When God asks

Our bosses ask us to do a lot don’t they?  They have long hours for us to work.  They ask us to sacrifice for the company.  They have a lot of demands they make on our lives.  Where I used to work the employees couldn’t get more than a half hour away from the office, in case there was an emergency and they had to get back.  They were okay with that.  They couldn’t do things with their families or anything.  It was all about work. 

People don’t really have a problem with working too much.  It’s kind of a bragging right.  “I’m so valuable that I can’t be away from the company for a few hours.”  I think it is interesting what people are willing to do for their jobs.  But the question I want to look at today is this:  What about when God asks?

Let me ask another question, “Why did God save you?”  Did God have a plan and a purpose for your life?  Was His only purpose so that you could get into heaven?  I think it ws something much more powerful than that.  I don’t think God saved you just so you could be blessed.  So, what do you think God intends for you?

Today I want to post about what it means to serve God from this portion of scripture:

Genesis 22:1-13 (NKJV)
^22:1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." ² Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." ³ So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. ⁴ Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. ⁵ And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you." ⁶ So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. ⁷ But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." Then he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" ⁸ And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together. ⁹ Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. ¹⁰ And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" So he said, "Here I am." ¹² And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." ¹³ Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.

Living Out the Will of God

Abraham is an interesting character.  He comes out of a pagan city. He grew up in a place where they worshipped the Sumerian moon god.  The zigurrat of Ur was built for that purpose; but when God speaks to him, calls him to follow Him Abraham recognizes God’s voice and responds to the call.

At the time God speaks to Abraham he is in Haran with his father and his family.

Genesis 12:1 (NKJV)
^12:1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you.

Leave your father’s house and follow me to a land I will show you.  His father terh had left Ur and traveled as far as Haran.  There are some commentators who belive that Terah was he first one called by God but that Terah had stopped short, so Abraham was called out of his father’s house.

God was looking for someone that would follow Him all the way.  God called Abraham and there was a promise attached to that calling but first he was going to have to sacrifice and leave the comfort of his family. 

I think this is a big difficulty for many people, especially im Taiwan.  Respect for elders and family leaders is a huge part of the culture.  People are afraid to leave traditional family religious beliefs to embrace Jesus.

Salvation is a rare gift.

Matthew 7:14 (NKJV)
^7:14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

This tells me there is some difficulty to serving God.  We’re going to have to make some sacrifice to find Eternal Life.  Abraham was called out of his father’s house.  God was calling him to make a break with family in order to follow Him. 

I don’t want you to think that we have to divorce ourselves from our family to be a Christian.  We don’t have to cut them out of our lives.  But we have to face facts that not everyone in our family is going to support our choices.  I still have a relationship with my family.  Not all of them agree with what I’m doing, but I’m doing it anyway.  I’ve left my father’s house to pursue God’s calling on my life.  God’s calling on my life is God’s will for my life.

There is a promise attached to God’s will.  Look at Abraham’s life:  God has promised him something. 

Genesis 12:2-3 (NKJV)
^12:2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

God has made him a promise but that promise is conditional on Abraham living out God’s will for his life.  if you want to see God’s promise you have to live out God’s will But what if God asks for something difficult.

Putting it on the Altar

I want to give a little background to our text.  God made this promise to Abraham to build a great nation Through his descendents.  When God made this promise Abraham was 75 yrs old and had no children.  He waited 25 years before Isaac was born.  He wasn’t going to have any more children.  Isaac was it, but then God calls to him to sacrifice this child, the beginning of the fulfillment of promise.  Abraham had to make a hard choice.  He had to be willing to sacrifice his only child and believe God for the promise.  God is asking for the hard things here isn’t He?

Every promise in the Bible is conditional.  Each one of them starts out with if.  IF you ask you will receive.  IF you give I will give back.  IF you believe you will have eternal life.  IF my people will pray I will heal their nation.  If we want the promise, sometime we have to do the things God wants and sometimes, God asks for difficult things. 

Think about Abraham, here.  He waited twenty-five years for Isaac’s birth.  Isaac is the beginning of the promise.

 Genesis 21:12 (NKJV)
^21:12 But God said to Abraham, "Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called.

Our text gives us some insight into how strongly Abraham felt about Isaac in verse 2.

Genesis 22:2"Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."

This is his only son, whom he loves.  So God is asking the difficult thing here. God will ask you for difficult things as well.  He wants to know whter you will give those difficult things.  That’s what He’s doing with Abraham, in our text.  He’s looking to see if Abraham will sacrifice what he loves most.  Look at what the Angel of the Lord says in verse 12:

Genesis 22:12And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."

“Now that I know you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”   Why would we think that, even though God tested Abraham, He wouldn’t test us?

It’s true isn’t it; we don’t think that God would make demands on us.  In fact, how often when we have to make hard choices do we think it’s the devil?  That lying devil, God blesses, he wouldn’t want me to give up a lucrative job to pioneer a church.  He wouldn’t expect me to make sacrifices to do His will.  His promises are unconditional.  Ask Abraham if that’s true.  After this, do you think Abraham thought the promises of God are unconditional?  Even salvation carries conditions.

John 3:16 (NKJV)
^3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

IF we believe in Jesus we will have Eternal Life.

Acts 2:37-38 (NKJV)
^2:37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" ³⁸ Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

If we want salvation what must we do?  Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins.  There are conditions on all of God’s promises and God will see that the conditions are met before the promises will come in.

Another thing that's found in this is that God will require something of you.  God will require a difficult choice on your part.  The point I’m making here is that if you’re serious about serving God, God will require something of you.  God is going to test you.  God is going to see what kind of commitment you have to serving Him.  He’s going to test to see where His will fits into your life. 

Where does His will fit into your life?  Is He your first priority or are you coasting through your salvation?  “Well, I’m not doing drugs or cheating on my wife.  I’m not a serial killer.  I go to church, pretty often.  I went to Bible Study a few times.”  All these things are good.  I’m glad you’re not a serial killer. But you know what?  A lot of good Buddhists are living that way, too.

I think I’ve used this illustration before but it’s a good illustration.  Say you’re at dinner in a nice restaurant and the waiter comes up and introduces himself and takes your order.  Then a while later he comes and sits down at the table and says, “I quit drugs so I could sit here with you tonight.”  What’s your reaction going to be?  I’m going to probably say, “Hey that’s great…Where’s my food?”  I want the waiter to serve me.  He’s not serving if all he did was give up drugs.  That’s great, it’s a good thing but it isn’t serving me.

In the beginning I asked, “Why did God save you?”  He didn’t save you so you could come to church, sometimes.  He didn’t save you just so you could go to Heaven.  He didn’t save you just to forgive you of your sin.  All those things happen.  All those things are the promises of salvation, but He didn’t save you so He could give you the promises.  He save you for His purposes, not your.  So think about it for a moment, if you can’t even come to church regularly how well are you going to do when God asks you to sacrifice Isaac?  Whatever Isaac is in your life.  How are you going to answer when God asks whose first in your life? 

Isn’t it amazing that Abraham didn’t even flinch when God said, “Take your son whom you love and sacrifice him.”  Abraham didn’t say, “You lying devil.”  Look at what our text says:

Genesis 22:3So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him

He just went and did it.  He showed God who was first in his life.  he knew what the promise was but he said, “I’ve got to do what God says.”  What would you do in the same circumstance. 

