I Bow to Your Will My King

1 Samuel 24:6

And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.

God has placed certain things in order. Saul was anointed by God originally but David was anointed by God to take his place. Saul was the first king but David was the chosen one. In this sense, Saul represents our first birth in Adam, but David represents the new birth we receive in Jesus. Saul the old man and David the new man in Christ. Important—man has a plan and God has a plan.

However, even once, we receive Christ as our Savior, there is a whole lot of old thinking, old desires, old ways that we have not wanted to let go.

There is an ongoing rivalry between the flesh and the Spirit in the life of the believer that is revealed in the story of these King’s: David and Saul. I will explain in a moment, but I want you to be made aware that Satan will fight harder than anything to prevent you and I from making the journey from Saul to David.

You see as long as Saul remains king in your life, the enemy of God is champion over you. Your life will be filled with defeat and fear. The things that God has prepared for you will not come to pass in your life, because you will be filled with doubt and unbelief. The enemy of your soul will ridicule and antagonize you. Furthermore, there will be people within the church that will help the enemy make you second guess the purposes that God has for your life, because they themselves are operating under a spirit of Saul. You see Saul wants all the credit. Saul is resistant to God’s will because if God has his way, Saul doesn’t get his way, and if God has His way, Saul doesn’t get the glory. Saul represents the old man, and the first man refuses to die.

As soon as David is anointed king, the page of the Bible is turned and we are introduced to the battlefield scene that contains, Saul (the people’s will) for their lives, and David (God’s will) for His people’s lives and Goliath (the enemy of God and His people)

And the story is filled with a battle between good and evil, between flesh and Spirit and even between brother and brother.

Satan wants to paralyze God’s people in fear, so that they can’t walk in victory, Saul wants to remain king, because flesh wants the glory and flesh wants to rule and doesn’t want to die, because flesh wants what it wants even though it will prevent God’s perfect will and even though it will prevent God’s people some how, some way from moving into the things of God.

Romans 8:5

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

Romans 8:8

So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

But the Spirit says enough is enough!

I know I spent a lot of time on this, but I want you to understand that once you give your life to the Lord, that this is just the beginning. There will be an ongoing battle where your self will will not want to step down and move out of the way, even though this is the obvious will of God.

Romans 8:13

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

And so even after the fact that God’s anointing of David is proven true in that David kills a giant that Saul couldn’t kill, there is still an ongoing saga where Saul demands to remain king and desires to destroy the choice of the Spirit of God, and this is where we are in this story. The ongoing saga and David running for his life.

But make no mistake, God’s hand is in all of this, because God has a perfect plan, and He has perfect timing. He tests the hearts of His saints. He puts the faith in the fire and tests who will stay true to the will of God and the call of God. He wants to know who His true followers are and who will operate as kings and priests in His kingdom.

Will we endure?

2 Timothy 2:3-4

3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

1 Samuel 24:8

David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying, My lord the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth, and bowed himself.

David humbled himself and reverenced God’s will. People so struggle with this. They get frustrated with where they are in life. They get frustrated with their job situation and don’t endure. They get frustrated with their marriage and don’t endure. They get frustrated with their church and don’t endure.

Next thing you know, they’ve been married 4 times, have had 12 different jobs over the last 3 years and switched churches so many times that they finally gave up and said, “I will just do church at home.”

The whole while, the job wasn’t the problem, the wife wasn’t the problem and the church wasn’t the problem-- hold on a second. I didn’t say that there were no problems with the wife, the job or the church. I said those weren’t THE problem.

The problem is the same problem with all people that no one wants to come to the grips of reality with. The problem is you, the problem is me. The trial you’re facing is not because of the other person, it is because God wants to deal with us. He wants to crucify our flesh. He wants us to die to self, if that Saul dies, David, God’s will can assume the throne ♥️.

What does David do, he bows himself towards God’s will. David says, “God has a will. I don’t understand why I’ve been anointed king and I’m still running for my life, but I’m going to bow down to His will and let God be God.”

2 chapters later David is faced with the same test, but the end result is that he trusts God’s will and timing and puts it into the hands of God:

1 Samuel 26:10

David said furthermore, As the LORD liveth, the LORD shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle, and perish.

1 Samuel 24:4

And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the LORD said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily.

Conclusion

1 Samuel 24:5

And it came to pass afterward, that David's heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt.

1 Samuel 24:6

And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.

1. It’s so important that we learn to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and the more that we understand the written word of God, then the better we can discern a word that is spoken to us:

Notice this— these men spoke this as though it were a word of prophecy from the Lord. They try to do it again two chapters later. Thank God someone, like David, is more concerned about God’s will than his own will, because that’s what the flesh wants to hear, “It’s about time Lord. I was wondering when you were going to show up for me and take this thorn out of my flesh.”

1. We have a problem in that so often, we love to hear a prophetic word that tells us what we want to hear and many times those words help our flesh to survive, but God is more worried about us submitting to His will and not our own.

2. Maybe some people here, you would say, “I’m not even sure that I know what a word of prophecy is/ ok… but w/ that said, let’s make it more practical. If you’re not careful, you will listen to the advice of others that will tell you what you want to hear about a situation in your life rather than what the Spirit is saying about the situation.

3. When David cut that corner of the skirt off of Saul, the word says, “David was smote in his heart. That’s the voice you want to hear: not the voice of the prophet— I did not say that you don’t want to hear the voice of prophecy, I said that you don’t want to hear the voice of a prophet and you don’t want to hear the voice of someone who will tell you what you want to hear. Instead, you want to, you have to, it’s the most important thing in your life—to hear the voice of God!

2. While I was praying about God’s will for the message, I heard the Lord say, “A broken and a contrite spirit I will not despise: Psalms 51:17

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

And from there, my prayer was, “Lord, in the flesh, on this earth, we are so worried about ourselves and our own kingdom, but that’s not you. You died on this side, so that we could be part of the real kingdom on the other side. Please let us die to self now, so we can work in your kingdom that you have already established here.”

Because look, He said to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world…” it’s David’s heart, as he bows prostrate to God’s will.

Are you willing to bow prostrate to God’s will this am?

Are you willing to give your heart fully to the Lord?

Prepare to Be Poured

“Fill me up and pour me out. Fill me up and pour me out. Fill me up and pour me out. Fill me up and pour me out.”

Concepts/ thoughts

• Drink offering

• Signs and wonders

• The gospel

• The changed heart

• Pouring out of self

• Looking like Jesus

• Loving like Jesus

• Acting like Jesus

**** the house of God and the people of God

One main thought tonight is how do you view the house of God and the people of God? I wonder sometimes how people view the house of God and the people of God. Do they want to come to the house of God? Do they want to be around the people of God? Do they look forward to these times and opportunities or is it more of a chore, a responsibility and an irritation?

And if it does feel like a chore or irritation is it because something is wrong with the church or the people that are in that particular church? Or does it mean something is wrong with the heart of the individual that is feeling that certain way?

Those are all good questions and maybe in each case, there is some of both, but it seems like the spiritually mature would be able to discern that if they feel a certain way in their hearts towards a brother or sister in the Lord, that they would be able to recognize that Jesus doesn’t feel that way unless the person is causing harm to His body.

It is likely that many people see church activities as a waste of time. For the Old Testament worshipper and the early church believer, their lives were not just built around the things of God, their lives were the things of God. Their lives were their worship and they gave their lives in worship to God.

