Tonight is Worship Wednesday and will begin our next cycle of prayer. Worship Wednesday starts at 7 pm while the cycle of prayer will begin at midnight and will run nonstop until Sunday morning at 8 am. We still have several one-hour slots open for the next several days along with a couple supervisor positions. Our high school students are 5 days away from a week of doing battle with the enemy at camp. We need older soldiers who will go before the LORD and pray for lives to be transformed and relationships to be healed. Who will go before us? Who will lead? Who will pray these young people to victory?

Isa 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.

You’ve heard the expression: “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.” It means that it is wise to have a contingency plan so that we aren’t sunk through any one thing going wrong in our lives or wallet. I think a big problem we have as human believers is that we seem to live our lives with this same mindset. We tend to have the “eggs” of our heart “wisely” diversified. However, in the case of a walk with God, we need to have all our eggs in His basket. Read the passage below from the book of Jeremiah.

Jer 17:7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Jer 17:8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jer 17:10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

This passage ministered to me a couple of days ago… I wanted to point out a couple of different things about this passage of God’s blessing in our lives.

1. God doesn’t just bless the individual that trusts in Him. God blesses the individual “whose hope the LORD is.” God blesses the individual whose prize is God, not something else they are waiting on God to provide. God blesses the individual who takes their satisfaction in Him ALONE.

2. The fruit of this kind of heart is that “her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from bearing fruit.” Not “careful” means not anxious or not “full of care.” Now how can this be? Don’t godly people grow dry from time to time? Don’t they get down too? The answer to that question is that they do during God’s workouts. God stretches His children to take them to new plateaus. But that isn’t where He desires that they stay. He wants rivers of living waters flowing out of their bellies. He wants them to have the victory that the three Hebrew children had when they went cheerfully into the midst of Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace. Their hope was not in position or stuff or relationships. Their hope was the LORD Himself.

3. I think it is interesting how verse 9 mentions the deceitfulness of the human heart right after dealing with the heart “whose hope the LORD is.” God will reveal the reality of our hearts.

4. Verse 10 confirms God’s testing program to reveal what we ARE REALLY TRUSTING in and what WE TRULY LOVE. The heart that withers only reveals a faulty water source and ugly intentions.

Where are your eggs, really?

“Oh God, our hearts trust in You. You are our Life. Our hearts reside in You.”

     The book of Deuteronomy is a book set on transition for the future and remembering the past.  The title itself means “The Law Again.”  Moses takes about one month during the course of this book, prior to the Israelites transitioning into the Promised Land, and reminds them of what they need to know before they take possession of God’s promises.  Just as Israel had some things to remember during their time of transition, so do we.  This morning I spent some time looking back through Deuteronomy to see what these things were.  I believe we can learn a lot from them. 

1.  Remember where you’ve been saved from.  Deut. 5:15 reminds them that God has rescued them from Egypt.  Egypt happens to be a type of the world for you and me. 

2.  Remember not to be afraid.  (Deut. 7:18)  Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Do the things you fear and the death of fear is certain.”

3.  Remember how the LORD has led you step by step.  (Deut. 8:2)  This passage also gives the why behind His leading and is definitely worth looking up!

4.  Remember that the LORD is the source of all blessing.  (Deut. 8:18)  James tells us that “every perfect gift is from above.”  God is the reason for every good thing in your life.

5.  Remember how you have rebelled against God’s leadership in your life.  (Deut. 9:7)  The implication here is to stop resisting His Spirit.

6.  Remember to be a blessing to those “under” you.  (Deut. 15:15)  The context of this passage of Scripture has to do with taking care of Hebrew servants who have served their six years under their masters.  Their masters are to set them free and with a great bounty of blessing.

7.  Remember to stop criticizing and complaining.  (Deut. 24:8-9)

8.  Remember when you were the “low man on the totem pole.”  (Deut. 24:17-18, 21-22)  This is so that we might show mercy to others.

9.  Remember what Amalek did to you.  (Deut. 25:17-19)  Amalek pictures our old sin nature.  We are to reckon him dead!

10.  Remember how great our God is!!!  (Deut. 32:7- end)  No one else compares.  If God was able to do all those things for those folks in the Old Testament, how much more will He do for us in the New!  

     Tomorrow is Memorial Day.  Just like we need to remember the sacrifices that our soldiers have made for us, even more so we need to remember what our God has done.  We praise You Lord Jesus!  Thank You for being so loving and kind and full of mercy.  Thank You for being mighty to save.  You are the Great King.  There is no one like You!!! 

     It is interesting when you consider how the world views life versus God’s perspective.  The world has given itself numerous “free passes” or excuses for its bad choices and disastrous outcomes.  Many times we hear things like “I can’t help what I think!” or other completely false presumptions which have led to their demise.  We need to simply choose to believe God.  God has given us the ability to choose.  

     One of the things that stood out to me this morning in my time with the Lord was the idea of doubt.  “Can I help it if I have doubts!?!?” - Well, the answer is “Yes!”  You can help it.  God goes to great lengths to tell us not to doubt.  Here are some of the Scriptures.

Mat 14:31  And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

Mar 11:23  For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Luk 12:29  And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.

Act 11:12  And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man’s house:

1Ti 2:8  I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

     Throughout the forty years of wandering in the wilderness God was frustrated that the very people who saw His miracles from days gone by wouldn’t trust Him for that day’s trials.  And what got them wandering to begin with? - They doubted whether God could really deliver them from their enemies and bring them into the Promised Land.  They began a forty year waste of time all because they wouldn’t choose against their doubts. 

