"God Has a Work, Who Will Let It?" By Brother Parrish Lee February 5th,
2017
You may be seated, Saints. You know, so many of the musicians are under the weather today; we have about half of what we normally have, I think, if that. And, with some of the singers who also were ill today, and no stopping the Spirit of God. Isn't it amazing? What a mighty God we serve. What a mighty God we serve. Able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask or think. Wonderful time of worship, just a wonderful time of worship. Personally, I'm still feasting off of last week's blessings. You know what? Those three brothers got up here, and, like Malcolm said, “Hey, I was going to ask, but, I didn't, and, I'm here now, so, I've got to share what God gave me.” Wasn't it a wonderful receiving of what God had for us? Let's give the Lord a praise for last week. And I do want to say, to acknowledge the miracle that was on this very altar this morning. We have a couple of brothers who, in a few hours, their respective areas are going to be going to some sort of war, some sort of fight, some sort of battle, some sort of game, and you couldn't tell it. And, so, for those brothers, Brother Malcolm from Atlanta, Brother Jason from New England, we wish God's blessing on both of y'all. I don't know how it's going to happen, but, it'll happen if you ask for it. What a mighty God we serve. We're taking for a theme for this month—last month's was, we talked about the foundation—and, this month, our theme for this month is the question, “Is Love the Greatest Gift?” That is the theme for the month. The theme Scripture for this month is from the Book of First Corinthians chapter thirteen verse number thirteen, and the Bible says, here:
1 Corinthians 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
And we pray that this month is just so nutritional, and monumental, and, such a blessing, a warming, a nurturing, and everything that we could need from the Lord this month. We pray that that is what we receive. But, our Scripture theme for today--yes, Brother Malcolm, I figure you looked into my notes last week—but, you can't let this go:
Isaiah 43:13 Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?
Could we just bow our heads, just for a moment? Lord, we do come before You and, God, we give You thanks. We give You thanks, God, because of how good You are to us, over and over. Even the times we don't ask for it. Even the times we don't deserve it, You are a good God to us, Lord. We thank You for the blessings this morning, God, we thank You for waking us up. We thank You for opening our eyes; we thank You for getting us across the room, across the floor, getting us out of the house. We thank You for the food that You have provided for us, today. You are that God, who continues to give. And, Lord, as they sang the song this morning, “More Love, More Power,” how could we not say, “God, as good as You are, we always want more of You?” And, God, Satan would come along and say, “Well, when you ask for more, you know that means you're going to be used more. You know that means He's going to send you out to the forefront more.” And, God, we just come before You and boldly say, “God, if it takes being used more, if it means we get more of You, then use us, God! And, God, if it means we will be on the forefront more, if it means that You will be with us, God, then put us on the forefront and be with us, God! Wherever we go, we want You in our lives, not even just a little bit, God, we want You to just reign in our lives. We want You to shower down! God,we want You to have Your will! God, we want You to move! We want there to be no restraint to Your will in our lives!” God, this morning, we just want to come before You and say, “We love You; we love You honestly. We're wrapped up in that kind of love with You. God, we are in love with You, this morning, Your magnificent Word, Your wonderful promises, God, and, God, Your Spirit that never fails.” Hallelujah to You, Almighty God! We thank You for all of these things that You've given to us, great God in Heaven! And, Lord, we thank You, for even our faith, and worship time. We offer praises to You, but You bless us, anyhow. And, God, at this point, we come to go over the portion of Your Word, and You have a message for Your people, so, I personally ask, God, that, somehow, You get me out of the way, so that Your people can receive absolutely unfettered, unrestricted, every single morsel that You have for Your people this morning, God. We lay it before You, and we know that you are able to do exceedingly abundantly above what we ask, and above what we think. And, so, we lay it at Your feet, and we claim this all in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, and everyone said, amen. Amen, amen, amen, amen. I've been thinking about this message for a while. Not the preaching message, but the message that God has given to His people, about, “Is Love the Greatest Gift,” and, if it is, or if it is not, that would specifically mean that there are other gifts form God. Other gifts—I can't leave it alone, and many of you know what I'm talking about, you've felt it in your life. You've felt inklings, and you've felt pulled, and you've been sent to wondering, questioning, and you've had these thoughts, and these burdens on your heart, and kind of leaning in this direction or that direction, and maybe nobody else around you felt it, but you knew it was in you; you knew it came upon you, because it came upon you from the Lord who gave it. But we want to start; the title of today's message is, “God Has a Work, Who Will Let It?” And, as we said before, our theme for this message:
Isaiah 43:13 Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?
