Staying Humble In Our Lives and Callings

Lord, grateful that we could be here this afternoon. Lord, we would find fellowship in you as we spend time breaking bread and sharing our hearts one with another, that our hearts would be in tune with your heart and that we'd be edified. I pray you'd open up the scriptures to us that you would help us to overcome, that we might fulfill the purpose and call of God for each one of our lives in Jesus' name, amen. I got a text from a fellow yesterday and he's at a treatment center and it's a Catholic treatment center and he was asking me like, what's the difference between a Catholic and a Protestant? And so we went back and forth a little bit and realized that there's not a lot of clarity out there about this is the way you walk in it. And we shared a little bit on Thursday about following Jesus and all the men would raise their hands that have been baptized and say they're following Jesus. But who do you follow? Some follow Paul, some follow Paulus, some follow Peter. Some say, well, we follow in Christ. But are you gonna follow after the Pope? Are you gonna follow after Martin Luther? Are you gonna follow after John Wesley? Are you gonna follow after John MacArthur? Are you gonna follow after me? Follow after this Mormon guy, Jehovah Witnesses? Who are we gonna follow after? There's a lot of people preaching about Jesus, but there's a lot of Jesuses out there as brother shared already with a small J. They have the words, but there's no accompaniment of power. And the brother shared, these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name, they shall cast out evil spirits. In my name, they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. In my name, they shall do many wonders. And we wanna see the power of God and we wanna see his glory. But we need a doctrine that accords with godliness. It's not our own righteousness, but we have to be able to say we're working with the right Jesus. It says in 2 Corinthians in chapter 11, Paul says, I'm afraid for you. As the serpent deceived Eve or beguiled Eve by his craftiness. So this church that he planted, these people who were delivered from demonic, these people who were filled with gifts, these people who were speaking in tongues, these people who were prophesying one after another that you can all minister. And that's God's plan for the church is not to have one head of state and everybody else sitting in the pews, that we all have a gift and a call of God, which is irrevocable. And we have to fulfill that purpose and call of God. And that's on you to cultivate and to seek God and to ask for the Holy Spirit to make made manifest, maybe sometimes even through the gifting received through the laying on of hands by an eldership who have the right gospel, who have a good spirit, so that you can continue on in the faith. But if you have a gift that God has given you, and then you just keep doubting that gift, doubting that gift, doubting that gift, you stick it in the sand and you bury it because you knew him to be a hard, austere man who was gonna require all this at your hand, then you're gonna find yourself having, you can have all your doctrines right, but not walking in faith, you'll have no life to be as dead as a post. You'll be absolutely useless in the kingdom of God. And so many denominations are the same. They have all their doctrines right, but they have no power of God. And so we're not seeing people born again. It's not the problem with Jesus, it's a problem with us. Jesus wants to see people born again. But is there an authority that comes from the preaching of the word of God? Is there an anointing that breaks the yoke? Or is it just coming out of men's heads? Are we just speaking from a mental ascent? You know, brother shared about Ezekiel's bones, about being an army that rises up. Ezekiel, the Holy Spirit commanded him to preach to the bones. And he said, you preach to those bones. He said, can they live? Lord, you know. And you know, we don't know. There's nothing that we can do by our own righteousness, but the Lord knows. But when the Holy Spirit moves us, we respond and we speak under the unction of the Spirit. If the Spirit doesn't move us, we can't do anything. Ezekiel could have screamed at those bones till he was blue in the face and not one bone would move. They would all just sit there when he saw the vision of the bones. But at the word of God, the bones began to come together and the sinew began to come on them until there was a body there. And we see that all over the place now. There's a body that's coming together here and there. There's all this body coming together, but there's no life in there. If someone comes and they preach another Jesus whom we've not preached, or you receive a different spirit. Brother shared about the different spirits that were coming out of this man. You can receive a different spirit because it's a different gospel. When the gospel changes, the spirit changes. There's a people today who rise up and they prophesy. It says in Jeremiah 23, and I was reading that further down, we talked about that on Thursday. And they say peace and safety, and they never turn anyone back from their wickedness. He says, if my people had stood in my counsel, these prophets, and had heard my words, they would have caused people to turn from their sin. Where are the prophets of today? Where are the preachers who are preaching the full counsel of God? Not just telling people how much God loves them, but telling them that they're gonna be in trouble with a good God if they don't repent and turn from their wickedness. Reading in Ezekiel 19, he said, gather the elders of my people and the elders of the priests. Get them together and take a flask. And I want you to tell them that