Becoming a babe in Christ is the first step to sanctification, because we must realize that we are lost and have a need of a savior. While, we are a babe in Christ we began to know this man called Jesus Christ. As we gain maturity we learn to step out on faith and trust God. Finally, we are sold out to the king of kings and Lord of lords. We put our effort into sacrifice and obedience to the High calling, our creator, has placed on our life.
For today’s lesson let’s read the following scripture together.
Psalms 40:1-12
1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and setmy feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: manyshall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
4 Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened:burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.
10 I have not hid thy righteousness qa1! heart; I have declared thy faithfulnessand thy salvation: I have not concealedthy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.
11 Withhold not thou thy tender merciesfrom me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindnessand thy truth continually preserve me.
12 For innumerable evils have compassedme about: mine iniquities have taken holdupon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
The Bible tells us that this is a scripture or a song written by King David.
Verses one, two, and three discusses that fact that we need to wait on God. The verse explains how it is possible to live for God and what it means to live for Him. Then, it helps us understand how Jesus loves us and how God cares for us. We cannot mistake the fact that
The scripture (1,2 and 3) also informs us that when we get into the pit tit is God who pulls us out of our troubles and places us on a firm foundation. Glory to his name! Remember, life can be like quick sand sometimes, because we just sink lower and lower into the problems that we have created for ourselves. But, David wants us to understand that God is the one who pulls us out of the thick miry clay. Jesus is always waiting to hear our cry.
Philippians 4:6 tells us that: “present your requests to God.”
Whenever we get in the sin, no matter how deep, Jesus is always ready and willing to help us. this is why, for one reason why, when you see a picture of Jesus his hand is always open.
He is our shield.
He is our helper.
He is our deliverer.
He is our Buckler.
He is our our strong tower.
He is our lighthouse.
You see, there are all kinds of voices that we listen to in this world! We listen to political voices. We listen to the commercials. We listen to the news. There’s all sorts of voices trying to tell you what to do, telling you to buy this, telling you this is not right, telling you how to think, Telling you it’s OK to get involved with alcohol and drugs,Telling you to live as you please, and instructing you on how to live.
He is our all in all.
Verse 2 He had and will bring us out of all the horrible pits, out of the miry clay, and set our feet upon the rock, and established our goings.
Therefore, versus one, two, and three are versus of triumph. It establishes who God is in our life and how we should lean on Him.
Moving on! Versus four and five give us the keys to a happy life. Let’s re-read them.
4 Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Happiness is found in trusting the Lord. Our joy is made full when we trust the Lord. Even though, the circumstances that we are currently in our devastating to us.
Sanctified christians trust the Lord through the fog.
Sanctified Christians trust the Lord through the desert.
Sanctified Christians trust the Lord through times of drought.
Sanctified Christians trust the Lord through the valleys.
Sanctified Christians trust the Lord Daily.
Then, the scripture goes on to explain that we have nothing to do with lies, because lies will destroy the truth and destroy your joy. Sanctified Christians face life with humility. We Humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.
Then, we talk about this word wonder. The scripture reads that there are many wonderful and marvelous works that God has done. How often we forget them. How often we become ungrateful.
For example, if we consider Adam and Eve, didn’t they lose the wonder for all they had? Didn’t I want a little bit more?
Didn’t David forget the wonder of all God had done and he wanted a little bit more; when, he committed adultery with Bathsheba?
Aiken, wanted just a little bit more, and he lost the wonder of God. He stole the goods in Jericho and of course lost his life.
So there is a life of happiness and joyfulness. Then there’s the waiting upon the lord. then, we get to the heart of this lesson, we come to verses six, seven, and eight. In these verses we see how our priorities affect our relationships. You know, you and our struggle with this whole concept of priorities. We question: what should be first in my life, what should be second in my life, what should come third in my life? A lot of times, we make decisions in our life, by rearranging our priorities. In other words, we put priority number six in the place where priority number one belongs and we cause our own destruction. I found, that most people, struggle with what they should do for that day. We don’t begin with prayer and Bible study. We begin the day with our wants and our desires; instead, of letting God, who knows best, dictate which way we should go. Thus, We set our self up for failure!
I had a question, this week, ‘why am I struggling in my relationship with God?” Well, God should be our number one priority, but we put him down there with 13, 14, and 15. We set time aside for church, but that is the only time some of us set in God’s presence. We set him aside in our life and we sent him aside in our heart. We make our life first. We make our priorities first. We make what we want to do first. So, here in verses six through eight David tells us his priorities.
6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened:burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
Notice, here in verse number six, David is talking about his sacrifice and his offerings to God. The sacrifices of the Old Testament are different than the sacrifices of the New Testament. In the old testament, sacrifices was done in order to purify God’s children. Today, our sacrifice was and it is Jesus Christ; which, restored the children of God. Today, your sacrifices should be offered in accordance to what the Holy Ghost has asked or required of you.
Scripture has made it very clear that obedience is better than sacrifice. Let’s consider King Saul and Samuel. (first Samuel chapter 15) Remember, King Saul asked Samuel why did you not kill all of the Amalekites and all of their cattle? Samuel responded, “these are the cattle to offer God in sacrifice.” Then, King Saul says the following: “wait a minute, don’t you know it’s better to be obedient then to sacrifice?” So, what is the scripture telling you and I today? Well, inclining the heart to the Lord is more important than our outward actions. Sanctification is a heart status that manifest itself in the way we live. Often times, we may do the right thing, but our hearts are not right with God. More often than not, we mess up our priorities. You see, in the inner parts of our heart we think more about ourselves than God.
Allow me to provide you with some examples, that the Holy Spirit brought to my attention. If you find yourself in one of these situations you have a heart problem according to the word of God.