Think about your life, what is that thing that would be hardest to give God.  What would you do if God asked for that?

It Takes Faith to Serve God

"God reserves the very best for those who leave the choice with Him."    Andrew Murray

What is God testing in Abraham?  He’s testing his faith.  It takes faith for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac because he knows te promise centers on Isaac, but he knows that God can deliver on the promise even if he has to resurrect him. 

We see the same thing in other places in the Bible.  Job loses everything but God restores it all.  Abraham goes to sacrifice Isaac but God stops him and gives him a sacrifice in Isaac’s place.  Abraham was prepared to give God what God asked for. 

How’s your faith?  It takes faith to serve God. You have to believe that God will deliver on the promise.  There’s a moment in the Bible that I believe can speak to our faith.  A man comes to Jesus with a son who’s demon possessed.  He took the child to the disciples who couldn’t cast it out.  Jesus immediately rebukes the disciples for their lack of faith but then look what happens:

Mark 9:23-24 (NKJV)
²³ Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." ²⁴ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

That should be every Christian’s prayer. Because we all have faith if we didn’t we wouldn’t be Christians.  We believe, but we struggle when things get difficult.  We need faith when things get hrard.  “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.” 

How many of you really want to be in the will of God?  If so, you really need to be willing to make sacrifices like Abraham’s sacrifice.  You need to have faith to follow God wherever He calls.  You need to have faith to give to God what He requires.  Then God will be able to meet the promises he has for you.   before Abraham ever saw the peomise God tested his faith…and He will test yours.

A Partnership for Deliverance

Today’s post is something that’s a theme for me as a pastor.  I see my job as a shepherd.  The job of a shepherd is to get the sheep from one place to another.  The job for every pastor is to get his congregation from earth to heaven.  But there are some difficulties and they are that 1) there must be a change that takes place in you, in order for you to get from here to there and 2) that change has to be lasting and permanent.  You have to grow spiritually.  What is growth, it’s overcoming your flesh.  In other words there should be a greater distance between you and the sin you struggled with before.

I was sharing some of what I was going to write with someone and they said, “You have to show them how to change.”  This person was recommending that I deal with specific sin that I see in people’s lives.

I can easily do that, but to me, I think that you probably already know that some of the activities you’re involved are sin and that you know what they are.  You know when you’re sinning.  But if you don’t let me offer this:

If you’re smoking, stop it.  Smoking is sin.  If you’re getting drunk, stop it.  If you’re fornicating, fornicating is sin.  What is fornicating?  It’s sexual intercourse without being married to the person.  If you’re stealing, or you’re selfish, or you’re gambling or you’re cheating, all of these things are sin.  If you’re doing any of them or all of them you need to stop.

But I wonder if that’s helpful.  Because most Christians already understand those things are sin and I believe most Christians are sincere about their salvation.  So, I’m offering this post today as help for you; as one way to find deliverance.  Deliverance, in a purely practical sense, means that God helps you to quit the sin that plagues.  The sin that plagues you is the sin you can’t seem to kick.  I think this is the bigger problem, you know that what you’re doing is sin, but you’re not sure how to get past it.  There are some things that will help you to find deliverance and today I’m going to highlight those things for you.

Romans 8:5-11 (NKJV)
^8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. ⁷ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. ⁸ So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. ⁹ But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. ¹⁰ And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

You Have a Place in the Move of God

We like to think that when we’re dealing with God that God does things for us.  But in reality God does things through the decisions we make.  He doesn’t pull out a magic wand and just “poof”  our problems and addictions away.  He works through the decisions we make to empower us to change.  If God just changed us without our involvement we wouldn’t need the exhortation of the Bible.  We would just pray a prayer and our sinful nature would automatically just disappear.  If we are honest with ourselves we realize that none of us have stopped thinking about sin completely.

Why didn’t God take away your sinful nature?  Why is it there that are still sins that you can’t shake?  It’s because God doesn’t work like that.  If He did Adam and Eve would never have sinned in the Garden of Eden.  If He did then we wouldn’t ever struggle with sin after we got saved. We do struggle, though, some more than others.  How do I know that?  I know that because I know that I sometimes struggle, too.

So the question becomes, “How can I ever find deliverance?”  First, you will never be completely free from sin this side of Heaven.  The default position for us is to live in our flesh.  We’re carnal beings, carnal means, of meat or flesh.  In other words we have appetites that relate to making ourselves feel good.  We all want to feel good.   The Bible calls it the “pleasures of sin for a season.”  Why drink?  It feels good; it temporarily makes us forget our problems.  Why fornicate?  It feels good; we feel what feels like love.  That’s why we sin because it makes us feel good and we all want to feel good.

I’m sure if you examine whatever sin you are involved in you will see that in some way it makes you feel good and because of that it’s difficult to escape sin.  It goes against our nature.  There is good news, though, and that is that sin can be overcome.  We just have to take action to make it happen.

Romans 6:6 (NKJV)
^6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

So, there it is, we have to crucify the old man.  All that really means is that we put the will of God before our appetites or as our text puts it, be those, “who live according to the spirit.”  Be spiritually minded rather than carnally minded.  If the default position is to be carnally minded, then how do we overcome to be spiritually minded?  We have to make a decision to overcome the flesh and then take the actions necessary to make it happen.  Our desire to live in our flesh is relentless, it’s like a flood, it just comes no matter what.  The Bible tells us the enemy also comes in like a flood.

Isaiah 59:19 (NKJV)
^59:19 So shall they fear The name of the Lord from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

He comes in like a flood; he’s relentless in his temptations.  God will lift a banner against him.  Do you know what a banner was used for?  A banner was a call to the battle.  It showed the place where the battle was taking place.  God raises the banner but we have to fight the battle.

The devil relentlessly drives us to live in the flesh.  He doesn’t force sin on us he only appeals to that appetite to feel good.  We call it temptation and it’s relentless.  Everywhere we look we see something that is appealing to that desire to feel good.  The only way to overcome sin in your life is to stop the flood of temptation.

Deliverance 101:  Damming the Flood

If this were a college course today we would call it "Deliverance 101:  Damming up the Flood."  Let me start with an illustration:

Say that you live near the beach.  Your House is right on the beach, and every night the tide comes in and destroys it.  You build it as strong as you know how, but every time the tide comes in; it comes in like a flood and destroys your house.  So you decide to build a brick wall to keep the ocean out. 

A wall will keep the water out.  A wall will protect your home from the flood.  So, how you build the wall will depend on how valuable your home is to you.  If you don’t care too much you will just do what’s easy and hope for the best.  If your home is valuable to you, you will do whatever it takes to protect it.  So, how valuable is your home?

Let’s go back to our illustration:  You start to lay the bricks and at first you are very careful to put the bricks in.  But the work is hard and the bricks are heavy, and it stops being fun to think about how well your house will be protected.  So you skip a brick here and there. 

This is how a person who doesn’t place a lot of value of their home will build the wall.  He’s done what’s easy.  He didn’t invest too much into the protection of his home.  There are people in church who think that way about their salvation.  They think, “I’m getting enough of the word of God at one service a week.” They think, “I don’t need to read my Bible.  I don’t really need to pray that much.  I can be late every service and miss out on worship.  I can just attend church once a week…mostly…and it’ll be all right; but do you know what you’re really doing.  You’re leaving bricks put of your wall and every time you leave out a brick it leaves a hole in the wall that the tide can come through.   If you leave out too many bricks when the tide comes in your wall won’t stop it from destroying your home again.  If the wall has too many holes it’s worthless as a protection against the flood. 

