POWER TO THE PEOPLE
#034 POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Scripture Deuteronomy 8:1,2,16-20 NIV Orig. 5/3/64 (3/79)
Rewr. 3/21/87
Passage: 1 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. . . . 16 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today. 19 If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. 20 Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.
Purpose: To examine the spiritual motivations of the people of God in light of His blessings and His expectations
Keywords: Blessing God, People of Judgment
Introduction
Many of us have seen awesome generational changes taking place in our lives and the lives of our children. So many particular advantages have come, and are coming, to the youth of this present age.
Both of our girls have already become world travelers. Fritha has been out of the country three times: Canada, Europe, Liberia. She is presently planning a Russia trip. Rhonda has been away three times: Canada, Europe, Brazil.
Both returned from their travels to share great moments with their parents. I remember vividly the slides taken in Europe. I particularly remember the great cathedrals.
The architects of the 12th and 13th centuries had great confidence in their technical skills. They continued to press for higher and higher monuments of praise, and of self-glory. In 1163 A.D., the vault of the nave of Notre Dame reached the then record height of 110 feet. At Chartres, 31 years later (1194), a new record of 114 feet was achieved. At Rheims in 1212, a height of 125 feet was recorded. Then, just nine years later, in 1221, the cathedrals of Amiens stood at 140 feet. By this time, competition between the cities had become the driving force in these construction displays. The people vowed to raise their cathedral 13 feet higher than at Amiens. Three times they tried. It fell each time. In 1500, gigantic transepts were begun, and in 1552, the lantern tower reached the unbelievable height of 500 feet. The tower collapsed one year later, and with it came the end of this great period of architectural competition. Such enterprises had become monuments to the praise of men rather than the praise of God.
It was not always so intended. At Chartres for instance (LinLib1583), without proper stones nearby, nobles and peasants, abbots and abbesses with their subservient bodies of monks and nuns, allowed themselves to be harnessed to the heaviest of carts, which they pulled from quarry to building site. Then, on that site, they built, with their own hands, the walls of the “House of God.” How easy for such labors to degenerate to desire for self-esteem. So it was for Israel. So it is for us, too often.
I. Act One in This Drama of Power to the People Is Persuasion. 8:1 “All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers.”
The initial concept in Persuasion is the authority of the persuader. All of us have been recipients of promises that could not be kept. The greatest single factor in the breakdown of many marriages, is in promises not kept. Many parents cannot give liberally to their children, but promises broken are the destiny provokers. And, we have all been guilty of making promises that we could not or did not keep.
I still remember some promises not kept while still a youth.
I remember preaching the funeral in Oakdale, Louisiana, of a young man who was killed in a car wreck directly attributable to a broken promise.
The lagoon of life is filled with the decaying hulks of broken promises and broken lives.
The persuader here is God Himself, who would not and cannot deceive. Listen to 8:7f: “For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, . . . a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.”
Such sufficiency was the promise of God to Israel for their good. It was a promise He intended to keep. It was a promise to guide them in their will to follow. It was a promise, if kept, that would have been the supplier of power for Israel. It is a promise God makes to his people in any age. Psalm 27:8 “When thou saith, ‘Seek ye my face;’ my heart said unto thee, ‘Thy face, Lord, will I seek.’” Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
It is in the context of promise given to persuade, that we learn of Jesus as Saviour. The Old Testament, you remember promised that ONE would come. The New Testament teaches us the story of His life and death. Old Testament, New Testament, and 2000 years of Christian history certify that He is going to return.
Are you persuaded?
II. Act Two in This Drama Is Provision. V2 “And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep His commandments or not.”
What happened to Israel happened, to the end that they would better become a power of God. He is able to bring His people through struggle.
The misdeeds of His people are another matter. The Jim Bakker debacle is a case in point. We were in New Orleans when Bob Harrington left his ugly mark on the Baptist name. I have a friend in Morgan City who has recovered from this heinous wrong.
Have we stopped recently to contemplate what God has given over to us as His people? We are 7-8% of the world’s people. We occupy 6% of the world’s land mass. We control nearly 50% of the world’s wealth. We do struggle, over energy, marketing farm products, etc., but we are still, uniquely, the chosen people of God to the end that the gospel be proclaimed.
