Open—D. So, C. Buchanan
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I have no problem.
And uh there, can't let her go out while I'll see if it's lost in the end.
Yeah, I'll tell her what I'm going to do and then I'll go to the house. But then I've had some kind of inflammation in the dark. Now I'd like to drive it to the cell. Yeah, I'm going to go together by him. And why there's a very fast breaking in the ground.
Well, we are in my life.
Where some of our hands are crying somewhere else without my heart.
Oh my goodness, delivered the time and no money. My father's life.
And it's gone to God.
Jesus our head and the Father's good pleasure laid up store plentiful treasure to give to the poor. So there is much food in the tillage of the poor and we thank you for what that was brought before us thus far this weekend and the ministry of thy precious word and pray for a refreshment a little refreshing now again in the presence of the Lord to help us on their anything that a sale the life of a Christian and.
The believers pathway and it's just fraught with those pitfalls, pitfalls and trials and temptations. And so we thank you that you can trust by protection.
We do pray for those that are departing house and journey mercies for them and thank you for the facility here, the use of of, uh, this meeting room. We pray now as we we have that word brought before us and whatever measure and manner that's all blessed the time this afternoon and we asked these things and confidence and independence and the worthy and precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen, Amen.
It's good to see many young people here.
00:05:03
Eight, I have a little portion of my heart here, and some might have heard you speak on.
A little bit on Nehemiah. I'm thinking here, I'm trusting the Lord that this may be a portion for the young people. Perhaps I shouldn't just say young people for us all. I know it's not a portion that we normally turn to, but.
But I've really been enjoying the MIN. For those who have perhaps heard me speak on that before, please bear with me on it. I'd like to turn to the first chapter of the book of Nehemiah.
If you haven't read EMI in a while, I would encourage you to. It's a wonderful book. There's so many instructive lessons in there.
Nehemiah chapter one. Let's just read a few verses together and perhaps we'll just spend some time on the 1St chapter. Nehemiah chapter one, beginning of verse one. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakalaya and the king to pass in the month of Cheslue in the 20th year, as I was in Shushan, the palace, and handing up and Hannah and I, one of my brethren came, he and certain men of Judah.
And I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The war of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And they came to pass when I heard these words.
That I sat down and wept, and more on certain days, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven, and said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, the cheapest covenant and mercy, for them to love them and observe his commandments. Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant.
Which I pray before thee now day and night for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee. Both I and my father's house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor statues, nor the judgments which thou commendest thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations.
But if You turn unto me and keep My commandments, and do them as though they're aware of your, of you cast out of the uttermost part of the heaven, yet well, I gather them from fans and will bring them into the place that I have chosen to set my name. There, now these are the servants and Thy people, whom Thou has redeemed by Thy Gray power and by Thy strong hand. Oh Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear, be attentive to the prayer of Thy servant.
And to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name and prosper, I pray thee, thy servants this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the King's cup bearer. It was a rather long chapter to read, but it's nice to introduce that.
The opening of this book is interesting. It opened with a time frame just like our brother had before us in Daniel chapter one.
And we find that often it's interesting when God put so such a specific time. If you remember Daniel chapter one, as our brother had before us yesterday and he said it was the 3rd year, isn't it? The reason for that is so we can establish a certain time frame. In Daniel's case it was the year 606 BC, the year that Nebuchadnezzar began to reign. That was the beginning of the so-called Gentile power.
Israel was given up, Gentile come in. If you remember, there were the four images that Abu Kanez saw, the four kingdoms. That was the beginning of the Kingdom, the head of gold, Nebuchadnezzar.
In this portion here, this is afterwards they have some have returned back to the land. When Nebuchadnezzar first came to take these people captive, there was 606 BC. And some of you look at your Bible, you may see a little time stamp on there. It's not exactly the most accurate, but it give us a bit of reference. This is 446 BC. Now, just in case some of you are doing mathematics in your head, this is as if you're subtracting the two numbers. You don't, OK.
00:10:34
66106 is a lot longer time before 446 because you're now counting toward 0 BC and there is no zero BC. So this is 100 and a long time 150 a 160 years later.
Nehemiah begins with this. Now you notice that it came to pass in the month Chess Blue. Well, you know, often when we read our actions use the word we. I know for me, when I read the words that I don't understand, I just gloss over it. It's easier that way. The words that I can't pronounce, well, I'll say it quickly so I don't have to worry about saying it right?