Specifically, in the sacrifices that were offered to God by the worshipper, they were literally a sacrifice because not only was the animal a sacrifice towards God in that it died a death, but the animal was the worshipper’s property. The main sacrifice that I want to highlight tonight is not a blood sacrifice; instead, it’s the drink offering. The purpose is not based on importance of types of sacrifice; rather, in a sense, while all the sacrifices in some way reflect the Lord, the drink offering in some ways reflects the life of the believer.

Before we attempt to unpack the significance of the drink offering sacrifice and how it could possibly relate to our lives, let’s first look at the vessel that will contain whatever is to be poured out. For the literal drink offering, it was a vessel that could hold a hin of wine, which some measurements say was approximately 1 gallon of liquid, which at least a portion of was poured upon the whole burnt offering.

But in our case tonight, we are the drink offering and we are the vessel.

Again, we will first look at the vessel in question, which is you and I:

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Proverbs 25:4 ESV

Take away the dross from the silver, and the smith has material for a vessel;

A preparation of the heart to mold it to certain specifications, so it can be utilized by God the way that He wants it to be used.

If the animal sacrifices represent in some ways the livelihood and substance of the worshipper in that it cost them personally something, the drink offering has an added element in that not only was it planted and cultivated and harvested, but it had to be processed in order to produce the final product and then it was poured out upon the altar.

All that work, and then it was suddenly gone in a whiff of vapor. How wasteful this must have seemed to a heart of stone and not of flesh that could not feel the heartbeat of God and was only consumed with his personal interests and wealth. This is probably the way that many people feel about the house of God or spending time with the people of God… this is a waste of time. I could be sleeping, I could be watching a video, I could be doing something else….

But how much more of a shame is it when not just a hin of wine, but a whole LIFE has been wasted!  Can you imagine, that your whole LIFE would be like a “hin of wine” – all the years of your life, spilled out and wasted for what seems like no good purpose?  And yet that is actually the way that most people live their lives!  Boats and trucks, nicer houses and job promotions…

People that live focused on these things might look at someone like the Apostle Paul and say, “Man, you’re a fool for pouring your life out” – but the truth is, ALL HUMANS are pouring THEIR lives out in some way!  Their house note, car note, the time they spend on Google, Snapchat, Instagram, or YouTube. Their days are slipping by; their lives are being poured out.  A “pouring out” is actually inevitable!  ALL our lives are being poured out in one way or another.

So we will either pour our lives out for God and His kingdom, or we will pour our lives out on ourselves, and there are countless people sitting in churches 2 or more times per week that are still pouring their lives out on themselves while thinking that they’re pouring their lives out for God.

Deuteronomy 16:16

“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.

Deuteronomy 16:17

Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you.

What you had, had been given to you, and it was given back to God in worship. What He asked was obeyed. My focus is on the drink offering, which was a hin of wine, which is approximately a gallon of wine that would be poured out upon the sacrifice of the whole burnt offering:

Exodus 20:24

An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.

Exodus 29:41

The other lamb you shall offer at twilight, and shall offer with it a grain offering and its drink offering, as in the morning, for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD.

The drink offering was poured out onto the sacrifice and it caused a vapor to rise into the air, and certain of these types of sacrifices were labeled as resulting in a sweet smelling savour unto the lord. Is your life a drink offering, are you being poured out, and are you a sweet smelling savour unto the Lord? When we allow the Holy Spirit to produce Jesus’ life in us, a life of love, true forgiveness and faith, then we become a sweet smelling savor unto the Lord.

Matthew 25:14-30– Parable of the talents

We aren’t going to go there now, but it’s just the thought that God distributed and some gave more in return but one had nothing to give back but what he had already been given. In the world what you pour out or spend is really gone, even if you gained an earthly possession through your purchase, it’s not going to last. Many times even when people give to the kingdom of God, their motivation is more about the scriptures that talk about God giving back to them in return then the thoughts about how it will bless other believers and help lead others to faith in Christ— I have heard people say this before, “When I used to give here, I was blessed. Now, that I give here, I’m no longer blessed.” But would  never consider that the possibility that doing shady things with their money or a wrong heart posture towards money is the real reason that they were going through the financial test that they were facing.

Christian service is not all about money. What about time? What about fellowship? If coming to church is a chore to you, honestly, you need to find a new church, or else you need to find a new heart. If you don’t desire to be in the house of God, with the people of God, something is wrong.

Acts 2:42-47

I don’t want your house and I don’t want your car, but I do want your love and I do want your gift to result in unity and love for the body of Christ and not for it to result in selfishness and division in the body of Christ.

The Fellowship of the Believers

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the  breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Everyone has opinions on their definition of a sign and wonder. The gospel of Jesus changes a person from thinking only about themselves and what they want, to thinking about Jesus, realizing how He lived His life, and in turn, through the Spirit wanting to be like Him, wanting His nature to be produced in them. This is a sign and a wonder, a heart change, a gospel that results in a heart change where people truly love people and want people to experience the life changing power of the gospel, so that Jesus receives His glory and honor.

John 13:34-35 AMP

34 I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another.

35 By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among yourselves].

Matthew 18:21-35

21 Then Peter came up to Him and said, Lord, how many times may my brother sin against me and I forgive him and let it go? [As many as] up to seven times?

22 Jesus answered him, I tell you, not up to seven times, but seventy times seven!

23 Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a human king who wished to settle accounts with his attendants.

24 When he began the accounting, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents [probably about $10,000,000],

25 And because he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and his children and everything that he possessed, and payment to be made.

26 So the attendant fell on his knees, begging him, Have patience with me and I will pay you everything.

27 And his master’s heart was moved with compassion, and he released him and forgave him [cancelling] the debt.

28 But that same attendant, as he went out, found one of his fellow attendants who owed him a hundred denarii [about twenty dollars]; and he caught him by the throat and said, Pay what you owe!

29 So his fellow attendant fell down and begged him earnestly, Give me time, and I will pay you all!

30 But he was unwilling, and he went out and had him put in prison till he should pay the debt.

31 When his fellow attendants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and told everything that had taken place to their master.

32 Then his master called him and said to him, You contemptible and wicked attendant! I forgave and cancelled all that [great] debt of yours because you begged me to.

33 And should you not have had pity and mercy on your fellow attendant, as I had pity and mercy on you?

34 And in wrath his master turned him over to the torturers (the jailers), till he should pay all that he owed.

35 So also My heavenly Father will deal with every one of you if you do not freely forgive your brother from your heart his offenses.

The problem here is an issue of the heart. This is part of pouring oneself out. We can say that we forgive but if we have animosity in our hearts towards one another, then we haven’t forgiven and we haven’t loved. But they owe me money. Yes, they do, and if you let them borrow money, you have a right to ask for your money, but once they don’t intend to pay you and you realize that, what will you do? Will you hit them? Cuss them? Scream at them? Sue them? I mean according to the legal system you may have a right to sue them, but what does this do to your heart?

Don't Let Sin Revive

Romans 7:9 KJV

For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

This topic is for people that are ready and willing to surrender to God’s will. What I mean by that is this, when people are living in failure, there are usually one of two reasons:

1. The person is saved and wants to live for God, but doesn’t know how

2. The person is not really interested in living for God, right now, they’re living for self.

God’s power and grace is sufficient to break through and give the victory, but if a human refuses to yield his will and surrender to God’s will, that person will remain in bondage until he or she is willing to surrender—many times it starts small and grows, but there will be joint participation with the Holy Spirit, and that is who I am talking to.

Alive- to live, breathe, be among the living (not lifeless, not dead)to enjoy real life to have true life

Romans 7:9 AMP

Once I was alive…But when the commandment came, sin lived again and I died…

Galatians 3:12 ESV

But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”

Leviticus 18:5 ESV

You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.

