“After” By Parrish Lee April 15th,
2012 Part
I:
After Easter Acts
1:3-8
…ye shall receive power, after that the
Holy Ghost is come upon ye…
So here we are; the Lord has come,
died, and rose, told the disciples that they would be baptized with the
Holy Ghost,
that it was not for them to know the times that God would restore the
Kingdom,
but that they would 1) receive power after that the Holy Ghost would
come upon
them, and 2) to go and be His witnesses.
What an exciting time this must have been. The
Passover fulfilled, the
Lord risen, and more to come.
So,
from the Passover
when the Lord died, three days later He rose, He was with them for
forty days—if
you’re counting that’s forty-three days, and He told them that they
would
receive power NOT MANY DAYS HENCE.
We
know that the day of Pentecost was fifty days after Passover, so how
many days
was it between Him being caught up in the clouds and that rushing
mighty
wind? Seven days. I’m sure if they could
have looked into the
future and seen what was coming in seven days, many would have said,
“Hey, for
the gift of the Holy Ghost, I can wait for a week.”
But it ain’t about seeing the future; it’s
about believing and trusting God.
You
would think that there would have been hundreds, maybe thousands; and
we know
from the Scriptures that there were a hundred and twenty.
The truth be told, saints, the
people then were not too different from us now—what most of us seek is
generally to be comfortable. You
know,
big house, two car garage, white picket fence, 2.2 kids, the great
American
dream; at least it used to be. Nowadays
people are looking for job security, a fully funded retirement fund, a
big
screen TV. I dare
say, saints, if we
look for the church or ministry where we can be comfortable, well,
let’s just
say that if we find it, we should know that we’re in trouble. Comfortable?
You know what happens when you get too comfortable? When we find ourselves
always getting our
way? We get lazy,
slack, or that other word: Lukewarm.
That’s what the Bible calls it (Revelations 3:16). Thank God our Lord shows
us the path of a
life after Him and that was a life of service and sacrifice. Part
II: After Messing Up Acts
2:35-39 …Repent,
and be baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ…
Great news! They
may not have been in the upper room, but
God is not leaving them out! Wow,
what a
God!
Now, Satan’s mission is to wear us
out (Daniel 7:25). God
knows everything
we go through; it’s not some secret or something that He doesn’t want
to be
bothered with. In
fact, when we go
through our battles and trials, He wants to see what we are going to
do—give in
and say, “God, why me? Why
do I have to
go through all of this?” or turn our eyes to Him and thank Him for all
that He
has done for us and ask Him to be our present help in time of need. In fact, many of the
things that we go
through are for a testimony that God might get the glory. Part
III: After
Correction 2
Chronicles
16:7-9 …Because
thou hast relied on the
king of Syria, and not relied on the LORD…
The setting for this Scripture is
that the king of Israel, Baasha, came up against the king of Judah,
Asa, to
basically hold them captive, and make Judah serve Israel. Instead of Asa seeking
God, he went and paid
the Syrians (who had been his enemy) to help him out.
I was just privileged to have my
brother visit me for a few days. I
bring
this up because when he told me he was coming, I thought of how much of
a good
time we could have and what I could do to impress him (because he is my
older
brother and I do want him to be proud of me), but right in the middle
of those
thoughts, God slapped me in the face.
He
made me realize that this visit wasn’t about me; it was about Him and
what
glory God could get out of it. And,
just
like a child after correction, I prayed, Lord, please open the door to
share
with my brother, show him Your truth and save his soul.
Saints, that changed everything and it
started in the car, right after I picked him up; he started asking me
about
this ministry and the God that I serve.
God reminded me, as He has so many times, that I
have not because I ask
not.
When I was looking for a better job
and finally got around to praying for one when God answered my prayer,
He gave
me everything I asked for: More
money,
more availability for ministry, increased my knowledge, etc. I thought of a few other
things that I had also
wanted, and said, “God, what about these other things?”
You know what He said?
“You didn’t ask.”
So just as His Word aid some two thousand
years ago, and all the years since, Christians have to listen to the
voice of
the Lord, and obey that Scripture. Part
IV: After
Discouragement 2
Kings 2:1-3 …And he
said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your
peace.
If I could bring up two people who
were after what God would have them to be after, one of them would have
to be
Elisha. Elisha was
to follow Elijah,
and, as he did, there were those who rose up to discourage him, giving
him
excuse after excuse—you may as well give up now, Elijah isn’t going to
be with
us much longer… And
those people? The
sons of the prophets, people of
reputation, people who, you could say, knew about the ways of God. All Elisha wanted was MORE
FROM GOD. My, how
different things would have been if
he would have listened to them… The
other person would be the woman with the issue of blood,who, after she
had
spent all that she had, then put herself after Jesus. Mark
5:25-28 …For she
said, if I may touch but His clothes,
I shall be whole.
I can imagine her anticipation in
saying, I know that the Lord can do this for me.
I’m not going to wait for Him to come to my
house, or Sunday morning worship, and I can hold the door for Him and
then ask
for His healing. I’m
going to seek Him
out myself, and getting close isn’t good enough.
Now, saints, Jesus knew that she was going to
be there, He knew about her issue of blood, He knew that there was
going to be
a crowd around Him, and He knew that she was going to have to press all
the way
through. Was she
worried about stepping
on somebody’s toes? He
knew the healing,
the gift, the blessing He had for her, and SHE HAD TO SEEK ANYWAY. You may be thinking to
yourself, “But I seek
God, and I ain’t got no blessing.”
What
does that tell you? Philippians
4:6
…let your requests be made known
unto God.
Yes, saints, that’s right—everything. We need to be ready not to
give excuse, but
have that attitude of giving God everything.
But, brother Parrish, I don’t give everything to
God; what if He tells
me something I don’t want to hear, or what if He tells me I’m wrong? What if He tells me no? well, AMEN, now you know. That’s how you know that
He’s your God. To
have that walk of guidance and direction…
Sure, no one likes correction, but we do like the comfort and assurance
of
knowing that you’re right.
I want to go on record before I go
any further. We are
a blessed, blessed
people. We are so
blessed. Thank you,
Lord, for what you have given
us. I’m blessed
when I’m sick. I am
blessed when my car won’t start. I
am blessed when I come home to a cold
house. I am blessed
when I have
fellowship with other saints. We
are a
blessed people, and we need to come before God with thanksgiving. Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding… Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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