Those things I mentioned, church, Bible, praying, worship, those are opportunities to enter into the presence of God.  Every time we’re in the presence of God we strengthen our faith and our resolve to live for Him.  Every time we’re in the presence of God we add another brick in the wall.  If we build a good strong wall, we’ll keep out the flood.  Living in the Spirit is really just living for Jesus.

Secondly, we will never overcome sin through willpower.  We can’t say, “I’m not going to sin,” and keep sin from happening.  Say, for example your sin is drinking.  You can’t keep yourself from drinking just by saying, “I’m not going to drink.  I’m not going to drink.  I’m not going to drink.”  Ask any sobriety counselor.  They will tell you you’re always a recovering alcoholic not an ex-drunk.  Let me illustrate a truth for you.

Don’t think about a pink elephant.  Don’t think about its big floppy ears.  Don’t think about the little purple flowers printed across its back.  Don’t think of the big trunk with all its wrinkles.  Don’t think about it!  What were you thinking about?  You were thinking about a pink elephant.

If you’re using willpower to stop drinking and you say, “I’m not going to drink.”  What are you thinking about?  The answer is obviously drinking.  Now, think about a green giraffe.  Look at the long neck.  Look at how it reaches into the trees to eat leaves.  Look at how it wiggles its ears, the way it chews slowly.  What are you thinking about now?  You’re not thinking about a Pink Elephant.

If we concentrate on not sinning what we’re really concentrating on is the sin.  But if we turn our thoughts toward Jesus and we concentrate on Him we’re not thinking about the sin.  So, how do we focus our thoughts on Jesus?  At church we preach about Him.  In our Bibles we read about Him.  When we pray, we have direct access and conversation with Him.  The more we concentrate on Him the less we think about the sin and how good it feels.

Third, what we receive from our salvation is in direct proportion to what we put into it.  If we put forth a lot of effort we will have a large return. It’s like bank interest.  The bank used to actually give interest that amounted to something.  They don’t anymore, well; they still give interest it just doesn’t amount to much anymore. Your interest was given based on what you put in the bank.  If you wanted more interest you had to deposit more money.  The same is true of Christianity:  if you want more from God you have to put more into receiving from Him. 

We expect God to do for us.  Some of you look at God as someone who exists to meet your needs.  However, what you receive from God in terms of deliverance is in direct proportion to what you do to overcome.

I had a friend who was a heavy smoker.  He smoked more than one pack of cigarettes a day.  He always said, “God is going to deliver me one day,” but do you know what happened?  He died of Lung Cancer.  He expected God to “poof” away the sin, so he never took the step to get rid of his cigarettes.  He never stopped smoking.  He never threw them away and took the steps to build a wall against it.  Had he done those things God could have delivered him. 

If we want deliverance we have to take the steps to get it.  We have to make sure that we keep the holes out of our wall of protection.  We have to learn to focus our minds on Jesus and his plan for our lives, and we have to be willing to take the steps to receive deliverance.  Deliverance is a partnership with God

Deliverance is a Partnership with God

I hear people say, sometimes, “I don’t need to go to church to be a Christian.”  There’s no rule in the Bible that says, “You will attend church!!!” but did you know that Jesus attended church, regularly? 

Luke 4:16 (NKJV)
^4:16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.

That verse right there tells us that Jesus regularly attended synagogue.  He went to church.  If you are a follower of Christ, that’s what Christian means, are you following Him to church?  Another illustration:

Diets have directions.  They tell you that you can and can’t eat certain foods:  That you have to eat certain amounts and quantities of certain things.  If you follow the instructions you will have success in your diet.  But what if you change the instructions and don’t follow the diet and basically do whatever you want?   Will you lose weight?  Maybe, but it will only be by accident, not because you followed the diet.

There are guidelines to help you find deliverance, but you have to follow them.  I’ve heard the Bible called “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.”  The Bible has instructions that will help you to live out your salvation successfully, In other words to make it to heaven, but you need to read the instructions. 

There are a lot of people these days that are struggling with doubt and confusion.  The problem is that you’re not following the directions.  For example, in our church, I never know if people are coming or not.  I’m usually worried in the moments before Church starts because the place is empty.  Someone who wants to protect their home, because they see it as valuable is going to be there to make sure they get all the bricks they need.

Worship service is a part of the service.  It helps to prepare you to receive the word of God, but some don’t give it any importance and that’s a mistake.  Worship will help you to focus on Jesus and take your mind off the sin. 

Sin is oppression.  It’s a hardship.  Serving God is a blessing.  I have to be honest, as a pastor, I’m concerned, because I see some people beginning to struggle and doubt.  I’m seeing them have less and less interest in their salvation.  I’m seeing them leave more and more bricks out of their walls and I know the outcome of that.

There is a guy who spent four years in my church.  Over the years he gradually started coming less and less.  First, it was a couple of weeks a month.  Then he would come one month on and one month off.  Then he missed five months in a row.  I tried to talk to him about it and he got offended and now he says he won’t come back.  You know that is?  That’s a guy whose wall couldn’t hold back the flood.  In every church there are others who are going in that same direction.  It won’t help for them to get mad at their pastor for telling them the truth.  It will help for them to seek the power of Jesus to change your life and deliver you from sin.  Deliverance comes through Jesus Christ.  It’s about resurrection power.  We’re dead in sin but raised to eternal life through Jesus.  It’s a partnership with God…You have your role to play.

Intercessory Prayer

Sometimes, it seems that things are out of our hands.  We have a kind of fatalistic attitude about things, don’t we?  Tell me if you’ve ever heard this, “Well it’s up to God, now.”  As if we can’t change anything.  As if the circumstances we live in are unaltered through any action of our own.  Often, when people come to me as their pastor, with some issue that requires a move of God, my advice is always to pray.

But sometimes, I wonder if people hear me on that or if they think, “Well he’s the pastor that’s what he’s supposed to say.”  I wonder sometimes how many do pray. Do you pray on your own or just when you’re at church?

Prayer can be effective.  Prayer works.  In our services we take prayer requests, so that people can pray for the needs of others.  I wonder though how many when they leave church remember and pray for the needs that were spoken in the prayer requests.  Do you intercede for those needs at other times?  We need to be intercessors for the needs of other people, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ.   Your prayer can affect the lives of other people. 

There are a number of instances in the Bible where the prayer of one person, for another, was answered by God and the outcome was changed.  Today, I want to write about intercession.

  

James 5:16-18 (NKJV)
^5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. ¹⁷ Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. ¹⁸ And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

Genesis 19:27-29 (NKJV)
^19:27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. ²⁸ Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. ²⁹ And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.

Determining the Direction of God

This story of Abraham is a familiar story for most of us.  The Angel of the Lord appears to Abraham and let’s Abraham know that they are on the way to destroy Sodom.  Abraham begins to question Him. 

“If there are fifty righteous men will you destroy the city?”

“If there are forty righteous will you destroy it?”

“What about thirty, or twenty, or ten,” and so on.

