YP Sing Address—J. Csanyl
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Regarding your Father and our Lord Jesus, we come before thee now and we ask for help once again as we open thy word. Pray for help for the speaker, help for each one of us. That would be a message here from Lee for each of us that can apply to our lives. That is exactly what each one of us needs. We.
We ask for Thy help, and we commit ourselves to Thee. We pray this in Thy name. Amen.
OK.
I'm not as prepared as I like to be.
But I do feel the Lord has given me something, laid something on my heart. So you'll forgive me for stumbling over the references occasionally. Maybe we can find that together.
You probably know.
That our family is packing up to move across the country. If you didn't know, we're going from Vancouver to Nova Scotia, which is almost as far as you can go within Canada.
And so I've got a new appreciation for stuff because we've been trying to organize and sort and get rid of and pack and get rid of and organize some more and get rid of and discover some more stuff we didn't even know we still had and get rid of and.
Pack a lot of stuff.
Certain, Matthew.
Chapter 19 I believe it is.
Matthew 19, verse 16.
And behold, one came and said unto him, Good master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
And he said unto him, Why 'cause thou me good, there is none good, but one that is God.
But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments, He saith unto them, which Jesus saith, Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up. What lack I yet?
Jesus saith unto him, If thou wilt be perfect.
Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.
This man had a lot of stuff.
And he liked his stuff. He trusted in his stuff.
And everyone of you has heard this story before. Read it for yourself, probably.
And you've looked at it and said.
This man valued his stuff more than he valued the things of God.
Look at that. What a fool.
Then you kind of nod to yourself from satisfaction and go away to your home in your vehicle where you have all your stuff.
That you have.
Now stuff in itself isn't wrong.
But are you trusting in your stuff? Are you grasping onto your stuff as something that you're collecting that is yours?
Or is your stuff available for the Lord's use?
Are we building a treasure, a place, a home for ourselves in this world?
You know when you're looking at driving a 5000 miles across the country with all your stuff you can carry and.
An empty house ahead of you.
You start thinking about pilgrims.
Think about Abraham.
Let's turn to Hebrews Chapter 11.
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Verse 8. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whether he went by faith. He soldiered in the land of promise, as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob. The heir is with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, foundations whose builder and maker is God.
Jump ahead.
To verse 13.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And really, that should characterize each one of us.
We often look at Abraham.
How he left his country, he left most of his family behind, and he went out a Pilgrim. Someone who didn't, someone was just passing through, didn't belong, wasn't putting down roots.
And a stranger, someone that was different from those around him.
But you know, I really like to look at and Abraham is a great example, a great example for us, but I think there's some important lessons in other people around that time.
That had challenges with these things.
That could not or would not walk as strangers and pilgrims.
I think of a lot. Let's turn to that.
Genesis.
Let's see.
Let's go to Genesis 13.
We're kind of picking up in the middle of the story. You all know the story of Abraham. I'm going to pick and choose a couple different things here.
But Genesis 13 and Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him into the South.
Abraham here, he's coming out of Egypt, but he left.
The land of his father's originally to go into the land of promise, and he took lot with him.
Abram Abraham was called and he heard the call of God, and Lot was kind of his ward.
He took him along.
That's what you do with the younger ones that you're responsible for.
And you know, looking around the room, many, many of the ones here of you guys.
Have been brought to the meetings, brought to the camp, brought to the Lord by your parents.
You've been taken along to meetings before you knew anything about what they were.
But there comes a time.
When you need to make that decision for yourself.
And when that time came for a lot.
He looked.
At the plains, a little later in the same chapter, I think verse 10, Genesis 13, verse 10, Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that is, was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as our comerstone to Zoar.
He noticed the comforts. He noticed.
That was like Egypt.
Abraham had failed and taken him down into Egypt. And you know each one of us.
To varying degrees have been exposed to the world that we live in.
And that's not necessarily a failure of our parents. That's.
The reality of life is we live in this world we are in, but not of this world.
But are we guided? Are we drawn after what we see of the world?
Egypt, place of irrigation, a place of.
Comfort without the Lord.
