In Times Like These 2001

In Times Like These

12/8/01 and 12/9/01

Isaiah 33 NRSV

5 The LORD is exalted, he dwells on high; he filled Zion with justice and righteousness;

6 he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion's treasure.

KJV

6 And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.

1 Chronicles 12 NIV

32 And of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do,….”

Isaiah 60 NIV

1 ¶ "Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.

2 "For behold, darkness will cover the earth, And deep darkness the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you, And His glory will appear upon you.

3 "And nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.

4 "Lift up your eyes round about, and see; They all gather together, they come to you. Your sons will come from afar, And your daughters will be carried in the arms.

5 "Then you will see and be radiant, And your heart will thrill and rejoice; Because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you, The wealth of the nations will come to you.

-Those are background Scriptures. Our text will come from John’s gospel.

-We are looking at the times we live in and going to the Lord for wisdom and direction. How should we live?

-In light of the times, what should our focus be?

-60 years ago Pearl Harbor was attacked. There were lots of people with plans for the future. They were going to get married, go to school, and build a house or whatever.

-After they were attacked, EVERYTHING CHANGED.

-That is where we are now.

-We have to reevaluate all that we are doing in light of what happened September 11th and what very well may keep happening.

-These are unusual, but very exciting times!

-How should we live in times like these?

1. RECEIVE GOD’S WISDOM

-The scripture in Isaiah says, 6 he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion's treasure.

-It isn’t just getting smarter.

-I was watching a guy on public TV and I noticed that most of what he was saying was true. He just didn’t point it back to God.

-Deuteronomy tells us that something must be true and point back to God.

-This is literally having God and His wisdom.

-I preached recently about PRIORITIES.

-Wisdom is laying down what you think is important for what God thinks is important.

-We need a new level of wisdom to exist and parent and stay married and stay on course in the times in which we live.

-Mixed in there is THE FEAR/RESPECT OF THE LORD.

-Do you believe God has answers or was He shocked on September 11th when the towers fell?

-Do you think He was watching CNN and turned to Gabriel and said, “Can you believe that?”

-The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the key to wisdom.

-The first step is to put God back in His proper place and then receive His wisdom.

-When you respect Him, He gives you His point of view.

-His point of view is true and right.

-He gives wisdom to those who respect Him and ask Him.

John 13

1 ¶ Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

2 And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, [the son] of Simon, to betray Him,

3 [Jesus,] knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God,

4 *rose from supper, and *laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself about.

5 Then He *poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

6 And so He *came to Simon Peter. He *said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?"

7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you shall understand hereafter."

8 Peter *said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."

9 Simon Peter *said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head."

10 Jesus *said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all [of you.]"

11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, "Not all of you are clean."

12 And so when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments, and reclined [at the table] again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you?

13 "You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for [so] I am.

14 "If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

15 "For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.

31 ¶ When therefore he had gone out, Jesus *said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him;

32 if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.

33 "Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You shall seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, I now say to you also, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.'

34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

36 ¶ Simon Peter *said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?" Jesus answered, "Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you shall follow later."

37 Peter *said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You."

-Jesus knows He is having His last meal with His disciples. He has some very important things to say as well as settle the whole issue with Judas Iscariot who will betray Him.

-Think about Jesus’ conversation with His disciples….

“I’m leaving.” They probably all looked at each other and said “What do you mean?” Jesus told them that He had been telling them all along that He was going to Jerusalem to die and go back to heaven. They said, “Then let’s all go.” Jesus let them know that he had prepared them and was preparing them to go on without Him being physically present.

-We ask ourselves the same question the disciples asked themselves……

HOW DO WE LIVE WHILE WE WAIT?

-Jesus used the discourse to tell them the major things they should focus on.

-I want to pull a few out and look at them.

2. WALK IN LOVE

John 13

33 "Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You shall seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, I now say to you also, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.'

34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

-In order to stay in God’s will. We have to stay in God’s heart.

-God’s love saved the world.

-We can’t start hating. The spirit of the age is hate and selfishness.

-If we start making decisions out of spite for others or to get even…we will make wrong decisions.

-Jesus was getting ready to go give His life and He preached first on love.

-The thing that the world and the devil can’t fake is real love.

-Before this Jesus put on a towel and demonstrated love by washing the disciple’s feet.

-He demonstrated the attitude He wanted us to adopt: LOVE AND SERVICE.