Romans 10:5 ESV

The Message of Salvation to All

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.

Doing vs believing

Go back to Romans 7:9

**Doing is Law/ Law is performance focused

Believing is Faith focused

Trusting in Law or self performance results in frustration and failure (Galatians 2:21)

Believing or faith in Jesus results in God’s righteousness- where there is righteousness, there is grace and where there is grace, there is victory

Romans 4:3 ESV

For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

Romans 4:5 ESV

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

Galatians 3:6-7

6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

Galatians 3:9

So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Romans 3:24 ESV

and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Romans 5:1-2 ESV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Grace vs law

Trying to do something instead of being something by believing something. The next question is do you want to be something new or does a person want to remain their old man? There is a part that is contingent on the believer— Submission to the truth. The truth says that we have to die to self.

1. Die to sin

Romans 6:1-2 ESV

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

What do you mean I died to sin? When did I die to sin?

2. Die to the law

Romans 7:4 ESV

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

3. Die to flesh

Galatians 5:24 ESV

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Jesus My Beloved

The Song of Solomon is unlike any other book in the scriptures. It is considered both poetry and wisdom literature but also described as a collection of love poems. The literal meaning is focused on the intimate love between the king and his bride. But according to one source, the book was not read by the rabbi’s as a literal love story between a man and his wife until the Middle Ages. Instead, it was considered an allegory describing God’s love, a King, towards His bride, Israel. This is more consistent with the whole of scripture in that the purpose of God’s word is to reveal His love to a lost and dying world, and Israel was a big step in that direction.

As New Covenant believers, we would take it a step further and say, “the purpose of the scriptures finds its last day’s fulfillment in a marriage between the King (Jesus) and His bride (the church)”, so that is how we will approach these selected passages out of Song of Solomon today.

One of the main reasons that Song of Solomon was always interpreted by the Rabbi’s as an intimate love story between God and His people Israel is because there are multiple prophetic references where God, Himself, through the prophets, refers to His relationship with Israel as a love relationship between a man and His wife. I want to read some of these passages to prepare the context, and as you will see, some of this language is very graphic, and what we should see through these verses is that God is full of emotion. He is jealous over those that belong to Him, and He is angered when He is treated as a second hand lover.…

Hosea 1:2

Isaiah 54:4, 5 ESV

4 “Fear not, for you will not be ashamed;

be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced;

for you will forget the shame of your youth,

and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.

5 For your Maker is your husband,

the LORD of hosts is his name;

and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,

the God of the whole earth he is called.

Ezekiel 16:1-17 ESV

The LORD'S Faithless Bride

1 Again the word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, 3 and say, Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. 5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.

6 “And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ 7 I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare.

8 “When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine. 9 Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. 11 And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. 12 And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. 14 And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD.

15 “But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his. 16 You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be. 17 You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore.

Jeremiah 2:1, 2 ESV

1 The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD,

“I remember the devotion of your youth,

your love as a bride,

how you followed me in the wilderness,

in a land not sown.

Jeremiah 2:32 ESV

Can a virgin [maid] forget her ornaments,

or a bride her attire?

Yet my people have forgotten me

days without number.

We can hear from the language God’s emotion and the love that He has for His bride. We can see His longsuffering, patience and kindness. I wonder how many repeated acts of infidelity the most loving human husband would tolerate before finally, with a broken heart and tear filled eyes walk away? Two, three, four…? I mean how many acts of unfaithfulness could a human heart really handle before having to call it quits. Yet, this has been happening to God repeatedly since the creation, all through the years of Israel’s existence, and in most of our lives in this room, we have let Him down repeatedly, and He still loves us. He still gives us second chances, third fourth, fifth…

Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV

22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

23 they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

ESV The Bride Confesses Her Love

SHE

SS 1:2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!

For your love is better than wine;

3 your anointing oils are fragrant;

your name is oil poured out;

therefore virgins love you.

4 Draw me after you; let us run.

The king has brought me into his chambers...

The first response is by His bride. She describes the intimacy of their relationship. She uses oil and wine to describe the love that she feels for her husband, the king.

The New Testament uses the words oil and wine to describe His covenant love.

• Mathew 25:4 she said, “His name is like oil”, somebody needs to hear this, as the days grow darker, we need the oil, there is oil in the name of Jesus, because there is power in the name of Jesus. Wise virgins have oil filled lamps.

• Matthew 26:28 she said, “your love is better than wine,” Jesus referred to the wine in the cup during the Passover meal as His blood, the blood of the New covenant, and…John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

• Jesus is the Good Samaritan, ain’t nobody else helping the beat up and broken like Jesus, and He found that man bleeding and dying on the Jericho road, and he poured in the oil and the wine. The kind that restores my soul. He found me bleeding and dying on the Jericho road and He poured in the oil and the wine.

She sings of oil and wine and Jesus brings the oil and the wine, but look at this one verse, “Your name is like oil poured out…” Just the mention of His name, that’s why I love that song, “Your name is like honey on my lips, your Spirit like water to my soul. Your word is a lamp unto my feet… Jesus, I love you. I love you…”

The OTHERS— I like how the ESV directs us in this. She spoke of the beauty of her groom/ king and the others agree and join in… this happens more than once in Song of Solomon, and it will happen in your life too if you let it. If you let your heart fall in love with Jesus, you will talk about Him in such a way that others will want to know Him too.

1:4 We will exult and rejoice in you;

we will extol your love more than wine;

rightly do they love you.

Another spot where others are drawn towards the king based on the actions of His bride

SHE

Song of Songs 5:8 AMP

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am sick from love [simply sick to be with him].

OTHERS

Song of Songs 5:9

What is your beloved more than another beloved, O you fairest among women [taunted the ladies]? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you should give us such a charge?]

Song of Songs 5:11-12

11 His head is [as precious as] the finest gold; his locks are curly and bushy and black as a raven.

12 His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks, bathed in milk and fitly set.

Song of Songs 5:16

His voice and speech are exceedingly sweet; yes, he is altogether lovely [the whole of him delights and is precious].This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem!

Song of Songs 6:1

OTHERS

1 Where has your beloved gone,

O most beautiful among women?

Where has your beloved turned,

that we may seek him with you?

Her language about Him draws the others close. He becomes attractive and they want to seek Him also. Holy Spirit cause our love for Jesus to grow. Anoint our language of the King, so that others will want to find Him too.

There is something different about that person

Song of Songs 7:1 AMP

[THEN HER companions began noticing and commenting on the attractiveness of her person] How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O queenly maiden! Your rounded limbs are like jeweled chains, the work of a master hand.

They see the beauty of the King’s bride. Her love for the King doesn’t only make Him attractive to them, but her love for Him makes her attractive to them.

Ephesians 5:1-2 ESV

Walk in Love

1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

And not only is Jesus a sweet fragrance to the Father, when we walk in love and do the will of God, we become a sweet smelling fragrance to God…

2 Corinthians 2:15-16 ESV

15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

I wanted you to see how her companions saw her from the perspective of her love for Him, and how God sees those that are living a life of love towards Him, but in going back to chapter 1, she sees herself in a self conscious way. She isn’t sure how these women of Jerusalem will think about her. Isn’t that so true when we come into the faith. We desire to share the hope and love that the Lord has given us, but we are apprehensive of how others will view us. We can become so self conscious rather than Christ conscious that we allow others to affect our witness:

SHE ESV

5 I am very dark, but lovely,

O daughters of Jerusalem,

like the tents of Kedar,

like the curtains of Solomon.

