PROVE YOURSELF
 

We must try ourselves and examine ourselves, introspection is so valuable.

We have noticed before how every business that offers a service, or a commodity to the public, makes use of an inventory list for examination.

We will look at some things in our lives that need to be examined.

 II Corinthians 13:5     Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.
                                         Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
 
 

We have recently thought of our intentions and resolutions.
 

The need of our lives for such things as earnest prayer, and Bible study, was  thought of as we examined our spiritual condition.

I am the type sinner the Lord wants to converse with.   He gave his son's blood for me.

 I need his constant attention, his continuing presence, and divine strength, to under gird my life.

We sometimes say in our society, we are just one that is:

 helpless, hapless, and hopeless due to circumstance, and environment,  so what can I do.

Someone said, if you had a legitimate need and focus all the power of the universe on the head of a pin,
there is but one means of its accomplishment, and that is the power available to every child of God, this
is called prayer.

Talk to him that is omnipotent and in charge of all things.

David, a man after God's own heart so called, not  because of sinless perfection. He had his limitations.

Sterling character in every situation,  No.

David had his weaknesses, he was clothed in flesh just as I am.

But in the story of his life he talked to God constantly, about his weakness, limitations ,problems, complaints,
and everything else.

God wants us to converse with him daily.  Oratory is not what is needed.

Eloquence is simply not needed to successfully talk to God.  Do that more frequently.

Fellowship with brethren is good and we need that closeness.

The continual warmth and love we receive from each other, the encouragement we receive in fellowship, is beyond description.
 

While the fellowship we have here is marvelous and great, there is always a need for improvement.

There is always a need for additional strength.

Did you open his word everyday?

There is no substitute for daily Bible reading.  Please don't fail your studies for even a day.

We seemingly are unaware of the divine power that literally permeates the life, and lifts the heart, and strengthens our spiritual efforts, that comes from this continual association with God.

That is done through Bible study, prayer, and fellowship with those of like precious faith.

We all need that closeness.   Let's improve in all these areas.

What about out HONESTY 

You know our truth, Our loyalty to truth, and faithful fidelity.    Are we really loyal and truthful?

No, no, I don't mean that you misrepresented some principle of truth.   That's not the point.

I am talking about daily interaction with our fellowman.

Romans 12:17-18    Recompense to no man evil for evil.  Provide all things honest in the sight of all men.
                                 If it be possible as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
 

Introspection;   truth for truth sake,  honesty for honesty sake.

Was I really interested and active,  or did I demonstrate that this closeness has some distance involved.

Maybe I was not very busy doing what the Lord desired me to accomplish.

Was I true to myself.  Could I look into the mirror ever morning and be pleased with what I saw.

No, no,  not the appearance of the flesh, nobody could be pleased with that.    That's not what we are talking about.

Staring back is a fellow who loves the lord, he has his inadequacies and limitations,  but he is doing his best to serve
the master with fidelity.
 

Galatians. 6:3    For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he decieveth himself.
 

Preacher that is over simplified.  Yes, but do we really understand this principle?

Sure we are honest and we do not desire what is yours.  There is no covetousness in us for your possessions.

Would not deliberately tell you a lie.  I would not deliberately mis-represent the truth to you.

But am I really true to myself, or am I self deceived?

Do I think, I am a faithful dedicated servant,  yet really not examining myself to do what God wants.

Sometimes I will be in left field and then I must turn to God, and ask forgiveness, and follow the direction of the Lord's
word to get me back on course.

Too many times we lose our idealism and that is a terrible thing.

Unfortunately dealing with a negative world, sometimes we become jaded and bitter, we lose our idealism.

Christianity is a series of getting up after one failure after another  . Through Christ we receive new beginnings.

Christianity is working through one mistake after another.  Christianity is really dealing with one weakness after another.
 

Christianity is really overcoming one fear after another, working through one doubt after another, all the while talking
to God about it through prayer.
 

So let the fellow looking back from the mirror be one that has integrity and good character.  A person with strength in whose feeble heart  burns a desire and genuine love of God.

God understands our humanity, be true to yourself. resolve to do God's will.
 

AM I EAGER TO SERVE

We are really not a self starters,   preacher what else is new, we know that already.  We need to immolate Isaiah and his attitude and motivation in serving the Lord.
 