Part 1: God Has a Work for Each of Us
Who shall let the work of God go forth? Who will let God do His work, whatever God wants, to do His work? We're living in a day and age in our society, our society today, in our country, in our nation, and even in the nations around us, we're living in a day and age where so many things come up to try to restrict the work of God in our lives. Turn on the TV: Yes, racism, just going rampant, and you see it over and over again. You would think we could figure out how to put it down. Well, Christians have figured it out: Give it to the Lord. But, it doesn't stop with racism. We've got ageism, discrimination between the ages; a gap between the younger generation and the older generation and older-than-that generation. We've got gaps here, ageism. Division set by Satan. We've got sexism, where this part of the gender feels this way, and that part of the gender feels that way. Sexism—anything to keep that work of God from working in our lives. This society has plenty more things like it, plenty more things like it. Just let the stock market dip a little bit—ha!--take your mind off... The threat of your job closing up and moving, if you've got a job. If you've got a business, the threat that your business might not function like it needed to. Anything, just to come up to be a stumblingblock or an obstacle before the work of God. But I had the privilege, I had the privilege—our brother Jose is with his wife right now in Kirghistan, our brother Jose over in Kirghistan with his wife, Nazira. I got a phone call from them just a little whole ago. And they called me up, and I told them, “I'm just getting off of work,” and he said, “That's okay, bro.” And we talked for a little while, and he talked, and I could feel his smile over the phone as he was talking. Anybody that knows Brother Jose, you know he smiles. But, then he put his wife on—he had it on speakerphone—and he put his wife on the speakerphone, but, he put her closer so that I could hear her, and she was telling me it's great to be able to talk, it's great to be able to have a little fellowship, and she didn't go into any of her problems, but I had to ask her, I had to ask her, because she told me the land is ninety per cent Muslim. I asked, “Do you have any issues with the Muslims of your land, the people of the land?” And she said, “Oh, yes, Brother Parrish. I have so many. There's people that tell me how wrong l am for believing in The Lord Jesus Christ People tell me that I have no business marrying an American.” She said, “There's people that don't want me to come in their house. People that don't invite me over.” She said, “There's people that don't even know me, but they just treat me bad, because they can tell I'm not a Muslim.” And I listened to her, as she poured out her heart, and I could almost see the look on her face when she went on to say the next part. She said, “You know, I just can't worry about all that, because God has got something for me, and I can feel it! I can't be bogged down; I've got too much to do for the Lord!” At the end of the call, her thanking God, her telling me how good God was to her, I was kind of wondering who was encouraging who. And that just goes to show you, when God is in you, that light shines round about. And they told me they've had chances to share with people. They've had chances to share with people here and there in a land of Muslims. Yes, they've had a chance to share about the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. But, the first part of the Scripture says,”Before the day was, I am He.” God says, “Before the day broke, before the sun rose this morning,” before we opened our eyes and had our first thought, He was being God. He was being God over everything before we had the first inkling of the day. “Before the day was, I am He.” And He has a work. And the Lord God has a work, here. He started early in the morning, and He started even, the Bible says, when we were in our mother's womb. And He says, I will work a work, and who will it?” So, God has a work for each one of us.