-Another message there is don’t try to promote yourself and watch out for those who try to promote themselves.

2Timothy 3:2 “People will be lovers of themselves,……”

-Those who use others to promote themselves or their ministries aren’t following Jesus’ example.

-In times like these, we need to live and demonstrate love. When the entire world is pressured and angry, we need to walk in love.

3. DON’T BE AFRAID

-I heard or read several prophecies this week by people I trust that we can expect more of the same as September 11th.

-I don’t know whether that is true or not, either way, in the world we will have opposition.

John 14

1 ¶ "Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.

2 "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.

3 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, [there] you may be also.

Luke 21

26 men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

27 "And then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory.

28 "But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

-Fear is a spirit.

-You have to speak to fear like it is a dog. Command it to go.

-Fear is having more confidence in the devil and evil than in God.

-Jesus is saying, FEAR WILL TORMENT YOU. DON’T PUT UP WITH IT. KICK IT OUT OF YOUR MIND AND HEART.

-I was flying last week and it occurred to me that all you can do is pray and go.

-If you are going to hide from evil, you can’t live.

-The devil is like the terrorists. He wants to instill fear so you won’t live your life in joy.

-In verses 5-14 of John 14 Jesus gives us the antidote for fear:

HAVE FAITH IN HIM

-In other words, He is saying, DO YOU BELIEVE ME?

4. RELY ON AND BE FILLED WITH HIS SPIRIT

John 14

16 "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;

17 [that is] the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, [but] you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.

25 ¶ "These things I have spoken to you, while abiding with you.

26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

27 "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

-It is essential that we receive the peace and comfort of the Holy Spirit.

-Jesus commanded His disciples not to leave Jerusalem but to be filled with His Spirit, the Holy Spirit.

-We need to give place to the Holy Spirit. We need to pray in the Spirit.

-We need to pray God’s will. We do that perfectly when we pray in other tongues.

-You need to be filled with and flow with the Holy Spirit.

5. STAY CLOSE TO JESUS

John 15

1 ¶ "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every [branch] that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.

3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither [can] you, unless you abide in Me.

5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.

6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.

8 "By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and [so] prove to be My disciples.

9 ¶ "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love.

11 "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and [that] your joy may be made full.

-We can only beat the world’s system by abiding in Jesus.

-Jesus is saying, STAY CLOSE TO ME.

-I heard about people who were supposed to be in the World Trade towers that day and knew they shouldn’t go.

-I heard about a man who was about to get on a plane and the Lord led him to take the next flight and that plane had a problem.

-Abide/live in Jesus and His love.

-Stay away from questionable activities.

-Don’t do anything to grieve His presence and cause you not to hear His voice.

-He tells us to rely on the Holy Spirit and this part is kind of a negative-if you aren’t abiding in Jesus….you could be separated from life.

6. WALK IN THE TRUTH

John 15

18 ¶ "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before [it hated] you.

19 "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

20 "Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

21 "But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.

22 "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

23 "He who hates Me hates My Father also.

24 "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

25 "But [they have done this] in order that the word may be fulfilled that is written in their Law, 'THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.'

26 ¶ "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, [that is] the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me,

27 and you [will] bear witness also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

-The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.

-There is a spirit of deception in the world.

Mt 24:24 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect--if that were possible.

-I was studying the Mormon religion in school last week.

-Along with the revival of the 1800’s came false doctrine and cults.

-First of all, GOD LOVES EVERYBODY. JESUS DIED FOR EVERYONE.

-God loves every one of those Taliban fighters as people.

-We have to be wise enough to speak the truth in love.

-Some people won’t speak up because they think love won’t say anything.

-If someone were about to give my children poison, I would stop it even if they were nice people.

-Most Mormons were former Christians, especially Baptists.

-They believe that the Father was once a human and had sex with many wives and gave birth to spirit children. Among them were satan and Jesus. Jesus was the good brother and satan was the bad brother.

-If you don’t like your wife you can just banish her from eternity where you will go to become a god. ETC.

-Donny and Marie are sweet people, but that stuff will take you to hell.

-READ YOUR BIBLE. DON’T SWALLOW EVERYTHING.

-Check out your pastor and teachers. Are they telling you the Bible?

-These are perilous times, but you have come into the Kingdom for such a time as this.

-With God, you are up to it.

-Adjust your armor and run to the battle.