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Becoming God's Grain of Wheat

If I would be God’s grain of wheat . . .
(John 12:24)

I must fall to the ground = humility
Deuteronomy 8:2-3 – God will put us to the test
Psalm 51:16-17 – the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit
2 Chronicles 7:14 – God’s people must humble themselves
Matthew 5:3 – blessed are the poor in spirit

I must die = fatality
To sin = repentance
Romans 6:11-12
Galatians 6:14 – I am crucified to the world
To self
Removal of pride
Proverbs 6:16-19 – a proud look is an abomination
Proverbs 16:18 – pride goeth before destruction
Proverbs 29:23 – a man’s pride will bring him low
Daniel 5:20-23

Renunciation of person
Luke 9:23 – I must take up my cross daily
1 Corinthians 15:31 – I die daily
Galatians 2:20 – I am crucified with Christ

I must bear fruit = maturity
John 15:8 – bearing fruit is how we glorify God.
(NOTE! the wheat in the following ppt slide has blight. It looks "normal" to the untrained eye but causes tremendous yield loss)
Luke 8:14 – the cares of this life hinder fruit bearing
John 15:6 – failure to bear fruit will bring Divine rejection

LOOK AT THE TEXT AGAIN! IF IT DIE, it bringeth forth MUCH fruit.

2 Corinthians 13:5 – Examine yourself . . .
Are you producing fruit? If not, there are only two possible reasons
why . . .
You are not dead or you are not mature.
Luke 13:6-9 – the Master will come expecting fruit

(additional note -- Matthew 5:3-10 --> the beatitudes picture this same progression)

The Church Is NOT:

The following...something to think about?

The Church is NOT:

· a place to drop off your kids

Marriage and family were the first institutions to be endorsed by God, way back in the first chapter of the book of Genesis. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that they are very important to Him.

Unfortunately, many churches today seem to undermine the existence of healthy families, rather than strengthening them. This begins very early, when young parents are encouraged to take their babies to a nursery, and continues through youth, when youth group and Sunday School activities are designed to have the youth do something with their peers, apart from their families. It doesn’t stop there, but continues into adulthood, when Sunday School classes are often age-segregated. What would happen if, instead of separating families from the moment they enter the doors of the building until they leave again, the church engaged in activities and situations that would enable and encourage families to do things together?

What would happen if, instead of volunteers taking babies to the nursery, an experienced mother helped a young mother with her baby in the sanctuary? Or what would happen if a youth group leader encouraged activities where the teens did something with their families instead of just with their peers? Why has the church bought into the notion that children don’t like spending time with their parents, and vice versa? In the first place, that’s not always true, and in the second place, it would be far better to train them to appreciate each others’ company rather than scorning it.

One of the greatest gifts I was ever given as a young mother was when the preacher could tell that my fussy baby was making me nervous and uncomfortable. He interrupted his sermon to tell me, “Don’t you worry about the noise that baby makes. God loves to hear the sound of babies.” I was able from that time on to relax and not worry about my children making a fuss during a sermon.

Through the years, I have been involved in numerous Bible studies. I believe my favorite one so far was one that I attended for several months, which I jokingly referred to as “The Old Folks’ Bible Study.” This was my favorite, not because of the subject matter, not because of the leader, but because of the blessed saints whose company I was able to enjoy. Other than myself, the ages of the participants ranged from 65 to 90. Oh, if I could have only bottled up the wisdom, experience, knowledge, love and understanding that was in that room! I was once blessed to hear a gentleman state, and his good wife confirm, that in the 60 or so years that they had been married, she had never seen him angry. WOW!!! What a testimony!!! I would never have been privy to that information if I hadn’t broken the unwritten “rules” and attended a Bible Study with someone other than my peers.

My 22-year-old daughter shares my feelings. She has been approached about being interested in starting a new Sunday School class for young adults. She believes she is growing much more by attending the class she is now in, which includes my husband and myself, along with other people in my generation, as well as some of those elderly saints I was just talking about.

Unfortunately, the Church has chosen to mimic the rest of the world in this area, instead of setting her own standards. I believe it’s time to get back to the way the First Century Church did things, and train our people to appreciate worshipping and with their own families instead of with age-segregated groups. The family is, I believe, THE MOST IMPORTANT institution. We should treat it as such.

