Open—Steve Stewart
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He came on the 267.
267.
465455.
Pleasure. He made-up a story.
You're not doing it. Sometimes there are problems with me and you're busy.
All the different returns. I hope everyone is very thoughtful. So another one of them, Oh wait a minute, I'm scared. I can't draw it through the middle of it against the end of the Lord.
Oh my God, this year.
Where is the Swarovski standard flowers? Oh, you're generous from God, and here's my way on my face.
Do you know how long time is it in my?
Room. When I do, you know I can hear you. Please, I have to write anything to say I don't know.
I don't know why you're so. I've been strangers and I've been doing. That's pretty clear. That's what I'm talking about.
Maybe perhaps this project gentleman?
Who came out in my life where I'm going to start, where I'm going to, well, kind of starting.
Really the numbers are around all the night needs to be staring at you and I've never seen a lot of life and fall along together with thyroid. Thyroid thou shalt care to never find out.
This is number 18 when you send it.
#18 in the back of the book.
00:05:59
No, no.
Bridge is.
Three.
Palatine Chapter 3.
And the last part of the verse.
Verse 10.
Mountain three last part first ten. Prove me now to wrist, saith the Lord of Hosts.
If I will not open you.
And then you know perhaps last Friday with reverse board see that speaketh of an unknown time they're fighting himself, but he that processed by it edifying the truth of phrase head of mind he had prophesied and appointed.
Then further on chapter 14, verse 29.
What's the process?
Two for three.
One by one, that all neighbours and all may be comforted.
Call George.
00:10:30
I'd like to speak a little bit on.
The word comfort.
Perhaps in a different?
Way then you might first think John chapter 13.
To start.
John 13.
In verse 4.
He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself.
After that he Porth water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with a towel wherewith he was girded. I'd like to read also just the first part of verse two and supper being ended. The Lord had a lot of things that.
He wanted to communicate to his own.
But he brings them into a place before he opens up.
His heart to them and those communicates those things they would need in his absence. He makes them comfortable.
You've heard them.
And when supper was ended, then he washed their feet.
And uh.
You know, when your feet are, are dirty, uh, and tired or sore if you've been on a hike, it's just so comfortable to have them washed and refreshed in the water. The Lord made them comfortable. He refreshed them. Umm, you might say it's hard to hear something if your stomach's rumbling, you're thinking about eating, you know, or just settled all of that.
And then a little picture. Here he removes every distraction.
That he might be able to communicate to them is mine.
And so we can say, I think from this Scripture that the Lord wants us to be comfortable.
In the sense that he wants all distractions removed so that he can tell us what's on his heart.
And then the action of feet washing. We know the picture well, the application of the water of the word.
To our hearts to wash away those things that we might pick up as we go through this scene that would defile us, that would hinder communion.
With the Lord, with our God and Father.
And so he wants to take those things out of the way. He wants us to be comfortable.
When we're traveling and, uh, we're looking.
Or a hotel. I have to admit, probably one of the biggest things on my mind is I'm hoping to get a very comfortable bed.
And, uh, there's something so nice, probably, if there's any area of life.
Where I want to be comfortable when I climb into bed or to get a good night's rest, I think of that often as free at night before getting into bed and then done with with praying. And you climb into that bed and we're climbing into luxury. And most of the world is never known all down through human history.
Getting those clean sheets and mattress and the pillow and it's wonderful. And uh, there's a verse and I can't put my finger on it right now, but Brother Little used to love it. He spent a lot of time in hospital beds.
He maketh my bed in all his sickness, in all my sickness.
And he said there's nothing so comfortable is when you're ill is somebody moving in a chair in the hospital on the side of the bed, making that bed up fresh and then putting you back in it.
00:15:08
I don't think there's any doubt that the Lord desires us to be comfortable.
That's his heart towards us and how richly He provides in so many things, naturally speaking.
To meet us in those, but the question that I wanna raise is should our comfort?
Should our comfort.
Be there, which is the principle upon which we make the decisions in our life.
Turn back to Song of Solomon.
We've been raised from the time we were before we can remember.
To hobble ourselves, if I can so say. I know that's how it is with me. To protect ourselves. To insulate ourselves from anything uncomfortable.
Uh, we've been all our lives, I would say for most of us. I know there's some here that that's not perhaps been the story of their lives because of illness or whatever it might be. I have to say that's how it's been for me.
The Song of Solomon Five. We have someone here who's comfortable.
Verse 2.
I sleep.
But my heart.