And God tells him that He won’t destroy the city if ten righteous men are found there.  There are a couple of things Abraham is doing, here.  The first thing he’s trying to do is to understand God’s intentions.  What is God trying to do?  He’s trying to determine what God’s plan is with respect to the people of Sodom.  He knows that God is going to overthrow the city, but he’s trying to understand what it means and what God is intending to by that action. 

I think this is the first step whenever we pray about a problem in life.  God what are you trying to do with this action, or this trial, or this tribulation.  What is your intention with it?  It’s important to know God’s plan to understand what you are praying for. 

Think about it like this:  What if God is trying to teach us something, or trying to help us learn a truth about life, or show us something about the way we’re living and the consequences of that lifestyle.  In other words, what if God is trying to help us.  Then we don’t want to pray, “Oh God, make it stop” because then all we’re doing is short-circuiting what God is trying to do.  If you’re praying like that and not understanding God’s purpose, you might even be making it worse, at the very least, you’re not hearing what God is trying to speak into your life.   It’s important to try and figure out God’s intentions.

In our text Abraham has heard what God is going to do but he’s trying to understand what God’s intention is.

“Are you going to destroy everyone?  What about those who are faithful, are you going to destroy them, too? Is there any room for change here God?  Are you trying to educate them or are you judging them?”

When you ask me to pray, I don’t always pray for what they think they asked me to pray.  Somebody asked me to pray for her recently for wisdom to make good decisions.  But I didn’t see that person’s problem as a lack of wisdom.  I know that person is pretty smart.  They were smart enough to realize that God could help them.  That’s wisdom, right?  So they don’t need more wisdom, what they need is confidence and a feeling of security, so that’s what I pray for them.

I don’t pray for God to make someone more faithful.  I pray that God will help them to make a decision to be more faithful. I don’t pray, “Oh God make this man more faithful.”  I pray, “Oh God, help this man to make the decision to be a faithful man.”

That’s interceding based on knowledge of God’s intentions.  In the first example the person might not be struggling, because they’re not smart enough.  They might be struggling because God is trying to get them to trust their decisions and do something and do something rather than hesitating or being afraid to ask for advice and help.  I’m looking for God’s intentions and trying to help with that by interceding for God’s real purpose for their lives. 

I have a friend that’s always praying that God will take him from the earth.  He claims that he wants to die because he’s tired of struggling, but I refuse to pray that.  I will rpay that God will open his understanding to God’s purpose for him:  That he will see God’s purpose in his struggles and change in the way that God is trying to change him; that’s something worth praying.   When we intercede for someone we want to pray for what is really in his or her best interest not just for what they want.

Sometimes people will pray for something and the thing they’re praying for is in opposition to God’s will. I want you to know that God isn’t going to go against His own will just to give it to us, we’re just going to keep struggling and hurting until we begin to pray for God’s will and not our own. 

Intercession

So, what is intercession; what does it mean to intercede? 

“Petitions, entreaties and thanksgivings made on behalf of another. Intercession also involves the act of standing between the object of prayer and spiritual forces. In the case of God, the positioning is taken in order to submit requests; in the case of the devil, it is to deflect his attacks.” –George Otis, Jr.  Twilight Labyrinth, 1995, Revell

In other words it means to come to God with a request for someone else.  When I pray for people’s needs I am coming to God on their behalf.  In addition, it means to get between the person and the spiritual fore that are acting on them.  Confusing? 

In our text Abraham has placed himself between God and the righteous men of Sodom.  He’s saying, “Wait God are you going to kill these that don’t deserve judgment along with the those that do?”  He’s standing between them.  He’s looking for God to answer that question.  He’s the thing between God and those righteous men; that’s intercession.  “You’re righteous and you can’t kill the blameless for the sins of others.  It isn’t right.”

In the book of Esther, we see another intercession of this type.  Haman, the king’s right hand man, has decided that because he hates Mordecai that he’s going to have all the Jews in the kingdom killed. The queen, Esther, is a Jew and her uncle, Mordecai, comes to her and says, “Go to the king and stop him.”  This is difficult for Esther, because going to the king without being called is a death sentence.  The king, on a whim, can have you killed just for showing up uninvited.  So Esther hesitates and then makes a decision to go to the king.  Look at her thinking:

Esther 4:16 (NKJV)
^4:16 "Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!"

She intercedes for the Jews.  She cries out to God for help and courage and then she goes and places herself between the king and the Jews saying, “If I perish, I perish.” This is intercession the Jews will be killed if she does nothing. 

I want you to know that as Christians we face that for people.  People who are unsaved, who are living in their sin are perishing, just as surely as the Jews would have died, if not for Esther.  If we look around our city, how many people are Christians?  How many are living the will of God.  What will happen to those who die, without Jesus?

You know the answer to that question.  So what do we do?  Do we do nothing?  Do we pray to God and hope that God answers?  That’s a start, we need God to move supernaturally, and intervene with them.  We also need to take action, though, because we may be the devices of God’s intervention.  Look a this advice that Mordecai gave Esther:

Esther 4:14 (NKJV)
^4:14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

He tells her if she does nothing that God will still bring deliverance for the Jews but she will perish.  That’s a pretty stern warning…if we do nothing we will be judged.  God says this in another lace in the Bible, as well. 

Ezekiel 3:18 (NKJV)
^3:18 When I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.

God is warning Ezekiel, If I give you a warning and you do nothing, then it’s on your head.  You will be held responsible.  I don’t know about you, but to me that’s a pretty heavy responsibility.  Intercession isn’t always easy.  It isn’t always prayer.  It’s putting yourself between people and judgment. Not everyone is eager to hear about their sin.  Not everyone is looking for you to warn them of their impending judgment.  Sometimes people will get angry when you tell them about God; sometimes they get offended.  But it is a measure of your love and concern for them that you are willing to intercede and step between them and hell.

We’re often the last roadblock between them and hell.  Sometimes we have to look at it like Esther, “If I perish, I perish.”  I have to tell you that some people have rejected my friendship because of this.  Some people have cast me out of their presence because of this.  It’s a risk we take. 

Let me ask you a question if you drive past someone’s house late at night and it’s on fire, and you that they are in there sleeping.  This is someone you know and care about, a close friend or a family member.  What will you do?  Will you start pounding on their door trying to wake them up?  Will you try to warn them about the fire?  What kind of a person would just let them die?  We know people who are in a house ablaze.  Are you willing to intercede?

When the World Trade Center was attacked, firemen rushed into the building to rescue people.  343 firemen gave their lives for strangers that day.  Those firemen rescued many people that day, because of their intercession.

God’s Response

In Abraham’s intercession for Sodom look at God’s response:

Abraham is asking God, “What about fifty righteous?”  “What about forty?”  Each time God says, “If there are fifty righteous, I won’t do it.”  “If there are forty righteous…all the way down to ten.”

When they get to Sodom they find only righteous Lot.  So what did God do?  He took Lot out and saved him, and then He destroyed the city. 

God had a purpose for the destruction of Sodom and He didn’t swerve from that purpose but the text says that God remembered Abraham.  He remembered Abraham’s intercession for the righteous and He pulled out the righteous one. 

 2 Peter 2:6-7 (NKJV)
^2:6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; ⁷ and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked

God may not change his purpose in a person’s life but He will remember our intercession on their behalf and act accordingly. 

