HOW SHOULD WE NOW LIVE
HOW SHOULD WE NOW LIVE • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 43:36
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· 18 viewsStory of David and answering the question How should we now live
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“In every action we take, we are doing one of two things, helping create a hell on earth or helping bring down a foretaste of heaven… We are either advancing the rule of Satan or establishing the reign of God” Chuck Colson
Intro:
Last week I gave you three scriptures
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
Today I give you 1 more
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
There is no other I AM - There is no other Way - There is no other way of life - that leads to an eternal peace and an amazing future. - AMEN
Do you believe this?
Our topic is How shall we then live?
Are we on a quest for a million dollars?
For a house and 2 cars
The perfect husband or wife
That illustrious career
Or is it just surviving between paychecks
Or handling stress on day at a time
How do we live in this messed up world?
We ask this question to ourselves all the time.
The challenge is taking the right answer and living it. AMEN
Last week we spoke about Adam and his family - How many of you learned a lot from that sermon. If you were not here you can hear the audio on the website and the video on facebook .
We learned that the first counseling session between cain and God ended up like this
You have to Master Sin - Recognize it and realize it wants to kill you - It is patient like a lion and as deadly as an adder
Live a life of repentance - Not just a one time act when you gave your life to Jesus - AMEN
This was all in the first few chapters of Genesis.
Today I want to talk to about two people who saw the big picture (worldview)
NOAH
Lets look at the background first
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Are we getting closer to this point again? - YES
Some might argue with this - but most don't acknowledge wickedness anymore. Wickedness has become the cultural norm.
Wickedness is a cancer and it is aggressive and progressive. It grows and poisons the whole body
Also evil is not acknowledged it is glamorized. We went to see a movie with my grandson a a few weeks back and the 4 or 5 previews of the upcoming movies, everyone of them were evil to the core. What is evil is now called suspenseful.
With the realism and the graphics today - It is like you are there . And with AR ( Augmented Reality) peoples minds are captured in an unreal environment. To the point that kids can now kill other kids in schools just like a video game.
Now lets legalize drugs, and incorporate that into the mix and see what happens.
The solution is not a better gun lock or a reduced magazine load. It is getting back to reality, and teaching people
How Shall they Then Live.
OK back to Genesis
9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
Noah was righteous - just, and innocent in Gods eyes
Noah walked with God - How Enoch walked with God so did Noah - He walked in close fellowship with God
Just like with Adam - it is always a faith with works. Or in another way of saying it - It is a faith that works
Just walking with God is not good enough
An awesome spirit filled Sunday service isn’t good enough
Getting goose bumps on top of goose bumps isn’t good enough
Running to the next high spiritually isn’t good enough.
Going to nine straight Bethel services isn’t good enough.
Going on the mission field isn’t good enough.
It id getting up everyday and asking
Lord how shall I then live?
How do I live today?
May I say the presence of God is not enough - It didn’t wok for Adam and Eve or Cain.
It is the push today. Adam walked with God in the cool of the morning, The disciples walked with God for three years. It required more.
It is Presence and Practice.
That is why organizations like YWAM do so well.
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
May I say with the presence comes choice. What is your choice.?
Back to Noah
Now Noah has a job. What is it? - Build boat - that’s it.
Are you seeing a little bit of a trend here?
Just do the one thing God has asked you to do.
God tells Noah build an ark ( What is an ark? A really Really big boat)
It is going to take him 50-75 years to build it. For all you lumber people think of it. The first timber will be 75 years old before the last timber is put in place. How does that effect integrity?
What would you think if God pulled you aside and said build a boat on a plain here in Redding?
Shasta Lake is at 30%
It is as dry as a bone
We are rationing water.
You would be saying - God are you sure you got this one right?
Lets look at the key in 6:22
22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
Noah Did This - not only this but all God asked him to do
When you commit - You commit
Noah’s actions are a model for us of obedience and faith.
7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
2 For by it the people of old received their commendation.
As is the case for many of the saints, God is calling upon Noah to accomplish a task that has no precedent, for an experience that had no counterpart.
Noah accomplishes the task - and now it is just him, his wife and his kids and their wives.