But each word as you know in the word of God, there are no idle words in there and we should pay attention to every word, isn't it so why would this the the word of God put so specific of a time the month chess lewd in the 12 year.
As he was insured and a palace. Well if you look up the Jewish calendar, the Manchester is the 9th month.
Now the reason for you to know, for us to know that is if you notice the 2nd chapter also begins with a time frame. So if you understand when it was in the first chapter and when in the second chapter, it tell us roughly how long the two chapters is. So we find it the 2nd chapter is that and it came to pass. So it's we know that it was sometime later that it came to pass that in the month.
This SEM, the month, this SEM, or what is another word they use for that month? A month, a bit of abib or abib that month. Abeib is somewhat equivalent to the first month. So as if it was that chess Lewis the 9th month. So if we translate it to our language, it's not accurate, but just for a point of reference. So as if it was September when we read the 1St chapter and it's January.
When we read the 2nd chapter.
By knowing that we know there is a bit of time frame, isn't there? So if you're not good with months like I am, then you take your fingers out and you start going, OK, September, October, November, December, maybe January. So there is roughly 4 months, maybe five months because we're not told what day of the month, but still we know it's roughly four to five months. But why is that important?
I enjoy that because we find here that Nehemiah.
Had a burden, you know, Let me backtrack a little bit. I, I'm not that well versed with this book, but I always thought Nehemiah was a man with a mission and he was out to accomplish his mission. Have you ever thought that he was able to withstand the enemy? He went and he built, he rebuilt the wars, he rebuilt the gates because he knew that.
The path of separation from the enemy was very important, so we find in the following chapters that was his mission. So I always looked at this man as the one who had a mission and no one and nothing can stop this man from his mission. But yet if we read chapter one carefully, I do not see Nehemiah with any idea of what he has to do in chapter one.
We don't learn about his mission until Chapter 2 when the opportunity arrives. So that's why I thought of this perhaps is very instructive for all of us. I don't know about you, young people. For many years and perhaps even until now, I often wondered what is my mission? Have you ever wondered that? What's my gift? What am I to do for the Lord?
Do I want to work for the Lord?
Here, Nehemiah, you look at him, Nehemiah. There's another thing interesting about Nehemiah. He's not a prophet, he's not a royalty, he's not even a priest.
00:15:08
He said in the end of the chapter, he said I was the King's Cup bearer. He has a job to do, just like many of us.
Can we relate now a little bit more with Nehemiah? He doesn't have a mission. No, he has a very high pressure job. Have you heard those phrases before? I got a high pressure job. If I don't do it right, I'm gonna lose my job. Well, the little one note about cup bearers in those days, I think that's a very high pressure job. Because if he doesn't do his job properly, if his boss doesn't like him, not only will he lose his job.
He would literally lose his head.
So if you think you have a high pressure job, think of Nehemiah.
There is no room for him to make mistakes with his job.
So what did he do? We find that he has a real heart for the people of God.
Isn't that interesting here? Not STV, said. Lord, I know what I'm gonna do for you.
I do not read up that in the first chapter.
He has a heart, so we find here He has a heart. He talked to those who returned back to Jerusalem and he heard reports from them how great the condition is. It was sad. Verse 3 is that the remnants that have left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction.
And reproach, oh condition was poor. Now, as some of you may know your scripture, there has been a few revivals since the time they left captivity. So we knew that they were taken captive. And yesterday we were reminded that 70 years they were to be in captivity. In fact, the book of Daniel tell you that right? Daniels will remind that he read about Jeremiah the prophet. That's there was 70 years that they have to pay. In fact, in the first chapter of Daniel.
If you read of it, if you remember, you talk about the third year and then the chapter end by saying to the.
Till the Umm, till the rain of Cyrus.
The first Kingdom we mentioned, Nebuchadnezzar, was 606 BC, by the way. That's an interesting number to keep in mind, 606, You learned a lot about scriptures. We can remember that. That helped me tremendously. If you look through history, you'll find Cyrus Reign in 538 BC.
