The Hour of Truth – 08/11/2013

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Speakers:

• Paul Muller
• Rick Eutsler, Jr.

Scriptures used:

• Matthew 24
• 2 Peter 3:9
• Colossians 3
• Matthew 13:22
• Mark 4:19
• Luke 13:27

Subject:

• It is easy to get distracted with the things of this world.  It takes diligence and a conscious choice to put our eyes on the Lord.
• Read about the Fear of the Lord and Diligence by clicking on each of these links.
• The Vision of Two Revivals shows about the problems with the modern church.
• Because of 1 man God saved the world.  So much for 1 man cannot make a difference.
• Are you going to choose the wide, comfortable, easy path to destruction or are you going to choose to take the narrow goat path that leads to eternal life?
• It is easy to have self-deception and believe we are somehow better than others.  Because we know the Lord and His ways we think that somehow makes us better than others who don’t know the Lord and His ways, instead of knowing we are sinners in need of His grace every day and going forth sharing the Gospel and the word of our testimony.
• When someone joins the military they don’t have to make the decision every day to join the military, they have to make the decision to walk worthy of the uniform each day.  The same goes for us as Christians.  If we do not walk worthy of our uniform as a Christian, we can be dishonorably discharged from the army.  We have to choose daily to walk worthy of the uniform because if we don’t we will not be walking diligently, faithfully and we will be luke warm and spat out.
• We have to set our affections on things above because it is so easy for us to be distracted from setting our affections on things of the Lord.
• An email received says Colossians 3:2 out of the NLT says: ” Think about the things of heaven not the things of earth.”.  That is not the spirit of Colossians 3:2.  The KJV says “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth”.  There is a big difference between the two of those … the NLT is passive, it merely says think about … not choose to do the things that are pleasing to the Lord.  The KJV is radical and requires you to choose to do something, by telling you to choose to set your affection.
• If and then are words that require you to do a thing in order to obtain a desired result.  Colossians 3:1  If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
• If you desire something badly enough you will do everything possible to obtain it.  So when Colossians 3 talks about if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above … that is a radical thing.  You cannot live in Him without seeking those things which are above on a regular basis each day.
• Diligence is not a once off thing, it is something that requires work, faithfulness, commitment.
• This is a call to action.  If you call yourself a Christian, you must choose to set your affections on the things above.
• How much attention and effort are we putting into really knowing Gods opinion on a thing and making it our own opinion and walking in it?
• It should be terrifying to us to see that we can and have become unfruitful.
• How many of us were extraordinarily passionate about the Gospel of Christ when we were new born-again Christians and how we used to be but today have become unfruitful?  Matthew 13:22  He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
  Mark 4:19  And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
• It is more urgent today than ever before that we stay fruitful and share the truth of the Gospel of Jesus.
• It is becoming more apparent every day that even Christians only want the good things of God … peace, joy etc, but nobody wants to diligently and faithfully seek Him.
• Instead of saying “God’s always there for me”, how about changing it so I am always there for God.
• Do we even go to the Lord and say “What would you have me do today?” vs “Lord please bless my day and help me to have a good day”?
• Where is the recognition of “THY will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” on a daily basis from us toward God?
• Where is the recognition of how sinful we are and recognition of how desperately we need Him?
• You have to diligently seek the Lord and His ways as if your life depends on it, because your life DOES depend on it.
• Learn what the Lord has for you to learn now rather than having to go through more to learn it.
• Colossians 3:23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.  This was meant as a charge to be all about the business of seeking the Lord and pleasing Him.
• We can assume that Abraham believed God would have to raise up his son from the dead but our God is such a great God that He put it in His Word that Abraham believed this so we wouldn’t have to assume but could know with a certainty.
• When talking to a great pianist about the fact that he wanted to be able to play the piano that well, the pianist responded “You can, you just have to be willing to practice 8 to 12 hours a day”.  How badly do you want it?  What are you willing to do to get to that point?
• The deficiency is never on Christ but is always on us.
• The Church no longer has the ‘umption in our gumption’ for Christ anymore, we have become a generation of passivity.  We have no zeal.
• Where would the Church be today if we put even a tenth of the zealousness we put into other useless things into the Lord and His ways?
• If God loves you, He will try to get your attention and get your eyes off yourself and onto Him.
• Unfortunately for most of us this involves a smack on the head with a 2×4 instead of a gentle correction.
• Tribulations are designed to help us realize how much we need Christ.
• There are 2 ways to get humility:  plan a is to humble yourself before the Lord (recognize the gentle tap of correction and change course before we get further down the wrong road) or plan b is to ignore the gentle tap of correction and then we get to the 2×4 upside the head and we are humiliated.
• The ultimate humiliation is to stand before the Lord and have Him say depart from me, I never knew you, worker of iniquity.  Luke 13:27  But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.