there is gonna be a catastrophe coming like this, of which they've never seen. They're gonna be doing the most terrible things, eating their own sons and daughters. That's how bad the famine's gonna get. And it's like, you know, really? You're gonna tell us that? And they hated the preacher's words. They hated Jeremiah's words, Jeremiah 19. And then they wanted to throw him into a pit, and he got very exceedingly discouraged. When you preach the true gospel of God, it's not always so wonderful and so exciting and so edifying to people who are practicing sin, but it's convicting, it's heavy, and it brings people to be undone. And you can't have a Pentecost unless there's first a cross. There has to first be death, brokenness, and deliverance before there can be an infilling of the Holy Spirit. A lot of times you wanna lay hands on people and see the action, the power of God, without there being repentance. Unless there's a calamity, people are not broken. People don't call on the name of their God. And we're seeing all kinds of counterfeit signs and lying wonders that are happening, because it says that's how it's gonna be in the last days. And this is how these prophets came in Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 11, these prophets came. God didn't send them, they were super apostles. They came and they brought an easy believism. They brought another gospel, the one that deceived Eve by his craftiness, the serpent who came and said, you can live exactly how you want. You can disobey what God's word says, and you surely shall not die. They just twisted one word. You can rebel against God, and you surely shall not die. And Eve believed the serpent, she took and she ate, and she gave to her husband and he ate. And their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked. Sin separates us from God. It separated Adam and Eve from God. And Paul speaks to the church that he planted, who he was a father to, who he laid his life down for. And he said, just as the serpent deceived Eve with his craftiness, lying to you, telling you you can rebel against what God's word says, his brother shared a gospel which accords with godliness, cleansing ourselves from all the filthiness of the flesh and in our spirits, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. But if we just soft sell the message to be more inclusive, so we can become more popular, so we can reach out to more people, so that we can make a name for ourselves, and we can be lifted up, isn't that according to the working of Satan? Isn't that what Saul said when he said now, he had built a monument unto himself, he was once humble, but now he was supposed to destroy the Amalekites, totally annihilate them, and here he is building a monument unto himself, and he's doing all this kind of offerings and stuff, and it's all about Saul, and all about an image unto Saul. And then he says to Samuel, the kingdom is gonna be stripped from you, Samuel says, and he says, okay, okay, I sinned, but honor me now in front of the brothers. The flesh wants honor. That which is highly esteemed among men, it says an abomination in sight of God. We wanna be used to the Lord, but the flesh wants honor, wants to be recognized as a man of God. It's crafty, the flesh is very crafty. We think that we're walking in humility, but we can reek with pride. And I keep asking the Lord, help me to walk in humility, to be humble, because so easy our tendency is to be proud, because we have so much light, because we have good gospel, because we know that we've experienced the power of God, and who are they? And then we begin to forget that the excellence, the power is of God and not of ourselves, so then we become hard pressed on every side. And we wonder, why all these trials? Why all these tests? Don't think it's strange, brothers, concerning the fiery trials that try you, as though some strange thing has happened to you. Be afraid if they stop. Be concerned if they quit, because God is using it to make you humble, so you don't boast in what you can do, but you can boast in the power of God. So here's Paul in prison, very exceedingly discouraged, and he sends Titus to come encourage him. He sends some weak brother, who's Titus? He sends some weak brother, some young brother, good brother, encourage that mighty man, Paul, who said he was despairing of life itself. Discouragement had come on the man, perplexed. What's going on? We figured good things are gonna happen, now he's writing most of this stuff from where? Jail. God's ways, brothers, they're not our ways, they're higher. So when we're going through trials, we're going through temptations, we're going through troubles, and we're going through persecutions, we're going through all these things, this is God's way to keep you three things, humble, humble, and humble. Because if we won't humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, then he's gonna humble us, and keep us weak, so that the excellence of the power from 2 Corinthians 4 will be of God and not of ourselves. You know, there was a man by the name of Moses. He would stand in front of the people of God when he was in the presence of God, and when he came down the mountain, the people were actually very scared of him because his face was glowing, he was radiating. And they were scared, what's this? And when he spoke, oh, they realized, okay, this is Moses, it's not a ghost. And he declared to them the word of God, which came right from God himself, and then it says he put a veil over his face, and he went back into the presence of God, and then he would unveil himself. And what we come to know now is that he put a veil over his face because that glory was a fading glory. You know, brothers, God doesn't want us to have this fading glory, but I have to