It seems that I have been on a hallelujah high, since I went into prison a few weeks ago to minister.
Tonight’s message is often given to the residents at Lakin Prison, but the Holy Spirit helped me change it to meet the needs of this community.
Sometimes, when we have had a mountain top experience with the Lord, we don’t want to return to the real world. We don’t want to go back down to the valley in the mud and in the muck. But guess what? Where there’s mud and muck there is also fertile ground. And it is in this fertile ground, we find place for growth. Just think about it for a minute. A mountain top experience prepares us for valley duty.
Remember in Luke 9:33 about the transformation of Jesus on the mountain top?
Luke 9:33 says this specifically:
Luke 9:33 (New International Version) 33 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
The three disciples were excited about seeing Jesus speaking with Moses and Elijah. So, Peter asked Jesus if they could build three shelters and stay on top of the mountain. But Jesus told them that they must go back down, to go back and face the real world.
We are human beings, and we are subject to all temptations. The Bible says that we should make amends for our past without putting ourselves or others in future danger.
In Matthew 5:23–24, Jesus emphasizes the high priority of mending relationships. He says if you are at the altar making an offering and remember someone has something against you, you should first go and be reconciled with that person.
By admitting our mistakes and asking forgiveness from those who we’ve hurt; then, we can accept our relationship with Christ through his free gift of grace.
Romans 7:25 (New International Version) states: “25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law,but in my sinful nature[a] a slave to the law of sin.”
Just in case you were in Valley duty right now, the Holy Spirit gives us some tools that we can use to help us maintain a favorite life with God.
First, I want to use this demonstration for you, because I think it’ll help you retain the information that the Holy Spirit has for us today. Yes, it may be a silly tool, but it will help us focus and it will teach us a simple lesson.
First, we see this round circle. This round circle represents our relationship with Christ. First, he sought us out, then we responded to him, and he interns responds to us. This circle reminds us of how our friendship relationship with God works.
Let’s allow this first peg to represent -spirituality. This word describes our personal journey and becoming Christlike. We will never be as perfect as Christ, but we must strive to be a spirit filled people.
We continue to thrive with God through holiness. Let me give you some practices to help grow our spirituality. (or personal holiness.)
We need to have daily prayer with God.
It certainly wouldn’t hurt us to have daily devotions.
It never hurts us to have a self examination of where we are with Christ. The Holy Ghost would like to ask you this morning on a scale of one to 10 where are you in personal holiness? Where are you in connection and relation to Christ?
We need to have several moments of quiet time, listening to the Holy Spirit during the day.
We need encouragement to stay diligent in our faith.
Going to church service since and other fellowship activities.
And most certainly reading our Bibles.
Lastly, when we pray and meditate, we are having daily conversation with God; and a conversation means that we speak with God and we also listen to him. Don’t forget that maintaining our spiritual (or personal holiness) requires constant attention and work.
-Just like building and maintaining our muscles. If our spirituality. (-or personal holiness.) is not nurtured daily, it will be began to die, just like if we did not give our muscles the proper attention, we end up, looking like me. However, God is working on that with me.
Finally, here, the love of God is important to understand. You may ask, “Pastor, what does it mean to love God? And what does it mean to love other others?” I’ve had this question a couple times and I get this question because not everybody has had positive experiences with love.
I’ve learned that when people use the following phrase: “ if you love me, you would do this or that for me” and that is not really love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-6 states: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”
The meaning of love from the Bible means that we want the very best for ourselves and we want the very best for others. That doesn’t mean we have the very best Rolex or best pair of tennis shoes; it means that we need to encourage each other to use the gifts God gave us to encourage others.
Now, let’s discuss the second peg. Let’s name this discovery through learning.
Study is the gateway for us to understand what it means to live a Christian life. Studying can aid you in discovering the nature of Jesus Christ. As we read the Bible and other good Christian books, we began to understand our faith.
We read about why he came,
We read about his death on the cross,
We read about his resurrection and what the gospel means for all humanity.
Lastly, here’s a list of materials that could age you and your study of Christ.
Read your Bible! As mentioned earlier, it is not the only book ; it’s just the best one!
Attend church services and fellowship activities that are offered here and at other churches.
For a Bible study or discussion group.
Get on the Internet and check out religious writings, and books that were in your exploration.
Lastly, let’s discuss the third peg. Now you can see that we have a stool. I’d like to name the stool the friendship with God stool. Without all three legs, it would be no good. You need all three legs to maintain a relationship with God.