Part 2: Spiritual Gifts Expounded On
1 Corinthians 12:1-11 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost, Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
So, we see here that this takes place as Apostle Paul is writing to the church in Corinth. Now, the people of Corinth, they were stooped in idolatry. Idolatry was rampant That's what they grew up with. They didn't grow up with the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. They grew up knowing about the Jews, but they didn't grow up knowing that on a personal level. They knew of them, and some of them even had a history of fighting with those people, but they were stooped in idolatry. And, at this time, Christianity wasn't world-wide, it was new, and it was on fire, and it was fresh. But it was new, and, it was also persecuted, also persecuted. So, he was writing to them at Corinth because they were new Christians. They didn't have the written Word, I mean, after all, this was a round 70 A.D., I believe. And this is when the church was going so fast and furious around the Earth; the people had zeal and excitement. They didn't have a lot of knowledge, but they had a lot of excitement, and, you know, when you're excited, you just go out and do things. You just go out, and you've just got to get something done, because you feel it in your heart, you feel it in your bones. And, just because you don't know a whole lot about the Word, does not mean God is going to hold back in blessing you. That's a fact; that's a fact. We'll talk a little bit more about that later. But, these people were so on fire that the spiritual gifts are coming to these people. And, as Apostle Paul is talking about them, them being involved with this God that they never knew, and them finding the reality of the gifts of God being made manifest, and them realizing that none of the other religions and idolatries can take away their sins, but, now they can feel the washing and the ever-cleansing of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ washing away their sins. They're excited, they're going forth in that. And, so, with this, he has to go and tell them, “I would not have you ignorant of the spiritual gifts...” In verse number two, verse number two, he starts right off, talking about, “...you were carried away unto dumb idols...” And, in verse number three, “I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed.” So, he's telling them , right off the bat, when we're talking about spiritual gifts, it starts with your relationship, it starts with how you talk, and treat God. It starts with how you walk. It starts with this whole outward relationship. That's where spiritual gifts start. If you don't have any other understanding, understand this: God is the One who gives it, and it matters how you treat Him. And he goes on, in verse number four, he goes on to talk about there are diversities of these things. He says there are diversities of gifts, gifts being spiritual endowments, spiritual endowments. Also, miraculous faculties. Miraculous things, and Spiritual things that are given, and there's different ones, he says. There's different gifts of this Lord we're talking about. And he goes on in verse five, he says, there's also differences of administrations, and, administrations meaning your service, and the way your serving God, your offices before the Lord. Especially those of Christian teachers, especially those of ministers, deacons, and deaconesses of the Lord. Offices held by people who make the ministry, who help the ministry be established. There are differences, but, it is the same Lord. There are different administrations, and he's trying to tell that to the church. You know, at one time, I was in a service, many years ago, I was in a service, and I was so pumped up; I was excited about the service, and a few of us were fellowshipping afterwards, and I was telling them what I got from service. I like to talk about stuff like that. If it excites me, I like to talk about it. Sometimes, I might be at work, or at school, and somebody will be talking about a movie they saw, and they can tell you every detail, everything, when he went of the cliff, and how big the explosion was, and how fast the car was going, how big the monster was, and what they shot out. You know, they could tell you all the details because they were excited about it. Well that's kind of how this service was. I'd taken so much in, and I wanted to share it, and there was a brother there, and he was telling about Children's Church. And, he was teaching in Children's Church while the adult service was going on, and I was like, “Come on, that can't compare to what we received in church.” I didn't see how anything else could compare to that. “That couldn't compare to what we received,” and I actually said that out of my mouth, said that out of my mouth. And one of the other brothers there, younger than me, before I could get it all the way out, he just shook his head, and said, “That's not right. It is the same God that works in 'Big Church,' and Children's Church, and in the hospital. The same God that blesses. Don't you sit up here... It is a different administration or gift that you receive, but it is one Spirit.” I have never forgotten that lesson that I was taught. It only took him about thirty seconds to teach it. And I learned a very important lesson. It is the same God. We don't have this competition going on. And the Bible says, in verse number three, “And there are diversities of operations...” Diversities of operations, things that make ministry function. And, it is, whether you give a ride to somebody who needs to come to church, that is an operation. Whether you help somebody who might be stumbling, that is an operation. And, yes, that is a gift from God, it is a gift