530-8537 You'll find some of these numbers are often off by a year or two. Don't be discouraged on that. It's all from the point of reference because often we use our calendar. Sometimes you should be using the Jewish calendar and they don't start at the same time as ours. So depending on what part of the month, you'll find that you're off by half a year or a year. So don't be discouraged. And when you learn to look at date, often you have to add a year to it. And I'll show you a simple example.
If it's 606 BC.
To six O 1 BC How many years would that be? Will you go? Well, 606 -, 601 That's five, right? But wait a minute, let's use our fingers. Six O 6 is 16O5IS26O3 is 36O4 is 4/6 O I'm sorry, I think you got the wrong way. Right. 6O16O5. I'm sorry. Six O 660-5604, 603-602-6010 Six years.
Because you have to count the year that you're in as well. So don't get discouraged with the numbers when it's off by one or two years. So there were 70 years that they were in captivity. Let's get back to this year. So DMIA, his heart was right with the people they were, although they were different revivals, which is interesting to know. You'll find God's word is always true and this time frame table is always good. We do you remember in the book of Ezra there was a revival.
They left in the day of Azura. They left. It was a feeble revival. There were only a handful of people came back. There were 42,000 people came back from the captivity. If you remember, when hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions were taken into captivity, but they came back. What did they do? They were able to rebuild the foundation. They were able to set up the burned the tape the the altar burned offering. So that wasn't bad.
00:20:03
But then.
Things got deteriorated. They were happy to see that and it didn't go far. And now?
Nehemiah, they have the KS to come back. There were others too. In between there were Ezra. There was a rubber ball, I should say, that came back. And then there was Haggy Eye, if you remember. Now we can tie the time frames together. Hegei along with Zechariah, they came back. They walked the people up to build a house for the Lord. And then we're finding Azure as the priest came back and they cleaned the house. Now we find Nehemiah. Nehemiah had a burden for the people.
Pull that one back to serve the Lord to the place where they ought to be. They were despised. They were rejected.
What was the MIS course of action? What would you do? What would I do? I think I would feel so outraged that I think I'll go and fix the problem. Do we feel that at times? Look at the difficulties. I gotta go there and straighten it out. Let's help them build those walls. Well, let's take a look and see some scripture.
In verse four it tells us what Nehemiah did. He said and it came to pass when I heard these words.
He did a few things here, three things I think in particular, he said, and I sat down.
And wept. That's the first thing he did. It's interesting if you think about this, you know, sometimes we have to hear bad news and we, we cry.
Have you ever say to someone and say?
Look, before I tell you the news, you better sit down.
What does that mean? If you have to sit down first before you take the bad news, it must be terrible news. So I took it in this case, to Nehemiah. It was so terrible that he has to sit down and he wept.
Not only did he weep then, he said, and mourn certain days.
He wept. You know I don't know about you. I've never cried for more than a few minutes, if at all, right. Most of us are raised up. Men don't cry, boys don't cry, let alone hear. Wept sitting down. And he mourned for certain days. Can you see the burden that the Mia has held for God's people?
Is that it? No.
And fasted, you know, sometimes you read through a verse because one verse and we forget there's so much in there. He sat down and he wept. He mourned certain days. He fasted.
Oh boy, and prayed before the God of heaven. What action?
Is the action to go out and fix the problems? No. To me this is full dependence on the Lord, leaving it in the hands of His God and we can say our God.
He prayed, he fasted. What else?
We read through his prayers.
And I believe if you compare that with Daniel's prayer, you'll find that.
Daniel Niemeyer.
They acknowledge the fault of the people as their own. Have we read of any mistake, any terrible things that Daniel have done? I don't know of it in Scripture. It doesn't mean he's a perfect man, but I don't know of any problems recorded. I don't know of any in regard to Nehemiah. But we find that he prayed and he used the phrase we have sinned against thee. This is for a lot of part of verse 6. And I and my father's house have sinned.
He acknowledged the failure along with his people.
That must take a large.
We're so useless. She's used to learning to blame someone else, don't we? He or he acknowledged that.
He acknowledged the fact that the conditions they're in, the difficulties they're in is because they have been corrupt. They haven't followed what the word of God has told them to do. He knew God said, if you forsake me, I will scatter you. Go back to Deuteronomy chapter 8. You'll find that they were told. In fact, there's so much instruction given that they are even told when they are being carried away into captivity, they are to still continue to pray to what? Jerusalem?