6 Do not gaze at me because I am dark,

because the sun has looked upon me.

My mother's sons [brothers] were angry with me;

they made me keeper of the vineyards,

but my own vineyard I have not kept!

But take notice of what she says re why she’s dark. It’s because she has been working in the vineyard, in the heat of the sun. Her brother’s made her do the work. She toiled so much in the vineyards that the sun had darkened her skin, her own needs and desires came second.

In the vineyard, doing Kingdom work is one descriptive of a servant of the Lord. I’m not talking about doing work for the church. I’m talking about doing work for the Lord. And I’m not talking about earning something with the Lord, I’m talking about out of a love for the King toiling in the vineyards one more minute of one more day in hopes that this seed that I plant, this weed that I pull, this water that I add will result in a soul, an increase for my King’s Kingdom.

The Parable of the Two Sons

Matt 21:28-32

The Parable of the Tenants

Matthew 21:38- 41

They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

This is where we were born in human history…the church age. The time frame where the nation of Israel were the first tenants of the vineyard, but those leaders did not have the heart of God for His Kingdom. They were greedy for personal gain. And so we have been the other tenants of this age, who are expected to give Him His fruits in their seasons. When the time is right, He will return to settle accounts. Matt 24:42-51

Throughout the word, God reminds us that He will return for His people, His bride, and I don’t think that the Song of Solomon is any different

Song of Songs 2:8-13 ESV

8 The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills 9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, there he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, looking through the lattice. 10 My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away, 11 for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. 12 The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. 13 The fig tree ripens its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.

The last scene that I want to talk to you about brings us back to chapter 5,

Song of Songs 5:2-8

SHE

2 I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking. “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.”

He’s coming in the midnight hour, and she, like the unwise virgins, is…

3 I had put off my garment; how could I put it on? I had bathed my feet; how could I soil them? 4 My beloved put his hand to the latch, and my heart was thrilled within me.

How exciting and thrilling do you reckon it will be when Jesus opens the door and comes to bring us home.

5 I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the bolt. 6 I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer. 7 The watchmen found me as they went about in the city; they beat me, they bruised me, they took away my veil, —- she has no veil, she’s no longer a bride those watchmen of the walls. 8 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him I am sick with love.

Are you sick with love for Him this morning? Do you miss Him? Do you long to be in His presence, or does something else have your heart this morning?

Lord I Give You My Heart, I Give My Soul, I Live For You Alone

1 Corinthians 6:17

But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit— so if our spirit and the Holy Spirit are made one in Christ, then that means that salvation is perfected in our spirit with God, but is it okay to just stay in this spot, where we are one with Him only in the level of our spirit?

I can tell you that that the simple answer to that is NO!

1 Thessalonians 5:23

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

New life in our spirit is the starting point of new life, and it’s the place from where the Lord spreads His life throughout us, permeating who we are and changing who we were from the old creation in Adam into the new creation in Christ; however, our (free will) must be willing to work with Him.

Proverbs 20:27

The spirit of man is the candle (lamp ESV) of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly (innermost parts ESV).

A while back I made the comment about this scripture…Leviticus 25:23

The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.

What I said was that the Lord was showing me how everything we know and see belongs to Him, but because Satan deceived Adam and through Adam’s own willingness to yield to Satan by giving him his will, Satan was able to usurp the dominion and power that was given to Adam by God and arrest it for himself. God has a right to do what He wants because He is creator, but He created all this for His creation mankind, going back to the thought that He desires an eternal family. In His justice and holy character, He chooses to operate in such a way that it includes the free will of His creation. But He started redemption by making a promise to Abraham that He would give him land for a people and a plan. Looking backwards, we see what He did. He gave them the land, created the nation, and gave the world Jesus.

But the point is that through this little sliver of land He created for Himself a base of operations to take it all back, it’s such a huge deal, because He’s saying, “I’m taking the whole thing back one piece at a time, but I'm doing it in partnership with a people that will yield their will to my will.

“Don’t sell the land, it is mine”. You are strangers and sojourners with me. Your father Adam pushed me out of the picture through the defiance of his freewill. But I’m taking it back one piece at a time, and I’m recruiting a people through the ages that are going to walk and believe with me.

As the sliver of land we call Israel is to the taking back of the physical world, so our spirit is to the soul and body as He takes the individual human back from the captivity of Satan. His will is that we partner with Him in allowing our whole person to become His property. Through the implantation of His Spirit into our spirit, and these being fused into one. He has formed a base of operations where He will begin the plan of His entire take over.

1 Corinthians 2:16

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Part of the truth that our spirit is one with His Spirit is the fact that we have also been given the mind of Christ in this transaction. Because the Holy Spirit dwells within us, the mind of Christ is in us and we know the truth… AMP 1 John 2:20 But you have been anointed by [you hold a sacred appointment from, you have been given an unction from] the Holy One, and you all know [the Truth] or you know all things.

But we aren’t always yielding to the will of God or allowing the mind of Christ through the unction or anointing of the Holy Spirit to have His way— in believing God’s truth.

Ephesians 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

Flesh & mind

Ephesians 2:3

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

This is a good example of how the flesh and the mind are closely related. The flesh gives the mind a base of operations. In this case, the soulish man (mind & will) and the fleshly man (carnal nature- I want what I want) are working together to entertain or give action to the desires of the sinful nature.

Heart— kardia— of the soul so far as it is affected and stirred in a bad way or good, or of the soul as the place of the sensibilities, affections, emotions, desires, appetites, passions__ Strong’s

Heart," kardia, is the place of feeling, intelligence, moral choice__ Wuest

Ephesians 5:18

The Greek is, "the eyes of your heart," the heart referring not only to the emotional nature, but also to the reason and to the faculty of intelligence__ Wuest

The ancient Hebrews regarded the heart as the organ of the intellect, and the mind, that of the desires and affections__ Wuest

Many people serve the Lord from their soul with their mind; rather than what God seeks after according to Jesus’ comment to the Samaritan woman… John 4:23-24

23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.-

The heart is related to desires and emotions of the mind/ intellect. This part of the man can be affected negatively by the world through the flesh, engage fleshly lusts of the world through our members, or positively through the Spirit of God’s grace as we engage God’s will through our spirit.

The way we process the world’s sensualities is through our soul: the mind, will and emotions. In order for the heart to be affected by God, the soul must be influenced by the Spirit. The Spirit of God is one with our spirit; however, the more we feed the soul fleshly appetites, the more we suppress our intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit, which prevents our soul from being sanctified/ our mind from being renewed.

Like a computer virus

++When we bring the world into our soul, it entices our affections towards the things of the world. When we feed our spirit man the things of the Spirit, our affections for spiritual things are aroused. Unfortunately, we can also embrace spiritual things from a fleshly or soulish level in that we are just punching a God clock and not really interested in pleasing the Spirit of God by feeding our spiritual man. This will not result in spiritual life.

Religion vs relationship

Starting at verse psalm 51 verse 10 (create in me), but verse 16 differentiates between religion (sacrifice) vs relationship (a broken heart) now, the doing of spiritual practices has meaning—once the posture of the heart is proper—psalm 51 verse 19 Matt 5

Psalms 51:17

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Getting Jesus from my Spirit into my soul where He is the affection of my heart, and He is the influence over my thinking, my will and ultimately my emotions….

Psalms 42:5

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?

hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

Colossians 3:16

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Matthew 6:21-22

21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

Ephesians 3:17

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

The word "rooted" has the idea of securely settled, and "grounded__ Wuest

Ezekiel 36:26-27

26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

The condition of the heart is affected by what we feed the soul. When we bring the ways of the world or live for self, we allow the fallen nature and selfishness to rule in our hearts.

