Open—Matt Leland
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A God and Father, we thank thee for the opportunity to.
Administer to by their prophets.
Just pray that they'll help us to be subject to.
The Holy Spirit this afternoon, our God and Father.
And it would be blessing and we just pray that.
Each one of us.
Would rightly receive the word that thou sound for us during this meeting and apply it to our hearts as I will see fit.
We just commit the time to thee. For thy health and thy care, and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
No, but.
Earlier today when we had the privilege of remembering the Lord in his death.
There was an entreaty made, which is kind of unusual to this is a good opportunity for some maybe in the back row to have something on their heart, whether him or a prayer or a praise. And what a comfort. Let's just turn to those verses that he read.
I took it as an encouragement to be willing to thank the Lord and praise the Lord, but I I'm sure that Brother Tim had others in mind too.
But.
First Peter 2.
We'll just start at verse one because these things kind of touch on the subject that's before me. Wherefore laying aside all malice, that's just a feeling of having a feeling of ill will, I believe, towards someone, anybody. That's something that's going to hinder our hearts from being able to praise the Lord and all guile.
Dial is like.
Craftiness. Or maybe hidden deceit. Kind of like we had on the reading meeting yesterday.
Casting off the hidden things of dishonesty. So that would be another thing. If we have secret sins in our life or secret things that we pleasures that we enjoy, that's going to hinder our heart from having a overflow of praise and worship. And I'm saying these things because they speak to my heart too. I've sat in breaking the breads and I haven't had my heart overflow.
And these are things I've had to see. Well, what's wrong with the Lord Hasn't changed. He hasn't gone anywhere. It's it's always right here. What have I been doing? What have I been feeding upon? What have I been thinking about? And the neat thing is.
The whole reason the Lord picked us up and chose us is He wanted us to be to his praise and glowing honor. And as we're going to see if the Lord's help, I'd like to just turn back to Exodus a little bit, and we're going to see that in the Old Testament. A picture.
Of.
How when the children of Israel, they, they have everybody's familiar with the story. They first the lamb was offered and the blood was applied and everybody that came under the value of that blood was saved from that destroying Angel. But then after that, a little bit later, and it's a wonderful thing to know your sins are forgiven. But God wasn't just happy there. All of a sudden he's going to talk to Moses and he's like.
I want you guys to come worship me. But they had to come three days journey out into the wilderness. We're going to see.
And then a little while later, it wasn't just worship. The Lord said I want you to come serve me. We've had both things before us, even brought before the children. And someone has said that worship precedes service. And our brother Marks just brought before us the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. What more?
Could children, What more could the Lord have done for you or me?
Than he's done think. Can any of you think of something more he could have done to win our hearts?
Or our praise or adoration.
What more could it be done? I say that to my own heart.
So, so hypocrisies. That's just natural to our heart. We want to look good whether we're playing basketball or playing baseball or if we're a girl. Maybe we like have a pretty dress and we want to be noticed. We are more worried about what our brothers and sisters think about us on the ball field or how we look.
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And so we're kind of raised hypocrites. We mostly care about what's on the outside, but God looks on the heart. And these things we just mentioned, that's what keeps us from.
From being real and being like our Lord Jesus. But.
It's don't be discouraged. God already knows what man's heart in the gospel it says he knew what was in man and that's what he came is to seek and to save that which is lost and to take poor broken.
Feeble, failing creatures and give us a new song to give us hearts that want to praise Him and serve Him and live for Him forever. But with the Lord's help. I like to touch on a little couple things that I've found that hinder me from answering the Lord's request. You know, in Sunday school, our brother Jonathan brought before us presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. And that's wonderful. But the Lord has to have our hearts 1St. And then it'll be a lot easier for us to lay our life down.
Live and serve Him and whatever measure the Lord would have us.
So envies hypocrisies, envies and evil speaking. So all these things are things that are going to hinder us in our Christian walk. But here's something that's going to help us as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby. So if we don't have an appetite for the Lords things, there's something wrong. And the things I remember Brother Vern years ago in a Kirkland reading meeting saying these things in verse one keep us from verse 2.
And so.
I never forgot that. So if you don't have a desire for the Lord's things, it's because of some of the things mentioned in verse one.
As newborn babes desire the sincere mouth of the word, that ye may grow thereby. If so, be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. As someone mentioned, it was Matt saying how a dear older brother said that if you spent 5 minutes alone in the presence of your Maker, it'll change your life forever. It doesn't mean you might not fail, it doesn't mean you might not fall into sin or have to learn more of what your own heart is, but it'll change your life forever.
And so again, what more could the Lord have done than He's already done?
And you are entitled in this room to say he did it for me. Make it an individual thing. What more could he have done to win your heart and my heart than he's already done?