00:25:19
And Daniel knew that. So we find here he took and he acknowledged.
What mission does he have at this point?
Nothing. What plans does he have?
You know, I hope you don't mind me say this. Some of you would remember we were down here a few months ago and someone graduation. I will look in the right way so you don't see who I'm speaking with. And I'm just gonna call one of one of the one of the speaker to what the aunt spoke on to the young to the graduate, saying how you must strive for the best of yourself. You must do a thing. Despite what other people say, I suppose this is the true American way. You can do anything you want to do, anything you want to be.
But I believe this is contrary to the word of God.
We find here Nehemiah didn't say that he committed everything to God and he have full confidence that his God will take care of all the problems. So he used those words saying how he's a great and terrible God. By the way, for young people, you may not I know I find often the old English words are hard to comprehend and we I think I believe we changed the word of the meaning of the word terrible to what's terrible means it's.
It's really bad, isn't it? Well, here I believe the word terrible means he was an awesome God. That's the proper interpretation. I believe of that word that he is an awesome God. He will take care of his people. So let's go down to verse 10. Because now these are thy servants and thy people whom thou has redeemed. Oh, he intercede for his people.
Verse 10 Oh Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy, of thy servants who desire to fear thy name. What a prayer that is, that he can pray for the people, He can pray for himself and the people of God.
Nehemiah has a burden. He started off with a burden of his heart, young people.
Do you feel any burden? Not the work out there. The harvest is ready and the laborers are feel a few but.
Do you have a burden that the Lord said in your hearts? Older ones too. We shouldn't look at just the young people. Do we have a burden for the Lord's people?
The book of Nehemiah, as I said earlier, is very interesting. You talk about the following section, rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem to many applications where we won't have time to go into the wall. Speaks, speaks off separation from evil.
The enemy was able to come and go as they please, Die learned that he has to separate the enemies from them. And you'll find that they will rebuild the wars. And then they put doors or gates so that those who are enemies cannot come in, and those who belong to the inside can come and go. And not only that, there are lessons in there that you'll find.
In the 10 gates that I mentioned in the in the following chapters, except the sheep gate, every gate there were bars and locks set up on the door for protections and to ensure the separation between God's people and the enemies and those who pretend to be the enemy of God. We find here Nehemiah was indeed sincere prayer.
He spent, but he must have spent at least four, maybe five months before the Lord.
That's the reason we know what we introduced, that he started in the month of chess.
And they go on to the month of Netsand. And then the opportunity arise when the king asked him, we know the story there. When the king asked him why his countenance is sad, he took advantage. In fact, let's just look at one verse here, verse 5, verse four, chapter 2. And the king said unto me, For what does thou make request?
00:30:21
The Mia was always before God and he learned that his resource is no one else but his God. So we find it the end of verse 4. So I pray to the God of heaven. Oh, he had a quick prayer meeting immediately he prayed and asked God for help and directions and he knows that he can do all things and we can say that too. We can do all things to Christ who strengthen us us, so we find.
From there on the the Lord used this opportunity even though is at the hand of outsider as if it were provisions were given to rebuild because separation is very important. Provision was to be given to rebuild the walls. Provisions given oppositions will also be given and you'll find as you read throughout the book of Nehemiah how he would depend on the Lord to dispel all those oppositions.
But at the meantime, he was a man that we can look, as Scripture said, whose faith follow.
We can follow His faith of the four dependents, of how we can leave it all before the Lord, start with a burden exercise of hearts, and wait for His directions and for His guidance.
To introduce my brief topic, I would like to turn back to James chapter one.
One verse.
Verse 5.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God and give it to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.
And the first reading meeting yesterday, we commented on this verse and there were some comments made about.
Knowing the Lord's will for our lives. And I enjoyed what was said and I would like to expand on that just a little bit.
I would like to use this kind of as a starting point and talk about 5 different.
Aspects, I guess I don't know what word to say. I was going to say steps, but I don't. I don't. That's not right. I don't want this to sound whenever the subject of knowing the Lord's will comes up, sometimes my own heart. I would like to know a process or a procedure that I can go through so that when I get to the end, I'm guaranteed to know an answer so I know how to choose my actions.
As most of us, I believe, have experienced in our life, it doesn't always work like that.
