Open—Tim Roach
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Banned on what Brother Bob was saying specifically about how you do that, how you put it on, how you put it on. As a young person, I enjoyed hearing messages like that, but exactly, specifically, how do you put it on?
I had some thoughts about that, Sam.
Don't know if it's exactly what you were thinking, but I'll share what I had.
You know you may have a desire to serve the Lord.
You put on the armor of God. You're a servant of God. You're ready to serve.
And you may have that desire to serve the Lord, but you may think that you do not have the necessary requirements to serve the Lord. And I want to look at some things that you do have in order for you to be a servant of the Lord.
And I want to look at Romans chapter 10 and verse 8.
Everyone here who knows the Lord is their savior is a servant of God.
Maybe a man, a woman, a child. If you know the Lord Jesus, you are a servant of God and you need to put on that armor of God so you can go out to serve the Lord. And the first question I have is what is in your heart? You have something whereby you can serve the Lord. What is in your heart in Romans 10 verse 8. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart.
That is the Word of Faith which we preach.
The point is in this verse.
A servant of the Lord needs to have a message.
Do you have a message in your heart that you can share with your friend?
You know, I when I was in high school, I was a very bad servant. I didn't do very well. One young man, he came to me and he said, you know, there's something about your life that I like. I don't know what it is, but what is it in your life? I was afraid to answer. I was embarrassed to answer.
When you get persecuted so much.
It.
It makes you fearful and you're afraid of persecution, but persecution generally builds you up, makes you stronger for the next time. But I did not answer this young man. I had a wonderful opportunity.
The next time I had something to do with this young man, he was calling me.
Hojo, I said. Please don't call me that. He was thinking I was Jehovah's Witness.
Again he called me Hojo another time, and I took him by the throat and slid him up the wall and said, don't you ever call me that again.
What kind of a servant of the Lord would do that?
He never did call me that again. He never talked to me again.
Amidst opportunity. But do you have a message in your heart? And how does the message get into our hearts?
So that we have something whereby we can have a message what we read our bibles, we take time like Bob was mentioning, take time in the morning to read the Bible and pray study. Maybe you can listen to to some meetings on the recordings, you can ask questions, you can go to the Bible meetings and listen. But you need to learn.
And understand.
Have some knowledge so that you have a message because we all there is a message.
And when you have the message, you write down the points that you have learned to help you remember the message so you can better share the message. I want to look at a verse in Second Timothy chapter one.
Second Timothy chapter one and verse 13.
Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of Maine in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. Hold fast the form.
Of sound words, a form. I like to think of that as an outline. You can do that. You can, As you read and you go through scriptures, you can outline the truths of Scripture. And if you can't put them in order in your mind, write them down. Make notes.
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Ezra in Chapter 7 and verse 10. I like this verse.
For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord.
It takes energy to be able to read and pray and study and think and meditate about these things. He prepared his heart to seek the Lord, to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it. And so after you, you study and you learn a little bit, try to practice that, implement that in your life in some way, and then after you're able to experience what you've learned.
Then you can What does it say here, Ezra? He began to teach in Israel the statutes and judgments.
So that's the order that we do things, We read and we pray and we meditate and we practice what we learn.
Then we can have the word in our mouth so that we can teach it to others.
I have another thought about what is in your heart.
Well, what is in your heart? We need to be careful what we put into our heart.
If I have bad thoughts in my heart.
Eventually it's going to lead me to do bad things, but if I have good things in my heart, it will lead me to do good things. And there's a verse in Luke chapter 6.
Luke, chapter 6 and verse 45.
A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth that which is good.
And an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil.
For of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. And so it's good for us to have thoughts of Christ, good things to think about. When we start looking at things that aren't good, or thinking about things that are bad and doing things that are bad, it's going to affect our whole life and our whole testimony. And as a servant of God, I need to have that testimony that gives honor to the Lord. And out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak.
And So what you are thinking about will come out in your conversation or in your actions.
My next thought Second Kings Chapter 4.
And this question is about what is in your house.
And second Kings chapter 4, we'll read the 1St 7 verses.
Now there cried a certain woman of the wise of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, thy servant my husband is dead, And thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord, and the creditor has come to take unto him my two sons to be bondsmen.
And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in thy house? What do you have in your house? And she said, Thine handmaid, hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil?