Isaiah 6:8    Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I,
                    Here am I; send me

Here am I send me. What's that

O Lord not me I am inadequate,   I am ill equipped,   I am not prepared,    No Lord there is someone else send them.

The Lord's work will never be accomplished as long as I have a false timidity that reneges on the Lord.

Here am I Lord send me.

If I am going to involve myself with others,  I am going to be hurt.

 If I step out to do what I believe can be done by the power of God, occasionally I will fall flat on my face.

 I will suffer some disappointments.  But I will not be so discouraged that I despair.

The Lord will understand and I will talk to him constantly and walk in his ways.

The Lord is my master and friend .

If I back up and draw back I belong to those who will suffer perdition.
 
Hebrews 10:38-39    Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure
                                   in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to
                                   the saving of the soul.

Make up your mind in every opportunity you will do whatever thing that comes up for the cause of Christ.

Keep yourself available and the Lord will use someone else to kick you into service.

A self starter is not needed just be eager to serve.

Be ready to do God's will.

Ephesians 5:15   See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
 

Colossians 4:5  Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.
 

Romans 12:11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
 

We need to redeem the time, when opportunities come our way, we must lay hold on them.

Determine to make mistakes stepping stones.  Become more eager, and get involved in the work of the lord.

NEIGHBORLINESS

A common commodity to every Christian is that all people are made in the likeness and image of God.

Neighbors we think of as living next door and that is marvelous, yet all humanity is our neighbor.

The Lord talked about our neighbors being anyone, and everywhere.
 

The fellow falls among thieves and is beaten and left to die.  A priest goes in a hurry and leaves the man to die.

A Levite likewise walks on the other side leaving them man to die.

A Samaritan came by and he helped this man.  A half breed racially, one that the Jews had no dealing with.

That is neighborliness.    The lawyer identified the Samaritan as the good neighbor.

Friend what do people see in your life, at home, on the job, abroad, at play.

 Do they see a large degree of neighborliness?

Lets all be compassionate, and be doing the work of neighborliness.  The lord identifies with the compassionate.

Doesn't matter, size, color, all the lord wants to see is your heart.  Neighborliness is able to show what our heart holds.
 
 

Do you realize who you are and what you have as an American?

I don't really like the term luck, but adore and love the term providence.

Someone says a man makes his own luck, and in a limited way maybe that is true.

I am aware what Solomon had to say about time and chance.

Ecclesiastes 9:11   I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,
                            neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill;
                            but time and chance happeneth to them all.

But as an American have you thanked God for the blessing we have.

Friend I get up in the morning when I want.   I go in my automobile where I please.

 I can obtain employment anywhere I please if I prepare myself for the tasks required.

 I can take my family from here to the west coast I don't have to inquire of anyone.

I don't have to ask a party or government permission to make a move, and do you think the party permit or okay this.

I am a free man, I have in my possession a citizenship that is unique in all the annals of human history.

Ancient Rome had protection for her citizenry,  until she became so corrupt she could not support and defend her citizens rights.

Americans could go and come anywhere in the world from our earliest existence until just recently.

Yet with all her faults and shortcomings, we are still blessed beyond measure just to have citizenship in this country.
 

Sometimes a hear a mother complain,  I know she doesn't mean it,  and I don't mean to be harsh or denunciatory.

"I wish you would look at that stack of dirty dishes",  "I believe every dish is dirty in the house".

 Mother fall on your knees before that sink and thank God for his goodness.

I know there's a lot of work involved in those dishes, but that stack of dirty dishes is a clear manifestation of God's blessings in your household.
 
That stack of dirty dishes means you want have a broken heart  listening to your children cry themselves to sleep at night in hunger.

That is happening all around the world today.

The world is filled with children with distended bellies, spindly legs, bodies filled with diseases.  They are not responsible for their pain.  Yet we live in the lap of luxury in freedom and food is abundant, and we complain and gripe.

Some of our liberties are being bulldozed away. Yet the land of the free, and home of the brave, is still a tremendous place to dwell.

We should be thankful for this congregation.  What a comfort and consolation she provides.

Be thankful for your Bible, I can open my Bible and count my blessings daily from this book divine..

I live in a land of freedom.  I am blessed by friends who guided me to the foot of the cross, and taught me the truth.

I need to be more thankful.  Driving along in my automobile, I thank God sometimes, yet its never enough.

Philippians  4:6    Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
                             present your requests to God.