I think a lot of what we perceive as God not answering our prayer is thatwe don’t understand God’s purpose. 

James 4:3 (NKJV)
^4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

We’re praying, we’re interceding but we’re asking for the wrong things.  God is a God who answers prayer.  “Ask and you shall receive,” that’s a promise.  God answered Abraham’s prayer on behalf of the righteous of Sodom.  God answered Esther’s prayer on behalf of the Jews.  God will answer your prayers on behalf of others if you pray and intercede for them. 

Have you ever heard the saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”?  One of the meanings behind that is that many times we have a good intention, we don’t want to see our families and friends spend an eternity in hell.  But we just don’t take the step to intervene for them.  We don’t risk their anger to warn them.  We don’t get on our knees and pray for intervention in their lives.  We have a good intention but they just march forward into hell because we don’t act.  That’s what it means.

We can intercede on behalf of family and friends who remain unsaved.  Our actions will result in God bringing people to a place of decision.  If we act they may make a decision to respond to the call of God.  They may choose not to, we can’t control whether or not they will, but our prayers and God’s response may be the catalyst to their salvation.

Guest Post: Jason Duran, Riverside, CA

Pastor Jason Duran

Editor's Note:  A While back I sent a email to a number of pastors, in our fellowship asking for guest posts for this blog.  Today I will add the first Guest Post.  Pastor Jason Duran, The Potter's House Christian Fellowship, Riverside, CA:  You can follow him on twitter at @jdtph4646

THIS IS A SPICED UP VERSION OF MY SERMON ON 031712 AS I REMEMBER DELIVERING IT.

I'VE ENTITLED IT "SPEAK INTO MY LIFE" OR "JOSIAH HEARS A HOO".

Sometimes the Word of God comes to us from the most unlikely places. I'm reminded of Abraham when God rebuked him and said "... all that Sarah has said to thee, harken unto her voice", basically, "you should have listened to your wife". Then there's Baalam when his donkey began to give him direction for his life. I'm not sure if I would have bought that either, but then again, I've never been a false prophet in the paid service of a Moabite king.

2 Chronicles 35:(20) After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him.  (21)  But he sent messengers to him, saying, "What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I have not come against you this day, but against the house with which I have war; for God commanded me to make haste. Refrain from meddling with God, who is with me, lest He destroy you."  (22)  Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself so that he might fight with him, and did not heed the words of Necho from the mouth of God. So he came to fight in the Valley of Megiddo.  (23)  And the archers shot King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, "Take me away, for I am severely wounded."  (24)  His servants therefore took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had, and they brought him to Jerusalem. So he died, and was buried in one of the tombs of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.  (25)  Jeremiah also lamented for Josiah. And to this day all the singing men and the singing women speak of Josiah in their lamentations. They made it a custom in Israel; and indeed they are written in the Laments. 

JOSIAH THE REFORMER

In 2 Chronicles 33 we get some background on king Josiah.  Josiah began to rule in Judah under less-than-optimal conditions. His Grandfather Manasseh was a mostly bad King who was an idolater and lead Judah into sin. He repented eventually and tried his hardest to implement changes that favored the worship of the God of His anscestor David. By this time it may have been too late. His sone and successor Amon took over and immediately undid all the Godly progress that his father put into motion. Amon's rule was so wicked that his servants conspired against him and he was assasinated in his own house. After this, the only suitable heir was his 8-year-old son Josiah. At age 16 he starts basically from scratch in purging the idolatry from Judah. His extreme dealings with the nation’s idols are inspiring and can be read in the chapters preceeding our text. It's  another sermon on it's own, but we'll review part of it because it's relevant to today's message.

Josiah starts off in the tradition of his righteous predecessors and obliterates the idolatry of the land.

2Ch 34:4  They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars which were above them he cut down; and the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images he broke in pieces, and made dust of them and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

After tearing down the false gods, it's time to uplift the true God! Josiah starts to repair the temple which is broken down and in damaged. He puts money into it's repair. And in this process they make a powerful discovery.  2Ch 34:14  Now when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD given by Moses.  Hilkiah tells his priestly buddies about the discoveries and passes the book of The Law around to all of them like it’s the latest novel. 2Ch 34:18-19  Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read it before the king. (19)  Thus it happened, when the king heard the words of the Law, that he tore his clothes.

For the first time in his life his is exposed to the sobering, humbling effect of the Word of God. This throws off his groove. He is literally convicted on behalf of himself, his family and the entire nation. This revelation changes everything. Up to this point he's just posturing (tearing down altars and fixing up the temple). Lots of kings had done that and I believe it was almost like a tradition or a political move at this point in history. But God's word will bring a different degree of conviction in his heart.

He sends Shaphan and Hilkiah to Inquire of the Lord ... for what?... for futher revelation and further direction for the kingdom. Then God speaks into his life again, this time through another unexpected source, a female prophetess by the name of Huldah. She proclaims the eventual destruction of Judah but also states ...

2Ch 34: (27) because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you," says the LORD.
(28)  "Surely I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place and its inhabitants." ' " So they brought back word to the king.

The Bible goes on in the begining of Chapter 35 to list the ordinances that Josiah reestablished including the Passover and innumerable sin and peace offerings. Josiah even put the Ark of the Covenant back where it belonged. What a revival! There was worship, giving, prayer, preaching, repentence, prophecy, clothes tearing ... they were having an awesome time.

TRAGEDY STRIKES

I mention all that to bring us here. Our text shows another side of our hero, Josiah, a side of him that ends in tragedy. He makes up his mind to get in the way of a Pharaoh on the war path

Text - (23)  And the archers shot King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, "Take me away, for I am severely wounded." 

(24)  His servants therefore took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had, and they brought him to Jerusalem. So he died, and was buried in one of the tombs of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 

Josiah is fatally impaled by arrows in this failed gambit and is rushed back to Jerusalem in another chariot. In my home town this would be know as "homie ambulance", but that's a different sermon too. This would be like watching your favorite sports hero make it to the championship game just to have him die in a car accident on game day. Imagine having a life-saving surgery and then while driving home you are struck in the neck by a stray bullet that was fired from a gun battle in a bank robbery two blocks away. Today's internet culture may describe this as Josiah's "epic fail". The video would have ended up on YouTube.

The death of this young man sent the whole country into mourning. Verse 25 of our text says this ... (25)  Jeremiah also lamented for Josiah. And to this day all the singing men and the singing women speak of Josiah in their lamentations. They made it a custom in Israel; and indeed they are written in the Laments. Many commentators believe that parts of the book of Jeremiah (eg. Jer 22:10  Weep not for the dead, nor bemoan him; Weep bitterly for him who goes away, For he shall return no more, Nor see his native country.) are written in direct reference to this tragic event. Not everyone agrees, but many feel that the entire book of Lamentations was in response to this. Some feel these reference Zedekiah, the last king before the Babylonian captivity, but nevertheless, according to our text there was a whole custom invented to remember the sorrow. Paul McCartney may have written a song for him "The Ballad of Josiah". There may have been a billboard campaign across the country for "Remember Josiah Day". In the U.S. it would be one of the days we fly the flag at half mast like on September 11th every year.