“God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it’. . . God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day” Genesis 1:27, 28, 31

A Test of Discipleship

"And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net."
(Luke 5:5)

When we read in Luke about the miracle of the fishes, we can almost hear in exclamation, Simon Peter's voice. He probably couldn't believe his ears. Was Jesus asking him to go out and throw his nets again? Right after he had just finished cleaning the messy things up? And after a whole night of catching not a one? We can almost picture his face clouding with retort like, 'Nothing doing! I'm no fool!'

Yet, had he not followed Jesus' instruction, we would never have heard of fisherman Simon, who became Peter, the heroic disciple. And he would have missed the chance of his life. Jesus was giving a discipleship test. Was Simon's faith up to it? Apparently it was, for he cast his net once again and "enclosed a great multitude of fishes."

Our Lord still poses such discipleship tests. And some tasks he assigns are not always to our liking . . . to be His witnesses when we fear rejection; to attend church when we feel like sleeping in; to teach fidgety children in Sunday School; to take a large percentage off the top of our paycheck; to give our time when our schedules are hectic; to offer a helpful service to the needy, and so on. Quite frankly, most Christians, would rather not.

But not doing so, may mean missing the chance of a lifetime. Simon Peter did not lose a thing that day by taking the Lord at His word. And you know what? Neither shall we!

May the good Lord provide us all with a humble heart and alert mind in preparation for His disciple test to act upon His Word.

The Power of Godliness

1 Tim. 1:3-6, "As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain men not to teach false doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and so wander away into vain discussions, endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain men, by wandering from these, have turned to meaningless talk."

If we cannot have a pure heart now: the command to love cannot be met, nor false doctrine stopped, nor would there be any means to keep men from wandering from the truth! Paul refers to this in another way in Galatians:

Gal. 5: 6-7, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?"

Petula Clark had a big hit song years ago titled "What The World Needs Now Is Love." While that is still true today about the world, the Church is in much need of that very thing itself!

With divisions (denominations) almost too many to number; and seeming insincerity for "the faith once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3), God's people have been hindered from obeying the truth! Is there a remedy? YES! A Pure Heart from which a love for the truth dominates all other pursuits!

The Lord pleads with us not to be "ever learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth." Let us sell all we have and buy the truth.

A Gazing Stock

In Heb. 10:33 it is said that Christians are a gazing-stock. The world is looking upon your life. You have taken upon you the profession of Christianity. If you live a pure and holy life, God will be honored; others gazing at you will see that Christ lives in you, and many will give to God the glory. You must be willing to be gazed at by the world... You must let your light shine.

Your holy life will be a savor of life or a savor of death unto those before whom you live. So do not think you are living to no purpose. Some one is looking on every day, and if you will walk uprightly, it will tell for God. What a privilege you have of living a life that God will use to the salvation of some and to the condemnation of others! You must be interested in living a pure, clean life, and live your very best each day, so that you will not be ashamed before God to be a gazing-stock for the world.

Lying to The Spirit and Blaspheming the Holy Spirit

Mat. 12:30-37, If you are not on my side, you are against me. If you don't gather in the harvest with me, you scatter it. I tell you that any sinful thing you do or say can be forgiven. Even if you speak against the Son Of Man, you can be forgiven. But if you speak against the Holy Spirit, you can never be forgiven, either in this life or in the life to come. A good tree produces only good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. You can tell what a tree is like by the fruit it produces. You are a bunch of evil snakes, so how say anything good? Your words show what is in your hearts. Good people bring good things out of their hearts, but evil people bring evil things out of their hearts. I promise you that on Judgment Day, everyone will give an account for every careless word they have spoken. on that day they will be told that they are either innoent or guilty because of the things they have said. (CEV)