In such provision, we discover what a nation’s safeguards really are. Someone reminds us, “A nation’s safeguards are not in commerce or Tyre would not have fallen; not in art or Greece would have stood; not in political organization or Rome would have lasted; not in military power or Germany would have triumphed; not in religious ceremony, or Israel would not have collapsed.” Amos 5:21f tells us that assemblies were rebuked, offerings unacceptable, ceremony a defilement. Amos 5:24 “Let justice run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”
III. Finally, Act Three in the Drama Declares Their Probation. V18, 19, “But thou shalt remember . . . . And it shall be that if thou do at all forget, . . . you shall surely perish.” This is not the threat of an angry, surly, self-seeking God. It reminds Israel and us that He is not intimidated by our intellectual uniqueness. Even with that superiority, how evident is our record of failure.
Upon examination, His commands have always been consistent with this experienced probation. Look at the Ten Commandments and acknowledge their societal advantage. However, Jesus reminds us that they can be simplified. Mark 12:30-31 “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength; and thy neighbor as thyself.”
The probation given is directed against human pride. V12f “Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God. . . .”
One of the clear indications of this time is that the world’s people are on spiritual probation: Nations. Churches, Individuals.
A pilot discovered that his instruments were not working. He told the passengers, “I have good and bad news. The instruments are out. I don’t know where we are going. The good news is we are getting there at 600mph.”
Conclusion
A National Geographic article on Brazil concluded with the story of a man from the interior of the Amazon who had made his way to one of the cities. For 15 years he had worked separating tin cans from garbage. “Which do you like better?” the author asked. “It is better here,” the man said. “There I was a slave.” (NG—March 1987).
THE POTTER'S HOUSE Deuteronomy 20:1-4; Jeremiah 18:1-6
#614bb THE POTTER’S HOUSE
Scripture Deuteronomy 20:1-4; Jeremiah 18:1-6, NIV Orig. Date May 10, 1981
Passage:
Deuteronomy 20:1-4
When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. 2 When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. 3 He shall say: “Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. 4 For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”
Jeremiah 18:1-6
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.”
Purpose: To share a message at a special gathering of high school students.
Keywords: Discipline Banquet Revelation Relationship Youth
Introduction
It was one of those intolerably hot August days. A hiker had come out of the high regions and was beginning to see signs of civilization. Occasionally, in the distance, a house. Here and there, cultivated land with crops laid by. The hiker was now thinking only of finding a place to get a cool drink of water.
Down the way, he saw an old mountain house. As he drew nearer, he saw a man seated in a rickety chair on the run-down porch. As he approached he determined to be neighborly to the man, hoping that he would be so in return. He spoke, then called attention to the disagreeable weather. Still no invitation to rest came. He went on, “How is your cotton doing in this hot, dry weather?”
“Ain’t got none!” replied the mountain man.
“Didn’t you plant any cotton?” asked the surprised traveler.
“Nope,” he replied, “’fraid the boll weevils’d get it.”
“Well,” said the passer-by, “How is your corn?”
“Ain’t got none of that either,” said the old farmer, “And if you gotta know, I figured there weren’t gonna be no rain.”
Still hoping for an invitation to rest, and a drink of water, the hiker plunged in again. “Really, well what did you plant?” he asked.
“Didn’t plant nothing,” said the farmer, getting up to enter the old house. “I just played it safe.”
There are lots of good reasons why we do what we do. Some of them even good ones, and our excuses become the determinants of the way our lives are lived. To be a farmer and not to plant is ludicrous. To live in God’s world and make excuses for discounting Him is also.
There’s a shorter story of an avid golfer who was checking with his spiritual adviser about golfing in heaven. The adviser said, “There’s good and bad news. The good news is that the golf courses in heaven are many and lavish.” “That’s great!” the golfer happily exclaimed. “What’s the bad news?” The adviser said: “Tee off time is tomorrow at 10a.m.”