say that sometimes when we get in the job, when we get around different circumstances that are uncomfortable, or when we get pressed on all sides, we start to see our humanity, we start to see our weaknesses, we start to see our struggles. And for whatever reason, this glory seems to fade, this joy that we had on Sunday and meeting already by Monday lunchtime, we're heavy with problems and cares. We're wondering, perplexed, what's going on? Now, the Lord is allowing these things to show us that we're Old Testament Christians. That the excellence of the power has to be of God and not of ourselves. Because unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face because of the passing glory, he said, we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into that same image as Jesus, from glory to glory. It ought to be a continual increasing of a radiance of Jesus. May the Lord help us to attain to that. That we can say without having to fake it or lie, count it all joy, brothers, when you face various trials, knowing the testing of your face produces patience or perseverance or endurance. I can quote it, but I cannot count it all joy yet when I'm going through it. I want the trials to be removed so that I can be at peace. If the prophets will give you peace and security, they'll say, peace, peace, when there's no peace. And then there's areas in our life that God is showing us, maybe it's self-righteous pride, maybe it's greed, maybe it's lost, maybe it's some other thing. And the preachers will say, well, brother, just like the serpent deceived Eve. Hey, I mean, you have a security in Christ. Yes, yes, we do. No one can snatch me from his hand. But if I jump out and I decide I'm gonna go somewhere else and live for the flesh, surely the scripture says in Romans 8, verse 12, brethren, we're not debtors to the flesh to live according to the flesh. If you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit, if we call on the name of the Lord, we put to death the deeds of the flesh, we'll live. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, that's what they do. These are the sons of God. They deny self, they bear their cross daily and come after Jesus. There's a suffering involved, and there's a glory that follows. Yet the flesh doesn't wanna suffer. The flesh likes it comfortable. The flesh likes it easy. And we don't understand that this is a necessity for walking in the ways of the spirit. What would happen if we became proud like Lucifer? What would happen to us? Not good things, brothers. Pride comes before the fall and haughtiness before destruction. Jesus said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. But when Jesus was on the earth, what did he say? Everything I hear from my father, I speak. Jesus never spoke on his own authority. He always heard and he spoke. Many of us, we speak whatever comes into our head. We think, well, you know what? This person just deserves a piece of my mind. You know what? That might be good reason to us, but Jesus did never give anyone a piece of his mind. He said, oh, well, he told the Pharisees they were whitewashed tombs. He spoke what the father told him to say. He said, you brood of vipers. He spoke it because the father told him to say it. He didn't speak it on his own authority. If we speak things that the spirit doesn't say, we're gonna find out that God is quickly getting our attention and we're licking the pavement because he has to make us humble. If we won't humble ourselves, we'll get humble. And that's what the trials and the tests are for, to try us and to prove those things that are in our hearts so we can see how proud, how angry, how frustrated, how arrogant we really are, so that we can repent, brothers, because God doesn't share 50% of his glory with you. Maybe he shares 10%, do you think? Maybe he'll share 10% of his glory with you. No, he'll share none of his glory. We were in a gathering, me and another brother at one point, and we were spending time in the presence of the Lord, and the spirit of God descended upon us. And I was prophesying. This other brother is speaking in tongues. And all of a sudden, this other brother, I saw the fear of God came into place, and his face began to distort and contort. And he began to prophesy. And the people were getting born again, and people were getting set free. A lot of miracles, a lot of power was being displayed at that time. And the Lord spoke through this brother and rebuked us thoroughly. And he said, do you think you have the power? You do not have the power. He says, I will not share my glory with you. And he called us to repent there because we were becoming proud, but we didn't realize that we were becoming proud. And the Lord had to rebuke us personally. And we didn't understand it at the time. It's important that we understand that the Lord desires for us to be humble, humble, and humble. It speaks of Moses that he had the backing of God, but he was the most humble man on the face of the earth. He didn't write it because he was writing it. He wrote it because God told him to write it. When Dathan and Abiram rose up against Moses and said, hey, you know what, we're priests too. We are from God too. And then they even convinced the 250 Levites to put profane fire on their senses up to God. And Moses, he just bowed himself to the ground because he knew this is not gonna turn out well. And they stood there like this to challenge Moses. And it says that the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan, Abiram, and their whole family, all their tents, everything, and swallowed them up. The people were afraid, but they were upset with Moses because of it. They liked those guys. You know what? You might have a purpose and a call of God in your life, but if you rise up in