Matthew 12:34-35

34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

Matthew 13:19

When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth (to consider it or act piously) it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

The seed of the Kingdom was sown into the heart. We are aware that the Kingdom is eternal treasure. It’s the treasure in the field, the pearl of great price, it’s Jesus the lover of our soul and when that seed is planted into the heart, and it’s protected and nourished, it grows. But if I treat the word of God like a common thing instead of a treasure, I’m not considering it properly or piously— meaning I’m just treating the things of God, the word of God, like a common thing.

Mark 6:52

For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened [calloused]

The word "heart" here refers to the entire inner man, his reason, affections, will__ Wuest

Mark 7:6-7

6 He answered and said unto them, -- Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

Mark 7:15

There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.

Mark 7:17-23

17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. 18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; 19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? 20 And he said, -- That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

The heart is related to desires and emotions of the mind/ intellect. This part of the man can be affected negatively by the world and his flesh. In order for the heart to be affected by God, the soul must be influenced by the Spirit.

Romans 2:29

But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Acts 7:51

Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

1 Peter 2:11

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

War against— to carry out a military campaign against your soul.

++He dwells in our spirit, but are we allowing Him to dwell in our hearts

Ephesians 4:18

Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

++blindness

Porosis- the covering with a callus, dulled perception— comes from poroo

poroo— to cover with a thick skin, to harden by covering with a callus, become dull, lose the power of understanding

I'm Coming Home: The Prodigal Son

There is a recurring theme of a banquet with rejoicing in the parables of the Kingdom of God. These parables specifically reveal to us the love of the Father and His desire for His creation to receive the offer of His invitation. In one instance, the banquet focuses on the marriage of the King’s Son to His bride and that multitudes are being invited to join the cerebration, and in the other case, the focus is the Father’s joy, because a son that was lost has finally come home and now the celebration can commence.

The parable of the prodigal son focuses on that very thought, the joy of the Father in response to the return of His lost son. The whole chapter of Luke 15 centers on this and contains 3 parables emphasizing the rejoicing that occurs in the spirit realm when what was lost is found:

1. The parable of the 99 sheep. When the one is found, the shepherd puts that sheep on His shoulders and all heaven rejoices when those that are lost are found.

2. The parable of the woman that had 10 coins and one was lost, but she swept and diligently searched, and when she found the one, she invited friends to rejoice with her. And so it is in heaven— the angels of God rejoice over 1 sinner that repents.

Finally, we come to the parable of the prodigal— meaning- extravagant, wasteful.

                                                                Spiritual

The KJV states v 13 that he wasted his inheritance—wasted- to winnow

And this created the context for the story— 2 sons, the older who undoubtedly represents the Pharisees, who said in the beginning of the chapter, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

Yes, He does. He’s Jesus, and to receive means to take one by the hand and receive them into the family, but you have a comparison and contrast between the Pharisees and the sinners. The Pharisees represent the older brother, whose motives of envy and jealousy are revealed at the very end and the prodigal, who represents the sinners that Jesus came to seek and save.

Revealing the importance of the one lost sheep and the value of the one lost coin. Jesus is committed to His mission, and if you by some chance find your heart with envy or jealousy when someone is restored to the Lord, or if you have ought in your heart when the Lord promotes one of His servants, you need to lower yourself under the hand of God and check your heart, because you may be operating in the older brother syndrome.

So if the older brother represents old covenant Law, then the younger brother represents new covenant grace. The grace released by the Holy Spirit is offered to people like the prodigal. The older brother, in his mind, cannot rejoice with his brother. He cannot rejoice in grace and restoration, because he has never been a recipient of grace and restoration, because, in his mind, he has no need; for he has always done what was right.

V 12 the younger asked for his inheritance, so that he could go his own way. This is free will in action. God never demands that His children stay under His blessings and protection. But we need to understand that once we step outside of God’s will that we are embracing a spirit of rebellion. This excites the sinful nature, and the further we go, the stronger it grows. In the rebellious decisions that we make, we partner with evil and are squandering the eternal inheritance prepared for us by God.

13… journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

Luke 15:14

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

Hustereo- to come behind, be destitute and be left behind.

On the surface, it looks so bad. The power of sin has stolen all of his blessings. Now, to make matters worse, uncontrollable circumstances have resulted in a famine only worsening the hopelessness and despair. With every choice that he makes, he takes one step deeper into despair.

Yet, I can’t help but think about that Father back home. In the physical, he is a praying father, and in the spiritual, He is a Father that is orchestrating circumstances to turn the heart of a son back to where he belongs.

There are times when we face challenges with our loved ones. Spouses, children, family and friends. Sometimes we see things in their lives spiraling down so fast, it seems hopeless. But these are the times when our faith in God should be emboldened. We should believe that He is orchestrating circumstances to get His son back home where he belongs.

The turning point

In his sinful state of mind and desperate circumstance, he made a decision that he would not have normally made. He joined himself to a citizen of a foreign country who raised hogs for a living.

This is why the Lord repeatedly instructs His children not to connect themselves to people of the world, because the people of the world live outside of a Kingdom of God perspective. Their lives are surrounded by unclean things, their business dealings are unclean. It’s all they know, because they don’t know God.

Luke 15:16

And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

In his mind, he has lost his “sonship”, his inheritance is gone; furthermore, he has lost all self esteem. Satan’s plan for his life appears to be in full throttle.

Satan

“If I can just get him to lower his face into the slop and eat with the hogs, it will be the final nail in the coffin. He won’t make it back from that, the remorse and guilt will destroy his self esteem, and he will never recover out of my web of slavery.

Instead, a spiritual shift takes place. The Holy Spirit speaks to his spirit. Come on church…this is a son in the story, right? The whole story is about “sonship” and new covenant grace, and in the new covenant, the Holy Spirit is one with your spirit, and I don’t know how far you have to go to make Him leave, but he hadn’t left yet in this story, because, the Spirit wants to speak to our spirit, to get our spirit to tell the truth to our soul, but so many times we convince ourselves of something that isn’t true based on the way we feel rather than the truth of God’s word. The heart— the thoughts of the mind along with the feelings of the heart. In his case his feelings must be apathy and despair.

Anyway, God is moving on his heart and convincing him to move towards home. He says to himself, “what are you doing? You could go to your Father. I mean you can’t be a son anymore— lie, but we will get to that, you can’t be a son, but He will at least take you back as a servant…”

3 thoughts related to the prodigal’s turning point:

I. The Joseph factor

Genesis 50:20

But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

1. What evil plans for bad in your life, God will turn it around for good

2. Once, he turns it around for you, He will use your testimony to save others.

II. Trails of tragedy pave the way to wisdom

Once he makes it home, he will not be the same man he was when he left. This is what you call experiential wisdom. The pain of the past can serve God’s children as a reminder that the open door of sin promises fun and excitement in the beginning but ends in heartache and despair.

Proverbs 2:6-16

Proverbs 2:10-11

10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; 11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

Having acute, mental discernment. I have said this before, but let me say it again,”The Lord does work through the soulish part of the man. However, the soul (specifically the mind/ will parts) are to be subservient to the spirit of the man.