1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
Now Noah has a new Job- Live a blessed life and fill the earth.
Why, because god loves Godly offspring.
We then get this really cool rainbow as a sign of Gods covenant for Noah and all future generations.
But like Adam we have some rules:
3 “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.
4 “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
5 “Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man.
6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.
Adam don’t eat... - Noah don’t eat...
Within a short period of time Noah forgot how to live righteously , he got smashed and passed out in his tent naked.
His son Ham did not treat his father with dignity and respect but went out and told his brothers about his dad.
HisNoahs other sons new better and covered there father up by walking backward into the tent and covering their father up.
So when you read this
you can answer the question
How shall we then live
Righteously
Doing all that God asks of you - Knowing he is not going to ask more of you thatn you can handle
Walk with integrity. Don’t act the fool. Even when you are caught off guard do what is right.
Now lets look at Abraham
Lord Call Abraham in Genesis 12:1-7
Again it was something foreign
Blessing similar to Noah - I will make you a great nation - In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,
6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
The Key to this passage is in verse 4 - It is three words - So Abram went
It was more than obedience is was faith
This is just as big a challenge as God gave Noah
Noah at least had a boat - Maybe he could sell it on Facebook marketplace.
Abraham had to get up everyday and just follow Gods direction.
Abram was a true missionary
This is what we had to do in YWAM when we were in Central America
The interesting thing was
As he went - he was blessed
2 Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.
What was Abrams job? other than Farmer
17 “Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.”
Nothing other than go on a hike and have people recognize you.
Not just you but also people recognized His wife ( becasue scripture says she was very beautiful. )
So he Created Presence
Presence of what? you might ask
Gods blessing in the midst of a wicked generation
You had cities like Sodom and Gomorrah and wars all around.
Lot even gets taken in the middle of one and Abraham a Farmer has to rescue lot .
It is 318 men against a victories armies.
After Abrahams victory something very interesting takes place
17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).
18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)
Two come out to Abraham
The King of Sodom - I would call him the king of wickedness ( A type of Satan)
Melchizedek - King of righteousness ( A type of Christ)
Melchizedek brings bread and wine - What do we associate bread and wine with - Communion right
Also He is a priest - this is the first time the word priest is used
Hebrews tells us a little more
1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
2 to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils, was first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace.
3 Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.
4 Now observe how great this man was to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the choicest spoils.
The role of the Priest has started and will continue to Jesus the great high priest - AMEN
We are now kings and priests
Revelation 1:6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Not only is the role of priest new
Tithing is introduced - it is the first time in the bible
Abraham gave a tenth why?
Because he recognized who gave him the victory
Immediately the king of Sodom (WHO IS THE HUMILIATED KING) - Because he was defeated.
He wants his own glory.
The Humiliated one has to stand in front of Abram and Melchizedek. Vs 17 of chapter 10 says the King of Sodom emerged from the tar pit. ( that gives us a flashback from the book of revelations
He sees Abraham get blessed by Melchizedek
19 And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth;
20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
Abraham is blessed by El-Elyon - God most High - The creator and blessor of all blessings
this is also a reference to Genesis Chapter 1
How important is this.
It is critical - It creates a worldview
Who is your El-Elyon?
Today the move is for the state to be El-Elyon - They control how blessed you are or will ever be.
In Sacramento, we worked in the projects. The state didn’t create the projects but it does its very best to keep people in the projects. Handouts are not necessarily hand-ups
In this Chapter it looks like Sodom wanted to look like the blessor but Abraham cathces on and says
Genesis 14:22–24 (ESV)
22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth,
23 that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’
24 I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.”
Basically, I don’t want to be associated with you, I don’t want to be indebted to you, I don’t want the smallest item of value from you.
WOW
CONCLUSION
What do Noah and Abraham have in common.
- A wicked generation surrounds them
they are in it but not apart of it
Both had to walk in faith
Both had to hear God and do what he asked them
Both created a presence
Both were blessed
In both cases wickedness is judges
Noah a flood
Abraham - fire from heaven destroyes Sodom and Gomorrah
Both recognize El-Elyon is in charge- AMEN
15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.
16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.
17 And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.