Waketh.
It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh saying open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled, For my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.
And now her answer. I have put off my coat. How shall I put it on? I've washed my feet, how shall I defile them?
My beloved put his hand by the whole of the door and my bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved. My hands dropped with myrrh and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved. But my beloved.
Had withdrawn himself and was gone.
So here she is in bed.
She's washed her feet.
She's relaxed, sleeping.
But her heart wasn't.
Her heart waketh.
Just put it this way, you know we can be.
Say well, you know, it's, it's well with me. I have peace with God. I'm saved.
Gather to the Lord's name.
So thankful the Lord gathered me to His name.
I'm not walking in a defiled way. My feet are clean.
But I can't get out of bed and answer the door.
Because the ruling principle is my comfort.
And so I can't be bothered.
To respond.
And her beloved Knox.
I washed my feet, how shall I defile?
She doesn't. You know, it's if you're in bed, especially up here in the cottages and it's all warm. Those cottages are kind of cold and you got a lot of blankets on.
Time to get up in the morning. You don't like to put your feet out on that cold floor. Just if you could just stand that a little longer, you know it's not comfortable.
Put your feet out on that floor. My parents used to have a big police sheepskin.
Either side of their bed, so when they put their feet, it was on that sheepskin. They didn't have to hit the cold floor. Well, she didn't want her feet.
On that cold floor, she didn't wanna lose her comfort.
00:20:00
You know, recently among us here and maybe everywhere, but I think particularly.
In some of the meetings here in the North East.
There's been a lot of discussion.
On Christian deportment.
We go through this world.
When I opened that closet in the morning, we're going to meeting to remember the Lord. I pull that dresser drawer open. What's the governing principle on which I reach into that closet and pull something out or that drawer and pull something out that I'm going to put on and wear needle?
Is it my comfort?
Is that what's governing me?
Is that the principle?
That's guiding my choices.
In this life.
The solemn question. Because we've grown up to just do everything with that in mind.
To make our choices all around ourselves.
And we're like this one in her bed.
Just can't leave my comfort. Doesn't the Lord want me to be comfortable?
Yes.
I think we've looked at that. He wants us to be comfortable.
But that's the Lord's desire. To have me comfortable is different.
Then my desire to be comfortable, to be the ruling principle and my choices in life, that's a totally different thing.
And so we can reach into that closet and we can pull out things.
That I'm comfortable.
And.
Rather than reaching in to pull out those things.
That would honor him.
That would be.
Respectful of the one into whose presence we're going. Some years back, when George Bush was in the White House, I was quite struck with an account there was an American women's.
It was a badminton team.
I did quite well. I don't know if it was Olympics or what, but George Bush wanted to celebrate their win and he invited them to the White House.
They can.
But it made quite a splash in the newspapers, other news media.
That those young ladies all showed up at the White House.
Dressed in a way that was very unbecoming to the one who invited them there.
They had their flip flops on and you know, just very comfortable, very comfortable.
But they dishonored the president of the United States.
And so there was a bit of a debate going on about whether they were wrong or right and so on.
And one particular news organization interviewed a young lady who worked in the offices of the White House.
And she gave this account.
She came in off hours, the White House offices.
To catch up on some work.
And she came dressed. It was off hours.
One was round very casually.
And got to her desk and she was doing her work and the messenger came through. The president is going to be walking through the White House offices. He wasn't stopping at the office.
He wasn't visiting anybody in that office. He was just walking through because that was the path to get to where he was going in the White House. And because of security, they would, every path that the president takes as carefully considered and, uh, security is involved. So she heard presidents coming through.
00:25:15
She said. I immediately left the White House.
I went to the nearest store. I bought a dress.
I bought close code shoes and got changed. I went back and I got my seat just a few minutes before the president came through.
Didn't stop to talk to her.
Wasn't the point.
She wanted to dress in a way that was becoming to the man.
And his office.
I was walking down that aisle.
But she didn't appreciate the way that badminton team had shown up.
In the way that they had dressed themselves for that occasion.
Not comfortable.
The odd is it?
It's not comfortable to have others look at us.
And make comments that were odd or were strange or.
Those kinds of things.
Maybe it's not comfortable to have a tie around your neck.
That way.
But there is a deportment that's honorable.
To the one who in whose presence we are, in whom we represent in this world.
Is what we wear.
A testimony to our Lord Jesus Christ in this world.
Absolutely it is.
Absolutely yes.
Not only that, we find in Second Timothy.