• The spirit of the disciple has learned that as a son, he is a new creation in Christ. The old creation died with Jesus on the cross, was buried with Jesus in the tomb and has been resurrected with Jesus through the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. Death has no hold on him, sin is not his master because he is no longer under the dominion of law but he is under the covenant of grace. The object of His faith is Christ. He trusts in Jesus. He clings to the healing garment of his robe and holds on with unwavering faith that Jesus and His sacrifice keeps him dead to sin and alive to righteousness through Jesus’ victory over sin.” This is his power source, and now faced with this new trial that crosses his path, the Spirit of God communes with his spirit and the experiential knowledge along with the word of God floods in, and his spirit speaks to his soul and says,

‘remember the slop, remember the pain, remember the cross, don’t go there again!’”

Bam! That easy. The way of victory… submit yourself to God…trust in the finished work of Jesus, not your will power, not your religious works, not your counselor, not your meds— JESUS!

III. What Satan is saying and what the Father are thinking are not the same thing.

One of the biggest lies of Satan is guilt and condemnation. He is persistent in piling on the painful memories and the failures of the past, but what the prodigal is thinking while he is in the pig pen, is not what the father is thinking back home.

Luke 15:20

And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

I can’t prove it, but it’s almost like the father was looking in that direction and just waiting to see the first hint of movement towards home, and once He sees it, the goodness of God moves and like the scripture says, “the goodness of God brings him to repentance”

Luke 15:21

And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

And the Lord will say, “I accept the repentance, but all this lose your sonship stuff and now only a slave, I won’t have any of that. Get the robe and the ring, put some shoes on his feet and kill the fatted calf. My son has come home and it’s time for heaven to rejoice.”

I would like to linger on his words in that verse for just a moment though. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. I don’t care what anyone tells you, but that is the right posture of a repentant heart. It’s about man’s posture and God’s promise. Man’s posture must be repentance and God’s promise is restoration!

He left full of pride but when he returns home his heart is humble

Isaiah 66:2 …to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Zechariah and Satan’s accusations

1. Robe— Gal 3:27 the text doesn’t tell us what his garment looked like when he showed up at His Father’s house en route from the pig pen, but we are told that his Father commanded that he be clothed with a robe. Two robes immediately come to mind: a). Zechariah 3:1-3 tells us that Joshua the high priest was standing before the Lord and was spiritually clothed in a filthy garment and Satan was standing at his R hand ready to accuse him, and the Lord did unto Satan, “The Lord rebuke the Satan.” Then the Lord took away the filthy garments and clothed him with a change of raiment. b). The Matthew account of the parable of the wedding banquet, there was a man that had tried to enter but he didn’t have the wedding garment, so he was expelled.

• Both of these refer to identity. The robe says that you’re not who you used to be. If you have placed faith in the Lord and His sacrifice, then you are cleansed, clothed in His righteousness and accepted as a son. The Father accepts you and you need to know that. Anything else is a lie.

• The ring signifies the authority you have as a son by using the name. Rings were used as signets and seals. The son was given the authority to conduct business in the name of His Father. We have been given authority to conduct the Father’s business on earth by using the name of Jesus.

Recognizing the Trial of Temptation

2 Peter 1:3

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

What a blessing it is to know Him. Knowing Him is knowing God’s will, God’s plan for the human race and more specifically, God’s plan for your life.

Hosea 4:6

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee...

2 Peter 1:4

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

The more we know Jesus, the more we are called towards glory and virtue:

Glory- focused on the things that belong to God

Virtue- moral excellence

Phillipians 2:13 For it is God that works in you…

The more we know Him, trust Him, grow in Him and die to self, the more we move towards Him and the result of that is escape from the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Galatians 1:4

Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

We understand how the present world become evil and corrupt, and we understand that this world is still evil and corrupt, and there is evil influence all around us.

And there is a struggle that rages in the heart and lives of humans. The lost are hopeless without Christ in the battle of sin, but many believers find themselves in an ongoing spiritual struggle.

Galatians 5:17 the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.

The sin’s power is the Law—it’s not about us trying, it’s about our old man dying and believing that what He did was what we need.

The flesh’s power is the evil nature inherited from the fall of Adam. This evil or sinful nature is not eradicated or completely destroyed when we get saved. However, Romans 6 teaches us that our relationship with this evil nature is supposed to be dead.

Shall we continue in sin so grace may abound? 2. God forbid, how can we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

I used to use an analogy of an old girlfriend. She’s not dead. I’m not dead, but that thing we used to have between us is dead. Im not physically dead. The sinful nature is not completely dead, but that thing that we used to have between us is dead. The relationship is dead in Christ. My “old man” had an intimate relationship with sin and my “new man” has an intimate relationship with Jesus.

Nevertheless, it must be understood that original sin resulted in this current condition of an unclean earth that we share with evil spirits who want to entice us away from God. They want to destroy other people’s souls, and they want to get us so consumed with the cares of the world that we aren’t concerned with God’s kingdom business.

They want us either drowning in sin or sitting on the bench.

The scripture says that we are partakers of the Divine nature

The word for partaker is koinonos. I have talked to you several times about the word Koinonia and how this word describes communion and fellowship. Through our new birth in Christ, the Holy Spirit now lives in us. His Spirit has been made one with our Spirit, and we have become partakers of the nature of God.

We have access to an endless flow of grace that supplies us with supernatural power from God. We can have faith that we can live in victory. Victory in our minds, victory in our bodies. We can have faith in the miracle working power of God. The Holy Spirit is one with us in our spirit and through faith we share in the divine nature of God.

I want to talk to you about temptation because Satan and his unclean spirits want to keep believers in a state of defeat. They don’t want us to gain that knowledge of Christ that leads to God’s divine power that destroys the power of evil over our lives. It’s that simple— faith that Jesus won, results in His victory over sin in my life.

But there is this temptation thing.

James 1:12-15

12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. 13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is [[drawn away]] of his own lust, and [[enticed]]. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Drawn away and enticed both words are described as one being lured or baited by evil. Specifically using as the analogy of a hunter or fisher in regards to his game or catch.

Rat’s nature cheese/trap

Fish/bait/hook

The bird’s snare

Animals, for the most part are ruled by their nature, their instinct draws them towards the bait and the trap is set. Humans outside of Christ are similar prey for sin. However, in Christ, our spirit’s are made alive to God, and the Spirit of God speaks to us and leads us towards truth.

Matthew 12:43-45

43 -- When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. 45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

But we don’t have to yield to the enticements of evil spirits as they attempt to draw sinful tendencies out of us. Instead of yielding to the lies of Satan, we yield to the truth of God’s word, which is that I am a partaker of the divine nature, also that I am no longer the old man enslaved by sin; instead, I am a new man, and like Paul said, “a slave of Christ!”

We have talked a lot about devils jumping on people, whether they can get in this one or that one and what they can do to Christians and what they can’t.  What we need to understand is that they’re real, they’re not our friends and we should not be engaging with them.

They’re trying to stimulate our flesh in order to get us to yield, yielding to sin, opens a door. I’m not saying that if you yield you’re automatically in bondage, what I am definitively saying is that yielding to sin either by trying to live for God through your good works instead of living for God through Jesus’s work, or yielding to a lust in your flesh that was stimulated from an outside unclean spirit, either way, it opens a door, and an open door to evil is no good thing.

Galatians 5:24

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

In this manner, the evil spirit never gets a chance to attach or enter…whatever you choose to believe, because the flesh is crucified by faith, the enticement is not yielded to, and the unclean spirit has no legal right because a spiritual door was not opened.

When we belong to Him, and have the knowledge that we share natures with Him, which means that the same cross that crucified Him crucifies our flesh and the same Spirit that raised Him from the dead gives us life, we walk in victory and sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14)

In Pursuit of His Love

God’s love pursues His people. Throughout the pages of both the Old and New Testaments, we could hear or see the repeated theme: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. When I want to understand God’s love, I look to Jesus. He is my example. I consider the visible representation of the God, and I consider how God’s love played out through Jesus’ life and actions, and the final act on the cross.