At first glance, Cervantes’ novel, Don Quixote, has little to offer young people. It is the story of a thought-to-be senile old man, and his fat and 50ish servant. They launch a quest to do something about the evil in the world, the don on a sway back horse and Panza on a mule. They stop for the night at a less than becoming inn, and his strange ways continue. He addresses the slovenly inn-keeper, “Behold, you are the Lord of this great manor.” The abused kitchen servant was seen as a beautiful maiden, and he requests a token to carry with him into his battles with evil. But what happens is that people who have never been trusted before respond to Quixote’s kindness, and it changes their lives, and does affect the evil in the world by affecting the lives of evil people.
You are at the place to decide your quest: A part of the evil, or an attempt to do something about it. Why you?
The New Orleans TV market had an unusually fine TV program a few years ago that ended with the sudden and unexpected death of the host, Jim Metcalf. He chose for a portion of one program to see life through a child’s eyes. “I now recall only how to look. I do not recall how to see.”
You must decide quickly, before you join a great host of others who recall only how to look at the world, not how to see it. How to experience the world, not how you feel about that experience.
Jeremiah is a case in point. It is here that I invite you to venture with Jeremiah to the potter’s house.
I. With All of His Experience, there was a Lesson that He had Missed. It was not an obvious lesson: not wasted clay, though we Americans have something to learn about waste—our loss of credibility. The lesson was in the symbol of wasted clay. It was a revelation. Not new, but very old. The symbol declared that it was God’s purpose to take what seemed to be useless and give it meaning and opportunity. It is a lesson that must not be pushed too far. The clay does not have free will with which it can resist the potter. Jeremiah did, and we do.
II. You See, Even as God’s Prophet, He had Compromised an Ideal. The world out there waiting for you is beset with bargains.
Soren Kierkegaard told a story about wild geese who chose to stay behind in a farmer’s field because it was safe. A wild goose, with broken wing, entered a farmer’s flock. After winter, with healed wing, he heard another flock flying north. He extolled the other geese to fly with him, but they would not, for the farmer’s corn was good, and the barnyard secure.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote: “When was it that I completely scattered the good seeds, one and all? For, after all, I spent my boyhood in the bright singing of Thy temples.
“Bookish subtleties sparked brightly, piercing my arrogant brain, the secrets of the world . . . in my grasp, life’s destiny . . . as pliable as wax.
“Blood seethed . . . and every swirl gleamed iridescently before me. Without a rumble the building of my faith quietly crumbled within my own heart.
“But passing here between being and nothingness, stumbling and clutching at the edge, I looked behind me with a grateful tremor upon the life that I have lived. Not with good judgment nor with desire are its twists and turns illumined, but with the even glow of the higher meaning which became apparent to me only later on.
“And now, with measuring cup returned to me, scooping up the living water, God of the universe! I believe again! Though I renounced you, you were with me!”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Gulag II (Harper and Row—1968)
III. It was Now Time to Certify the Word from God. What God had to say was to be revealed in the work of the potter.
It speaks of confidence. There is something to believe in. There is a dependable world.
It speaks of obedience. James Michener’s book, The Source, is a fictional account of Moses. El Shaddai said to Zadok-the-Righteous, “As long as you live old man, you will be free to ignore my commands. But in time, I will grow impatient and will speak to others.” Zadok: “My home is the desert. I was afraid to leave.” El Shaddai: ‘I waited because I knew that if you did not love your home, you would not love me either. I am glad that you are now ready.”
It speaks of faith. I watched with more than a smile as a little girl, 4 or 5 years old, waited at the baggage belt in the air terminal in New Orleans. Just the three of us waiting for luggage at Moisant. She asked about putting her stuffed bear on the belt. Her daddy assured her it would come back. You cannot imagine the look of concern on that father’s face as he waited with her for his word to be trustworthy.
IV. The Lesson had to do with Discovering a Destiny. “Cannot I do with you as this potter? . . . As clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.”
Let me remind you of your dependence. This is not what your contemporaries want you to consider. It is threatening to them.