from God. It might seem like you didn't do a whole lot compared to somebody else, but, according to the Bible, he said, it is the same God working, the same God. Make sure you don't lose your blessing in it, the same God working. So, in all these things, in verse seven, he goes on to say, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man...” Why? Why, why, why? First of all, first of all, if you're in Christ, you are not left out. If you are in Christ, the Spirit of God has given you some gifts. If you are in Christ, the manifestation of the Spirit of God has given unto you to profit, and it's given to every man. Every man and woman. Let's clean that up, right now. Every man and woman. If you're in Christ, God has given you gifts. I had a coworker, a little while ago, who, he was telling me—he knows I'm a Christian and everything, he told me, “Hey, I'm going back to church; going to join the choir.” I knew the guy, and I was like, “You're going back to church? Was it my testimony that did it?” I've been trying to share with this guy, but he was going to go sing in the choir, and, whatever. I kept listening to him, and I wanted to hear how God had touched his life, or how He had moved on him, or how it happened, and he went on to say, “Yeah, I figured I'll give this voice back to the Lord, and see what He can do with it, and then I'll take it back, and see what I can do with it.” Yeah, yeah. I didn't know how to answer him. Well, I hope that wasn't my testimony that led him to do that. And, then, my great uncle had told me, he told me, he said, “You know, there's this place...” I'm from this place on the East Coast called Baltimore, some of you know we're, sadly, not in that great fight with you brothers that... But, he told me of, he said, “There's this place in Baltimore, it's kind of a rich area, and they call it Preachers' Row, because there's nothing but preachers and pastors and reverends and high-faluting church people in big houses that live out there.” And he said, “There's a movement among the preachers in Baltimore, that they would try to get their churches bigger, so they can give more offerings, so they move out there.“ It's called Preachers' Row. He looked at me as if to say, “It's a sad state that some churches have allowed themselves to come to, to take whatever God might give them, to run out and see what kind of mansion they might be able to get.” But, the Bible says the manifestation of that Spirit has been given, “...to profit withal.” With the church, to build up God's people, not to buy a bigger house. Not to see if I can sing on American Idol. That's another one; they've got so many of them out there, now. But, that's not why God gave you the voice, unless He's going to open up the door for you to share about the goodness of who saved you. But, it goes on, in verses eight through ten, Apostle Paul expounds, and he talks about the different gifts, and he says, “To some is given the gift of wisdom, and to some, the gift of knowledge, and, to another one, faith, and healing, and miracles, etc. He doesn't even name all the gifts, he just names some of them. And, if I could, I would like to name some of the gifts that I've noticed in some of our brothers and sisters. I've noticed the gift of compassion; I've noticed that. Those, I've come over, and I've seen them go to a whole different level.. I've seen the gift of humility. Where it seemed like a situation was coming down on them, and I thought, “Man, I don't know how much more this person can take,” and they would turn around and with the biggest, godly smile, and an open heart of love, and be able to be humble in a situation that, no, they didn't deserve, but they showed God through it. Yeah, the gift of humility. And I've also seen the gift of encouragement. In a situation, going in with one or two people, maybe, and being the only one to be able to see the light of God in that situation, and bring encouragement to all those around. I've seen that people's lives. I've even seen that as it was shared in the pulpit, and out in the community. Amazing gifts of God. No, he doesn't list all the gifts of God, but I've seen them , and they've been given to profit withal. But, I'd love to talk, specifically, about one of those gifts. I'd like to just talk about the gift of faith, the gift of faith. Now, the Bible says in
Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man [and, yes, this is women, also. If you ever have a stumbling... There was a lady that challenged this. “The Bible is such a 'man's' book...” The Bible says that woman was taken from man in the very beginning, so she's included in all that. So, you ain't got nothing to stand on. Anyway, the Bible says, here: “...but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man...”] the measure of faith.
Every person has been dealt, by God, that measure of faith. Every person has been given a measure of faith, so when somebody says that they don't have faith, they may not have a lot of faith, but God has dealt to every man a sufficient amount of faith. And then, we want to go to Hebrews chapter eleven and verse number six. So, if God has given to every person a measure of faith, and, in Luke, it talks about the disciples going to the Lord, saying, increase our faith. Why is faith so important in this? Why is faith so important? The Bible says:
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
So, God has already started us off with what it takes to please Him. God has given everyone of us the tools to begin pleasing Him. Now that is a faithful God. But, as it says in Romans chapter twelve, He's given to every man a measure, a measure of faith. So, our faith can be measured. Our faith can be measured, and, yes, it is incumbent upon us to go to God to get our faith increased.