1. You are a member of the choir and do you think to yourself no one notices my part. You prove this by posting a video on Facebook and no one gives you a shout out.
2. You are the Sunday school teacher, but no one has thanked you for teaching the youth.
3. You are The teacher of Bible class and you posted video, but you get mad because you don’t get any lights or is not re-shared.
4. Perhaps, you are the member of soup kitchen or pantry outreach and you get upset Because you are not praised.
See, when we find ourselves trapped in one of those examples: we have our priorities mixed up. We are not sacrificing nor being obedient to the Holy Spirit spirit, but we are preforming instead of serving. So, Saul was telling Samuel that God is concerned about where your heart is. Next let’s consider what the Psalmist says the in chapter 19..
Psalm 19:14 (King James Version) “14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.”
We must guard our heart. We must not be slow of heart. We must have our priorities in the correct order. There cannot be a sacrifice to God; unless, our heart is right with God. God wants the servant‘s heart to be in tip up shape. For example, let’s consider worshiping God with giving. If you are sanctified; then, you are sold out to God in everything. And everything includes your wallet and purse. One way to worship God is to pay your tithes and bring offerings to the store house. The store house is the church. If you have an issue with giving; then, you need a heart check up. According to the word of God, the Lord loves a cheerful giver. We are cheerful giver’s, because we realize what we have has been given to us by God and it is our good pleasure to get back to him.
The Psalmist, in this case David, is saying his priority is concerned with his heart. Today, we need to incline our hearts to God. We need to have a personal relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ. We need not to be slow of heart, apart, or distant. If Jesus did an EKG on your heart today what would it tell him? Is it inclined to him? Is it failing? Is it in tune? Is it in focus? Does it beat after him? Do you have a heart for God?
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8.
Blessed people are happy people. Those who are pure in heart are happy because they don’t let any evil into their hearts. Instead of having a heart that is full of impurity, unthankfulness, unbelief and evil suspicions about others, these people have pure, good, and wholesome thoughts—thoughts of thankfulness and thoughts about how they can bless others. They also have a firm, uncompromising resistance in their hearts to any thoughts of selfishness, impurity, doubt and anxiety that might try to come in. This describes those Christians who can be categorized as sanctified.
It is written in Psalm 119:9, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By taking heed according to Your word.” God’s Word is the instruction manual for helping me to keep a heart pure. It is not complicated to begin living a pure life. For a start, think about taking just one simple verse and obeying that, like this verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Goddess desires for us to have a pure heart. In order to have a pure heart we must have one that is underfiled and that is unified. Check out what the following scripture says:
Psalms 51:16-17 NKJV
For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.
Here, we see that David is upset over his sin of adultery. He does not come to God and say ‘I’m going to give you more money,” “I am going to give you more of my time,” or “I’m going to help someone out.” No! David comes to God with a broken heart over his sin. God requires our heart. However many of us try to make up with God instead of confessing our sins to God.
Looking at the heart of Jesus we will find love. It is this love for you and I that he obeyed His father. Notice is verse six that David says “ sacrifice and offerings thou did not desire, my ears has thou opened,” David, here expresses that hearing the word of God is his priority. His priority is to allow the word of God to lead him in everything. I want the word of God to be desired. I pray that you desire the word of God like King David. I pray the the word of God is not only what you hear, but what you desire in your heart.
Have you ever liked music so much that you want to share it with others? Well, I know some of you do, because when I pull my car beside of yours I hear: “boom, boom, boom.” Sometimes it’s so loud the car shakes! I’ve even looked in the car and your rocking to the beat! You’re excited! I just want us to be that excited about hearing the word of God. I want us to get excited about God explaining his word to others.
Let’s see where your heart is today. Let’s take this following test!
Do you just read your Bible to check it off your list?
Do you read your Bible to be a good Christian?
Do you read your Bible just so you won’t feel guilty?
Do you read to meet with God?
Are you here just to listen to the preaching and maybe something will strike you like lightning?
I hope that we have bigger ears to listen to what God has to say to us. This should be high on our priority list.
But remember what John says in chapter 10.
John 10:27-James Version “27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:”
The priority that David assigns, in this scripture, is that his heart must be in-tuned to God. He must put the things of God first in his life.
1. His priorities begin with hearing the word of God.
2. He wants to understand the word of God.
3. He desires to learn the word of God.
4. He want to take the word of God to the world.
6. He desires to obey the word of God.
Notice what David writes in verse seven. “7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,” this scripture is prophecy. It is focusing on Jesus Christ. However, the story of David is written in volumes of the Bible. We read about his courage, we read about how he didn’t take revenge against Saul, we read about is adultery with a Bathsheba, we also see him arranging the death of Uriah, we also see him having problems with his son Absalom, but David’s testimony speaks of his priorities. When we get our priorities out of whack it causes problems for us.
Our priorities effect our testimonies. What does our testimony say to the world? At our death, will we be honored as living a sanctified life? What did Jesus say we should shine before men? That’s right – your light!
Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is ain heaven.”
In our praise we glorify God! David did not say “I don’t care what anybody thinks! I’ll do what I please!” But how many times do you and I make a decision like this? Some of us have lost the priority of having a good testimony. Our testimonies effect other people. Does this attitude show a Godly live – one “sold out” to God’s will? David’s actions effected an entire kingdom and so does our actions.
We are the light in this fallen world! Ephesians 5:8 says: “ 8For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:” We should care about our reputation and our testimonies. We represent your Heavenly Father. We don’t want to bring shame upon God. Our testimony and the condition of our heart should be our priority.
What is are priority today? Is it your heart? Your testimony? Seeking God?understanding God’s Word?
Can you be honest with God and say I needed this lesson today?
Now, let’s take time and pray!
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