Let me remind you of design. The will of God is not a trite “preacherism.” It is ultimate truth. A little boy in a small town heard a “circus” was coming. He did not know what it was but posters and talk convinced him. For weeks he saved pennies till he had 25 cents. On the day, he got to town and was told where to go for the beginning of the parade. He saw lions, tigers, bears, elephants with people riding on them, beautiful horses, acrobats, jugglers, clowns, the circus band. As the last person appeared, the little boy stepped into the street, put five nickels into the man’s hand, and ran home to tell what he had seen. He had not been to a circus but to a parade.
Let me remind you of discipline: the calloused feet; the tools—wheel, rasp, chisel, fire. The light then came on in the prophet’s brain. Life’s meaning is found on the shaping wheel of grace, tempered in the fires of God’s providence.
Conclusion
Herman Hegedorn wrote after the initial atom bomb blast in New Mexico: “I went to call on the Lord in His high house on the hill, my head full of 150 million people having to grow up overnight. If ever a people needed a miracle! The Lord!! He looked at me as a mountain might look at a molehill.” ‘So you want a miracle. My! My! You want a miracle. You want me to come sliding down a sunbeam and make 150 million self-willed egotists into 150 million cooperating angels.
‘Brother,’ said the Lord in a voice that shook the windows, ‘that isn’t the sort of universe you are living in. That isn’t the sort of God I am. . . .
‘Give me your life, and I will make it a spade to dig the foundation of a new world.’”
THE POTTER'S HOUSE Jeremiah 18:1-6
#614b THE POTTER’S HOUSE
Scripture Jeremiah 18:1-6, NIV Orig. Date 2-4-75 (5-78)
Rewr. Dates 9-24-87
Passage: This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.”
Purpose: To share a message at a special gathering of high school students.
Keywords: Discipline Banquet Revelation Relationship Youth
Introduction
It was one of those intolerably hot August days. A hiker had come out of the high regions and was beginning to see signs of civilization. Occasionally, in the distance, a house. Here and there, cultivated land with crops laid by. The hiker was now thinking only of finding a place to get a cool drink of water.
Down the way, he saw an old mountain house. As he drew nearer, he saw a man seated in a rickety chair on the run-down porch. As he approached he determined to be neighborly to the man, hoping that he would be so in return. He spoke, then called attention to the disagreeable weather. Still no invitation to rest came. He went on, “How is your cotton doing in this hot, dry weather?”
“Ain’t got none!” replied the mountain man.
“Didn’t you plant any cotton?” asked the surprised traveler.
“Nope,” he replied, “’fraid the boll weevils’d get it.”
“Well,” said the passer-by, “How is your corn?”
“Ain’t got none of that either,” said the old farmer, “And if you gotta know, I figured there weren’t gonna be no rain.”
Still hoping for an invitation to rest, and a drink of water, the hiker plunged in again. “Really, well what did you plant?” he asked.
“Didn’t plant nothing,” said the farmer, getting up to enter the old house. “I just played it safe.”
There are lots of good reasons why we do what we do. Some of them even good ones, and our excuses become the determinants of the way our lives are lived. To be a farmer and not to plant is ludicrous. To live in God’s world and make excuses for discounting Him is also.
I. Jeremiah Reminds Us of Something that He has Overlooked. V2. “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.” The message is not a new one. We are reminded rather than informed. It is not something never said before, not some new thing making its appearance. There all the time but Jeremiah was elsewhere.
And, it was becoming increasingly important for Jeremiah to know the heart of God. I wonder what good thing occupied the prophet. I wonder why he failed to seek the “best” thing. Were you ever guilty of that? I have been.
Even here, we can occupy ourselves with secondary matters. Why, here is a wonderful lesson about wasted clay. The potter needs to be more careful. We can extend this to a world where waste abounds and examine others’ guilt.
Contemporary ecology warns us about waste. We are losing trees, forests, woodlands. Water quality is a problem everywhere. Oil has been wasted to the point of world revolution.
The major economic concern in America today is that we are creating debt on unborn populations.
But, that’s not the lesson. The lesson is in the message delivered through the potter. It is a lesson that shows God to be the redeemer, the user of what has been cast aside. It didn’t just involve clay. It involved people, flesh and blood. Folks with free will, who could resist their potter.
