Does Your Soul Followeth Hard?

Good morning. What a beautiful Easter morning it is this morning. If you joined us for breakfast what a wonderful time of fellowship that was this morning.

It is so good to see all of you here in person this morning as well as those joining use live on the live stream. As I say and mean every Sunday one day I pray to worship with you in person.

Lets Pray START RECORDING

This morning we are going to pause our James: A Christians guide to living from Jesus sermon series

We will continue next week when we start James chapter 4

As this morning is Easter I felt God leading me to expand upon something He has and still is working me through

As I talked about last week I experienced a situation....rejection at school when I applied for an administration position and that sent me into worldly wisdom....chaos…worldly emotions and reactions and God used that situation to convict me and open my eyes to a much larger spiritual problem

The problem

I was not content in God but I was finding contentment in my surroundings…my family....my job

Any change or situation or circumstance that didnt go my way had for many years sent me into chaos

Anxiety

restlessness an unrelenting need to run or change jobs or change something drastically

All of this was from the devil and me not from God

Looking back over my life when things got hard and I got restless it always had a negative impact on me and those around me especially my beautiful bride and sons as they took the brunt of it

As God opened my eyes to what was really happening I went to Him in prayer

Seeking to confess and how to truly repent and find my contentment solely in Him and Him alone!!!

Here is the problem

I had no idea how to do that, no idea what that even looked like

So I cried out to God

Show me

Show me how to be fully content in you

I desperately want to be fully content in you but have no idea how to do that

I had no where to go but God because me and my ways failed me miserably

Praise the Lord I found the bottom of me so I could look up at Him......God humbled me and through the Holy Spirit showed me the root cause of a majority of my problems over the past several years

So far you may be like this guy is crazy....what does all this have to do with Easter?.....hang with me you will see

God began to answer my prayer

I sought prayer and Godly counsel from a dear friend of mine, Josh Lamb who is the worship leader and men’s pastor in Sheldon

I texted him and poured out my heart and asked him to pray for me

In true Josh fashion his first text started with funny you should say that

This is where God really began to move

Josh said that his men’s discipleship group just started an A W Tozer book The Pursuit of God and from reading the intro and preface it sounded like it was exactly what I needed because it dealt with exactly what I was wrestling with

I ordered the book right away

Later that same day I got another text from Josh saying Wow....just finished the first chapter and this is it.....this is what you are looking for

As I waited for the book to arrive I continued to pray and seek God and His wisdom and He continued to show me things and minister to me and I began to start to see a glimpse of making God who I was content in

Then the book arrived

i dove into the intro and preface and wow

God was moving and speaking

Then I read chapter 1 and God started to hammer

Chapter 1 centered around if you want go ahead and turn there now

Psalm 63:8

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“My soul followeth hard after thee: Thy right hand upholdeth me.”

What a beautiful, powerful, life changing scripture and truth

Now you have to truly believe and understand the 2nd part of the verse to be able to do the first part

Thy right hand upholdeth me

1st whose right hand....God’s right hand

upholdeth comes from a Hebrew verb meaning to grasp hold, support, attain, lay hold of, hold fast

Can you picture this....Christians right now God’s powerful right hand has taken grasp of you, it holds and supports you..He has attained you

Powerful

Again pastor, wonderful verse but what about Easter?

It is all about easter

In actuality he Bible is all about easter

No Jesus

No death

No resurrection

No empty tomb then none of this matters

Everyday is easter because without Jesus’ death on the cross, without a resurrected Jesus then no salvation or eternal life

I do however ant to spend some time here because God will not upholdeth you with his right hand without Jesus

Here is the truth

When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil everything changed.

Every relationship changed

Adam and Eve’s relationship changed

Their relationship with the animals changed

Their relationship with their environment changed

Their relationship with God changed

Now that sin had entered the world sacrifices had to be made to atone for that sin however no sacrifice man could offer was enough to fully atone for sin

God put in place His physical law the 10 commandments and revealed the sacrificial system until it was time to send Jesus to be the ultimate and final sacrifice for the forgiveness of all sin

Jesus came to earth, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin

Fully man yet fully God

To be rejected

beaten

and willingly hung on a cross to die in our place

His blood shed to cover our sins

His death in our place paid our sin debt

His resurrection opening up eternal life to all who confess and follow Him

All while we hated Him

All while we were His enemies

It is the bloody cross and empty tomb that allows God to upholdeth us with His right hand

Why is that important?

If God has taken grasp of you

If God holds you

If God supports you

You are untouchable....not in the physical sense but spiritual

John 10:25–30

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“Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.”