Offended/fall away

I consider how He came to His own but His own received Him not (JN 1;11). On the way, Jesus told them, “Tonight all of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say, ‘God will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ (Matt 26:31).

1. The first thing that sticks out to me about God’s love revealed through Jesus is that: He just kept loving

if anyone ever had a right to be offended, hurt, harbor bitterness or be unforgiving, it was Jesus.

His own nation rejected Him. His own disciples forsook Him. According to earthly, human standards, He had a right. But He didn’t come to reveal earthly wisdom, which is sensual and devilish. He came to deliver the wisdom and knowledge of God’s love towards us, and how His love is to manifest in and through us:

John 13:34-35

34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

As the Lord was leading my prayer session yesterday, I found myself saying, “Lord, the reality of your existence and the power of your word becomes so clearly evident on earth, when I allow your word and will to work in me.”

Let’s talk about pain, heartache, rejection or offenses for a second: someone raped you, lied about you, cheated you. You have been mistreated and you been carrying a spirit of rejection around on you, but when you come into contact with the truth of the New Covenant and yield to the truth of God’s word that says that Christ is being formed in you through the power of the Holy Spirit. And you get out of your feelz, and you let your flesh be crucified, so that the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit can have its way in you. Now, you begin to receive your healing…

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

When people wrong you, an offense wants to climb up in your heart and wants to sit in there and play around with you. It wants to fester like a boil. It wants to irritate you and it will, let me say it again, it will have an affect on your life. Let me say something as a Pastor, but with the mouth of a prophet… stop that!! Stop letting an offense embolden a spirit of rejection in you. Stop allowing bitterness in your heart come out of you to the point where you always feel like you have to defend yourself. Let the Holy Spirit heal you. Let the cross kill you! Let Christ be formed in you.

Because I can see Him hanging there with His body torn. He’s naked, He’s alone, His people helped put Him there. They scoff at Him, His disciples forsake Him, my sin causes the Father’s face to turn from Him, and there He bleeds and dies, and oh yeah-He saves one more, “today you will be with me in Paradise,” and He does what He wants me to do:

Luke 6:27-28.                1/2 of us can’t even love our own brothers and sisters

27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, 28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

That’s my Jesus, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!”

Let me let you in on a little secret Christian. If you don’t understand how the Holy Spirit works in crucifying your flesh so that the fruit of the Spirit can be produced in your life, you won’t even know to place your faith in the finished work of the Lord. Once you know that, if you refuse to yield to the process, you will just persist in the flesh, you won’t really help the kingdom of God, rather you will just walk around on this rock called earth helping the devil more than you are helping the Lord, and one day you will stand before God and give an account for how you refused to let Christ be formed in you:

That’s a good preacher, because I’m going to tell you right now, “I’m more concerned about the Holy Spirit’s feelings than I am yours.”

John 13:34-35

34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

2. The second thing about God’s love—how does His heart feel?

Like a lovesick husband (lovesick because He’s relentless, never mind whether she wants to be pursued- she’s His, and He doesn’t plan on letting her go), there He is every page you turn pursuing the love of His life.

And so many times when you turn the pages of this love story saga, you find His arms empty. His bride is elusive. He calls but she does not respond. He loves but she does not reciprocate. But He tries harder and harder and refuses to give up. So much so that sometimes she seems to pretend it’s a game. She imagines in her mind, I wonder how far I can go, and He will still have me? And maybe if I feel His presence less, I will come a little closer and make sure that He is still there, and then I feel Him again… Oh, there He is, and like a runaway bride, she starts again, chase me my love. This is so much fun…

He is so different than we are. He loves us even when we cheat, even when we reduce Him to last on our list. He pursues us until the day that we read and it enters our hearts:

Romans 2:4

…despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

I can’t shake it out of my ears—the time, so long ago when I was praying, and He said to me, “What about me son? What about me and what I want?” Those words ring in my ears and even after hearing them, I have done the same, “Here I am Lord, come and get me…”

When I slow down long enough to think about my own life and His goodness towards me, I can’t help but say to Him, “Why Lord? Why do I do that to you? You’re so good to me! Help me Lord!”

I believe that God wants His people to know how His heart feels. I definitely believe that He wants His ministers to know how He feels. I believe thats one of the reasons that He gave us the book of Hosea.

Hosea 1:2-3

2 The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD. 3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.

She ends up having 3 children for him:

A son named Jezreel- God sows

And 2 daughters:

Loruhamah- no mercy— for I will have no more mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away v6

Loammi—not my people—for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God v9

That’s one of the things that breaks my heart. In that He loves so much; yet, He is so misunderstood. He gave us His Son. Jesus poured out His life for the world on the cross. He gave us the Spirit of Grace, but one day, He will say, No more mercy, no more time for me to pursue you with my love. The door is closed, entry denied. For you are not my people because you did not make me your God.

Go and take yourself a wife that will cheat on you Hosea because I need a prophet to feel what I feel, because I need a mouth to speak my heart to a people that keep breaking it.

He proves His love again…

Hosea 3:1-2

1 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. 2 So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:

He purchased her back for the price of a slave. She had done to Hosea what God knew she would. She bore him children and then ran away like Israel did to God, and now, Hosea’s wife finds herself sold as a slave; for the price that was paid equals the 30 shekels required to purchase a slave. Her sin had caused her slavery, and God required that Hosea put God’s heart in his chest and go and purchase her back off the slave market of sin.

Most scholars agree that that a homer and a half of barley equals 15 shekels, so 15 shekels of barley plus 15 pieces of silver equaled 30 pieces of silver, which was the price of a slave.

Exodus 21:32

If the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner shall give his or her master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

Isn’t that something Hosea paid the price of 30 pieces of silver to purchase back his wife and Jesus purchased His bride with His life, which was valued by the religious Pharisees at 30 pieces of silver— the price of a slave

What I’m saying is that this is what Jesus did for us. He purchased us out of the slavery of sin:

Matthew 20:28

Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Ransom— Lutron— the price for redeeming slaves and captives

Conclusion

Galatians 5:22

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

His love doesn’t look like ours

1 John 3:1-3

1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

Manner- potopos— pote when pou- where

An extremely literal translation of this word would be: when and where did this come from?

When God Let's Man Have His Way

Romans 1:16-18 ESV

The Righteous Shall Live by Faith

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Before we talk about people suppressing the truth and its results, let take a look at the importance of embracing truth:

1. The Psalmist reveals that truth leads to the presence of God…

Psalms 43:3

O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

Psalms 24:3-4

3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

2. Truth in a human heart brings God pleasure… thou desirest truth ESV delight…Strong’s pleasure

Psalms 51:6-7

6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

The Lord’s eyes aren’t blind. He doesn’t need glasses to see into a human heart. He has a spiritual microscope that He uses to examine the intricacies of the human heart. You need help with your heart. I need help with my heart.

After his sin with Bathsheba, King David writes a song and sings…You search my heart. You have a way of dealing with me. if it’s truth you want in my heart to lead me up your holy hill, I’m in need of your help. Take that sop of blood and smear it all over my heart, wash me and I will be whiter than snow.

Jesus is ultimately the fulfillment of truth. Conversion brings truth into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. If we will allow the Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth, we will find ourselves on the holy hill. In the presence of God being led by His Spirit.