Acts 5: 1-11, Ananias and his wife Sapphira also sold a piece of property. But they agreed to cheat and keep some of the money back for themselves. So when Ananias took the rest of the money to the apostles, Peter said, "Why has Satan made you keep some of the money from the sale of the property? Why have you lied to the Holy Spirit? The property was yours before you sold it, and even after you sold it, the money was still yours. What made you do such a thing? You didn't lie to people. You lied to God!" As soon as Ananias heard this, he dropped dead, and everyone who heard about it was frieghtened. Some young men came in and wrapped up his body. Then they took it out and buried it. Three hours later his wife came in, but she did not know what had happened to her husband. Peter asked her, "Tell me, did you sell the property for this amount?" "Yes'" she answered, "that is the amount." Then Peter said, "Why did the two of you agree to test the Lord's Spirit? The men who buried Ananias are by the door, and they will carry you out!" At once she fell at Peter's feet and died. When the young men came back in, they found Sapphira lying there dead. So they carried her out and buried her besdie her husband. The church members were afraid, and so was everyone else who heard what had happened. (CEV)

Some men's judgment follows behind them others go before them! In the case of Ananias and Sapphira their words were chosen in agreement by them before they made their offering to the Lord! It cost them their eternal soul! How do I know this? Because "all liars will be in the lake of fire". (Rev. 22:15)

To lie to the Holy Spirit as Ananias and Sapphira did or blaspheme the Holy Spirit as the clergy of Jesus' day did, incurred an immediate response in both cases! In Mat. 12:37, Jesus informed the clergy that their words brought them eternal condemnation (see verse 32), because they spoke against the Holy Spirit, not Him! This agrees with Acts 10:38, which strongly suggests that Jesus did His mighty deeds by the "power of the Holy Spirit", not through his Deity! (Mat. 12:28)

Concerning the death of Ananias and Sapphira, I once bought a book entitled 'The Fire of the Spirit' by a pastor up in Washington state. He claimed that Peter was too harsh with the two and, thereby, caused their death. I can confidently tell you who caused their deaths: God! Not Peter. Peter was the messenger of bad news, but he plainly told them they lied to God, not men.

The conclusion of what has been said is this: words, which come from our heart, prove the heart's purity! Good words come from a good tree. Make the tree good and its fruit will be good! Mat. 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

The Will

Among the different faculties which God gave to man in his creation is one called the will. It is because you have this faculty that you become a responsible being. Before the first man and woman in the garden of Eden, God placed two laws-one was the law of obedience, and the other, the law of disobedience. These were subject to their choice. They could will to obey God and live forever, or will to disobey and die. Before all men are placed two ways-one is called the way of life, and the other, the way of death. These are subject to their choice. Therefore the will is called that faculty of the soul by which we choose or refuse things. The will is capable of cultivation. By the exercise of your will you can refuse to do wrong things, and thus strengthen your will-power. Men have attained extraordinary heights of morality by the exercise of the will in right-doing and refusing to do wrong. This is noble and beautiful, but there is something more noble still and more beautiful. The moral man wills to do right because it is right, while the Christian wills to do right because it is the will of God and pleases him.

Although man cannot by the exercise of his will-power in right-doing evolve into a Christian, the will plays an important part in the formation of Christian character. It is true, the will is most usually led by the affections of the heart; therefore the writer of Proverbs said, ‘‘Out of the heart are the issues of life." The heart must, however, get consent of the will before its desires are fulfilled. Here is a truth of vast importance to the Christian.

Many people’s wills have become so in bondage to the impure affections and desires of their depraved hearts that they have no will to do right and shun the wrong. The desires of the heart sway their scepter of power over the will, and it acts to the granting the heart its wishes. This is a sad picture. A human being created to be free, but now a wretched slave. When he wills to do good evil is present with him; the good he would do, he does not do; and the evil he would not do, that is what he does. O miserable man! A person who has rejected the mercy of God and has yielded to the inclinations of an unholy heart until he has no power to accept the offers of mercy and shun the ways of sin, is an object of the greatest pity. To him there is no hope of escaping the damnation of hell.

