Address—David Mearns
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I'd like to start this afternoon.
I'd like to start this afternoon.
By singing the 1St 4 verses only of 168.
#168 just the 1St 4 verses.
Just what we have here concerning more except they have not been empty from vessel to vessel. Now they're actually going into captivity. Therefore, his taste remaineth in him and his scent is not changed. We understand what it means to be stirred up. How often have we picked up a a ketchup bottle and gone to put ketchup on the.
On the hamburger and it hasn't been stirred up and it comes a stream of water. We find the same thing with mustard. We find the same thing with so many things that we we work with. They need to be stirred up. Those were painters here.
You know, it's, it's interesting the way all these liquids, uh, how there's that, that subtleness that it goes from being stirred up to being unstirred. And so, you know, you look at orange juice and, umm, you can come back two hours later and you look at it and there's a line. All the pulp is below and there's just liquid at the top. And if you were to pour yourself a glass, it wouldn't taste good at all. It needs to be stirred up. It needs to be stirred up. Well, you know, if you're to watch orange juice.
It's very subtle, the way that.
That a separation takes place very slowly and you don't notice it. You know, it's the same in our spiritual life, very same thing in our spiritual lives. We need a constant, very same thing in our spiritual lives. We need a constant stirring up. Otherwise we're just like the orange juice that doesn't taste good at all here, Moab.
He has settled on his leaves. He has not been emptied from vessel to vessel. Let's go over to the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah chapter 64.
I understand the.
The thought here in connection with the remnant, but I'd just like to isolate a verse here. In the seventh verse, Isaiah 64. There is none that calls upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee. Sad commendation, isn't it? There was none that was stirred up.
What would it be?
If everyone of us here in this room was stirred up in our affections for the Lord.
What an impact that would have.
Greater than what we had this morning to stir my own soul up, to sit in the breaking of bread and to sing those wonderful hymns, to have the scriptures brought before us to see the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God, to see him as the man of sorrows, to see him as the Lord of glory. Beautiful to look at that and how it stirs our hearts. Well here there were those none were stirred up. Well, I'd like to look at some that were stirred up. So let's first of all turn to.
Umm, the epistles. We'll look at second Peter.
Epistle of Second Peter. Second Peter, chapter one.
Be nice to go through this chapter, but we won't.
We'll pick up.
In verse eight, this has to do with the things that went on before. Many things there are very good for us.
Taken up many times. For if these things and verse eight. If these things be in you and abound, they shall make you, that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see a far off, and I've forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall, for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly.
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Into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always.
In remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yeah, I think it's me, as long as I'm in this Tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that I must put office my Tabernacle, even if it's our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me.
It was the apostles desire here. We spoke of him a little bit yesterday. This is a different time as he writes.
These words we heard them yesterday say, Lord, save me. And now we find Peter. He writes these things in his desire is to stir the Saints up, and it's in connection with fruitfulness. And so he writes here, he says, For if these things be in you in verse 8 and abound, they make you that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful.
Now if you notice your marginal reading bar in there says IDLE.
Idleness, you know, it's appalling sometimes, the idleness I see in my Christian life.
Idleness.
And unfruitfulness.
In order for it to be fruit, there has to be some work. There has to be some work.
There are umm.
Turn with me first to umm in connection this to the book of Ezekiel, just for a verse.
Ezekiel, chapter 36.
Here the Prophet is writing in connection with the mountains of Israel.
But he makes this comment.
In verse nine he says, For behold, verse eight, O ye mountains of Israel, verse 9 for behold, I am for you, and I will turn on to you, and ye shall be just. Look at this little expression. Ye shall be tilled and sown, tilled and sown. Turn back to second Peter.
My children don't like these times. I sometimes pick on them.
I have two boys.
Quite some time ago I wanted to do something with them.
They usually like to crawl under their chair at this point.
But my my two boys, I wanted to do something with them. And so and I wanted to do something with each of them one at a time. I didn't want to take them both out and do something. I want to do something special with with each of them. And so I said to my youngest boy, I said, So what would you like to do?
Well, that.
I'd like to go to a car show in Toronto.
So, umm, we bought tickets on the, umm, on the train and we, uh, got up, hopped on the train at 6:00, took the train to Toronto, went through several, I dragged myself through several buildings of cars. Umm, and we had, uh, I learned a little bit about cars. I learned a lot about my son. We had a good time and we did that for several succeeding years, enjoyed the time. But after I did that with my, my youngest boy, I said, uh, to my oldest boy, I said, so umm, uh.