II. So, Jeremiah Has to Deal with a Relationship That Has Been Bargained. V4 “And the vessel that he (the potter) made of clay was marred.” It did not achieve what was intended. It was bargained. It was cheapened. Now, wait a minute, do those words mean the same? The world out there, young people, is teaching you to get by as cheaply as you can. That’s okay if you’re buying books, or jeans, even a car if you are careful. But what about things that matter: Home, family, community, peace, dignity, integrity. God.
Soren Kierkegaard, a philosopher you’ll study about in college, wrote a fantasy about geese. A wild goose, with broken wing, entered a farmer’s flock. After winter, with healed wing, he heard another flock flying north. He extolled the other geese to fly with him, but they would not, for the farmer’s corn was good, and the barnyard secure.
We are too ready, you and I, to bargain the true lessons of God’s spirit for material, worldly reasons. James Michener’s book, The Source, is a fictional account of Moses. El Shaddai said to Zadok-the-Righteous, “As long as you live old man, you will be free to ignore my commands. But in time, I will grow impatient and will speak to others.” Zadok: “My home is the desert. I was afraid to leave.” El Shaddai: ‘I waited because I knew that if you did not love your home, you would not love me either. I am glad that you are now ready.”
We are neither too young nor too old to discount, to bargain the word of God to us.
III. Jeremiah Begins at Last to Look into the Very Heart of God. V4b “He made it again, another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.” V6 “. . .As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand.”
The prophet had to learn that God was involving Himself redemptively in their lives. Exodus 19 (Moses): “Ye have seen how I bear you on eagle’s wings to myself.” Psalm 37 (David): “I was young, and now old. Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken.”
How intuitively Jesus knew this to be the case. Matthew 5:45 “He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the good.” Matthew 10:29 “The sparrow shall not fall without the Father.” Luke 12:27 “Consider the lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin.”
The prophet had but to remember this Godly quality and act in obedient faith. The life of Jesus proves how unlike God we are. His doing is my undoing. Without His mercy I have no choice left. Faith is believing, and living on the basis of that belief.
I watched a little girl, 4 or 5 years old, at the baggage belt in the air terminal in New Orleans. Just the three of us waiting for luggage. She asked about putting her stuffed bear on the belt. Her daddy assured her it would come back. You cannot imagine the look of concern on that father’s face as he waited with her for his word to be trustworthy.
IV. The Prophet Reminds Us that there Is an Undeniable Discipline in Responding to the Trustworthiness of God. V6 “. . . Cannot I do with you as this potter [does with the clay]?” saith the Lord. “As clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand.”
So, we are dependent. Give God the first segment of every day. Give God the first day of every week. Give God the first return on material earned. Give God the first consideration in every decision. Give God first place in your heart.
For a brave to become a chief, he had to pluck the fur from the sacred bobcat, bring down the white buffalo alone, wrestle the brown bear. Then came the trial of fire and water. “Whatever happened to wholesome good looks and a nice personality?”
Look on the potter’s wheel and see design. It was the design that was flawed. Even so, God’s people were less than he had planned, thus the renovation.
Nor must we overlook discipline. The potter’s feet were calloused and misshapen from all the years at the wheel. The tools were those of wheel, rasp, chisel, fire.
And it was thus that the light suddenly came on in the prophet’s brain. This God would have me to see. His work is never to destroy but to design. His grace is not to reduce but to redeem. The smartest thing that one can do is to let Him have His way in our lives, and the sooner the better.
Conclusion
Herman Hegedorn wrote after the initial atom bomb blast in New Mexico: “I went to call on the Lord in His high house on the hill, my head full of 150 million people having to grow up overnight. If ever a people needed a miracle! The Lord!! He looked at me as a mountain might look at a molehill.” ‘So you want a miracle. My! My! You want a miracle. You want me to come sliding down a sunbeam and make 150 million self-willed egotists into 150 million cooperating angels.
‘Brother,’ said the Lord in a voice that shook the windows, ‘that isn’t the sort of universe you are living in. That isn’t the sort of God I am. . . .