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And so Lot made these choices. It's not so bad. He chose these particular planes and still stuck not going back to Egypt.
But we see a progression in a lot and he pitches his tent towards autumn.
That he's in Sodom, That he's in the gate and the government of Sodom.
And, you know, sometimes we think that.
If the standards of the world are here, as long as we're, you know, above the standards of the world, then that's a good Christian position, good testimony, you might say.
But I'm I'm feeling my age a little bit here but.
Everyone of you have seen this to some degree or another.
But I'm in my 40s, looking back 2530 years that I've been aware of these types of things. I have seen the morals of the world.
Steep nosedive and those that are older would say far more, far worse probably. And those of you that are younger, I'm sure you're seeing parts of it.
So if our gauge is, yeah, high above the world.
Then there we go.
And here's a lot in the Gate of Sodom.
I'm not going to read the whole story of Lot.
But this is.
A man that we might say was saved. He had life. He vexed his righteous soul, we read. And yet here he is calling these people. Brethren, my brethren, I pray you do not so wickedly.
Here he is suggesting.
The things he suggests to these men.
Together at his door.
He offers him his daughters.
That a man of God.
Could do so low, could be so caught up in the world.
That that's their moral gauge.
Horrifying.
And yet it happens. It happened a lot and it happens.
To those around us.
Look at the Christian testimony.
I truly believe the Christian testimony has undergone the greatest attack, perhaps ever in the last three or four years.
By Christians themselves.
The things Christians associate themselves with, and I'm not talking one political party or another political party or all of it that they associate themselves with any of it.
The shame and dishonor that brings on the Lord, on his name.
So Abraham was described as a stranger in a Pilgrim.
Lot.
He had a lot of trouble with that stranger part.
He could not stay separate from the world. He became like one of them.
He was dragged from the city.
Did he learn his lesson?
Perhaps the saddest part of that whole story.
He couldn't stand even the thought of living outside of a city.
He wanted to go live in just a little one.
Because just a little bit of the world worked out so well for him before.
And yet he.
That's what he wanted. He never learned his lesson, as far as we see.
Sober, sobering thought.
And you know each one of us as we move through this world.
Like life.
We have to interact with the world.
But it's a challenge to each one of us.
A challenge for your own heart. I'm not asking you to answer out loud or to confess or anything like that, but inside my heart.
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And by being acclimatized to the world.
To this world that crucified my Savior and would do it again in a heartbeat.
Am I that frog and the?
Pot of water that's getting boiled alive because I'm just getting so used to it. Just seems normal.
Do I have a testimony of being different from the world, a stranger here in this world?
I think each one of us.
Will find to some degree or another.
I know I find it in my life.
There are some ways which I've becoming acclimatized to this world.
And the only way.
To recognize and fix that is to be on our knees.
And talking to the Lord about it, reading His Word, and on her knees with Him.
Getting his perspective on this world.
We talked about lot, but I also find Jacob really interesting.
Jacob.
3rd generation Abraham's grandson.
If Lot had trouble being a stranger, I think Jacob had trouble being a Pilgrim.
A Pilgrim is one that is just passing through, not putting down roots.
Jacob.
He couldn't trust and he couldn't trust.
The Lord to honor his promises, he had to work some deal.
To make it happen.
And every time he worked some deal, he ended up putting down roots.
Seven years for this daughter and seven years for that daughter and then I need some cattle and then.
Now I've been here 30 years, I've got roots. This is my home.
He relied on his wits. He relied on himself rather than the Lord.
And you know.
As pilgrims.
The Lord wants us to be relying on Him.
And to be looking to him.
In submission and dependence.
Jacob would not give in to the Lord.
The Lord had to wrestle with him.
And finally.
He took some of Jacob's independence, he.
Partially crippled him.
And he finally gave in.
To the Lord.
The Lord is working with each one of us.
And you know, we've seen it. We see it in the stories in the Word of God. We see it in the people around us. The Lord is talking to each one of us. And if we don't listen, if we don't learn these lessons as children at home, as young people at home, we don't learn these lessons from the Lord when He speaks to us the first time or the second time.
