A Chance To Hear
A Choice To Make
Gtcotr/ss090703
If you wish to get a jump on finding our main text for today, you may want to Turn In Your Bibles To The Place Between The OT & NT and hold your finger there.
As I understand it:
The Bible Identifies People In Three Basic Categories
The Righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21 - 1 John 1:9)
The Unrighteous (1 Corinthians 6:9 The u. shall not inherit)
The Wicked (Matthew 13:49 sever the w. from the just)
It seems more than the other two groups, (the lukewarm group):
The Unrighteous Are Given (Often The Target Of The Holy Spirit)
A Chance To Hear
A Choice To Make
If You Are Not Right With God Today
This Is Your Chance To Hear
Each Day Hereafter Will Be
Your Choice To Make
One Day The Choices You Made In Life Will Be Your Eternal Testimony
Each Person Writes Their Future By The Daily Decisions They Make
Choosing Not To Choose When You Know God’s Choice, Is Sin.
James 4:17
Checking The Foundation Of The House
Our Current Series Has Been The Study Of:
Prayer
“One of the most enlightening studies in my Christian experience.”
“I was comfortable with my prayer and after the first lesson, I was a bit upset. Afterward I realized I was wrong. Thank you for taking the risk and opening my eyes to the truth.”
“At first I told someone, ‘what difference does this make?’ Then I began to study the scriptures for myself and now I realize that it makes all the difference in the world … keep these messages coming.”
“I have made significant changes in my prayer life. I now pray with confidence that my prayers are being heard and considered in heaven by God Himself.”
“… this is the Word of God, why haven’t we heard it before?”
Candid, honest, open-hearted, open-eyed look into the scriptures on prayer.
Set aside our preconceived ideas.
Set aside our denominational prejudices.
Set aside our favorite repetitions.
Simply taking a fresh look at the Holy Scriptures on Prayer
This Wednesday evening I hope to conclude this series on prayer, as we must move on and complete the inspection of our foundation within the time frame we have been allotted. Get the series on tape.
Today however, we need to turn over another foundation stone of the church and check it for cracks.
Have your place? Please turn back a couple of pages in your bibles to
The Book of Malachi, Chapter 3
Checking For Cracks In The Foundation
(NKJV)
I. Malachi 3
1 Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming, says the Lord of host.
2 But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap.
3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold an silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.
4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the Lord, as in the days of old, as in the former years.
5 And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien - because they do not fear Me, says the Lord of hosts.
6 For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
7 Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you said, In what way shall we return?
8 Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, In what way have we robbed You? In tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord of hosts;
12 And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts.
13 Your words have been harsh against Me, says the Lord, yet you say, what have we spoken against you?
14 You have said it is useless to serve God; What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts.
15 So now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free.
16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name.
17 They shall be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
18 Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.
A. God’s Word Reveals A Pattern & Principle
1. God Makes Indictments
2. People Deny Them & Demand Proof
B. Three Indictments & Three Denials
1. V.7 “You have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you.”
* “In what way shall we return to You?”
> Return is the key term given through the prophets for:
^ Repentance - Renewal - Restoration
Note: This past Sunday we learned the difference between forgiveness and restoration.
Forgiveness depends on what Jesus did
Restoration often depends on what we do
* A humble attitude (1 Peter 5:5 graces humble - resist proud)
* A sincere attempt at restitution
~ I am sorry. I was wrong.
~ I will not do that again.
~ What can I do to make it right.
This past Wednesday night I did not get to several points …
Many people live as if God was deaf, blind & stupid.
God said they had strayed and needed to return - “In what way?”
Point #210 Just trust me, When God says you are wrong, you are wrong.
Point #184 (variation) Something wrong cannot be made right simply by a lapse of time or a period of silence.
Acting like it ain’t so won’t fix it or make it go away.
2. V.13 “Your words are harsh against Me,” says the Lord, Yet you say, “What have we spoken against You?”
V.14
> “It’s useless to serve God.” (there is no profit in it)
^ The proud are blessed
^ The wicked are promoted
^ Those living on the edge are never corrected
~ God says … don’t you know … It’s not over yet!
Where do you want to be when I decide to lower the boom?
3. V.8 “You have robbed Me!” But you say, “In what way have we robbed You?”
“That’s just crazy!” (deaf, blind, stupid & crazy!)
He must think the universe revolves around Him.
~ “In tithes and offerings.”
II. This Coming Sunday, September 14th, The Lord Willing
A. We will continue checking the foundation of the house &
B. We will begin a series on Tithes and Offerings
1. We will be given A Chance To Hear
2. We will be given A Choice To Make
C. When the Lord judges your time on earth
1. Will you stand with the righteous in your stewardship
2. Sit with the unrighteous stewards (Matthew 25)
3. Or be cast out with the wicked & unprofitable servants
III. Today
A. Have You Strayed From God’s Ordinances?
B. Have You Spoken Harshly About God?
C. Have You Robbed God?
Good News For Today
Malachi 3:7b Return To Him & He Will Return To You!