‘Give me your life, and I will make it a spade to dig the foundation of a new world.’”
Alternate Conclusion
“When was it that I completely scattered the good seeds, one and all? For, after all, I spent my boyhood in the bright singing of Thy temples.
“Bookish subtleties sparked brightly, piercing my arrogant brain, the secrets of the world . . . in my grasp, life’s destiny . . . as pliable as wax.
“Blood seethed . . . and every swirl gleamed iridescently before me. Without a rumble the building of my faith quietly crumbled within my own heart.
“But passing here between being and nothingness, stumbling and clutching at the edge, I looked behind me with a grateful tremor upon the life that I have lived. Not with good judgment nor with desire are its twists and turns illumined, but with the even glow of the higher meaning which became apparent to me only later on.
“And now, with measuring cup returned to me, scooping up the living water, God of the universe! I believe again! Though I renounced you, you were with me!”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Gulag II (Harper and Row—1968)
STEEPLE DEDICATION, FBC BERNICE, LA
#000 STEEPLE DEDICATION
First Baptist Church
Bernice, Louisiana
March 15, 1987
Orig. Date 3/15/1987
Old Testament Lesson Mr. Maury Davis
Psalm 27:4-6, 11-14
4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.
5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord
11 Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
14 Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
Prayer Mr. Clifton McIntosh
New Testament Lesson Mr. Kenny Culpepper
I Corinthians 3:9-14
9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
Special Music Sanctuary Choir
“Come Ye Christians, Be Committed”
Responsive Reading Pastor
He said to them, But who do you say that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.
And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
As the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also in Christ.
For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink in one Spirit.
He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
You are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone;
In whom the whole building being joined together, grows into an holy temple in the Lord;
In whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him.
For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Presentation Pastor
Prayer of Dedication Watson Goss
Chairman of Deacons
A WAY HOME
Orig. 10/6/63 Rewr. 12/28/75
Passage:
Remember, Lord, what has happened to us;
look, and see our disgrace.
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become fatherless,
our mothers are widows.
4 We must buy the water we drink;
our wood can be had only at a price.
5 Those who pursue us are at our heels;
we are weary and find no rest.
6 We submitted to Egypt and Assyria
to get enough bread.
7 Our ancestors sinned and are no more,
and we bear their punishment.
8 Slaves rule over us,
and there is no one to free us from their hands.
9 We get our bread at the risk of our lives
because of the sword in the desert.
10 Our skin is hot as an oven,
feverish from hunger.
11 Women have been violated in Zion,
and virgins in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes have been hung up by their hands;
elders are shown no respect.
13 Young men toil at the millstones;
boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 The elders are gone from the city gate;
the young men have stopped their music.
15 Joy is gone from our hearts;
our dancing has turned to mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 Because of this our hearts are faint,
because of these things our eyes grow dim
18 for Mount Zion, which lies desolate,
with jackals prowling over it.
19 You, Lord, reign forever;
your throne endures from generation to generation.
20 Why do you always forget us?
Why do you forsake us so long?
21 Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return;
renew our days as of old
22 unless you have utterly rejected us
and are angry with us beyond measure.
Keywords: Grace
Introduction
Have you ever been at one of those places in life where you were so far from home that you thought you would never get back? It didn’t matter whether it was in actual miles or in emotional separation, you just could not sense a return.
One of the burdening experiences of King David’s life was in regard to the old home place. He spoke to some of his captains about his desire for a drink of water from the wells of home. He discovered later that these men went at great peril to themselves to satisfy this need in their king.
Someone has characterized the whole of Hebrew history as a series of varying relationships to God in which they are at home only when they are at home in Him. There were pictured three distinct phases in their emotional relationship with God. The three phases were (1) rejection—leaving home; (2) repentance—yearning for home; (3) restitution—finding their way home again.