HEARING FROM GOD

Now lets get to what the sermon is really all about... OUR SUCCESS OR FAILURE AS CHRISTIANS HINGES ON OUR WILLINGNESS TO HEAR FROM GOD. God's word is a good thing. Josiah's downfall was because he did not heed the words of Necho from the mouth of God (text v.22). The pharaoh's declaration and the Holy Spirit's declaration was that these words were from the mouth of God.

First of all, when it comes to God's word, we are lucky that we have it at all. Consider the early days of Samuel. 1Samuel 3:1  Now the boy Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation. The priesthood was supposed to be the communications center for the people to hear from God. But because of sin and greed, the priesthood is disconnected from it's purpose. This Scripture in Samuel speaks of two things...

The word of the LORD -  This can be seen as God's basic, yet eternal truths are not represented or being preached. The bread and butter of the Gospel, His created purpose, our fall into sin, His redemptive covenants ... all these are contained in the Word of The Lord. The scrolls were there, but it wasn't being taught or lived out.

Revelation - Revelation is more specific to the individual. You know God exists and you believe in Him, but beyond that we need to get a revelation from the word of God for what we're going through in 2012. Josiah had both of these at his finger tips. He knew the truths that changed his life from the Law and he also had the prophecy from Huldah the prophetess which was more specific to his life. You'd think that with both of these working for you, you'd never go wrong. The issue is that the Word of God needs to be obeyed after it is heard.

In Josiah's day, the country is riddled with idolatry. Idolatry is more than demons and pagan rituals. I provides a distracting voice. It gives you and I an alternative to obeying God. In this sense, idolatry is a problem for us today. Hollywood and movie makers across the world have set up other gods for us to worry about. We are quicker to model our lives after talkshow hosts and advice gurus rather than the godly men that preach to us. We easily embrace "practical" solutions to life's difficulties rather than be challenged to live by faith. I heard a radio talk program where people call up and ask the host for relationship advice. The host is a psychiatrist and a woman called up asking for help and insight into fixing her marriage. The woman told the host that she was a Christian and the host, also a woman, asked her why she hadn't talked to her minister about it and she said "...I thought you Christians had Jesus or something." Taking secular advice for spiritual issues is something we do easily because it doesn't requre faith and usually just offers us an excuse for our sin.

The word of God is different. Heb 4:12  For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. There's more depth of interaction with the Word of God. It's not just a guide for behavior. It judges motivations. It intrudes on our lives below the surface. This verse in Hebrews says it gets down to the joints and marrow ... that's very personal. So is the idea of soul and spirit, two things we all possess that are extremely individual and unique.

It's great that you are involved in church, but God wants to scrutinize your motivations. The behavior is coincidental, the heart and it's motivations are the real battleground. Josiah was already doing good (his reforms, his idol-crushing, etc.) but something about the reading of the Book of the Law caused him to feel a more personal conviction. After all, he didn't hear the words and then punch the guy next to him. Real Gospel preaching is not what the religous are looking for, they just want hoops to jump through so God will have to let them into Heaven. Don't look for the hoops, let God speak into your life.

THE FATAL MISTAKE

This event strikes me as out of character for Josiah since his initial strength is that he desires to hear from God and goes out of his way to obey His Word. He readily inbibed the words of the Book of the Law, He sent Hilkiah to inquire from God further and even accepted God's word it from the the mouth of a female prophetess (newsflash: Men don't like input from women all the time). But instead of facilitating the plan of God, he ends up hindering it.

Our text says this: (20) After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him.  There's alot here if you care to dig into this historic battle. Try to picture the armies of Pharaoh marching North from Egypt around the Eastern side of Judah up towards the area of Iraq and Iran. Carchemish was located on the Eastern bordrer of the Euphrates river and in order to fight here, Necho would have to cross the Euphrates first. I believe Necho was making good time until Josiah's armies get in his way. This hindered the war effort for the Assyrian and Egyptian armies.

According to our text, he was in a hurry and so was God (Verse (21)  … for God commanded me to make haste. Refrain from meddling with God, who is with me, lest He destroy you."). If he can get to the battle field first and fortify his position, he stands a chance. The Assyrian army is counting on him. they are going to fight against Babylon, the entity that eventually defeats and caries off the Judathites into captivity. One Bible encyclopedia called this battle the "battle that decided the fate of western Asia". The author of Hard Sayings of the Bible writes these words: … not more than three years after his death, in 606 b.c., the Babylonians, whom Josiah seemed to favor, took the first Hebrew captives, including the prophet Daniel and his three friends. In 597 b.c. Ezekiel was taken into exile. Finally the city fell and was burned down, temple included, in 586. As far as we know, God was trying to prevent or stall the upcoming captivity.

DIDN'T YOU GET MY MESSAGE?

What really makes this a tragedy is that it was totally preventable.

(21)  But he sent messengers to him, saying, "What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I have not come against you this day, but against the house with which I have war; for God commanded me to make haste. Refrain from meddling with God, who is with me, lest He destroy you."

Let's consider some reasons we disregard warnings from God.

1. THE MESSENGER

AThe most obvious reason is that the source of the message was a Pharaoh, an Egyptian king who is at best just a secular vessel that God is using. God has at time sused Pagan Kings to enact his will and secular governments to bolster and protect his people. Darius was one of these, so was Pilate, so was Augustine, even Nebuchadnezzer himself. Is it too far of a stretch to think that God's people need outside help to stay in the will of God. Often we hav an antagonistic view of the local police, or our government, or local beaurocracies. I've heard Christians get a speeding ticket or some other citation and then blame the devil.

Sometimes we'll need to take criticism from a supervisor at work or our boss. We might not like what we hear but it may be from God. Obviously there's a balance to this but there's going to require an abnormal degree of humility from us to hear from God. At the time I responded to the call to preach and pioneer a church in Pomona, California, I had a boss named Jim. I was only in a middle management position but I know that me stepping down and eventually transfering to another city would hurt him and what he was trying to do. I made up my mind to try and balance this job and my new endeavor but it was draining me. At one point I was questioning if leaving this job for another was the will of God, or maybe I wasn’t called to preach after all. But one day he spoke into my life. In his own cussing ogre kind of way and told me "Don't sweat it, man, you were born for preachin’!" There went that excuse! That little conversation thrust me into the will of God for keeps and those words today have powerful impact in my life… and Jim was NOT a Christian. I drove out of that parking lot in May of 2005 and my secular career has never recovered but my spiritual vocation has never been in better shape.

Consider Romans 13: (1)  Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. (2)  Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. (3)  For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. (4)  For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

I guarantee you that the same reason you hate those verses is probably the same reason that Josiah brushed off God’s warning. I believe that when Authorities stop judging evil and rewarding righteousness, they lose their heavenly mandate. When they persecute God's people and try to wipe His testimony out of history, God's not going to use them to speak to you anyway.

For a minute, consider Eli again, the mentor of Samuel, when he says in 1Sa 3:17-18, "What is the word that the LORD spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that He said to you." (18)  Then Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him. And he said, "It is the LORD. Let Him do what seems good to Him." Despite all of his faults, Eli is able to accept a scathing rebuke and a condemning prophecy from a preteen Samuel

2. THE DISOBEDIENT WILL

(22)  Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself so that he might fight with him, and did not heed the words of Necho from the mouth of God. So he came to fight in the Valley of Megiddo. 