     Will we?

     I was reading from 1 Timothy 1:1 this morning and saw something that helped me refocus.  It reads:  “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, WHICH IS OUR HOPE.”  How often I get my eyes off of what true success is and allow them to get distracted by what is not success.  True success is Christ.  He is called our hope in this passage.  Colossians 3:4 says, “When Christ, WHO IS OUR LIFE…”  He is not only our hope.  But here He is called our life.  HE IS SUCCESS.  Success isn’t found in what God might do for you or through you.  Success is in knowing Him.  As soon as you allow your heart to define success in your present circumstances or outcomes, you have lost sight of Christ Himself.  Paul said he counted all of his successes as dung, that he might win Christ. 

     How are you currently defining success?  If it is just Christ and you reside there, you can abide in His peace and be in a position to deal with all the distractions of our “victories” and “failures” in a manner which honors God.  HE is our hope.  HE is our life.  If you are defining success in some other way, you are at the mercy of those circumstances and outcomes and the wind can drive you any which way.  

I am currently in Ocala, Florida speaking at a college retreat.  I arrived on Friday night and will be here until Sunday.  I really like what Mark Schaffer and co. have been doing with their group at New Testament Baptist Church in trusting God to engage college students in the mission.  It’s funny how easily it is for us to forget THE MOST IMPORTANT things in our lives and get sidetracked with things that don’t matter so much.

Over the course of these three days I am speaking four times.  The first message from last night was about our promise of victory in Christ.  2 Corinthians 2 says that God ALWAYS causes us to triumph.  The key to victory is for us to disengage ourselves and enable God to engage in His resurrection power through us.  We often sabotage God’s work.  He wants us to get out of His way and simply submit to His work by His Spirit.

This morning the message was about the life of Zedekiah and Jeremiah and painted a picture of two individuals who start out at the same time in history going to the same church worshipping the same God but make slightly different choices with regard to God’s mission at that time.  The seemingly minor differences of the two men resulted in very different outcomes.  Zedekiah was a slave to his own fear of what might be.  Oddly enough, the very things he feared most, because he gave into the fears, ended up happening.  Zedekiah ended up losing his children, losing his sight, losing his friends, and losing his kingdom.  Jeremiah was blessed because he didn’t give into fear.  He continued in God’s mission and didn’t allow anything to supersede God’s call on his life.

Tonight we are going to look at the different stages of faith as described in the story of Elisha in 2 Kings 2.  In that particular story, Elisha is given every opportunity to quit but he refuses.  He decides to pursue God’s mission instead and stays at the side of Elijah when he is taken into Heaven by a fiery chariot.  The point of the message is to charge deeper into Christ.  Ask Him for a holy hunger.  Ask God to help you know Him better.  Don’t be satisfied with “fast food Christianity.”  Go further.  God is often found in the further!

For those of you getting this, please pray for tonight and tomorrow morning’s messages.

So I’m on a flight between KC and Cincinnati and notice that the guy across the isle to my right is reading a book on preaching.  I asked him if he happened to be a pastor and he said he was a college pastor.  I thought that was odd because I also am a college pastor.  When I asked him how long he had been ministering to college students he stated he had been doing it for two years.  I thought that was odd because I also have been working with college students for two years.  So we talked for a while and I told him I was on my way to speak at a retreat in Florida.  After getting off the plane and going on my merry way (I must have been a quarter of a mile away from where I got off the plane), I ended up walking out of a restroom only to find this same guy right outside the men’s restroom in the main concourse.  He walks up to me and says he didn’t think it was a coincidence that we ran into each other and wanted to know if he could pray for me.  So right there, in front of dozens and dozens of people walking by in the airport, he puts his hand on my shoulder and prayed for me WITH CONVICTION.  Boy it was good.  I appreciated it so much. Apparently I needed more prayer and God was going to see to it that I got it!   What a way to start a retreat.

Here is what is going on this week…

Monday - Friday Prayer Conference at Midtown Baptist Temple. Make it a point to attend. If you can’t go on any other time make sure you are there on Thursday night. That is the night our College group will be leading the worship and Kent Liles will be preaching.

Wednesday - Home Groups for H.S. students and SOLD OUT for Jr. H students. Invest in the next generation and reproduce your life in the life of another.

Sunday - 8 am prayer in the upper room of the Point.

Have you heard the expression: “Cleanliness is next to godliness?” I think confidence is. I was looking yesterday at the contrast between our confidence in God’s Word to us and hardness of heart. Maintaining your confidence is critical to possessing godliness! Listen to some key phrases in Hebrews 3…

Vs 6 “…whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”

Vs 12 “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”

Vs 13 “But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Vs 14 “For we are made partakers of Christ, IF WE HOLD THE BEGINNING OF OUR CONFIDENCE STEDFAST UNTO THE END.”

This entire chapter got me thinking about how easy it is to dismiss a promise God has made to me and give up hope in it… To be tempted to sink in the despair of disbelief. It is so important that we make right choices during these times. It is critical that we maintain relationships that are going to exhort us to continue pursuing God in all of His promises. It is our confidence in what God has said that determines our experience of victory in this life. If God has said it, we need to confidently believe it.  To not do so is referred to in Scripture as “an evil heart of unbelief.”  Those in this category are likened to the Israelites who saw God’s great miracles in delivering them from the Egyptians but who refused to trust God in their adversities.  The result? - They didn’t get to possess all that God had for them in the Promised Land.  They spent their time doing 40 years worth of circles in the wilderness.