What would you like to do with that?
Well, and my boys are somewhat different.
My oldest boy said.
You know that I'd, umm, I want a garden. I want a garden.
I thought, well, OK, we live in Maple Bush.
It's all trees and we have about this much depth before the rock. So I thought, well, you know, Ross Wills at the time he lived down the road, We can, we can go speak to him and we can get a little parcel of land and we can, we can, we can tell it up and we can put a garden in there. I mentioned that to him. I said, you know, we can do that. Or we have Uncle Paul. He has a piece of property just down the road. I'm sure he'd give us a little piece of land that we could, uh, we could put a garden in. Dad, I want my own garden.
So that means we had to do it on our property. So that means, uh, a bit of work involved in doing this garden. So we cut down these big trees. We gotta pull the stumps out. We gotta bring in loads of fill. We have to bling in loads, loads of topsoil. We.
Spread it around. We put a fence around it because there's all kinds of arts around our property.
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It's a lot easier to go to the car show.
But we had a garden and in order to have fruits and vegetables out of the garden, there's a lot of work. There's a lot of work that takes. I'm not a farmer, but we've had a garden now for several years and you have to keep the farm instead. There's lots of them.
Tilde and Somme.
We read here.
For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall be neither barren or idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah, I think it meet as long as I'm in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. So you know that land has to be stirred up, it has to be tilled in order for those seeds to go in. It is easier to go to the store and to buy vegetables, but it is interesting to go through that. And the Lord's desire is that in our own souls that there would be that killing, there would be that sewing, and there would be that fruit for his honor and glory.
You know, I've been challenged by two, two and a brother shared with this me a number of years ago by two, uh, creatures that we find in the word of God. One is the slug and the other is the sloth. 2 creatures that we find in the word of God a number of places.
The slug mentioned 15 times and the sloth mentioned 7.
And yet we don't read.
Of them in exactly that way, we read of them in connection with those of us who are humans. It's the sluggard and it's the slothful.
And they're both very, very different.
The sluggard has a hard time starting a job.
He just cannot get a job started. It's very hard. And so we read about the sluggard. The sluggard says there's a line in the street. Sluggard says it's too cold outside. There's always a reason why a sluggard cannot get a job started. But then the sloth, the slothful person, he has no problem getting a start a a job started. In fact, he gets many of them started, but he has a hard time finishing them. And so we read about the slothful. He roasteth, not that which he takes in hunting. He goes out hunting, he shoots the deer and there it rots. He doesn't do anything with it. He goes fishing and he catches some fish, but he doesn't do anything with it. And so we read of the slug and we read of the sloth.
A number of times the Word of God and I would challenge you to look at those two.
Because it's very instructive. And if we're characterized by what characterizes the sluggard and the slothful, we're gonna be what we find here, idle in our souls, barrenness, unfruitfulness. And the Lord's desire is that there would be fruit for His honor and glory in our lives. Now let's look at some examples of those.
Who were stirred up? The first one we'd like to look at is in the Book of Exodus.
Exodus chapter 35.
This meeting has been designated as a meeting for young people.
Says that on our little card and so I'm gonna.
Make most of my remarks directly to those who are young.
There are going to be some remarks that are gonna be made to those who are my peers.
And so although the comments will be not to be, not to you as young people, it will be for you.
And I'd like to look here in the book of Exodus where we find those who had a stirred up heart.
And I would also like to mention that.
These remarks in connection with the book of Exodus are going to be primarily to those of you who are young sisters. We're going to look at those who are young brothers after, and not just young sisters, but sisters in general. And not just young brothers, but brothers in general. And here we find in this portion of the Word of God, Exodus chapter 35, verse 4, Moses spake unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, this is the thing which the Lord commanded, saying.
Take you from among you an offering unto the Lord. Whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it an offering of the Lord. Gold and silver and brass, blue and purple, scarlet, and so on. A great list of things to be brought to the Lord. Verse 10. And every wise hearted among you shall come.
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And we read in verse 20 and all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. These were things that were going to be umm, donated so that the the Tabernacle could be, umm, could be constructed. We've looked at that in Rio Ferry a little bit. Well, in verse 20, all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him up and everyone whom his Spirit made willing, and they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the Tabernacle of the congregation.