James G. Elliott, the Kansas-born playwright, tells an interesting story about his return home. He had left the Kansas plains as a young man and had gone to the big city intent on making a name for himself. Only after achieving a measure of success for himself did he long for home once again. He made his plans. He let his people know he was coming because they just might want to honor a local boy who had made a name for himself. The train stopped at his little Kansas town, and he went to the door of the train and couldn’t believe what he saw—nothing. The mayor was not there. No bands were playing. There was not a single person at the station to welcome him home. He dejectedly went to the baggage office to claim his luggage, and as he approached the station master, the old man looked up, recognized him, and said, “Hello, George! Going somewhere?”
What better time than the advent of a new year to consider this that was Israel’s plight, which is also our plight? They thought they were going somewhere only to discover upon getting there that they had rather be where they had been before.
I. First, Then, Consider the Rejection. Now it really doesn’t matter whether in actual fact God rejected them, or whether they just felt rejected. The end result was the same. We have good reason to believe that God doesn’t isolate himself from His people. Rather, by our sin, we so cloud and compromise His majesty and authority, we lose our sense of His presence.
Israel sensed this separation in the loss of their valuables. Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. Understand that this means more than commodities. This is more than just a criterion of political prominence. Their very birthright and inheritance as the people of God seemed to vanish.
It is more than coincidence that this is mentioned first. America comes to the very eve of her bicentennial year with a profound sense of losing some of the very things that have made us.
We were guaranteed freedoms four: Speech, Religion, Press, and Assembly. Yet we seem ready to sacrifice all of these, so long as we retain freedom to acquire.
The second step in Israel’s plunge to oblivion was in that the fathers ceased to be the dominant figure in the homes and spiritual lives of the people. V3 “We are orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are widows.” There is a larger spiritual context for this in that they had lost the spiritual fatherhood of God. But in everyday terms the fathers had capitulated to the political system that controlled them. They were lackeys to foreigners and, as such, had lost their vision.
It appeared in cartoon form but really wasn’t very funny. Two young mothers were talking. “I finally figured a way to balance our budget, but I can’t get Tom to take a second job.” Israel had sacrificed the spirit for the flesh. V6 “We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.”
Are we giving the hand to pleasure and reaping the fruits of licentiousness? Are we giving the hand to a guaranteed income and showing the signs of greed and indifference? Are we giving the hand to the status quo and distorting our own witness as Christians?
H.L. Mencken wrote: “The cosmos is a gigantic flywheel making ten thousand revolutions per minute. Man is a sick fly taking a ride on it.”
II. Whether the Rejection is Real or Felt is Academic. The Real Issue has to be “What Is the Reason?” V7 “Our fathers have sinned and are not, and we have borne their iniquities.” Sin has captivated their hearts and they are not able to come to terms with guilt and responsibility. Did you read the top New Orleans news stories for last year? Almost without exception they speak of evil deed and corruption. Sin is not just the lifestyle of the grossly immoral.
The arrest rate is 3 out of 100 citizens. Rape is up 10%, murder is up 6%, aggravated assault 7%. Narcotics addiction may be a half million. Divorce since 1970 is up 25.7% while the marriage rate has increased only 2.8%. There are 200,000 more outlets for alcohol than there are churches. Gambling is in excess of $30 billion. There may be as many as 40 million children with no religious instruction. The cost of crime is five times the amount of money spent on education.
III. Consider the Restitution. What was it the prophet said? V21 “Turn Thou us O Lord, and we shall be turned.”
Repentance. I do not believe that man can or will take the first step. God has already taken the first step.
Reaction. When we ask God’s help it always comes. We must realize our inability. We must yield.
Restoration. Verse 22 is the saddest in all the Old Testament. “But Thou hast utterly rejected us.” It does not have to happen this way.
Closing
Nothing between my soul and the Saviour, naught of this world’s elusive dreams.
I have renounced all sinful pleasure; Jesus is mine, there’s nothing between.
Nothing between my soul and the Saviour, so that His blessed face may be seen.
Nothing preventing the least of His favor; keep the way clear! Let nothing between.
Nothing between, like worldly pleasures, habits of life, though harmless they seem.
Must not my heart from Him ever sever; He is my all, there’s nothing between.
Nothing between my soul and the Saviour, so that His blessed face may be seen.
Nothing preventing the least of His favor; keep the way clear! Let nothing between.