Uh, and yet that's kind of what we want. So when I say steps, I don't want this to sound like a procedure that you punch the right buttons in the right order, like a vending machine, and you get the right thing out.
Because it's not like that. And I think as we go through this, you'll see, but I am gonna talk about 5 different aspects. And I think they are progressive. So I will say steps, uh, and, and knowing the Lord's will for our lives. I am not suggesting that these are exclusive of other things. And I'm, and I'm, I'm not going to, uh, suggest that this is the only way to know the Lord's will at all. But these are some things the Lord has shown me in my life.
And I trust that they will be a help. Some of these things are very practical. I'm going to ask some questions that, uh, I don't know the answer to. Only, you know the answer to those, umm.
But the first step was one that was mentioned in the reading meeting the other day, and that is having a submissive heart. And I'm calling these steps just if you want to take notes, umm, willing.
Asking.
Uh, knowing, doing and growing. And we'll go through those real quickly here, but let's start out with willing. Let's turn to Matthew, Chapter 6.
00:35:10
It's a lot of different verses I could turn to, but I think I'm gonna try to choose some that kind of summarize, uh, each of these different, uh, aspects of learning to do God's will. Matthew chapter 6, verse 33. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. This verse is specifically talking about the needs that we have. But what he's saying, what the Lord is saying in this verse is there are certain things that come first. There are priorities.
In our life, a lot of times when we have a question, especially if it's a big question, that is the priority because that's occupying most of our, most of our brain cycles when we're not doing something else. You have a question about, uh, uh, a course of action, uh, whether or not you should move your family to a different state. I'll tell you, it takes a lot of time and, and energy, mental energy, thinking through all the ramifications.
Of that question. And so that seems to be the first thing, the highest priority I've got to get this figured out, but I think one of the things is having a submissive heart says Lord in all things you come first.
Seek you first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. I think the verse was quoted more than once. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, beginning of knowledge, beginning of wisdom. So willing is having a submissive heart saying to the Lord. And I guess this is my first question. It's not so much about specific things, but first of all, my question to you is, do you want?
To do God's will.
There might be a number of different answers. One answer might be yes, I do want to know or do God's will. And I say do rather than know. And we'll get into that in a little bit. Do you want to do God's will in your life? Maybe there's part of you inside that's kind of like, well, I'm kind of afraid.
If I go out there and I say Lord, whatever you want, I'm afraid of what he might ask me to do.
That's an honest answer or maybe maybe depending on your phase of life, you haven't really thought about it too much, but sooner or later you will face this question. Do you want to do God's will and I can't answer that for you. You can answer that before the Lord. And Speaking of doing turnover versus I think was also quoted John 7.
Verse 17.
If any man, this is John 7 verse 17, if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. The Lord Jesus again is speaking and He's answering.
Uh, a question about where his doctrine came from, and he doesn't answer the question. He says if any man will do, there's a willingness to do.
Then the knowledge will be there. So I just suggest that that is having a submissive heart before the Lord.
OK, I'll ask another question. What is that thing that you want to know about God's will, about your life?
Maybe there is, and I believe for many of you there is a one, maybe two very specific questions, you know, uh, may have something to do with uh.
Uh, college or uh.
Course of study, what to study it uh, it, uh, it could be a number of different things, but you have something very specific.
And then that's question two. Question three is have you asked?
The Lord about.
Maybe you have a couple times, maybe you have spent a lot of time in prayer, I don't know.
Asking, opening and I say asking not just in prayer, but asking as an opening our heart to the Lord, and turn with me to we. We read in James one, but also turn with me to Psalm 139.
00:40:16
And and.
If you really want to know about opening your heart up to the Lord, I suggest you read the whole Psalm. But I'm going to just read the last two verses.
Psalm 139 verse 23 search me, oh God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting This Psalm we have a prayer, David opening his heart up to the Lord as he goes through the Psalm and there is a in these verses. I believe it comes out there is an openness and there is an honesty.
In his conversation, in his prayer with God.
When, uh, when you pray to the Lord on your own.
I hope that there is that openness and that honesty between you and the Lord. Like we read in this song. Sometimes there's things we.
Really don't want to say to the Lord because we see things in our heart that maybe we're afraid to even admit that they're there.