And for all his service and for the holy garments. And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted. Just put your finger there for a moment, because we're going to come back to it.
I just love the little.
The little tidbits that I find phrases in the word of God that are such an encouragement to me. I got up this morning knowing I at a time like this I don't have a real good time sleeping the night before.
Umm just seems the burden of seeking to present that which the Lord has laid in my heart, uh, is such that sleep does not come easy. Anyway, I got up early this morning, went to, uh, went to Tim horton's just after the, umm, after they, uh, they opened in the mall. I had my Bible with me and I, I'm reading in Second Chronicles.
Uh, right now my personal reading, and this is what I read, uh, Second Chronicles chapter 17.
I would encourage you young people, you know, when you're going through the word of God, you're going to come upon lists of people, genealogies, read them, read them. There's there's lots of lists of people in the word of God. But it's just been such an encouragement to me to go through a long list and right in the middle of it you find something. There's a little phrase attached to them. Just very instructive here. We find in in this chapter where I was reading this morning.
The portion I had this morning was from was Second Chronicles 17. I read from the 12Th verse to the end. So we read.
Jehoshaphat Wax succeeding great, and he built in Judah's castles and cities of store, and he had much business in the cities of Judah, and men of war, mighty men of valor in Jerusalem. And these are the numbers of them according to the House of their fathers of Judah, the captains of thousands. You know sometimes we pass over these things, but we need to read them. Aiden of the chief, and with him Mighty men of valor. 300,000 And next to him was Jehovah the captain, and with him 204 score thousand were 17.
And of Benjamin Elia, a mighty man of valor, and with him armed men with bow and shield. 200,000 And next to him was Jehoshabad I with him on 104 score 1000 ready prepared for war. These waited on the king, beside those whom the king put in the fence cities throughout all Judah. Judah. Now you read these names one after another says these little things about them, and you sometimes wonder why they're there. But now look at the verse. We didn't, we didn't read verse 16. And next to him was Amasiah, the son of Zikri, who willingly offered himself unto the Lord.
It's not beautiful.
The only thing we know about him, the only thing about his family.
Don't know how old he was.
But what'd he find? He willingly offered himself to the Lord. Just beautiful. Just enjoy that this morning. Well, here in our chapter, we find there are those who had a willing heart in Exodus chapter 35. And they came everyone whose hearts stirred him up. Now let's look at verse 25 and we're going to make some some comments to those of you who are sisters. I do that humbly because I'm not one. And uh, I don't know.
All the way sisters think although I have a wife and I have some girls, they're very different than brothers. But it says here in verse 20 when and all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goats hair.
All the women whose heart stirred them up.
It's, it's, uh, intriguing to me, to, umm.
To consider.
What we have in the Word of God concerning sisters.
There's there's some characteristics that you sisters have.
That those of us are brothers. We we don't have those characteristics.
We just don't have them.
The beautiful characteristics, but they come to you right from the Lord.
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Isn't it interesting that there are places in the Word of God where we find the female character brought out in connection with our Lord?
And so we have the red heifer returned to the Book of Numbers, a discourse on the red heifer. No, not a red Bullock, but a red heifer.
We read this morning from Isaiah 53, and we didn't come down to the verse, but we read these words.
As a sheep before her shears is done, so he openeth not his mouth.
Why not? A sheep before his shears is dumb. It's a sheep before her shears is dumb.
And we have that portion in Isaiah 53. It's a picture of the Lord.
You know when the Lord Jesus is is is yearning over Jerusalem, and let's look at it in the book of Matthew.
The Book of Matthew.
The UH-20.
Somebody help me 20. Thank you 23.
The end of chapter 23 of Matthew, the Lord Jesus.
As he weeps over Jerusalem, he says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killeth the prophets, and stone us them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together? Even this is he he's liking himself towards. A hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and he would not.
That that character.
That that you have as sisters that I know nothing about.
Comes from the Lord Himself.
We have two springs ago. It was interesting to me.
One of my boys, uh, enjoys, uh, having some hens around the, around the house. We have a lot of nothing around the house, but outside and the, umm, we have a, we have a property that's that, that's infested with varmints. Just two weeks ago, my wife, umm, she tried to chase off as she watched running by the front door, a rooster just going as fast as it can. The wing, the wings were going and right on its tail feathers, the fox and she was, she scared it off. And so we have a property that's got boxes. It's got.