We love and appreciate a thankful person.  We have so much to be thankful for, and we should express our thanks to God.

We need to give our roses while people live, that is healing to the soul of man.

Everyone needs love and me need to express our love to others by our thanksgiving.
 

WHAT ARE WE OFFERING

lets improve in this area of offering to the Lord.   Somebody says preacher we give a lot.

Your mind is running toward money, I am talking about offering ourselves to the Lord.
 

God is not interested in your money, he already owns that.

Just as he became sick of the animal sacrifices under the former Jewish economy,  he is sick at our stinginess.

Away with your burn offerings and sacrifices.

Lord you commanded them you laid down the plan.

God is concerned about the committed heart.  The offering that is from the inner man more so than the outward.

The Lord wants you not your money.  He doesn't need your blood money.

If we give from love like the little widow then he is pleased.
 

The little widow was not as well dressed as the rich.  The rich had a double hand full of the clanking coins.  They would hold up the money over the coffers and make a show.

 The little woman throws in 2 mites that make a farthing, but the Lord saw, and said,  "she has given more than they all".

But  Lord I don't understand, she is a dollar waiting on a dime.  She needed to get out of the line, she was in the way,
don't you see the others gave great sums and she gave a farthing!

NO, no,  the Lord didn't see that.  The Lord observed what was going on in the widow's heart.

He said of their superfluity they gave,  but she gave all of her living.

When you love the lord like this widow you, are in good shape.

Give your body in the service as Paul commands.
 

Give your body to the Lord. That's this physical thing that runs around and does what it pleases, without too much direction from this knob that sits up here on my shoulders,

Give your body a living,  that a working, active, aggressive and positive committed service.

Sacrifice, well I don't even know what that means.

In America,  in this century, and time, its almost impossible to define what real sacrifice truly is.

Totally committed, without expectation for financial remuneration.

That is to the service of another.  This is a living sacrifice.
 
Holy,  that's not wholly, that is altogether and that is true.   But holy, separated from things profane, dedicated exclusively unto God.

That is a reasonable service in view of what the Lord has done for you.  Spiritual in nature indeed.

Be not conformed to the world,  Don't be pressed into the mold of the world, and that is so easily done.

I am a physical being, in a physical world, having certain physical needs, and a desire for more.

Don't do that,  don't let the world press you into its mold.

Be ye transformed by the renewing of the mind.   How do we do that? Only by constant association , frequent study, and meditation upon divine revelation.

To what end?  That ye may prove, give evidence to the perfect and acceptable will of God.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating.  The christian value is demonstrated by the lives of Christians.

Not the ability to spout scriptures

John 8:32   And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

An intimate involvement of my thought ,speech, and conduct, with the principles contained in this book. Such is the undergirding, circumscribing, overriding, dominating, motivating, power of my life.

 Every word, thought, and action, is a demonstration of the things herein contained.  Then you are spiritually free.

To intellectually comprehend the significance of this teaching.

To understand the arrangement of the words, to be able to quote it verbatim from beginning to end,   while it has great advantage is not what freedom is all about.

Unless the principles contained in this book are reduced to a way of life.

It is no more effective than the medicine prescribed by a doctor, compounded by the pharmacist, then thrown into a waste can.

Too effect a cure spiritually you must apply the remedy to the malady,  that's it.

Offer yourself,  be doers as well as hearers.

Money, no problem you consider what you have left,  not what you give to the Lord, its fantastic.

Speak of giving once a year, and somebody says hobby rider that's all I ever hear.

Mention baptism every sermon,  nobody says anything.  There is 10 times more said on giving than baptism.

But you see one topic hits me where I am positive the other where I am negative.

The problem is symptomatic from a heart problem.
 

And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?

Judas cried with the others, its a waste why it could have been sold for 300 shillings and  given to the ..  O  shut-up Judas

Judas was a thief and was not interested in the poor he was the treasurer of the group what they put in he took out and spent on himself.

That's not the point.   The practicality of it, that's not the point.    Genuine love gives the very best available to us.

The little widow,  The example of mary giving the most expensive lavish thing she had.

We understand that principle. What's too good for the object of our adoration someone we love more than our own life.

what's too good I can't come up with anything good enough.  The genuine expression I love you with a look in the eye and tender touch means more than the wealth of this world.

If you love money is not the problem lack of love is the problem along that line.
 

Reverence For The Lord