Part 3: The Part of the Holy Ghost in All This
For this, we need to go back to:
1 Corinthians 12:11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
You mean to tell me that the Bible says that the Holy Spirit divides to every person as He will? The Holy Ghost has a will for our lives? He has a will? The Holy Ghost has an agenda? The Holy Ghost isn't something that sits in a chair over there waiting at my beck and call, whatever I ask for? The Holy Ghost actually wants things? Has a preference? Hallelujah! Dividing to everyone, severally as He will. So, everyone is given something by God. The Holy Ghost not only has a will, the Holy Ghost has a purpose. He also has a purpose. In John
John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
The Holy Ghost will bring things to our remembrance? I thought that was me! I thought I was just being brilliant out there! I thought it was me, just running a study. I thought it was me, just having tremendous recall. No, no, no. It was the Holy Ghost, bringing it out. You ever get an episode, and, the Holy Ghost don't wait for the most convenient time. He waits, many times, for the most inconvenient time to see how precious it is to recall. He'll wait until you're walking across the floor. He'll wait, and just drop you while you're at work. You can be driving a car, and He'll drop a revelation on you, or He'll drop anointing on you. Or He'll drop wonderment on you, or He'll drop excitement on you, and, you almost want to say, “Where is everybody else? because I feel it here! I'm sharing what He's dropping on me, because He is that presence.” He is, He does. If it were a winning lottery ticket that landed by my car, I'd make a U-turn. I would take that little old ticket, and I would cash it in. I wouldn't buy it, but, if it fell to me, if it fell to me... Oh, who wouldn't like to be a millionaire? Oh, great day in the morning! So that would be precious to me. The Holy Ghost wants to see how precious He is, and He'll go knocking on us, drop it on us, and turn us around. He'll drop it on us when we're mad! He'll drop it on us when we're angry. He'll drop it on us when we've got something against somebody. He'll drop it on us when we're jealous. I had something against somebody, and I said, “I'm going to go let him out!” I was ready to give him a piece of my mind, but, just to show that I'm right with God, I'm going to take a Scripture with me. And I waited for the Holy Ghost to give me a Scripture, and the Holy Ghost gave me a Scripture: “Be ye angry, and sin not: Let not the sun go down on your wrath:” (Ephesians 4:26) “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” (Romans 12:19) The Holy Ghost told me, “You're wrong! You're wrong!” Yes, the Holy Ghost will come up and teach you.
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
So, the Holy Ghost, according to the Scripture, will also guide us to all truth; teach us, bring things to our remembrance, and guide us. And then, again, First Corinthians twelve eleven, He divides to every man severally as He will:
1 Corinthians 12:11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For why? For what? For the body of Christ. To strengthen, to fortify, to make it nutritious, to let everybody know that every joint supplies. So that one cannot be lifted up and say that it's more special than another. No, that's not God. Because, is your hand going to say, “I'm more special than the foot?” And the foot says, “Okay, let me get to hurting, and let's see how special the hand is now.” Is the ear going to say, “I'm more special than the eye?” And then the eye say, “Okay, let's close, then, and see how special the ear is now.” Anybody with any understanding knows that Paul was talking about we're one body; we all work together. This is why, this is why when divisions start, that's not of God. This is why, when one part is more lifted up than another part, the Bible talks about every joint supplies.
Part 4: We Can Have More Gifts From God
We can have more gifts from God. For everyone of us who desires spiritual gifts, amen. We should be humble about it, but God wants us to, God wants His children to come and ask him for more and more and more. For everyone who desires more spiritual gifts from God, amen. God wants, wants to give them to us. Not only that, but—let's look to see how bad He wants to give us things.
2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.
