatever happened in that day is dealt with new days dawning May we not Hold Our hearts back from being open and transparent before the Lord Because of his dealings with us Remember that he's good After two days and the third day he's going to raise us up. He'll revive us and He'll come to us with times of refreshing again