And then it says, To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. We had a brother speak the other day about new birth and eternal life. It's a big deep subject, but if you remember, it brings before me the Lord Jesus when he was here and there was some Jewish people, and they were like we be Abraham's seed, and never in ******* to any man.
And yet the Lord, what do you say to him? He said. I'm able to make of these stones.
Children of Abraham. And so here at verse four, we're living stones. God's ticking those of us that were dead and trespasses of sins. And He's quickened us, giving us a new life, and now we're living stones. We can thank Him, we can praise him, we can live for him because of the work that he's done. So chosen, we're a chosen people.
Down to the littlest child that's accepted the Lord Jesus as our Savior, you're chosen. That is wonderful.
To be chosen. And if you're not sure if you're chosen tonight, right now in your chair, you can say yes to the Lord Jesus. That's all the thief on the cross did. He just said today, Remember Me?
And the Lord said, today, wilt thou be with me in paradise? I got that wrong. But Remember Me when you come into your Kingdom, He just said, Remember Me. Just the littlest, faintest cry. As the hymn says, the Lord will hear, and you can be one of his chosen children too. How wonderful is that? How special is that?
He cared for you. If he was here, he would pick you up on his knee and tell you that he loves you and he cares for you and he made you and he knows how many hairs are on your head. I don't. Your dad and mom don't.
But here in verse five, ye also as living stone are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to OfferUp spiritual sacrifices.
Acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Sometimes we're not. You might see a brother get up and pray for a long time or read a whole bunch of verses and you're going to think, well, I could never do that. God doesn't want you to be anything more than who you are. He sees your heart. But if you have a little bit of appreciation for Lord youth, that's enough.
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If you get up one time I heard an older brother get up and break the bread and he said this is brother is taking a meeting at conference and he got up there and I'll bet you he said one sentence and broke the bread. I never forgot that. So the Lord allowed that. But it doesn't matter who you are. The only thing that's going to make our praise.
In our prayers acceptable to God is the what does it say? They're acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And so even the smallest offering in the Old Testament, which is a picture, there was one of the birds that you could bring 2 turtle doves and one of them had crop and feathers and someone said everything we do might have the flesh in us. You know, if a word used to the moment you sit down your chair, you might have the Lord a little voice in your head saying.
Remind you of what you did, but we can't help. But if we look to the Lord, He can help us to get our eyes on Him.
And not ourselves, but it's not about us. And he can give us in some measure of victory of that over that. But.
Don't be discouraged because it doesn't matter whose prayers or praises, they're only acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. So what a comfort. So if you're one of God's children, you are a priest. That means you can pray, you can give thanks, you can sing. There's verse in the description say that we're to sing and make melody in our hearts. Who can finish it? Who of your kids can finish that?
We're just singing and make melody in our hearts to the.
Go ahead, say it.
The Lord, that's right. So even a child's praise he delights to hear.
So.
With that being said, I would.
Like to turn back to Exodus and I'm not going to go into this deep. I haven't looked through it in deep so and I know in the day we live, there's so much to distract our hearts. So maybe it's for our own blessing that I'm just going to pass over these things in a real.
Brief way, but I was just struck by reading the book of Exodus months ago with my family and how here was Pharaoh.
Opposing in the God of this world, He's doing everything he can to distract your heart and mind.
So that you don't have a heart that worships the Creator. And then if you have a heart that worships the Creator, guess what? You're going to want to present your body a living sacrifice. You're going to want to serve the Lord forever too, because he put that in your you have the very life of Jesus. You're going to want to do that because you can't help to do that. But there's things sometimes that hinder us.
I got to find this because.
I might just say in passing as I'm looking for it was really striking when Moses, the Lord was trying to use Moses and I'm sure he's a picture of the Lord Jesus to deliver. The Lord Jesus is in heaven and he's going to lead our hearts and captivate our hearts and win our heart from us and lead us even now towards our heavenly home in heaven and bring us into the enjoyment of these things. But it was striking when Moses wasn't willing.
To go and he wasn't wanting the Lord to use his voice.
The Lord said.
Let's see if I can find it here.
Wait wait. And I think it's in chapter 4.
Verse 13 Well, verse 12 Now I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. And he said, Oh my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt sin. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And he said, is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well and also behold, he cometh forth to meet thee, and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. I was looking for some of these bursts I'm about to turn to. I noticed this. I thought, what an encouragement to those of us that.
Want to live for the Lord and serve the Lord that when we see another servant of the Lord in whatever capacity that we would be like Aaron. I never noticed this before, but Aaron saw someone and he's, he's like, he was glad in his heart. So may it be so that when we see another servant Lord, that we rejoice whatever the Lord's called you to do like.
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One of the disciples was like, Lord, what will this man do? And he's like, What is that to thee fall without me? And So what an encouragement that we can just be happy, whatever measure the Lord uses.