Yes, God wants to give us more of what He has for us. He wants to give us more power. He wants to give us the ability to be lost in His Spirit, and not even know what day or time it is, and not even know if we're on the ground or in the air. He wants to give us those experiences. And, yes, He wants to give us the ability to prophesy. He wants to give us the ability to discern. He wants to give us more and more and more and more. And, so, the question would be, “When? When? When can I receive all that from the Lord? You know, Brother Parrish, I've been waiting on the Lord. I've been patiently waiting, waiting on God to give me more! Actually, one person told me that they were seeking for the gift of healing. It's amazing how that one is always what people seek for. They were seeking the gift of healing, and they went on to tell me that they sought that gift for a whole year, and I waited to hear what they were going to add to that. And they were kind of angry when they were talking to me about it. “I sought it for a whole year! And I didn't get it!” And I wanted to hear what else they were going to say. And I was like, “That's it? You sought it for a year, and that's it? Why'd you stop? You were seeking for it, you know, why'd you stop?” And they looked at me real odd, because, “You know, that's a good question.” But, we see here in this Scripture, the Bible says that He wants to show Himself STRONG. And this word, 'strong,' means chain-breaking strong, conquering strong, rebuilding strong, restoring strong; that's what this word, 'strong,' means. But it says He wants to show Himself strong on behalf of them whose heart, whose heart is perfect before the Lord. Not that we have to be perfect, but we have to bring our heart to be closer to Him. We have to bring our hearts closer to God. So, it actually comes down to a heart thing, getting gifts from the Lord. It comes down to a heart thing. So, it's not so much us waiting on God for Him to give us something, it's more of God waiting on us to get that heart to the place where He can give us these things. You ever go to a toy store? I used to do that all the time, even in my early days in the military, and you see the boxes that they have, and they have an age limit on some of the toys? Wow, this toy, nobody under three can have it, nobody under seven can have it. Or this toy, or this game, is for twelve and up. Well, you wonder, and you kind of understand, that is because they say that younger people can't handle it. They haven't reached the time of maturity to be able to handle the things that are in the game. If they're too young, they might be putting the pieces in their mouth, and, you know, swallow and choke, and they could get sued, they'd get sued. So, if they put an age restriction on it, they trust that, after a certain age, they have matured. Same thing in the Gospel. He can't give us gifts if we haven't reached that spiritual maturity to receive and do with it... If you were to—some of us, if we were given certain gifts in fact, it's happened here. Some people, when they get a gift, God blesses them with something, it's a media thing, they want to show everybody! “Instead of me focusing on God's will, I want to be the big deal; I want to be the important thing. I want everybody to be all about me!” God can't give you more when it's about you! He can't! He's God, all by Himself. “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another...” (Isaiah 42:8) So, as we go to First Corinthians, as we're about to close, now:
1 Corinthians 12:25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
Not: One part is more important than another part. Not: One part has to lack, another part gets to prosper. Not: One part has to hurt, and another part is joyful and laughing. But, if one member hurts, the whole body hurts. And, just going along with that, this is why, when we heard the news about Brother Chris, for those of us who knew him, personally, it was like something just cut us, right in the heart. And we mourn, we mourn for our family. WE will labor, because, today, it's our brother, tomorrow, it's your sister, or your mother. When one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers. Paul was making this clear: That there be no schism in the body. If something comes along that is going to divide or separate, something comes along that is going to offend, gossip, or whatever, you've got to know, right away, that is not of God. It's not of God. This helps us understand why there's such a blessing in fellowship. There's a blessing when we gather together and worship, just like there's a blessing when we get together and we do things for a purpose. This is why God commanded the blessing, that we dwell together in unity. Last part:
Part 5: Don't Neglect Your Gift
1 Timothy 4:14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
Don't neglect what God has put in your life. Don't turn away, or shy away from it; if He's put it on your heart, in your mind, He's shown you, He's begun to use you, don't neglect the gift that God has put in your life.
Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Last thing: Be sure that God will perform His work.
1 Corinthians 12:31 But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.
Our next services, later on this month, will cover the more excellent way. And, as promised, as promised, after dismissal, we are going to open up this altar. We are going to have ministers here that will pray with you. This is the month that we are focusing on spiritual gifts. fIf you have, and you know God's been dealing with you, in your life, about things He's laid on your heart, don't leave before you have one of these ministers pray with you. Amen. Give the Lord a praise.
|
|
|
|