These verses we find that the lady had something in her house that she could use to be a service. She had a pot of oil and the oil speaks to us of the Spirit of God. What do you have in your house? Our body is the temple of of the Holy Spirit.
In our house we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, and so we have the Holy Spirit. So we believers, we have the Spirit of God in our hearts if we look in First Corinthians chapter 6.
Have a lot of verses to turn to if I can come up with them all. First Corinthians chapter 6.
Verse 19 and 20.
What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of your own, you, which you have of God? You are not your own, for ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods. So as we live our daily lives, we need to know that we have the spirit of God, and whatever we're thinking, whatever we're doing, where we have the Spirit of God with us at those times.
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And so that will help us to know not to have bad thoughts, not to do bad things, but that we would have a message from the spirit of God to be able to share with others. You have the Spirit of God. You have something that gives you the power and the understanding to be able to share the message that God has given you the servant of God. Now let's look at John chapter 16.
John chapter 16 and verse 13 and 14.
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself. But whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak. And he will show you things to come, He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. Oh, what a blessing we have when we receive the Holy Spirit into our lives to guide us into all truth, to comfort our hearts.
To to lead us through this Christian pathway and as a servant of God.
We need to trust the Spirit of God and His leading and His guidance.
There's another verse in Ephesians 5.
Ephesians 5 and verse 18.
Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit.
How do we become filled with the Spirit? We have the Spirit indwelling us. We're not going to get anymore of the Spirit than what we have.
But so how can we be filled with the Spirit? We don't pray with our hands lifted up to try to draw the Spirit into us. No, we have the Spirit of God, and so we.
If you have your heart full of of many other things that this life has to offer.
You have a lesser room for the Spirit of God to take in your heart. But if we can take those other things out of our heart, it leaves room for the Spirit of God to fill us as we are occupied with Christ and His word. So what is in your house? We have the Spirit of God indwelling us. Next question is what is in your hand? And let's go to Exodus chapter 4.
And I'm just going to read verse 2.
And the Lord said unto him, What is in thine hand? And he said.
Iran.
You have something that you can use to serve the Lord. You have something in your hand.
Moses had a rod in his hand, and that was his life. Everything he did, he needed that rod for his work that he did. He had the sheep. He needed to use it to protect the sheep, and to and to preserve the sheep. He needed maybe to dig holes he needed it to.
A rod is useful for many things when that's all you have in your hand.
You have your life, you have your job, you have your work. The rod is your life. What do you do with your life? Maybe you're in school and you don't have a job, but you have your life, and there's something about your life that can be used to serve the Lord. The rod was the life of Moses, and he used that rod to serve the Lord. And we have a life that we can use to live for Jesus.
And I want to look at some verses in connection with this in Matthew chapter 16.
Matthew chapter 16 and verse 24.
Then Jesus said unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake will find it.
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Whosoever will save his life in this world will lose it. This world has so much to offer the Christian.
But not on a Christian level. It has things to offer the world to draw the Christian away from the Lord.
I think of the prodigal son. I like to look at the prodigal son as a young Christian man.
He knew the Lord as a savior, but he wasn't living his life for the Lord, and He got carried away with the attractions of this world, and he went off.
He was a son.
But he was living his life for himself. He gained what he ever he wanted in this world, which was a big loss to him in this world, but it was also a spiritual loss. What does he have now of his life to give to the Lord? What can the Lord say? Well done, thou good and faithful servant. You've wasted everything I gave to you.
And whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. If you're I know we need to do our job. We have responsibilities in life to provide for ourselves, our families, and and so many things that we have responsibilities that make us so busy in this world. But.
We can still use our life to serve the Lord.
If you're willing to lose some of those benefits and some of those pleasures and some of those experiences in order to serve the Lord, to be a servant of the Lord, you're going to have blessing. The Lord's going to reward you for that, and you will find your life rather than lose your life. I know it's complicated, but if you lose your life, you'll find it.
There's a verse in Philippians chapter one.
If you want to be a servant of the Lord, it's not going to be easy and that's why Bob was presenting to us the the armor of God. We need that protection because the Christian life is very difficult and if you are going to serve the Lord, Satan's not going to allow you get to to get too far before he tries to pull you down and bring you down. And this verse in first in Philippians one verse 29, it is for unto you. It is given in the behalf of Christ.
Not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. I see in this verse 2 gifts that we have been given by God.
One gift is the gift of faith to believe it's been given to you.
To believe.
And so we know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. We are a servant of God. But then the second gift.