There is a time in the life of every rational young man and woman when they can accept the blessed offers of salvation which God extends through his Son, if they will. God gives the Holy Spirit to operate upon the depraved heart, making it to feel something of the realities of a Savior’s love and goodness, and something of the awfulness of sin. The Holy Spirit does not take hold upon the will and compel it to serve God, or force it into right action. He just takes hold upon the heart, suppressing its love for sin, and awakening desires for a better life, thus removing the unrighteous scepter the heart swayed over the will, giving the will freedom and power to accept or reject the mercies of God. While the impure affections and unholy desires of a depraved heart are being restrained by the power of the Holy Spirit, before the will is set the way of life and the way of death, each subject to choice. Now is the time for whosoever will to come and drink of the water of life freely, and whosoever will now call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Not only does the will act an important part in securing the salvation of the soul through the offered mercies of God, but it is the purpose of God that the will act an important part all along the Christian way. After the Christian enters through the "strait gate" and steps out upon the "narrow way" that leads to eternal golden glories, he is not carried forward in a "chariot of fire" through the journey of life and crowned at the end with eternal blessedness irrespective of his will. Often it is true that the soul is carried blessedly onward in the way of life on the wings of joy without any apparent exercise of the will; but how often Good seems to have deserted or forsaken us, Joy has hid his smiling face, and Good Feelings have departed, amid we are left to serve God and attend to on Christian duties from choice of will. God wants our life service to be a willing service. It is necessary, therefore, that he apparently forsake us and permit dark powers to engage us. It is that our wills may be exercised. The Psalmist says, ‘‘I will go the way of thy commandment; I will keep thy testimonies," and let us all say amen.

The blessings and joys the Lord bestows upon us are the rewards of willing service, for which things you should be very thankful; but never let them influence you in your conduct toward God. There have been those, who, in the hour of seeming desertion, refusing to use their willpower, have turned hack to the world. This is faint-heartedness and cowardice, ignobleness and unmanliness.

Every faculty of the body and soul that is unused or unexercised will weaken and die. The muscles if unused will grow weak, the mind if unused will weaken, and the will if unexercised will lose its power. Should God always keep us soaring aloft on the wings of peace and joy and blessings, without the exercise of the will, this would degenerate into weakness amid slavery. 0 may my young readers arise in the strength of their manlihood and womanhood amid use, in choosing and doing the right, the will God has given them. The tempter may come, yea, will come, and endeavor to get some of the affections of the heart set upon the world; but you must reject all such temptations, and by the force of your will set your affections on things above. God does never will for us, but he gives us power to will if we will but use the power he gives us.

You are exhorted by the Scriptures to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.’’ The ‘‘crown of life" lies at the end of the Christian race. When we step over the boundary between time and eternity our salvation is then eternally secured. Praises be to God! It is for this crown of amnaranthine glory, or blessed eternal salvation, that we are to watch and labor with fear and trembling. 0 may you be very careful! Be watchful, lest something should hinder you in your Christian race, and you miss at last the blessedness of heaven. Guard the affections of your heart with the strictest vigilance.

I say, again, that God will always give us power to will, if we would but make use of that power. For proof of this I shall refer you to Phil. 2:13, which in our common version is rendered thus: "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." The meaning of this text is not so readily comprehended by this version as it is by some others. By Conybeare and Howson it is translated in these words: "It is God who works in you both will and deed." Upon examination of the different translations we find the meaning of this text to be this: ‘‘It is God that gives us power to will and to do his good pleasure." In the verse preceding this one the apostle tells us to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling," and then he adds for our encouragement, "God will work in you the power to will and to do that which will secure your eternal salvation." Never say, "I can’t."

Here is something which will prove very valuable to you in your Christian life if you can oniy get to fully comprehend it: You can do nothing; your will is powerless without God and his grace, and God can do nothing in you without the consent of your will. God does everything, and we do everything: we are to purify our hearts, and yet it is God who purifies our hearts; we are to make us a new heart, and yet it is God who gives us a new heart; we are commanded to work out our salvation, and God gives us power to do it. God furnishes the power; we are to do. Do not think that God will act for you. He will give you power to act, but he will not do the act for you. Do not, therefore, say, "I can’t." You can do "all things "through Christ, who strengthens you. You can serve God in a way acceptable to him; you can keep your mind stayed on him; you can pray; you can resist the devil and temptation and be an overcomer; you can endure unto the end---you can do "all things" by the grace and power of God, and he will always give you power to do his pleasure. Do not serve and praise God only when he gives you blessings and joy, but serve him and praise him when the way is dark. Have a fixed decision of the will to serve God no matter what the feelings may be. Be thankful to God for the will-power he has given you, and use it manfully, nobly in his service. Do not cower and tremble before temptation. You are to "fear and tremble" before God, but never before trials, temptations, sin, nor the devil. God will cause you to triumph by giving you power to will. Be steadfast, be faithful, fix your will unswervingly to serve God, and in due season you shall reap if you faint not.

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