For first Timothy, let's just turn there for a moment.
That there is a particular testimony that the man and the woman bear in this world.
God has put us each in our place in creation and as His creatures.
In creation, each of us occupying the place that He has given us, we each have a peculiar testimony that we render to Him.
And Second Timothy 2 gives us that testimony.
Verse eight. I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. Oh, excuse me, First Timothy two. I'm sorry. Thank you, brother.
First Timothy 2 and verse seven or verse eight. I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath, and doubting. There's the man's place. His place is more a public forward.
Uh.
Representation or witness for the Lord and what he has to say, an expression of his dependence upon God. Brother Floyd, back home, your brother said I'd love to give thanks at the table when I go out the restaurant to eat. I've met so many other believers.
It's a public testimony will that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands. It's a testimony to the Lord because men in this world are independent from God. And so to see a man who is openly confessing his dependence upon God, not only in his words but in his ways, is foreign to this world, and it's a witness.
To our God and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
The women's place is given next, and like men are also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. A woman's place and testimony is M much more.
And what she wears than in what she says.
Demands is more on what he says, not as much emphasis on what he wears, although we find in First Corinthians 11 That if he seeks to represent the Lord with a covered head, he dishonors his head.
00:30:14
Oh, how many believers I see brothers sprang publicly, What a nice confession of dependence, but with their hat firmly on their heads, this honoring their heads all the while, Oh, I think in ignorance so often, not willfully with inhabitants. But there it is, Yes, there is for each of us a testimony we bear and what we wear.
And then what we say.
With a stronger emphasis on what is said is with the men, the stronger emphasis on what is won is with the sisters.
In Psalm 19, if we could turn back there we get 2 testimonies that God has rendered to this world.
Psalm 19.
The first one is in verse one. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day and today uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.
That's the first testimony in creation. It's a silent testimony, but it speaks in a language that reaches every corner of the globe. There isn't a place that it doesn't bear witness to God.
What's the next testimony?
Verse 7 The law of the Lord, the word of God, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making the wise, simple, and so on.
You have creation and you have the word.
And in them, I think our picture, the peculiar testimonies that are borne by the man and the woman in this world. Hers is a silent one. It's not in words, but it's seen by the world, and it speaks in a language that transcends the Tower of Babel. It does not need an interpreter.
It reaches every corner of the goal.
And that's her godly department.
What she wears.
The next one is the word itself.
Converting a soul.
That's the man's more the man's testimony and public utterance.
And communication of the Word of God.
In this work, each has their place. H is so necessary. You know, I've said this enough that my children are probably cringe. I already are.
You go into.
Walmart somewhere out public and you see Christian family and he said I wonder if they're Christians have done. Have you ever done that? Yeah, haven't you? I wonder if they're Christian. You know a pretty well. I'll tell you. You probably said that because of how the woman was dressed where the girls were dressed in that family.
That's probably why you said that.
Doesn't matter what language you speak.
It conveys the testimony.
Oh, thank your sisters.
To give up that testimony.
To walk away from it.
I'm not comfortable.
And the Lord wants me to be comfortable.
Rosini.
Yes.
That shouldn't be the governing principle.
And those choices I make, all this.
One in Song of Solomon, I didn't want to get out of her bed.
00:35:02
What did she see? She saw her beloved's hand by the hole.
Of the door. So we got a glimpse of this.
You know what the hands speak of.
Speak of service, of love, you know, women's hands are mentioned in scripture in that way, the service love.
So were the Saviors hands he came to serve. He didn't come for his own comfort.
So you got a glimpse of that hand?
And so we need a glimpse of that hand pierced for us all. If I could speak in the language.
Ways of expression today, and I don't mean this in a disrespectful way.
Think of that pier stand. Can I say how comfortable was that?
To get a glimpse of that one who gave himself for us at.
The cost of everything.
That's what got her out of that bed, you know?
She found he was gone. She'd gotten a lot further away from him than she'd realized.
Before she woke up.
But it got her on the right path.
Luke, just one more verse to finish with.
Chapter 9.
I think that's a chapter I want Chapter 9.
So we think of again.
The comfort of, uh, a comfortable bed.
Verse 58.
Reverse 57 came to pass, that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
Jesus said unto him.
Boxes and holes.
Birds of the air have nests.
But the Son of Man.
That's not where delay is have.
You wanna follow him?
I wanna follow him. How can my comfort then be the governing principle of my life?
Follow the man.
Who had not where?
Late, it's a.