The Starting Line
Notes
Transcript
16 Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
when we run this race in Christ, we never run in vain
when we seek him with all our heart it is never unfruitful.
13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.
there is an understanding to be understood…and a truth to be known
we must turn from our iniquities or our crooked ways, and allow God to make them straight.
once we do this, God can begin to open up our understanding and to lead us and guide us into all truth and righteousness.
this is merely the first step in our walk with God and the very beginning of our learning and understanding.
our lives begin to transform from selfishness to Godliness.
And to Godly awareness and purpose.
Dedication
Dedication
10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
Anything we decide to do in life must be lead by a decision to dedicate and commit ourselves to the final outcome.
once we go by the grave it is to late
the commitment must be to wherever that outcome leads us.
this journey to search out God, cannot be started with a mere casual effort or attitude as in....if it works it works, if it doesn’t it doesn’t.
If we are going to start this race at all…it must be to win (in it to win it)
we must pursue God:
with a passion for truth
a pursuit for righteousness.
with a strong sense of purpose (purpose of heart)
The purpose of life … is a life of purpose.
Unknown
23 Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.
the purpose we commit must come from the heart...
our inner most desires and passions.
8 But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
Daniels commitment was one of purpose
his first goal and purpose was to his God.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
To press means; an action of pressing or pushing : PRESSURE
it must come with a commitment to finish the race that is set before us.
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
we must be willing to lay aside all those things that would hold us back or hinder us as well as the sin in our lives that would beset us...separate us from God.
we know that sin separates us from God and once we are free from that, God can begin to open our understanding to truth.
we must accept “what sayeth the word of God”
13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
the bible is our road map to God....within the scriptures we find out Gods expectations and plans for us.
we find his salvation plan for us today.
38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
we see numerous men in the bible that had this type of attitude and commitment.
Nicodemus:
a religious leader of his time that realized that another leader had more spiritual power in his ministry and went to seek for it.
he was humble enough to ask.....
1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Cornelius:
a just, devout, family oriented, “christian” man whose generosity and prayer gained the attention of God.
because he lived in an area where there was no church or complete truth being taught, God sent an angel to direct him to a man that would tell him the whole plan of salvation.
John the Baptist
men worshipping in all the truth they had but where not aware of the complete truth God had for them.
their attitude was “what shall we do” and immediately obeyed.
Apollos
the bible says that he was an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures.
God sent someone his way to explain to him the word of God more perfectly
following God’s word will bring more light to our pathway and lead us to the right way, the complete truth, and abundant life.
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
every thing we must learn and know can be found in the pages of our bible…the word of God.
if we are willing to dedicate and commit to a journey where there is no backup plan....where there is no other way.
A man once said:
As a startup entrepreneur, I spent much of my time making plans and setting goals on how to get to the next level. After achieving many of my business goals and facing a compromise for others, here’s one thing I’ve learned about making back-up plans for success--don’t do it. Don’t plan to fail. Instead, align your goals with those of your company and focus on business growth. Only then can you uncover a higher commitment level that clinches business success.
he went on to say:
If your personal vision and goals are not aligned with the company vision and goals, you don’t have the right mindset to be successful in the long run.
this man was none other than our former president of the United States of America....Donald J. Trump
62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
Study of the Word
Study of the Word
for a person to have any hope of comprehension or understanding of the ways of God or his word....we must study to show ourselves approved unto God.
we must take the gospel as the complete word of God and not attempting to build a doctrine from one particular scripture.
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, And drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; Line upon line, line upon line; Here a little, and there a little:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue Will he speak to this people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; And this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
when we are first born again....we are like babes, without much understanding..
as time progresses, we begin to understand the concepts of God.
God alone as the creator of all things.
