Sunday Worship

A little piece of this mornings worship.

The message was about Godly wisdom applied.
We began with Proverbs 1:7 telling us that the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but rather than debate what the fear of the Lord is, we looked at Job 28:28 that says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but to turn from evil is understanding.  Or, as I like to say, "None of this stuff really matters until you do something with it."
It's not enough to have a reverence, awe or even terror of God.  It has to change you.  The classic definition of learning is behavior modification.  It is not a mental assent to a series of propositions.  It is not enough to have the winning position in a philosophical or academic debate.  You must have a life altering (continuing to be altered) encounter with the living God.  Brother Lawrence talked about his "high view" of God that forever changed who he was.  How this view made it impossible to pursue anything other than the presence of God.
Jesus talked about it at the end of Matthew chapter seven.  Two men built houses.  Two men faced storms.  But, the man who put the words of Jesus into practice was able to stand.  We have to let His words work on us.
2 Peter 1 tells us that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness, therefore we are to get to work.  If we apply ourselves to the life giving power and grace that is available, we will find ourselves "productive and fruitful".  Nobody wants to live a ho-hum, meaningless existence.  And God does not call us to a life of boredom.  The call to come to Christ is an adventure that leads to unbelievable growth resulting in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.  If these things are increasing in our life, we become useful to His kingdom and we can pray with certainty, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."
If these things are not present in our lives, Peter goes on to say, it is because we have forgotten that we have been cleansed from our former sins.  Or as Paul tells us in Romans 8, we are no longer obligated to follow the urges of the sinful nature.  It is allowed, but not required.  We can, but we don't have to.  The same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead now lives in me and brings me from death to life.  Paul tells us that we have been made free, so we should live free.  Not free to indulge our flesh, but free to pursue a life of holiness.
We ended with "Happy Day", because we never want to forget that we have been cleansed from our past sin and are now free to be productive and fruitful and that dear brothers and sisters makes for one happy day.