It's got, it's got link, it's got fissures, it's got weasels. We've got all kinds of raccoons there. They all love chickens. And two, two springs ago we had three hands that that disappeared.
And as we've had other hands disappear, we figured, Oh well, they got succumbed to whatever garment. 3 weeks later though, these three hens, they come out of the woods, each with a little trail of chicks.
How they can find a place in the woods?
And be spared from all these varmints. It's beyond me. But that's why the Lord uses this, this example here of how a hand is so protective of our little chicks. And he yearns over Jerusalem. He said, oh, just he just yearned over them. How he would have loved to just preserve them as a hen preserves those little chicks. Well, that's a characteristic that you dear sisters have that I know nothing about. Arusa doesn't have that characteristic.
Those of us who are males, yes, we've got characteristics, but they're not the same. They're not the same. And I just wanna look a little bit in connection with what we have here in Exodus 35. All the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom, and it tells the various things that they did well. I would like to look at some examples of women that stirred themselves up.
We we live in Rio Ferry, UMM.
Active assembly, very thankful.
And there's a number in the assembly that are real evangelists. Real evangelists, you know, they're sisters. They're sisters.
Yeah, there's some brothers too that are that way inclined, but it seems that there are those sisters that just have a special way of being able to draw alongside of someone and present the gospel in a way that it's unassuming. And I just, I just love that. It was interesting this past summer, umm, my, my son ran a, umm, ran a painting business and he had some marketing reps and he found out that when it came to door to door.
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Knocking on doors and seeking to solicit work that you knock on the door and you've got about 5 seconds before the door gets slammed in your face. But if you have female marketers, they seem to do better than males. Now, why is that? It's just those characteristics that they have that those of us who are males do not have. And I would like to look at two evangelists that we find in the Word of God that were able to do that work.
Just in a marvelous way. A marvelous way. Let's turn to the book of Umm of Joshua for the first one.
The Book of Joshua.
We're gonna pick up a little bit on Rahab.
Let's look at umm.
At Joshua chapter 2.
This is the spies. They come into Jericho. They spend a bit of time here at rehab, says she makes a comment in verse.
9 Joshua chapter 2, verse nine. And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land.
And that your terror has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
And so there's this discourse between them. And in verse 18 we read, Behold, this is the spies, and they're speaking to Rahab. Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou hast let us down by. And thou shalt bring thy father and thy mother and thy brethren, and all thy father's household home with thee. And it shall be that whomsoever shall go to the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head.
And we will be guiltless. And whomsoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head.
If any hand be upon him, well you know Rahab was busy, Ahab was busy from this point and let's go over a few chapters where we find they have marched around Jericho, the walls have come down and Joshua sends the spies to Ray Hobbs house.
And we read in verse chapter 6 and verse 23.
And the young men that were spies went in and brought out Rahab.
And her father and her mother and her brethren and all that she had and they brought out, Now notice the marginal reading. They brought out all her families and left them without the camp of Israel. You know, I picture that when those spies got to Rahab's house and they knocked on the door and they opened up the door, that the house was packed with people, packed with people as this evangelist went out. And God, as many of us as her family in as she possibly could into that home.
But oh, what an evangelist she was. Beautiful to see that, you dear sisters.
You can go places that are those of us who are brothers. We haven't got a hope of going. I was just encourage you.
To see, to stir up that characteristic that you have within you. It's so beautiful. That's giving you of the Lord. Let's look at another one in John's Gospel, another evangelist, John chapter 4.
John Chapter 4. The Woman at the Will.
We'll pick up from verse 28.
And the woman left her water pod.
I went her way into the city.
You know, this woman didn't have particularly good characteristics.
But she was a woman. She had those characteristics.
Use of the Lord beautifully.
Went her way into the city, and said to the men, Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did is not just the Christ. Then they went out of the city and came unto him.
And we read in verse 39. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the women which testified. He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would carry with them. And he abode there two days, and many more believed because of his own word, and said unto the woman, Now we believe not because of thy saying, for we have heard of ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.
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Just like to encourage you, dear sisters.
Without which the Lord has given you.
That it when it stirred up. Oh, it's a tremendous blessing to those that are lost and tremendous blessing to the people of God. Well, let's turn now to another one.
Let's go to.
To a second, Timothy.
Second Timothy.
I wanted to look a little bit at the at.