Now, let’s label this this third leg as -Christian action.
Jesus did not die on a cross so that we could be couch Christians.
Christian action is motivated and done through an unselfish desire to please and glorify Christ.
You perform Christian action not because you are a nice person. Even non-Christians do good deeds, but because your faith in Christ word: motivates your actions.
God wants the best for his creation. God wants us to care for each other. The concept of Christian action can be thought of is bringing yourself and others closer to Christ. Today the Holy Spirit wants me to give you a saying:
Make a friend, be a friend, and bring a friend to Christ.
Can you repeat that with me?
Make a friend, be a friend, and bring a friend to Christ.
Tonight let us continue with some of my very favorite Scripture! First let’s read
Romans 8:38-39 from the King James Version: “38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In case you still haven’t fully understood how much God loves you and will be there for you in this life, let me tell you this little story. It happened on a hot summer day in Florida.
A young boy decided to go for a swim in a pond near his home. Now remember, we are in Florida.
His mom would always warn him not to go into the pond without carefully looking around and making sure that she knew that he was going into the water.
That particular day in Florida was a scorcher! The little boy was in a hurry to dive into the cool water. He dashed out the back door of his home. He left behind his shoes, he threw off his socks, and a shirt. He ran and jumped into the Pond. He swam toward the middle of the pond, not realizing that a big alligator was swimming toward the shore, and him. His mother was in the house, gazing out the window. Her mouth dropped in horror as she saw the alligator and realized the two were swimming toward each other. In Stark, terror, she ran toward the water, screaming to her son as loudly as she could. Hearing her cries, the little boy became alarmed, and made a U-turn, and began frantically swimming towards his mother. But it was too late! Just as he reached her, the alligator reached him.
From the dock, the mother grabbed her baby boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched his legs. That begun an incredible tug of war between the mother and the alligator. The alligator struggled and strained, twisted and turned, but in no way was that mother going to let her little boy go.
A farmer happened to drive by, had his window down, and heard the screams. He stopped the truck, grabbed his gun from the rack, raced down to the edge of the pond, took aim, and shot the alligator dead.
Remarkably, after a few weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. His legs were extremely scarred and disfigured by the vicious attack of the alligator. But his arms had deep gouges where his mother’s fingernails had dug into his flesh – in an effort to hang onto her son.
After his hospital visit, a newspaper reporter, interviewed the boy and asked if he would show his scars. The little boy raised his pants legs. And then with obvious pride, he said to the reporter, but look at my arms! I have great scars on my arms too! I have them because my mom wouldn’t let me go! Brothers and sisters, no matter where you go, no matter what you do, no matter what you’ve done, God will not let you go.
The love of God, that Jesus brought to the world, now comes to us. He will not let you go.
God loves you more than your mother and your father, because God created you. God loves you!
Hebrews 13:5 informs us that God will never leave you. The scripture says specifically this:
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”
So now, let’s focus on some additional tools that you can use to maintain a life favored by God no matter where you are. The Holy Spirit actually gave us 12 of them. Therefore, I will try to slow down to give you a chance to write them in your journal or handout. You might not write every word, but just enough that will jog your memory later.
- Being a Christian causes for us to live in community. We have a responsibility to nurture to participate in Christian community.
- We need to be positive and encouraging to ourselves into others around us. Every day you will have opportunities to reach out to others, bringing God’s love to them and building them up and affirming them.
- Your Christian action may encourage or inspire others. It’s easy to find fault, especially in this world, but you’re willingness to overlook a challenge or to forgive an insult. May it be the best testimony of your faith. Focus here is that Christian action will motivate others, and what you thought was a sacrifice on your part comes back to you as a ginormous blessing.
- I hate the concept of cheap grace. This is where some people takes Christ message and turns it into something. It was never meant to be. They may say: “ oh, I can go out and do anything I want to, no matter how bad or hurtful or unlawful it is, because I’m unforgiven, and I’ve got grace!” This kind of thinking is called cheap grace. I don’t have the right to hurt the feelings of others. God’s free gift is not cheap. It came at a price, and our response to God’s love can be costly to us also but again it’s worth it!
- Struggled to hold onto your faith! You may find that next week you’ll give into a typical human weakness and you will some may ask “ do you really believe all that Christian stuff?” Remind yourself that you’ve changed and that you can choose what you value. You can also sit on the friendship stool with God. When that happens, ask yourself: how am I doing with my spirituality and how am I doing in Christian action?
