Worship Call 0702 Losing what you got

Worship Call 702

This is Thursday August 4th, 2022 year of our Lord

Losing what you God

recount your blessings! George Whitten Worthy News .com

Joshua 23:14 Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth. And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed. As Joshua led the children of Israel into the promised land it seemed that God had given them an impossible assignment -- to conquer a foreign and hostile land with fortified cities and armies greater than their own. They had to go forth only on the basis of God's promise. They had to walk by faith and not by sight! How did Joshua lead them to walk by faith? He reminded them that God has never failed them. And he encouraged them to them focus on the promises of God! Friends, you too can rely on God's faithfulness today! Are you in the midst of a crisis? Are high mountains facing you today? If so, we want to remind you of all the miraculous ways God has worked in your life in the past! Though we often forget our promises to Him, He will never forget His promises to us! Let's spend the day recounting God's victories and determine to exercise faith for the trials we face today! Your family in the Lord with much agape love, George, Baht Rivka, Elianna & Obadiah Nashville, Tennessee

And this is another fine day in the Lord!

There are no ordinary believers. The remnant is set apart by God. While they may seem ordinary to a world that is seeking to find its own identify, it’s the believer who is set apart by God and is the one that stands out in the crowd in the eyes of the one who counts.

Matthew 5:13 (NASB95) — 13 “You are the salt of the earth

It is the Sanctifying life of the believer that adds flavor to the tasteless. and a preservative to slow decaying. The remnant has always been that which has left a foot in the door to keep it open for God’s grace and mercy to be extended to a lost and dying world.

Never think that your life does not count. This is what I’m sure Satan would want you to think. That your life and mine counts for nothing. That your prayers mean nothing. That your decisions to walk righteously does not have impact. And let me tell you this is contrary to what the Lord is saying right in this passage connected with the sermon on the mount.

Regardless of one’s station in life, teachers’ engineers, tax collectors prominent business owners, lowly poor and what every the status or social order, it is the Lord who says that they are Salt and light to this world and hold a prominent place in God’s plan for the redemption of this world.

You are important! You have value because it is that our God and King placed value in you. He is the one who called you, adopted you as sons, who created you for good works that you should walk in them.

Does this not lift up your countenance at least a little or much? Does this not make you roll your shoulders back and stand a bit straigher? Does this this strengthens your resolve to live for the Lord, to fight the good fight and run the race before us? How do we put up with such a world in which we live in? By resolving to be Salt and Light.

It is not only encouraging but it is a charge to for us be salty, that our lives may touch others and the world by being a blessing especially to those whom we love.

There is however a warning

Matthew 5:13 (NASB95) —but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

We heard it called backsliding.

We have heard it called reversionism.

It has come to those who once were advancing forward, having established spiritual priorities in their lives and were Pressing forward and upwards until something happens.

That something is called distraction.

Distraction is that which causes one to take one’s eyes off of the objective.

Our objective is Christ. He is the one we are following.

Distraction is placing emphasis on the less important. It is laying aside the good fight and the race to make room for whatever it is that is competing for our attention.

It may be an association with another person, a romance, a hobby, business, a new and exciting venture, worries. Some new kind of entertainment. Maybe it is just that Satan has gotten a foot in your thinking that your spiritual life is of no consequence, doctrine does not work, the spiritual life is all a sham.

With distraction you lay aside your priorities and you know treat the things of God as being important or of value.

The spirit is quenched and grieved as you yield your thoughts decisions actions over to the Carnal nature. That is the spiritual life no longer holds any power in your life and the light is becoming dem.

Frantically the carnal believer begins to look to regain joy in the life by whatever means one can find it in a frantic search for happiness.

IN fact this one in life is much worst than he or she has ever been even prior salvation.

No matter where you think you are in your relationship with the Lord, all of us are vulnerable to a fall and a crash.

Paul says

Romans 12:3 (NASB95) — 3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

One of the most sobering passages to anyone who is making strides to the objective of maturity in the faith is Hebrews 6

Hebrews 6:1–8 (NASB95) — 1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do, if God permits. 4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. 7 For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; 8 but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.

In our passage in Matthew 5:13 and here in this passage it seems to point out our spiritual lives like a rocket on the fourth of July. It is fired up and there would a bright flash. The Spectators cheered and then it was gone never to get it back.

The spiritual life is a life of moving forward and upward. And I can’t find any other explanation to these verses then a warning that says that what we have gained by way of maturity in the Lord can be lost and never regained. That the spiritual life of the believer is not like a hobby that is set aside for other things and then be picked up again later.

Yes, we have our failures. Yes, we stumble and fall. But yet, our Lord says that he is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins if we confess them.

This is dealing with apostasy. A word that means falling away or departing from the faith which is different than failing to exercise the faith that you have.

Peter when denied Christ was confused scared and ran. How many of us make impulsive decisions contrary to having faith in a crisis? It is not that we drifted away from our faiths, but it will lead to that conclusion if we fail to repent and Peter did.

This is a deliberate laying aside the priorities of the spiritual life devaluing your relationship with the Lord and returning to the old life.

2 Peter 2:20–22 (NASB95) — 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”

It is important that we at least mention what do we do to maintain our forward and upward advance to the object as Paul describes

Philippians 3:13–17 (NASB95) — 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; 16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. 17 Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.

Stay connected

1. to the Spirit

Keep a short list of sins

Psalm 32:5 (NASB95) — 5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.

Proverbs 28:13 (NASB95) — 13 He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.

1 Corinthians 11:31 (NASB95) — 31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.

1 John 1:9 (NASB95) — 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

2. to God’s word

a. Learning

b. Applying

c. obeying

d. Living

3. Prayer

a. Intercession

b. Petition

4. to Each other

1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NASB95) — 11 Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

Ephesians 5:19–21 (NASB95) — 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; 21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

Listen, there are no do overs!

We will all stand before the Judgment seat as believers to give and account for what we have done in the body both good and worthless.

We have set our eyes on the author and the perfector of our faith let us not take our eyes for a moment off of the glory that is set before us lest we fall away never to regain the opportunity to reach the high ground.