3. Truth in  heart of a believer is an expensive …

John 14:6

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Romans 1:16-18

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Romans 1:22-32

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Through the ages unrighteous men have influenced society, have made man god and have now said to us, “You are god, you are who you want to be, you do what you want to do. We reject God, we reject His word, we reject His truth.

Listen very closely… it’s important that you understand what I am about to say. We are watching the degradation of society unveil before our eyes. What we see so far out in the open is nothing compared to what they do in their secret chambers. But you must understand that if you— suppress the truth of God in your life, the wrath of God will be revealed from heaven in your life also. This is a spiritual truth. It cannot be avoided. This wrath is different than the wrath that will occur as described in the book of revelation.

This is wrath is what happens to humans when God allows them to have their way in their own hearts. Darkness overtakes them, sin overwhelms them, they find themselves doing things they never imagined they could or would do. The guilt begins to pile up on them.

But good news, good news, good news—truth is only a whisper away!

24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud,

A reprobate mind is one that has been rejected by God.

boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Proverbs 29:27

An unjust man is detestable to the righteous, and one whose way is upright is detestable to the wicked.

Proverbs 29:27

An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.

2 Corinthians 6:14

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

1 John 2:20 CSB

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge.

1 John 2:21

I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth.

You're Pregnant but are You Showing?

Numbers 33:16

And they removed from the desert of Sinai, and pitched at Kibrothhattaavah.

Kibroth-hattaavah— the children of Israel weren’t happy with the manna provided from heaven by God. They wanted flesh. God sent quail and they ate flesh until they vomited it out of their nose and then they were struck with a plague and were buried in a place and the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah- the graves of flesh.

Before we transition from this spot, I just want to say that the believer must be spiritually sober to the fact that the flesh remains an ongoing potential problem for Christian growth throughout the entirety of life’s journey.

Galatians 5:17 ESV flesh connected to your soul—your mind animates your flesh

For the desires of the flesh [KJV LUSTS] are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

James 4:5 KJV.   Lusts & flesh

-- Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

James 4:5 AMP

Or do you suppose that the Scripture is speaking to no purpose that says, The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us and He yearns for the Spirit [to be welcome] with a jealous love?

Now, it should be clarified here that the words…to keep you from doing what you want to do

The carnal or fleshly appetites of the lingering old man are trying to affect your spiritual man. It’s your spiritual or new man that wants to do right. You can be born again but your flesh still wants something that God doesn’t want. The Lord is not in that business. Satan will gladly help your flesh to produce those endeavors, but God will not bless the flesh.

Let me say it one more way: if your flesh is blessed it’s a spirit, it’s just not the Holy Spirit.

Now, I just want you to hold that flesh thought until later

You’re pregnant but are you showing

1 Peter 1:23

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

Begotten v3

There are multiple references to the word seed in the New Testament. Many of these references are directly related to the gospel. When it is the gospel, it speaks of the seed of the Christ that is planted into the soil of the heart and will result in the harvest of God. We could also say that once Christ is in us, the Kingdom of God is in us:

Luke 17:21

Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

When Christ is born in us, the Kingdom of God is implanted in us. It is God’s will that the Kingdom grow in us. It is God’s will that Jesus grow in us. So let’s ask ourselves this: we’re born again right? So that means Jesus is in us. Like a woman pregnant with child, we have had the seed of Christ implanted in us, but are we showing yet? Around the 4th month of gestation a woman starts to show that she’s pregnant. At some point in our Christian walk, we should start to show that we’re pregnant with Jesus. That means that we don’t look like, talk like, act like the world and we start desiring the things of the world less and less.

In order for a fetus to grow in the uterus, they depend on their mother for nutrition. Her nutrition is broken down into macro and micro nutrients, the nutrients absorb into the blood stream and through the umbilical cord, the fetus is nourished:

1 Peter 2:2

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

“Huh, I’m not a milk drinker. I’m a meat eater!”

When Paul said that to the Corinthians about milk and meat, it’s not the same negative context here about milk that it is there. It is true that a baby starts on milk, progresses to solids: vegetables, fruits, meats, then table food… and so, at some point an adult believer should be consuming the meat of the word. You can’t be college age and still be eating a 3rd grade lunchables and expect to be growing in Christ. Also if something is wrong with the nutrition of the mom. Or there is a twisting of the umbilical cord, then there will be a lack of nutritional flow to the fetus; therefore, the fetus will not grow and spiritually the Christian will not show, so you can be pregnant with Jesus— born again, but not be showing Jesus. What could cause this?

1. You’re still eating spiritual lunchables

2. You’re eating something that looks like the word but isn’t (I’m not even talking about the Bible right now. I’m talking about the Jesus/Christ of the Bible)

Peter is saying that just as a baby craves milk for growth, the child of God must crave the sincere [unmixed, unadulterated, pure] milk of the word…that ye may grow thereby

2 Corinthians 11:2-4 KJV

2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

Galatians 4:17, 19.     False teaching affects the growth of Christ in believers

17 They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. 19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

The context is that there is false teaching/ teachers whose message is contradicting the message of the Apostle. Most of the time people teach something false on accident [Wyckoff quote]. It’s something that was passed on through the groups of people they were connected with. Church or denominational ideas that filter through the traditions of men and do not come from the word of God.

Here it’s the (Judaizers). Most people that go into ministry love the Lord and want to serve God with their lives. However, a person can be sincere and be wrong. I’ve been sincere and wrong at the same time. Everyone in this room has been sincere and wrong at the same time. The question is this: will you admit that you’re wrong and ask God to help you stop being wrong even if it will make you vulnerable to worldly loss. In other words, if you’re going to upset some people are you willing to do that instead of upsetting the Holy Spirit?

Galatians 3:1-3

1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2 This only would I learn  of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

The real gospel forms the real Christ in us. The real Jesus is the Jesus of the cross. Real Christians carry their cross, because they learned from their Lord that there is a progressive dying to self that must continue. It is an ongoing process that results in resurrection life.

A cross less message is just as bad as a Christ less message, because you can’t have the real Christ without the cross. The work of the cross is not me knowing it. The work of the cross is me dying on it.

Galatians 6:12-14 ESV

12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, (follow their doctrines and teachings) and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. 14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to  me, and I to the world.

This doesn’t mean that they don’t say the name Jesus. They contradict the interests of the Lord. One of the main interests of the Lord is that we be transformed into the image of the Lord. He is love.

2 Peter 2:1-3

1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying (to contradict or disregard the interests of) the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise (plastos) of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

Kibroth-hattaavah

Numbers 11:18-20

18 And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. 19 Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; 20 But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the LORD which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?

Spiritually we understand from John that this manna that they’re rejecting is the pure nourishment/ sincere truth about the Christ and the quail or flesh represents the desires of the human heart that is not pleased or totally satisfied with what God is offering. The thought of the free will is involved with this. While they consumed this flesh and it was coming out of their nose, before they died, they likely imagined in their hearts that the problem was something else. Instead of looking at their own lustful, covetous heart that refused to do it God’s way and demanded their own way, they probably started coming up with other reasons why everything was falling apart around them.

It could be anything:

• I don’t want to live my life this way. I want to live my life that way

• I don’t want to go to this church I want to go to that church or I don’t want to go to church

• I want to marry this kind of man not that kind of man vice versa woman

• I want this kind of job not that kind of job

• I want a new house, a new car, a new boat, a new toy

• I want to live the American dream

Numbers 11:33-34 KJV

33 And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague. 34 And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.

They lusted. God was providing manna, but they wanted flesh. An ongoing diet of flesh is spiritual diet of poor nutrition choices. This will result in a slowing of Christ being formed in you. We may be pregnant but are we showing?