And those that have been diligent and been ready scribes to be able to share things like we've been enjoying the last couple days, let's let's be thankful for it. And someday if Laurie is here, some of you guys in the back row, you need to be.
Reminded by the sufferings of Christ and could have he done more for me and you want to have a fresh desire to pick up this book and to learn it and live it so that it could be part of your life and you would have a response in your heart, but.
Anyway, as we if we were to turn a little farther.
I'll just mention it so we see that Lords telling Moses to go before Pharaoh and tell him that he wants to bring his children, the children of Israel, three days journey out of Egypt.
Why was it, you remember what I said, that they might worship me? So someone, as we've heard it often said that worship precedes service. And So what better could win our heart from us than seeing what the Lord Jesus did on that cross like we had just brought before us? He couldn't have done more.
I was struck by the verses in Mark when the Lord Jesus was in anguish and it said he prayed more exceedingly and he fell down on the ground. I thought how many of you kids have been knocked down playing football in the dirt or in the ground or a little girl playing fell down in the dirt, got hurt. The Son of God fell down on the ground and prayed that if there was any other way.
To bless your soul forever.
Then it would if it was possible that the cup would pass from Him. But there was number other way for you and I to have our sins washed away and our names written in God's book of life and for His Son.
To go to the cross for you. And so he couldn't have done more.
So we'd find that three times the Moses brings before Pharaoh and the children of Israel and he says.
Like about three times he says that they might worship me and he said they need to come out of Egypt three days journey and three in Scripture speaks of who can think of something that about our Lord Jesus that was regarding 3 three days. Who can think of something that was go ahead.
Yeah, three days and three nights he was in the belly of the earth, just like Jonah, he said. And so it brings before us the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. But.
It also brings before us sometimes as Christians, I have found in my own life. I'm very quick to realize that I need to be dead to sin. So there's really bad less the flesh less the eyes of we can see those sins a lot easier and there's it's good that we do. There's nothing wrong with saying we need to flee youthful us. We need to put to death our members and say no to sin and put to death by the power of the Spirit and looking to the Lord, we can crucify the flesh.
And set our mind on things above and get the victory. But we're a lot less likely, at least for me.
And this is where I'm going to need some help. There's a verse where Paul said by whom the world is crucified to me and I under the world.
And this and this is much from my heart as your heart. But we live in a day when there's never been more to distract our hearts and our affections and even some wonderful time like we're having now. And there's nothing wrong with it. But if that's all we're here for and that's all is the activities, it will actually be a hindrance. It's wonderful to enjoy these things with the Lord and you can, you can.
But sometimes.
We need to be 3 days journey. Someone find that verse?
Of.
When I was wondering where Paul said by whom the world is crucified to me, and I did the world.
Thank you Galatians 640I won't probably look at too many of the verses in Exodus. I'm just with time. I'm just going to touch on some of the New Testament.
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Six. What was it, 614? Thank you.
But Apostle Paul says, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross. Here we have the Lord Jesus and his cross before us, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. So I would just like to say that one of the biggest hindrances in my life is if I'm not willing to.
By faith.
Say I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, but Christ lives in me and I think that's what's pictured in the three days journey is are you willing to apply what's true? The moment you're saved, God sees you in Christ perfectly accepted in the Lord Jesus forever. But the practical enjoyment of the position we've been brought into, it's depending on our state of soul.
And so we see that all here's Satan pictured in Pharaoh and all his power was trying to keep the children of Israel and Egypt.
It's the God of this world will try to use everything you can to distract us.
And keep our hearts in Egypt. But if we're willing to.
Read this book and read in Romans and see that I'm no longer the one alive Jesus. We just said Jesus couldn't have done anymore than he already has done for you. So that with that in mind, when you read the word of God and you see that the apostle Paul said that he dies daily and then you could I liked it. I'm a simple person. If you you've probably heard of Paul's doctrine.
You could sum it up in a real brief way with I am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. That's the start of Christianity is when you're willing to say no to me.
And what more could he have done than he has has and yes to Jesus and say I'm now alive in Christ. And the moment you do that, you're 3 days journey out of Egypt doesn't work because you're saying I'm not alive. It's Jesus in me. And then we need to obey his word and obey his voice. And then there's going to be growth. And when you come down here on Lord's Day morning and you sit here.
In the very manner that the Lord himself, the very night that he was going to suffer.
Institute this supper and you can have the Spirit of God say that the hour has come, and there Jesus will meet you in faith. And you can have the privilege of seeing Him by faith in the midst, and see him lead the prayers and praises in the midst of the assembly. And you'll find that if you've been giving the Lord His rightful place in your life during the week, there's going to be responsive heart.
But it was necessary, just like it was necessary for the children of Israel be three days journey out of Egypt.