This is kind of wierd. He disguises himself. But who is he trying to fool? Is God going to look at him and say, "Well, I don't recognize that guy, who's that?" I don’t think it’s really relevant exactly why, what is important is to what lengths he’ll go to do what he wants to do. We are really are just a strong, disobedient will wrapped up on human flesh. I’ve learned one thing from my 7 years in the ministry: people will do what they want to do no matter if it’s God standing in their way or not. If God had sent a message stating “Don’t go into battle because your head will explode”, he still probably would have gone … because he really wanted to fight.

Disguising one’s self in battle was the tactic of that moral pillar King Ahab of Israel. He really wanted to go into battle so he surrounded himself with a bunch of yes-men, advisors and prophets that would just go along with his will. His friend and godly ally King Jehoshaphat suggested that they should first find out what God thought about going into battle. In 1Kings 22:8, So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "There is still one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the LORD; but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." And Jehoshaphat said, "Let not the king say such things!"  So God could speak to them through Micaiah, but Ahab doesn’t want to hear it and he calls God’s word evil. When Michaiah finally does speak to Ahab, he tells him that his army will be a scattered pile of dead bodies after this battle. He disregards that and goes anyway.

Is this a great picture of people in the church that pick what they want to obey and despite what their Pastor preaches, or the warnings from their brethren, they still jump headlong into doomed situations. God told both Ahab and Josiah that it would be bad for their health, both put on disguises and went anyways, both ended up hemorrhaging to death in a chariot.

3. THE LAST DAYS FLOW

Beneath the surface of the ocean there are powerful currents that flow and effect what is happening on the surface. The surfer is trying to ride waves into the shore, but the flow of the undertow is trying to drag him out to sea. I think one more thing we should also consider is that shunning God’s word and just doing what you want is just part of the overall direction in which humanity is flowing in these last days. Consider with me that Josiah is a “last days” king. History is coming to a conclusion for Judah, in a few years they will be carried off in slavery and exile. You and I are “last days” believers. I believe that History is drawing towards a conclusion as the world-wide hive mind is shutting out God’s voice.

Remember the words of Paul:  1Ti 4:1  Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,

In the latter times people will flock to doctrines and teachings that spiritualize their sin, and downplay the truth that God’s Word preaches. Paul also wrote this: 2Ti 4:3-4  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;  (4)  and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

I believe today we live in this time where people will flock to leaders that tell them what they want to hear and numb their consciences as they float away into sin.

As the world flows away from obeying God, there will be people in the church that just jump feet first into that current. But you and I need to make a stand. We must reevaluate and judge our desires, separate our emotions from our will, seek that objective truth from God’s word, seek God’s revelation for our lives. Consider yourself warned.

IF YOU GO, WE ALL GO

Finally, don’t fool yourself by thinking you have a call of God on your life so nothing tragic would ever happen to you. We’ve seen the best fall in this scripture, so we need to learn from that fall and not reenact it.

If you consider God’s promise to Josiah, (2Ch 34: (28)  "Surely I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place and its inhabitants.") it’s logical to conclude that the longer he lives, the longer everyone else has too. God would have stayed true to his word and stayed off the inevitable until Josiah died naturally 40 or 50 years later or, I guess, technically until he went blind.

Who knows what your obedience is holding back? Who can tell if you are a firewall for destruction in your home, your job, your church, your school, your ministry etc.? Other people’s lives are always attached to our decisions. Sin and disobedience are never committed in a vacuum. Their effects ripple outward and affect everyone else around you. So to conclude in modern lingo … Don’t Be That Guy! If you fail, we all end up on YouTube.

Don't Listen to the Depression

Editor's Note:  Thank you to Catherine Shu of the blog "Shu Flies," for her kind permission to use her writing in this post.  While I have encouraged the use and reprinting of my work on this blog as long as it is not used to make a profit for anyone.  (I believe the word of God should remain free.)  I would ask that you respect Catherine's copyright and not use or reprint her work without permission.  Thank you.

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According to suicide.org:

Untreated Depression is the Number One Cause of Suicide

www.suicide.org

I struggled with those feelings for a long time.  My parents came to visit me during my first semester of graduate school.  I started crying during lunch and apologized for being a horrible daughter.

My Dad said, “I know what that is.  That’s the depression talking.  It will say things like that, but you just can’t listen to it.”

I remember feeling surprised that I had the option not to listen.  My anxiety was almost a talisman.  If I fretted about doing poorly in school, I would succeed.  If I worried about something bad happening to the people I loved, I could somehow protect them.

          Catherine Shu, Shu Flies, Dealing With Depression and Living Abroad Part 2

It seems as if there is an epidemic of depression throughout the world today.  I talk to people all the time who complain about depression.  I think this passage from Shu Flies illustrates an interesting point about depression:

"My Dad said, 'I know what that is.  That’s the depression talking.  It will say things like that, but you just can’t listen to it.'”

I’ve lived through major depression.  I’m not talking about that feeling of having “the blues” or feeling kind of sad for a day or two.  I’m talking about the type of depression that demobilizes you: a spiral into hopelessness.  I can tell you, Ms. Shu’s father has it exactly right.  It does speak to you. 

It speaks to you about your worthlessness.  It tells you that you can never be happy.  It tells you that people can never care for you or love you.  It speaks. 

But as a Christian I’ve learned a bit about depression.  Depression is a spirit.  If depression can speak, then it’s a spirit.  Depression is spiritual.  It's a form of demonic influence.  There are others:  Schizophrenia, Paranoia, Bi-polar Disorder, and Depression, they all have the common symptom of hearing voices that speak to you. 

 Today I want to write about the root of depression.  I’ve studied this out.  I think the saddest thing in the world is a Christian; a follower of Jesus who struggles with depression and I want to deal with this from a Christian perspective.  There is a root to depression and I believe it can be overcome.

Matthew 18:21-35 (NKJV)
^18:21 Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" ²² Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. ²³ Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. ²⁵ But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. ²⁶ The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, 'Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' ²⁷ Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. ²⁸ But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, 'Pay me what you owe!' ²⁹ So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' ³⁰ And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. ³¹ So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. ³² Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. ³³ Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?' ³⁴ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. ³⁵ So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses."

Who Speaks

This scripture mentions “the torturers.”  I think this is an interesting choice of words.  Jesus, in this parable, refers to them as torturers or in the King Kames version, they’re called “the tormentors.”  Look at the definition of torture:

1 : anguish of body or mind
2 : the infliction of severe pain especially to punish or coerce
Mirriam-Webster Dictionary

A torturer is one who inflicts torture on others.  So what does Jesus mean when he refers to the torturers?  Look at the book of Job for a moment.

In the first chapter of the book, Job, a blameless and upright man, loses his wealth, his family and his health all in one day.  He loses everything.  We know the story:

Job 1:6-7 (NKJV)
^1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. ⁷ And the Lord said to Satan, "From where do you come?" So Satan answered the Lord and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it."