Is to suffer, and the Lord gives us the grace.
To suffer.
How can you serve the Lord when you have all these problems? It's given to you to suffer, and so don't expect an easy life if you're going to be a servant of the Lord. It's going to be a lot of trials and difficulties along the way. Satan's going to try to take you down.
But be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Another verse in Romans chapter 12.
Romans chapter 12 and verse one.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And so we have something in our hand that we can use to serve the Lord. We have our life. And are we willing to make our life a sacrifice for Christ? A living sacrifice? Yes. It's going to be difficult times, hard times. Maybe we won't experience persecution or face death for our service for the Lord, but we might. Especially the way this world is going, things are changing so fast that it could come very quickly.
To this world, to this country, to our own environment. But are we willing to sacrifice our bodies? You might have to do without going to a conference. You might have to do without having your birthday celebrations with your friends. You might have to suffer in a a physical way or in another way.
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And there will be suffering. Are we willing to put our bodies in the line of danger, in the line of of suffering?
In order to serve the Lord, it says, which is your reasonable service.
How much is reasonable to give to the Lord? How much of my life I have my life? It's something I can use to serve the Lord. How much of my life am I going to give to the Lord?
I need to confess that I don't know that I have been able to give that much of my life to the Lord.
But what is reasonable? Wouldn't 100% be reasonable? What did the Lord give to you for you? How much did He spend to He sold all that he had to buy that Pearl of great price. He gave everything he had for you. He gave everything He had for me. Am I willing to give anything for the Lord? He's not asking for 10%. He's not asking us to tithe. He's not asking us to put all our money in the basket.
He wants our life. He's given us our life and that's something we have in our hand that we can use to serve him.
Now go to 1St Corinthians chapter 4.
In verse.
Verse 7.
And then? And I ask this question. What have you received? You want to be a servant of the Lord. What have you received to be able to serve the Lord? 1St Corinthians 4 verse seven. For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? And so sometimes we get into a groove where we can serve the Lord, and things go along just great, and we feel we're pretty good about this thing. Look at these others. They can't do anything.
Well, who are you? Who am I to think that I'm doing this all of my own volition, my own my own energy, my own abilities? No. If you have received something, it didn't come from yourself, it came from the Lord, so you can be able to serve him.
There's another verse in Ephesians 4.
Ephesians 4 and verse 7.
But unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore, he says, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. The Lord has given every one of us we are servants of God, and He's given us, every one of us, a spiritual gift for us to use for him. No use, you may say. Well, I don't know what my gift is. How can I serve with my gift if I don't know what it is?
Don't be so concerned about what is my gift. But when the Lord gives you something to do and and to serve him or to say a word for him, just do it. Just say it. Don't worry about what your gift is and as you as you get, get more experience in your your Christian life and in your your path of service.
The Lord is going to present you opportunities to speak for him, to do something for him, and in time a gift, a gift will be developed. So don't worry about what your gift is, just do what the Lord has given you to do and do it for him.
One more verse in closing. Romans 12.
Romans 12 and verse 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 has dealt to every man the measure of faith, so the Lord has given us a number of things that we can use to serve him as a servant here in our pathway.
We have our heart.
We have our house.
We have our hand, our life, and we have received from the Lord a gift for service for Him.
#33 and the appendix.
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My soul take up the cross, count the gain, despise the loss, labor for and with the Lord brings exceeding great reward. 33 In the back of the book some brotherhood started, please.
Salvation.
Rust in my soul, hard works and gods.
Despite the boss.
Labor for every.
Support.
Really. Come back. Breathe near by the ground.
Read one verse before we pray.
Second Timothy Chapter 4.
Second Timothy Chapter 4.
Verse 7.
I have fought a good fight, or perhaps to express it better.
In English, the sense of it is I have fought the fight, the good one.
I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.
Paul could say this. I trust that we all can too.
The end of the journey, remembering that there was one and only one who could say.
I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do.
Blessed God our Father, we thank thee for what thou has brought before us.
We pray that whatever time may be left to us may be used for thy glory.
Not only in service, but above all in worship and praise.
And we do pray.
That we may indeed remember.
To put on the whole armor of God.
To stand in the evil day.
And having done all to stand so, we commend thy word to thee that it might have its effect on each one of us. Pray for those that may need to leave shortly, and pray for mercies, for them, and for those already on the road.
I give thanks our God in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.