- You might take a mental inventory! This is where you examine your self-conscious. This means taking a look inside yourself and considering your actions and your motives. Why are you doing things? Are you doing things to be seen and heard or are you doing things to actually benefit God in this kingdom?
- It is not what happens to us, but how we respond. Use the concept of “ react versus respond!” This concept will determine the quality of our lives. Our choices define and determine our life in Christ. Don’t just react, but think about it and pray about it before you respond it takes practice, but with the Holy Spirit, you can do it.
- If we failed to plan, then we are planning to fail. This saying means that without a proper plan, you are setting yourself up for failure by not preparing for challenges. It emphasizes the importance of preparation and having a clear strategy to achieve goals and avoid being directionless, disorganized, or caught off guard by problems.
- Our ultimate goal is to become the best person we can be, to be the person that God wants us to be. God wants each and every one of us to be Christlike and to change into his lightness a little bit each day.
- Being gentle with each other is important. Judgment and criticism drive people away from God and you. Remember, thousands of have slipped the mountain top and entered valley duty. but it is invalid duty where we learn and grow.
- Remember to keep God in your heart wherever you go. Teach yourself to look for God in all things.
- Remember, who, who’s, and what you are. Be armed with the fact that nothing can take God‘s love away from you. I like what it says in Paul’s letter to the Romans. In Romans 8:38, the word says: “for I am convinced that nothing can separate us from the love of God: neither death nor life, Neither angels nor earthly powers, Neither the present nor the future, Neither the world above or the world below,
-there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God, which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Think about this for a moment: what if you got yourself into some trouble but instead of serving your sentence, someone took your place so that you could go free? How would you feel about that? Well, ladies and gentlemen, that’s what Christ has done for us. ….. not us, but Christ!
Now, the Holy Spirit wants you to hear and identify with this anonymous poem given by a pastor in Zimbabwe about 100 years ago, but it is very pertinent for us today!
It is titled: “The Fellowship of the Unashamed,”
We’re part of the fellowship of the unashamed,
We have the Holy Spirit’s power,
The decision has been made,
We are his disciples.
We won’t look back,
We won’t let up,
We won’t back away,
And we certainly won’t be still,
My past has been redeemed,
My present makes sense,
My future is secure,
And the victory is won.
I’m finished with low living, I’m finished site walking, I’m finished with colorless dreams,
I’m through with tame visions,
I’m through with worldly , talking,
And cheap giving.
I no longer need:
Prosperity,
I no longer need: position
I no longer need promotions
And I no longer need popularity.
I don’t have to be right,
I don’t have to be first,
I don’t have to be tops,
I don’t have to be recognized,
I don’t have to be praised,
I don’t have to be rewarded.
I now live by faith,
I walk by patients,
I’m uplifted by prayer,
And labor with power.
My face is set,
My goal is heaven,
My way is narrow,
And my road is rough.
My companions are a few,
My God is reliable,
My Mission is clear.
I cannot be brought out,
I won’t turn back,
I won’t be detoured,
I can’t be compromised,
And I’m not delayed.
I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice,
I will not hesitate in the presence of the enemy,
Or meander in the maze of mediocrity.
And I won’t let up,
I won’t give up,
And I won’t shut up.
Until I’ve paid up,
Until I’ve prayed up,
And stayed up.
Amen
Remember what Paul said? “Nothing can separate us from the love of God. “
That’s not my truth,
That’s not your truth,
That’s not catholic or Angleton truth,
Not Methodist truth,
Not Baptist truth,
Not Protestant truth,
And certainly not just Nazarene truth.
What that is, is divine truth.
And if it’s divine truth, it’s God truth.
And if it’s God‘s truth, then it is the truth
Amen?
- God wants us to have Uncompromising faith: The quote represents a complete and irrevocable devotion to Christ, signified by phrases like “look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still”.
- He wants us to Reject worldly pursuits: The prayer dismisses material gain and social status in favor of a spiritual life. The author declares an end to “low living, and sight walking, and a disinterest in “prosperity, position, promotions, and popularity”.
- With God we have Resilience in the face of persecution: The reference to martyrdom reinforces the themes of endurance and commitment. The poem accepts that the “road may be narrow, rough, my companions few,” but remains undeterred.
- Then the Holy Ghost gives us Motivation for service: The quote gives us purpose. We are driven to “go till He comes, give ’til we drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me”.