rebellion towards God's authority in your life, I don't care what it is, God always puts an authority, whether it's a banker, whether it's your parents, whether it's your boss or whatever it is, if you rise up in authority and you challenge that authority outside of the will of God, you're gonna have a problem with God. May the Lord help us to be humble, humble, and humble. So we can humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God when we go through trials and we see things inside of us that are ugly, and we can repent and we can renounce them and we can return to the Lord. I spoke of this Amalekites that were supposed to be annihilated. I was reading in Exodus in chapter 17, and it was there that Amalek came and attacked the people of God. And this is why Saul was supposed to destroy them because they attacked the people of God on the way when they're coming out of Egypt into the wilderness. And it says that there was a battle that came against the Amalekites and the people of God and Moses, he would raise his hands and he was in prayer. I'm sure he was in prayer, praying that the Lord would give them the victory. And it says, when Moses had his hands in the air, the people of God were winning the battles. And then Moses became weary and tired. And his hands become heavy and his hands would come down. And then all of a sudden, the Amalekites would be winning the battles. They would be defeating the people of God. And so it was, I believe it was Aaron and this guy by the name of Hur, they came alongside and Joshua was fighting there. He was fighting with the people of God. And they came and they put a stone underneath him. And he sat on that stone and they came alongside and they propped up his arms and they held his arms up. And they defeated Amalek there, but they didn't totally annihilate him there. That's why there was a need for this down the road. God would deal with it. But the point of saying that is, we need to come alongside one another. It's not enough that we have our own prayer life. We have to be able to have fellowship enough to come alongside and see a brother is becoming weary and his arms heavy on the journey and to strengthen that brother on the journey, to strengthen that sister. And maybe that's your part is to come alongside and to pray with a brother and to encourage him to keep going. And so that the people of God can get the victory in Jesus name. We wanna have the victory. And the victory is through the power of prayer. Prayer changes things. Nothing happens unless there's a people who pray. There might be a mighty man of God who preaches, but behind that, there's usually people who are praying. The scripture says to call for the wailing women. Where are the wailing women who will stand between the porch and the altar and say, spare thy people, O God. There has to be intercession and prayer that goes alongside with the anointing and the power of God to see God's power and his glory manifested in our midst. A lot of Christians today defeated, being defeated by the Amalekites and by Amalek who ambushes them because they've become discouraged and they've become weary in the fight. I wanna encourage you. I've become weary at times, discouraged because of the defeats that we see from the enemy with our family, with our friends in our midst, among brothers who once were fervent for the Lord. And we need to say, well, you know what? What my part is, I'm gonna encourage another brother. I'm gonna come alongside and I'm gonna strengthen them in the Lord. A word of encouragement, a timely prayer, a simple text, a little phone call. As the spirit leads, brother, let's come alongside one another, encourage one another to contend for the faith which was once delivered for the saints, that we might get the victory over the enemies of God who seek to take us out. And don't think it's strange about these fiery trials that the Lord allows to come. You say, oh man, I look bad there. Well, maybe we needed to look bad there because maybe there was a lot of pride in our hearts and it had to be exposed. What if the Lord left the pride there? What if you had a son that was rebellious and you just left him in that state? And in the end, he ends up in prison or he ends up like Nimrod, a mighty hunter that goes and causes all kinds of chaos and he's a hater of God, brings all kinds of confusion to the land. We don't wanna end up like that, rebellious and proud. Mighty in our own strength, but not mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. May the Lord help us to become mighty men in the spirit, women who pray, women who hear from God, who are able to get a word from the Lord, to come alongside their husbands, encourage them when they're discouraged and weak, to be that helper that God has intended them to be. May the Lord help us in these things. Let's pray. Father, I'm thankful for your word. I thank you for the time we were able to be together. I pray that you would help us, Lord, to continue to press on in the faith and we would walk worthy of the calling that you've given us. Lord, that we wouldn't cover over sin with whitewash. We wouldn't cover over the walls with untempered mortar and tell people peace and safety while their families are falling apart. While the marriages are breaking down, while the children are in rebellion to their parents. Lord, we see people perishing for lack of knowledge. I pray, Father, that you would cause this voice to rise up in the land, that you would raise up your church and your people, or that you would fill them with your spirit. You would breathe on them the breath of God, Lord, and that they would go forth. And just simple people, Lord, full of the presence of Jesus. I pray you would do it for your name, for your power, and for your glory. Amen.