The two on the way to a mass, well, we read them saying, did not our heart burn with us in us as the Lord Jesus? He took those Old Testament scriptures and he pointed himself to them. We don't have the time to look at that, though I see our time is going. So we're gonna look now at umm, at second Timothy and the first chapter.
I'm gonna make some remarks to those here who are younger brothers.
Second Timothy, chapter 5, When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee which dwell first, and my grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice, And I'm persuaded that in thee also wherefore I put the inner remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee. There's our subject stirring up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting out of my hands.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind.
Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.
And so on. You know, if you look at Mr. Darby's translation, it's interesting.
When it says here.
Wherefore I put the In remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, it says that you rekindle that which is drooping.
Rekindle that which is drooping.
I would just like to be.
Encouragement to those here who are my younger brother.
And I'm going to make remarks, some remarks to in connection with.
Those who are your parents, who are my peers?
In connection with oversight.
These are important because.
You younger brethren that are here, you're not in a position of oversight.
But you soon will be.
And So what is the characterize someone that is in oversight?
Turn with me first to umm, I'd like to look at 2 verses 1.
Umm.
In Acts chapter 20.
When the apostle Paul was addressing the elders Ephesus.
He spoke to those in oversight and he made these comments.
So we read in verse 17, and from my latest he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church.
Now, verse 28.
Take heed, therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Feed the Church of God, which he have purchased with his own blood. Turn over now to first Peter.
Where we find Peter addresses those who are in oversight.
And he says in first Peter 5, the Elders.
Which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God, which is among you. So we have Paul, he addresses the elders. He says feed the flock. We have Peter, he addresses the elders, he says feed the flock. I was noticing in our in our reading in in first John 3.
Let's look at that for a moment.
We didn't get to it.
Yesterday.
But we read in verse 11 of first John 3, This is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who is of the wicked one who slew his brother. Now what do we learn about his brother? We don't know a whole lot about his brother. But if we return to Genesis, we would find this comment about his brother. Genesis chapter. Sorry for all these scriptures.
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Genesis Chapter.
Genesis chapter 4.
What do we read about his brother?
And Adam knew he and his wife and she conceived and bare Cain and said I've gotten the man from the Lord and she again bare his brother Abel and Abel was now notice the marginal reading was a feeder of sheep. He was a feeder of sheep. He was a man that gave food and I would just like to to make this comment to those of you who are younger.
That the Lord gives you meditations that are sweet.
But just because the Lord gives you a meditation?
That, by no stretch of the imagination, means that you're supposed to put it forth at a time like this, or at a time like we had yesterday in a ministry meeting.
There needs to be a recognition as to where the Saints are and what would be appropriate at the time to present what the Lord has given you. You know, I feel my own soul because often I enjoy things and I put them forth and I realize, you know.
That really shouldn't have gone at that time.
You'll use this illustration. Uh, I've used it before in my home assembly. Umm.
I have my wife's family are wheat farmers and one of my brother in law's. He kept sheep for a number of years.
And uh, he uh.
As a number of shepherds out West, they, they found when they, umm, when they had used that, that dropped twins and dropped triplets, that their, their flock of course, got bigger faster. And so they tend to hang on to the, the use that, that, that, uh, gave twins and gave triplets and, umm, they almost almost always had twins and triplets. Well, in the springtime, it's a, it's a, it's a rather busy time because there's often lambs that, uh.
Are not able to make it. They say that when a lamb's born, the first hour is critical and then the first day is critical and then the first seven days critical, in the first months critical and then after that the land does OK.
This my brother-in-law had this one you and it, it had twins and he got up one morning and one of the twins is dead. So he looked at it and looked looks like it was perfectly normal. Nothing wrong with this lamp. So he thought it's interesting that it died. Umm, I think I'll find a diagnosis on this one. So he calls the vet, the vet comes out and the vet looks at the lamb, looks at the you looks at the other twin. He looks at the lamb and he says uh died of malnutrition. My brother-in-law said I.
I don't think so. I can feel the stomach and it's got something in the stomach like I don't. I don't think that's the diagnosis. So the vet looked at me.
He thought, well, umm, I think that's my diagnosis. So the vet says how about I do an autopsy?
So my brother-in-law said well sure. So the vet gets out his scalpel and he slices the lamb open, opens the lamb up, takes the stomach out, slices the stomach open and it's bursting with fresh green grass. And my brother-in-law smiles and says doesn't look like malnutrition to me. And the vet says just what I thought. This lamb died of malnutrition. So this lamb is not able to assimilate grass.