So God calls the angels and among them comes Satan.  God points out Job to Satan as a blameless and upright man who worships God.  But Satan tells God that Job worships Him because God has protected and blessed Job.  If things went wrong in Job’s life, Job would curse God.  So God allows Satan to attack Job.   Satan takes all of Job’s possessions, kills his servants and his children and afflicts Job with boils.  Does that accurately depict what we have defined as torture?  I would say it is an exact picture of torture.  In addition, look at this scripture for a moment:

Revelation 12:7-9 (NKJV)
^12:7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, ⁸ but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. ⁹ So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

I believe these are the torturers.  It is certainly a strategy of Satan to torment, wear people down and try to turn them away from God.  This is exactly what he was attempting with Job.  He attacked Job in a way that would cause him to turn away from God.

The devil attacks us mainly with lies.  Jesus refers to him as the “father of lies.”  If we look at the Garden of Eden, he deceived Eve through a series of lies.  In those things he lied about God’s character and made Him out to be a liar, “You will not surely die.”  Through that one lie Satan took down the entire human race.  His strategy today is the same.  He continues to attack with lies and attempts to turn us away from God.

He does that by lying to us about our worth and value not only to ourselves, but our worth to God as well.  It is an attempt to turn us away from God by impugning God’s character and desire for relationship with people.  If we know God and his desire for us then we should be joyful.  After all, Joy is the character of salvation.  Our relationship with God should be defined by joy. 

1 Peter 1:7-8 (NKJV)
^1:7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, ⁸ whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

Joy inexpressible; we should be unable to express how joyful we are in Jesus.  If that's true than why do so many Christians suffer with depression?  Why are so many Christians tormented and beaten down by depression?  I believe the answer to that is found in scripture.

Opening the Door to the Torturers

As Christians, God protects us.  He has built a hedge around us.  This was Satan’s complaint about Job.

Job 1:8-10 (NKJV)
^1:8 Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?" ⁹ So Satan answered the Lord and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰ Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

Satan complains that Job only worships God because God has protected and blessed him.  As Christians, that’s something that God does for us as well. That isn’t to say that we don’t have troubles and afflictions, of course we do.  Life is full of trouble and affliction, but God has built a hedge around us to protect us.

The problem is that we open the door to demonic influence on our own.  Through certain actions we pierce the hedge of protection that’s built around us.

Ecclesiastes 10:8 (KJV)
^10:8 He that digs a pit shall fall into it; and whoever breaks a hedge, a serpent shall bite him.

The phrase, “a serpent will bite him,” is interesting.  Who is the serpent of old?  Satan is referred to as the serpent of old.  If we pierce the hedge then we’re in danger of a serpent’s bite. 

We can do things that open the door to demonic influence.  There are a number of things that pierce the hedge.  Involvement in the occult or the paranormal will open that door to demonic influence.  Certain sins like alcohol or drug use, fornication and pornography are all sins that carry a link to demonic influence.  There is one thing that’s more common.  How we deal with hurt and disappointment, especially with regard to other people can open the door to demonic influence.  According to our text unforgivensss can pierce the hedge of protection around us.

Look at what our text is about.  A man comes to settle accounts with his servants.  He is looking to be repaid for loans that he’s made to them.  There is one man who has borrowed a huge sum of many from the master:  An amount that he can never repay.  When the master asks for that repayment, this man begs for more time and the master forgives the debt. 

This same man who has been forgiven this huge debt comes to a man who owes him a small amount and demands payment.  When the man begs for the same mercy the first man received, the Bible tells us that he is sent to prison until the debt is paid.  The first man shows no mercy and refuses to give him more time or to forgive the debt.  It is at this point, because he, the first man, doesn’t forgive that he is sent to the torturers.

So a lack of forgiveness also pierces the hedge of protection.  And opens us up to demonic assault, “A serpent will bite him.” It’s so sad because I’ve met so many people who can’t forgive.  A woman one time came to our church in Riverside who was suffering.  I preached a sermon on forgiveness; simple forgiveness.  This woman was very angry at me, because she said, “I refuse to forgive my father.” 

The interesting thing about forgiveness is that forgiveness is for us.  Our forgiveness does nothing for the other person.  The chances are, they don’t even know you’re suffering, or if they do, they don’t care.  When we forgive we release ourselves from the bondage and torment of unforgiveness.

Hebrews 12:15 (NKJV)
^12:15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

Unforgiveness causes a root of bitterness to spring up in us.  Have you met someone who can’t forgive slights or hurts?  They become bitter and angry about everything.  It really ruins their lives in so many ways.  People lose relationships because of their bitterness.  Who wants to be around a bitter, angry person?  Bitterness is an ugly thing.  Some diseases, specifically arthritis has a root in bitterness.  Bitterness comes from unforgiveness.  People can’t forgive others and it begins to torment them. 

Our text warns us about the consequences of not forgiving those who’ve hurt us.

Matthew 18:35 (NKJV)So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses."

What does this say?  If we won’t forgive then we are also in danger of being delivered to the torturers.  Forgiveness is essential to our salvation. 

Matthew 6:14-15 (NKJV)
^6:14 "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

If we want to be forgiven of our sin, we must first forgive.  We need to forgive those who have mistreated us.  We also need to forgive ourselves.  Sometimes, the ones who we’re hardest on are us.  We have done things that we don’t think can be forgiven. 

I have always found it very sad when someone is looking for the forgiveness and love of Christ, but can’t find it, because they don’t think what they’ve done can be forgiven by God.  People have told me, “God can’t forgive me.”  And I quote scripture to them:  “If we will confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive.” (1 John 1:9)  They always say, “But you don’t know what I’ve done!”  Do you know what they’re really saying?  How can God forgive me when I can’t forgive myself? 

How much self-inflicted torment do we accept when we think God won’t forgive us because we can’t forgive ourselves?  When we think we're unforgivable, we're saying that the peace of God is out of reach.

Philippians 4:6-7 (NKJV)
^4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

We need the peace of God.  It’s the peace of God that guards our hearts…and what else?  The peace of God guards our minds.  It surpasses all understanding.  We can’t even understand the peace of God, but it protects us.  Forgiveness is key to the peace of God.

Overcoming Depression

So in order to protect ourselves from depression we need to practice forgiveness.  We need to be forgiving.  That’s not always easy, though, is it?  People have inflicted us with some painful things.  We have beaten ourselves down.  It’s not always easy to let go of hurts and sufferings.  Look at this:

Luke 17:3-5 (NKJV)
^17:3 Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. ⁴ And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him." ⁵ And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."

Jesus is telling the disciples they need to forgive.  These are the men who spent three years with him.  These are the men who knew Jesus intimately; they met him in the flesh.  He tells them they need to forgive and what is their prayer?  “Increase our faith.”  A lot of forgiveness is just simply turning it over to God.  God has said, “I will Judge, I will avenge.”  He has said he will avenge our hurts.  But it takes faith to turn those things over to Him, doesn’t it? 

We can see from this that we need to forgive.  Forgiveness keeps us within God’s hedge of protection.  We want to treat these things with medication, but in my mind medication opens us up to even more demonic influence.  Look at this that I saw on Twitter, recently.

“In the 60’s and 70’s people took acid to make the world weird.  Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it look normal.”

Prozac doesn’t cure anything; it only changes the way your mind works.  It masks and hides the problem but it doesn’t cure them.  If you want peace, peace comes from God.  What good does it do you to hold onto hurts and all those things that make you bitter.  What is the good thing about bitterness and suffering?  I have never understood why people don’t forgive.  God requires forgiveness from us.  It’s in our best interest to forgive.