This is being upheld by the right hand of GOd

When you belong to Christ

You belong to Christ when you accept Him because He bought you on the cross

When you belong to Him He knows you and you hear His voice and no one can touch your eternal life in Christ in heaven

You will feel physical pain

You will feel physical discomfort

You will go through tribulations

You will face temptation

You will face persecution

None of that changes, in fact Jesus says it will get worse because of Him

None of that changes except now those things have no real power over you

Christ paid your price

Christ died in your place

Christ freely offers forgiveness and eternal life

How

Romans 10:9–10

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“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Confess with thy mouth is just that publicly openly profess Jesus as your Lord and Savior

you are saying you agree with Jesus that He was who He says He was and He did what He said He did

You are all in.....wholeheartedly agree but it is more than that

Jesus never said confess and move on with your life

Confess and never talk to Me again

Confess and keep doing what you were doing and headed the direction you were headed before Christ

No confess and repent

Luke 9:23

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“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

Take up your cross daily

Die to yourself daily

Your physical life

Your physical identity

your physical emotions and feelings and thoughts and beliefs

your right to be offended and avenged

Die to all of that on your cross DAILY

Why?

In order to be one of Jesus’ sheep and for Him to know you and you to know His voice you must become a true follower of Christ

A disciple

We talked about this last week but need to again this morning

Matthew 4:18–22

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“And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.”

Follow

Be my disciple

Leave all that you have

Leave the many for the One!

To be Jesus’ disciple you must give up all of you and live from all of Him

That leads us to the first part of

Psalm 63:8

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“My soul followeth hard after thee: Thy right hand upholdeth me.”

Followeth hard

This comes from a Hebrew verb meaning to cling, stick, stay close, cleave

This is an intimate relationship here

You followeth hard because you realize without Jesus and without the cross and without the empty tomb you are doomed to death and hell…eternal separation from God Himself

You were born a sinner

All have sinned and the wages of that sin is death....a price you can’t pay

However because of Jesus and because you confessed and repented

because you are dying to yourself each and every day when you mount your cross daily

because of all of that you are saved

When you realize Jesus paid it all to freely give you all then your only response is to followeth hard

Your eternity is forever and secured and no one can pluck you out of God’s right hand that He upholdeth you with

Here is where God led my journey to discover what being fully content in Him is to begin

Followeth hard

Cling to Jesus

Stay close to Jesus

Cleave to Jesus

John 14:15

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“If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

Followeth hard means keeping Jesus commandments

Be in the Word

Allow the Holy Spirit to teach you the Word and empower you to go and do the Word

Keep my commandments

Followeth hard

When the cancer diagnosis comes followeth hard

when the company downsizes and you are out of a job and pension and benefits followeth hard

When the divorce papers are served followeth hard

When you are tempted by your own evil lusts and desires, which is the only way you are tempted God says so in James 1:14.

When you face persecution because of Christ followeth hard

In all things at all times followeth hard

What stands between you and followeth hard?

Many today want a cozy, comfortable, easy life

Being a Christian is like being a Navy Seal....the only easy day was yesterday

You are not called to a cozy life

You are not called to a comfortable life

You are not called to an easy life

You are called to live as Jesus lived

Luke 9:58

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“And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”

That sounds anything but a cozy, comfortable, easy life

Jesus left the perfection and fellowship of heaven to be born in a barn, put in a food trough

To grow up as a carpenters son from a nowhere town

All to be rejected by the very people He came to save

Ran out of His hometown....His own brothers and sisters turning on Him

Going from town to town telling all about this wonderful thing God was doing and spat upon and beaten in return

To stand before the powers that be and be lied about and falsely accused yet stand silent not seeking revenge but forgiveness

To be arrested and sent to Pilate and watch the people you came to save choose a murderer and insurrectionist over Him yet again sought no revenge only love and forgiveness

Father forgive them they know not what they do as He was hanging on the cross and dying

Hung between two thieves who deserved to be there

deserved the death penalty

Yet one recognizes Jesus, who Jesus really was

Luke 23:39–43

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“And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

Jesus didnt say you choose to be here

You did the crime do the time

You made poor choice after poor choice

No

Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise

He forgave Him

He saved Him

Followeth Hard

What stands between you and followeth hard?

Sin....maybe you have never accepted Jesus....never confessed with your mouth....never believed in your heart.....never repented of your sins.....followeth hard and come today

Maybe you have unconfessed and unrepentant sin in your life…followeth hard and run to Jesus

Maybe you have hatred and bitterness in your heart.......followeth hard and come to Him to find out how to forgive

Being a lazy

comfortable

content in the world Christian may be standing in the way......followeth hard and come be energized and leave here on fire for Jesus

Can you truly say here this morning

My soul followeth hard after thee; thy right hand upholdeth me?

If not followeth hard past the bloody cross and empty tomb to Jesus this morning

Followeth Hard

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Invitation Just as I am/I come broken