It's too young for that. And often when there's triplets and there's twins, there's one that's dominant and so the dominant one will push the other away from the milk source so that it can't get to the milk. And finally, the one that's not dominant, it throws in the towel and it doesn't pursue the milk source anymore. And it looks around to see what the other land, what the other sheep are doing, and they're eating grass. So it goes. He needs grass, but it cannot assimilate grass. And often I find.
In my own heart in the assembly that I seek to present that which is perhaps not good for the people of God. There needs to be a recognition of what the people of God need. And so the apostle, he writes to the the the elders at Ephesus and he said they need food, they need food. And Peter does exactly the same thing when he addresses the elders. He said they need food. And I would just suggest to you who are young brother who are not in oversight but soon will be.
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That there would be a desire in your heart to present to the Saints of God that which is food for their souls.
It's an absolute necessity.
And I would encourage you to that in your presentation, whether it's on an individual basis, you're trying to share something or whether it's in a collective basis and whether whether you're a brother or whether you're a sister sharing something that you do so with enthusiasm. You know, we had a brother stand up here yesterday.
And he used his hands.
And you know, that's scriptural. If we were to turn to the book of the Acts, we find many times where we read a Peter, we read a we read of Stephen, we read of Philip, we read of James, we read the apostle Paul, it says, and they said stuff and such. But there are times when it says about Peter, right in the beginning of Acts, it says he lifted up his voice. He spoke with enthusiasm. We find them. And it says that he beckoned with his hand. Let's look at one of those places in in Acts chapter 26 says.
The apostle addressed addressed Agrippa.
October 26.
It's just a little thing, but it's so helpful for those of you who are younger seeking to present the word. We read here in in Acts chapter 26, and there's a number of times in the book of the Acts and I would challenge you to look at these times.
It says in Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. What does Paul do? It says He stretched forth his hands.
He stretched forth his hand.
You, younger brother, don't preach the gospel with your hands in your pockets.
Like your heart is stirred up. That's what's gonna have an effect. You know, my heart was really stirred yesterday as our brother Jurgen presented that portion. I was very thankful for it. You know, there needs to be an enthusiasm.
As we present that which the Lord gives us. And so the apostle Paul, he wrote, he spoke to those in Ephesus.
Those elders, he said. The people of God, they need food. Peter did the same thing.
They need food. Able was a feeder of sheep, the only enemy of our souls. He sought to it.
This feeding of sheep is no good. That's not what the enemy of our souls wants for God's people. He doesn't want them to be fed, although we would seek to enjoy the word ourselves and be able to present that which is needful for the peace of the for the people of God. Don't give them grasp when they need milk. Don't give them meat. Apostle wrote to the Corinthians. You know, he desired to give them meat, but they weren't able to give it, so he didn't give him meat anyway.
He gave them milk.
He sought to present that which was appropriate and I would just suggest to you, dear young brother, as the apostle wrote the Timothy. He said neglect not the gift that is in me that the meditations that the Lord gives to you, you dear sisters too, as you presented 1 to another that it would be done with enthusiasm that it would be food for the people of God stirred up gift. Let's look at one more. We're just about done here in our time.
For second, Peter again.
Second Peter the.
The third chapter.
This second epistle, beloved.
And now I'll write on to you.
In both which I stir up.
Your pure minds by way of remembrance, that you might be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that there shall come the last time, last days, scoffers wax wax walking after their own lusts. Well, here the Apostle Peter, right at the end of his second epistle, his desire is to stir up their pure minds. So how the enemy of our souls seeks to get to our minds.
Now if we turn to Ephesians, we find the armor there.
The helmet of salvation is armor for the mind. The mind how the enemy of our souls desires to get to our minds in in in Romans chapter 12. Let's just learn. Look at that in closing, I see our time is gone. Romans chapter chapter 12.
00:45:02
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 be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect.
Will of God.
One person closing Luke's gospel.
Ruth's Gospel, chapter 23.
The verse that we started with.
23 And the whole multitude of them arose and led him to pilot, and they began to accuse him, verse five. And they were more the fierce saying, He stirreth up the people. Oh, may that Blessed One be found stirring up our hearts, our minds, and our souls this very afternoon, as we would sing the last verse of the hymn that we started.
The last verse.
OK.
We commend ourselves.
Yeah.