God robed in flesh..and we beheld his glory.
what is right and what is required of us in Christ.
death, burial and resurrection of Christ
Christ crucified on the cross…raised from the dead on the third day…
about the promise we have of eternal life
how this reflects our salvation plan.
we can only understand and know these things through the preaching of the word...
not only from the preaching of the word....but that the preaching is lining up with what the word of God says.
we are therefor to mature in the knowledge of Christ and the understanding of God.
we must take the bible in its entirety.
the proper method to understand and gain knowledge of God’s word is by comparing verses of scripture on that particular subject
taking all scripture together on any subject and forming knowledge from all combined scriptures......baptism, Holy Ghost, Godhead.
for a person to try and build a doctrine from a single scripture, opens him up to potential error and misinterpretation as we have today.
similarly, if one was to build a brick wall and leave out several of the bricks in the process.....the wall would be unstable and incomplete.
like putting together a puzzle…we cannot see the entire picture or the entire intended meaning until the puzzle is complete.
quote by Lily Tomlin:
I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.
to be successful in this walk of life....we must be specific in our efforts to understand and in applying the word of God to us.
in order to have a complete and successful life for God, it must start with what God requires, knowing what God actually wants and requires of us.
viewing God in the complete picture and not just the partially completed picture or interpretation.
20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
The story of the morality question
it was the first day of school at a community college. A professor came to class and without hesitation, mentioned to the full classroom that he was a Christian and that he looked at things from a Christian perspective. Immediately one of the students raised his hand. “yes, do you have a question?” the professor asked. “professor, I just want to let you know that I am an atheist! I just thought it would be good for everyone in the classroom to know where I am coming from” he chuckled under his breath. The professor smiled and said, “Can I ask you a simple question? How do you decide what’s right and what’s wrong?----what is the foundation for your concept of morality”! The student puffed his chest up and answered, “Oh, that’s easy. I’m the god of my own world! I decide what’s right and wrong!” The professor smiled and said, “OK, good. I am glad you explained that to the class and me. I just want to let you know when school gets out today, I am going to smash all the windows out of your car with a baseball bat”. The student became agitated and yelled, “You can’t do that!!”....”Yes I can, because you see, I am the god of my own world, and I can decide what’s right and what’s wrong, and I don’t like your attitude so that is what I am going to do”.
though this story is about morality…it is the same principle as pertaining to the word of God and our obedience to it.
we cannot just pick and choose what we want and throw out the rest.
we cannot just make up our own rules.
We know that, when man is left up to his own devices, the results are always disastrous. Anything goes and everything is justifiable, depending on circumstances.
by reading and studying the bible, the Holy Spirit is able to reveal to us how all the pieces fit properly together.
48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
If our foundation is upon Christ and the word of God, We begin to see how all the pieces fit together and make sense.
we begin to build a house that can actually stand through the storms of this life.
like a puzzle..the more pieces we begin to put together, the more the whole picture begins to make sense.
this is called revelation.....
we often try and figure out what the puzzle picture is by looking at the ones that are put together instead of the ones that are missing or left out.
One of the most famous examples of noticing an event that didn’t happen or finding the missing piece, comes from the Sherlock Holmes story, Silver Blaze, about the kidnapping of a horse (Silver Blaze) shortly before an important race.
The local inspector asks Holmes, “Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
Inspector: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”
Later on we learn that the dog was one of the guardians of Silver Blaze’s stable, but when the horse was removed, the dog failed to bark or grow agitated. And this behavior suggested that the horse was removed, not by a stranger, but by someone the dog knew well. So the curious incident was what did not happen or was missing and overlooked.
to figure out the whole picture, we must examine all the pieces of the puzzle
10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
God will never leave us or forsake us when we follow him, when we seek him with all our heart.
like a puzzle that is incomplete…Christ completes us if we continue in him.
the story of the ten lepers…
Christ didn’t heal them right away…they where healed along the way to show themselves to the priests......
only one came back (representing the true believers)....some are just in it for the fishes and loaves.
verse by verse we can understand and be able to piece together what the word says concerning vital issues and what is required of us.
we must use each passage of scripture as a piece of the puzzle.
when we combine them all, we will have a clear picture of God’s complete and perfect will.
9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
we must remember that at the point of rebirth…we are merely at the beginning of our race
to often, people get, so to speak, born again and they stop seeking and growing in God.....they feel as though once they are saved, there is nothing else that needs to be done.
1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
meaning that, once we are saved the bible way, we must continue in Christ and move on to perfection.....or perfecting in understanding
our entire lives should be about learning and growing in truth according to the word of God.
in the flesh, we know that life starts at conception......
this gospel was never meant to be hidden or to be internalized only. but to be internalized and shared and to be lived to the fullest.
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
the word of God is our road map and is the inspired word of our almighty God.