The Lord has to speak louder and harsher.
And he will teach you that lesson, although you may be worshipping leaning upon your staff by the end of it like Jacob did.
His He was dependent.
Can it be self reliant anymore?
He built his whole life on being self reliant and now he can't even walk properly.
I find it really beautiful at the end of Jacob's life.
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So we can find that chapter.
Genesis.
47.
When Joseph presents him to Pharaoh.
Genesis 47.
Verse seven. And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and sent him before Pharaoh, And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said, Mr. Jacob, how old art thou?
And Jacob said after Pharaoh, the days of the years of my pilgrimage, 130 years, few and evil have the days of the years of my lifespan, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my father's in the days of their pilgrimage.
Jacob, who kept putting down roots.
Now speaks of his pilgrimage.
And we, I think it's a little bit later. I mentioned earlier that he worships leaning on his staff. He's learned dependence.
So it's a challenge. Another challenge for each one of us is.
You know what's our goal?
In the decisions we're making in these life, in this life.
Many of you are coming to the point in your lives.
Well, there's a lot of decisions to be made around schooling, careers, relationships.
All these decisions are you looking to set up.
The most comfortable routes that you can.
The American Dream.
Two children, white picket fence and a dog.
Or your version of that, whatever that might include. But is that your goal? Is that your only goal?
Abraham was called.
To leave.
The land where I'm sure he was comfortable and to go out and follow the Lord, he didn't even know the land into which he was going.
I've seen the house we're moving into, unlike Abraham.
Moses.
Was uprooted out of his comfortable life in Egypt.
Do you think he would have picked that life for himself?
Do you think he was the worse off?
For having followed.
The life that God had for him.
Moses, who talked with God face to face.
Whose faith?
We talk about.
That we know that God is all knowing. He knows everything, and he's a loving God. He's a powerful God.
Did you ever put those three things together in your mind and ask yourself, why would I ever?
Do anything that's not what he's leading me to do.
If he's loving all loving, all knowing and all powerful.
How can I hope to have a better plan than what he has for me?
And yet all too often.
We think we have a better plan.
We might not say it that way.
But if you really look at what's guided your decisions.
You might find.
There's a bit of yourself in there that just doesn't want what the Lord has for you.
So I challenge you, you know, yes, Abraham is an example with his tent and his altar, and he was a Pilgrim and a stranger in the land.
But think of these others as well.
And look for these tendencies in yourself. I think that's why I find these other people so.
So compelling it's like looking at Peter in the New Testament.
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I find the stories of Peter so compelling because I see myself in his impetuousness and his speaking without thinking.
Look for these tendencies. We have the same nature as Locke. We have the same nature as Jacob.
And beg the Lord.
That he would show you.
The path that he would wake you up if he has to, if you're on the wrong path. Not the wrong path as in doing something wrong, but if you're not arranging your life in the way that he would have you to.
These decisions that may seem innocent and they don't have, they may not seem like their decisions between right and wrong, and maybe they're not.
But still, one of these paths is the way that Lord has for you to go.
And.
He's guiding you towards one of these paths in every decision.
Let's pray, ask for help and for the refreshments as well, OK?
Father and our Lord Jesus, we thank you for this.
The few minutes we could spend looking at these verses and looking at these people that lived so long ago and yet are so much like us in so many ways. We pray. Those help. Each one of us, myself included, prayers help us to.
Be LED of Thee to have our eyes turned to Thee and not be occupied with the things of this world. As we move through this world, help us to be strangers and pilgrims.
And to have our eyes set on the thing, on my things and the things of heaven.
Those wake us up if necessary.
And will show us, and guide us, and lead us with thy night.
We commit the rest of the week to the.
Continue to ask for the help as I word is open through the week and in our fellowship through the week that we'd be talking of thy things and building relationships over thy things.
And we commit the evening to thee as well. We thank you for the food that was provided, the refreshments. And we again pray that our fellowship and our conversation would not just be of the the activities, but would be of a little bit of thy things as well. We pray this in thy name, Amen.