What did I say that speaks of not I but Christ liveth in me? And so if we're willing to start the morning and saying it's Jesus and get on our knees and pray, we know we're supposed to pray and read. But if we get down our knees and say, Lord, I want help to just live for you today. Satan does not want to hear that. I remember going to Halo said when the simplest believer gets on his knees that all the power of Satan comes against him.
But there's a greater power. We the Christian has three enemies, the flesh in US.
Sin in the world, but we have that he used to bring out that we have God the God is for us and Jesus is for us and we have the Spirit of God and we have the word of God. So we have and he says greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world and so.
You don't want to have to learn the Lord's life through discipline and failure.
In a hard circumstance, God will make sure if you're one of his children, he's going to give make sure he gets praise out of your life. But how much better as a little child just to simply believe God's worth and say here I am. You're Christ is my life and to simply by faith wrecking yourself dead indeed on the sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then when Christ is your life and you're trying to obey the Lord's voice and you look to the Lord. There was brother Mark mentioned 33 years of the Lord's life. We don't know what he did.
I think there's a little bit mentioned when he was 12 years old, he would actually ask the teachers in Israel some questions and they were all marveled at his understanding. But.
I'm sure that.
He there was things that he did that without being asked to do and the only thing the Lord Jesus, I sometimes tell my kids what has God asked your children to do? Where does he what does he think obey your parents and the Lord so he hasn't even asked you to do that much in the word. It just starts there to obey your parents and all things. But then we had service mentioned being willing service.
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So if we give our life Lord Jesus and let Christ live in our life, our hearts are going to be connected.
To him in a close, intimate way and we're going to hear his voice and we're going to read his word and he's we're going to be more like him as we behold in a glass the glory of the Lord, We're changing the same image. So as we have these things before us and you have an influence, if one of you kids does it, it's going to have an influence on every other kid in this room. You're going to they're going to want.
To serve if you are serving the Lord.
It only takes a spark to get a fire going, and it's almost as draw me and we will run after thee. So all if it says if you be willing and obedient.
And how could we not be willing when we just had before us the sufferings of Christ and all that He went through? And there's two times when God acts according to the holiness of His nature, and one was when He forsook His Son on those three hours of darkness, so that all those that could believe and would believe would have their sins forever.
Taken care of in the other time that he acts according to the holiness of his nature is that the great white throne judgment when he the.
The dead are raised, those that had died in their sins without God, without hope, just like we were, but they never came to do this and they're judged according to their works. And so there's two times when there was holy just judgment. And which which way are you going to have it? Are you going to have Jesus barrier punishment? If you have, you have a reason to want to serve him forever.
And to live for him.
But we see that.
So if the Lord has a hold of our hearts and we want to live for him, then if He wants us to take a little time out of our busy day to help out around here, we should be willing and we shouldn't worry if we look on someone and say, well, that person doesn't work near as hard as me. Only the Lord knows the hearts and motives of the life. So we don't want to judge and use you that work whether you're sisters at labor.
More abundantly than the rest of you. Thank you. That was a wonderful meal of the day and the Lord reward you and bless you and.
Fill you with his joy for all your efforts in the so we could have a time like this, but let's leave one another with the Lord because everybody's different. How they were raised is different. Their energy is different, their health issues different. They have different trials, different burdens. But what a wonderful thing that you can look and see that Jesus had an hour of trial. That's worse than anything that we've ever had to go through. But no matter what we're called to go through, we have not yet had to resist on the blood.
Like he did.
In his hour of trial.
Anyway, I just trust the Lord would take these feeble thoughts and just encourage us.
That he couldn't have done more. And I know that everybody that knows Lord Jesus as their Savior, they want to live for him. But we have to do the our part and say.
I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, but Christ lives in me. So that means, Lord, what would you have me to do today? Does the Lord care about you going to school? Yeah. Does he care about me if I go to work and I'm.
What Satan wants you to do is just go to work and work like you're doing it as on to him to make money. You know the last thing he wants is you to be doing your work as on the Lord. You know why? Because that'll satisfy your heart. You'll be happy if you're doing something with the Lord and you're doing something obese for him. You'll be happy. And then if obedience and happiness go together and then we'll have a a heart that's ready to be thankful and you'll come and hear it on Lord's Day morning if you've been.
Putting the Lord first during the week and you will have a response and.
Your heart and I will have a response in your heart and.
What a wonderful thing, that.
Jesus is worthy. We turn our eyes on Him.
No, it's not about us. We get our eyes on ourselves. Say I'm this is speaking to me. Well, just own what it is. Say Lord this I need your help. I've been living for the wrong world and the Lord and all the power of the Spirit of God. If you get on your knees and crowd to God, he'll give you the strength you need and you read your Bible and you start your day off saying Christ, I want you to live in my life. The Lord will do the rest here a little and there a little.
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And may the Lord bless His word.