But David, in not just this Psalm, but in some of the Psalms, he opens his heart. He says, this is what I'm feeling or this is what I'm thinking. Lord, it's one of the wonderful things to see as you go through the book of Psalms and I.
Encourage you to I, I, I hope that you have the courage because it it does take courage sometimes and those things that maybe you're afraid of the things that I'm afraid to ask God about this, tell him that you're afraid about this and open your heart up to the Lord.
So we've talked about willing that's having a submissive heart and asking, not just making a prayer, but really asking in the sense of opening our hearts up to the Lord. Now step three is knowing or and when I when I suggest is listening to whatever he tells us. I'm going to ask you another question.
What is something that you think the Lord wants you to do right now?
This may not have anything to do with that one thing that you're that you really want to know the Lord's will about, but maybe there is something in your life that you feel like the Lord wants you to do.
And, uh, maybe it's something that you're not doing that you feel like the Lord wants you to do. Or maybe it's something that you are doing in your life that you feel like the Lord wants you to stop.
Uh, listening, knowing or listening to what the Lord tells us. Now turn with me for an example.
First Chronicles.
Chapter 14.
Umm, there's, I'll just read a section in the middle here, starting with verse 10, First Chronicles 14, verse 10. And David inquired of God, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines, and will thou deliver them into my hand? And the Lord said unto him, Go up, for I will deliver them into thy hand.
Verse 14 Therefore David inquired again of God, and God said unto him, uh, uh.
Yeah. And therefore David inquired again of God, And God said unto him, Go not up after them, turn away from them and come over, come upon them, over against the Mulberry tree. I skipped through that. And you can read the story that the Philistines come. And he says, Shall I go up? Will thou deliver them into my hands? And the Lord said, Go up. And then he went out, and the Lord gave him a victory. And then it happens again. The Philistines come, and he says, shall I go up? And Lord says, no, do it a different way this time.
And he gave him instructions, and the Lord again.
Gave him a victory in that case, even though he followed different instructions both times it was from the Lord and the reason I read these verses is is not so much that there's a a a direct application to our lives, but it shows in the life of David. He was making decisions all day long that about the children of Israel. He had to resolve squabbles between people. He had to fight against the Philistines. He had he had people asked him questions about all these things all the time and he when I take from these this story here is that he made it a habit.
00:45:21
Of his life to get before the Lord and said, what shall I do here? And when the Lord gave him an answer, he did it. We, uh, we were read the story and uh, as I believe it was Ezekiel about the children of Israel who had, they came and they said they were ready to ask the Lord what his will was. But the Lord says to them, you have an idol set up in your heart. You're not really willing. And in Jeremiah, we also read where the children of the, the children, the remnant that were left there come up to Jeremiah and they say whatever the Lord says.
We're willing to do it. That's in, uh, Jeremiah Leighton, Jeremiah, uh.
I can't remember the chapter, but anyway, they say, whatever the Lord says, we're willing to do. It sounds great. But then when Jeremiah speaks to them, he says, well, the will of the Lord is that you stay here, that you do not go to Egypt. But then the Lord says, but I know you're going to go to Egypt anyway. And they did because they said a lot of good sounding words. They said, yeah, we're willing to do whatever the Lord says. But then when it came right down to it, they didn't.
They had already decided in their hearts what they were going to do. And so knowing, listening in, whether it's little things, whatever it is, maybe that that those little things that that we feel like the Lord maybe after a conference like this, that we've had some encouragement about spending time in the Word of God. And maybe you feel like that's something you should do. You should spend some more time and you make an effort, set your alarm a little earlier or whatever. Don't just ignore those burdens.
Do it.
Listen to whatever he says. And that brings us to #4 which is doing or pursuing, uh, whatever he asks you to do. Let's turn to Matthew 21. Just a quick example.
Umm, and I'll go briefly for this because I think this was pretty self-explanatory. Matthew 21, a little parable here, verse 28.
What Thinkie? A certain man had two sons, and he came to the 1St and said, Son go work today in my vineyard. And he answered and said, I will not. But afterward he repented and went, And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, Sir, and went not. And then it goes on from there.
Seems very clear, very obvious which one did the father's will. It wasn't what he said, it was what happened, the actual actions that took place in his life. So it's not just knowing, it's not just words that we say, Lord, I'm willing to do this. It's what is evident in our lives, in our actions and finally growing and turn with me to Colossians chapter one.
