Talk—Ted Porter
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To God and our Father.
If this burden is one that you've laid upon the speaker's heart.
And dependent upon you to help him to deliver that burden, that message you have for your people this evening. So we commit this time to you. And we do say it was a happy day when our sins were washed away.
We thank you above all for our Savior and it is our desire to please Him while we are here on this earth awaiting His return. We commit this time to put that in mind and is worthy and precious name. Amen.
Well, I've got about two minutes.
And I believe that probably that's all it would take.
But I would like to read some scriptures.
Not necessarily in any order, and I don't intend to expound them, but they're really the basis of my thoughts.
First one is Psalm chapter 2.
Just the first part of verse 12 suffices.
Kiss the sun.
Then I want to go right over to Revelation chapter.
Chapter 2. Verse 4.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because I was left thy first love.
Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen.
Matthew, Chapter 24.
And verse 12.
Because iniquity shall abound. Or another way to put it, because lawlessness prevails.
The love of many shall wax gold.
If you think of the assembly for a moment as.
A plant.
And each of you as a root of that plant.
And just picture that in your mind, then I will tell you.
Each one of you.
Individually.
That.
Your practice of intimacy with the Lord Jesus.
Will determine the life and the state of your assembly.
We can talk about all the benefits we have as individuals from being saved and knowing the Lord.
But if we see ourselves as part of a a broader, greater plan, a marvelous plan that God had to glorify his Son now at this time.
Through a corporate expression of his life.
And nature.
It kind of.
Takes our Christianity out of a selfish kind of mode.
That being said.
I want to encourage, especially the younger ones, while you're young and when we're young.
Our emotions tend to be.
A big part of our life and.
There's a lot of excitement and there's a lot of that physical, chemical action that's taking place in us that causes our emotions to be a big part of our life. I want you to remember that.
You were created for the Lord.
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Your body was created for the Lord, your spirit was created for the Lord and your soul.
And particularly my burden is your emotions were created for him.
He created you to love him.
There's a widow in our assembly which some of us try to visit on a regular basis.
And I've heard this from others too in my experience, but.
I was speaking with her and without going into the context of the conversation, she made this comment, she said I don't pray as good as you do.
And I stopped her.
And I said sister.
You only hear me praying in the meeting.
Right.
Or when I've had readings with you and some others.
So how do you know you don't pray like me?
I said to be honest, I won't name her, but I'll just use the term sister. I said be honest sister most of the time.
When I get on my knees before the Lord, I have very little to say.
And most of my prayers consist of two or three words, such as.
Oh Lord.
Help me.
Lord Jesus.
And I may repeat those several times.
Because many times when I get before the Lord and and I believe others know this.
The burdens of our heart can be so heavy that we just cannot articulate them.
I hope this is everyone's experience, but I'm speaking, I believe, mostly to the young.
We we are often led to that state by adverse conditions in our lives, and yet it ought to be a regular practice.
To be intimate with the Lord.
It doesn't go too far to say that.
You know the scripture in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 13 says all things are naked before the eyes of him with whom we have to do nothing's hidden.
And I would recommend that you read Psalm 139.
And read it not with just your mind, but with your heart.
And understand that the Lord your Maker, he knows you in and out. He knows everything thought you have. He knows every word you're going to say before you say it.
There's nothing but he doesn't see.
So why would you get before him and pretend there's something he doesn't see?
The sisters comments and another brother once said the same thing. I'm not like you. You don't know what I'm like. You only see me in the meeting. You don't see me at work, you don't see me when I'm doing things around the house. You don't see me in my interaction with my wife and my family.
Brother, we're all cut out of the same rug.
We're all made of the same stuff.
But we get fooled and we only see each other in the meeting. We get some idea of the way we are.
And so it's very simple. I just want to encourage you.
You need to practice on a regular basis and I'm speaking to everyone of you.
As an individual, I don't care.
Whether you think much of yourself or not, or what brethren think of you.
It doesn't matter. Every one of us who belongs to the Lord Jesus, we owe him our hearts.
And we owe him our hearts on a regular basis.
And.
This, I think it was this morning, our brother Clem, he pointed out that he said the root of the problem.
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Was.
Lovest thou me?
You know we read that verse in Ephesians because that was the beginning of what we call the Church age.
And you read what they did, and the works were really wonderful. You read their works and you say, well, what's left to do? What's left what? How could you be any better?
Well, you know, if you take a plan and you cut its roots, what happens?
You can keep dressing it up.
You can do whatever you want, but if you cut the roots, what happens? What happens?
It dies.
And assemblies die.
Because the Saints.
Perhaps because iniquity abounds, they get discouraged and weary.
Maybe it's even iniquity within the assembly. You know the principle. I I don't want to go into the doctrinal application of Matthew 24. I know what the context is, But it's in principle there that when lawlessness abounds, it tends to make us cold.
And we should be aware of that.
But if we cease as individuals.
To be going before the Lord in private, when no one else can tell whether we're using Old English or not, when we pray, when no one else sees anything.
There should be no inhibitions.
How intimate can you be with God? You know I want to look at one more verse. Revelation chapter 2. Sorry, I'm going right longer than I intended to. Revelation chapter 2.
And this verse, the context of this, is what we call the darkest time in church history, very darkest time. Revelation 2 at verse 17.
He that hath an ear lit him here what the Spirit saith unto the churches, to him that overcometh. While I give to eat the hidden manna, I will give him a white stone, and then the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. How about that?
Do you know what the hidden manna is? They were told to take manna and put it before the testimony and eventually you find out from Hebrews.
Believe is Chapter 9.
That the manna they put it into ark.
The Ark Even the high priest could not look into the ark, am I right?
In the old dispensation off limits.
Yet here it says.
That those who would overcome would be able to eat.
Of the hidden manna. You couldn't be more intimate with God. You couldn't be more intimate with God than this.
Again, I'm speaking to each of you as individuals.
You need to be intimate with God.
And not just when times get tough.
And the Whitestone?
That only the receiver knows the name.
That speaks of experiences. That speaks of a relationship with God that only you know about.
Only you. It's that secret you don't tell in the world, they say. You don't kiss and tell. You know we each, each of you has a relationship with the Lord that is unique.
Think of it, it's your prize and you should take advantage of it.
Not only for your own enjoyment, but for the life of the assembly. That's all I have to say.