And to me, this this one was I.
Was.
Was very helpful, I suppose was, uh, in, in learning because, you know, for, for a long time I felt like the most important thing is to do the right thing, learn, do this, actually, whatever this specific action is to make the right choice about this. And if I don't, you know, I'm, uh, you know, I'm gonna get it all wrong and, uh, you know, and the Lord's gonna bring trouble in my life and all these things. And I was very concerned about the actual outcome of.
Certain actions, and I'm going to read chapter or, uh, just a couple verses here. This is a prayer that Paul makes.
Questions one.
Verse 9 For this 'cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.
What is the whole point of all of this? And I, I, sometimes the young people, uh, back in Lawrenceville will, will remember, I asked them, OK, if you, if you could go to the, the, the iTunes store and download an app that would give you a yes or no answer for any question you ask and it was going to be the will of God. Would you use that app? What would you think about that? You could ask, type in a question and it would give you.
00:50:13
The will of God, of course, this doesn't exist. It would not exist. But if you have that, that's kind of what we, we sort of want, isn't it? I mean, we want something like David. And shall I go up and the answer comes back, yes. Will you defeat the Philistines for me? And the answer comes back, yes, That's kind of what we we think we want. But the Lord hasn't given us that. Why? If, if you really, if the most important thing was a certain set of actions, you would think that he might make it a little easier.
At least for me, I I thought that in these verses he starts by asking that they would be filled with the knowledge of his will. Why that they might walk worthy of the Lord being fruitful in every good work we talked about that that's the doing and increasing in the knowledge of God. That's why I call this growing or increasing. It's it's.
Learning to know God.
Through our lives, through our actions, through the decisions, through this process of prayer and and as the Lord gives answers, maybe in little ways about, you know, from step to step, day-to-day, learning to listen to him and look to him. Independence is a process of growing that teaches us about our own hearts, but it also teaches us about our God, about our Savior, about the Lord Jesus. And there's a relationship that builds something that you know an app on your on your phone.
Could will never give you it might give you an accurate answer, but it doesn't reveal to you the heart of God. And as we go through this process and sometimes it's very difficult and there's there's periods of time we we read about the Nehemiah. It was four to five months that he was praying and there was no clear answer as to what his course of action should be, but.
I don't think when it was all said and done, I don't think when he gets to heaven, Nehemiah will say, well that was a waste of time.
And, you know, in our lives, sometimes there's months, sometimes there's years that we spend praying about a certain issue and asking for guidance and asking for wisdom about a certain issue.
But I believe that when our hearts are before the Lord, when we get to heaven, regardless of what the outcome is, we'll say, yeah, that time was, was, was beneficial. I learned about my God, I learned about my Savior in that time. And I was growing through that time maybe in ways that I didn't even realize. And so I just present those things as a way, things to think about, uh, willing, first of all, having, having a submissive, having a heart that is willing to do God's will and then asking him.
Spending time in prayer and not just saying words to God, but really opening up your heart to the Lord, knowing or listening, uh, maybe I should say listening to what he has, what he tells you. Maybe you know, sometimes.
We are thinking about this one thing and and the Lord is saying actually what I'm trying to get your attention on is this other thing over here is that, yeah, but this is this is the first thing on my mind. Yeah, I know. But this is what I'm trying to get your attention on over here on this other side. So listening, seeing what is the Lord trying to tell me and then doing and then through all of it, learning to grow, learning to know our God, learning to know our Savior better.
Only indeed hiding. We feel ourselves secure, only indeed abiding.
Were 318.
00:55:05
Umm. What was the answer to your name? Uh-huh.
Nsnoise.
Seattle, WA, Ohio. I mean, it's it's, it's whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Whoa, their.
Laundry.
Blouse blinked by our grand furniture.
Uh.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
A godfather, thank you for this time that you could have this weekend.
Hi precious word thank you for all the things that we heard the many challenges for our souls that we heard about where these things like think deep in our hearts that we leave different in the way we came that way. We challenged with how we live as we wait for the student telling the Lord Jesus Christ we pray for journey mercy. Thank you for the local brothers and sisters that it's always work here to set up this conference blessing for them in the name of Jesus Christ to commit these forms Amen.