Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
Lord, thank you for your goodness in each person's life.
Thank you for returning Beth to us.
We ask Lord that you bless her and heal her.
Lord, that you won't be walking with a cane, that you'll be upright and strong.
And Lord, we thank you for Gordon, that you'll instill in him that husbandly attitude and love for his dear wife.
Amen.
All right.
Just good to see you again.
Yeah.
All right.
We are, um, going to be talking about Romans eight.
And for those of you that have not been here, we have transcended Romans, not Romans, I'll be all right.
Numbers.
It's been a long day.
Yeah.
It's been a long day.
A lot of, a lot of activities at the, at the, at the retirement center in numbers.
And, um, what I wanted to do this week is create a theme out of numbers eight that has to deal
basically with, um, the Levitical code as we know it, the priestly code, the legacy that goes on from
generation to generation against that, which is our kingdom, the kingdom of God.
Currently, there was a covenant that was cut and we also have a covenant that was cut for us.
So we're going to be comparing those two.
And then when we come back together, I think with Jesse, we'll go on to chapter 10 and continue on.
So I want to make it, if this would be anything, it would be a parenthesis to what we have been doing.
So having said that, uh, okay.
And, uh, if I don't fall flat in my face, all right, that's okay.
All right.
I'm a danger to myself.
Thank you, sir.
All right.
So we, um, we see in, uh, ancient Israel that lineage was the fundamental thing that brought
people together and that the lineage that we want to talk about is the priestly lineage,
which was established with Aaron and the Levites.
Again, all the errands descended, I'm reviewing for those of you that have been in
course with this would serve as high priests and the Levites were set apart for
Cabernacle service due to their tribal lineage.
So we have that as part of what God has had established.
Then there's the Royal lineage.
Again, the divinic covenant that was set forth where there was a king.
And you know, we went through the idea of the Levites, the priests, then the judges,
and then all of a sudden the Israelites said, we want a king too.
So there was a king that was established and the Royal lineage again starts with him.
And, um, again, that kingship was tied to David's line.
God promised that his descendants would rule Israel.
Second Samuel seven, 12 through 16.
And then as a side from that, but God also anointed without lineage, those
individuals that he wanted to use from time to time, they were set apart for
service.
It's such like the prophets when they came.
Most of the prophets came with a message of what concern for the people do not
deviate, come back to the Lord.
And so you often read in the minor and the major profits, thus says the
Lord and the Lord would give them messages so that they would repent and
come back to him.
The prophetic calling or choosing was God's voice to the people when it
came to these people that were anointed to do a prophet's work.
Prophets were not chosen by lineage, but, but divine appointment.
And so consequently, we have an example.
I just give you Amos.
He was a shepherd.
He wasn't anybody.
We'll look at David also.
He wasn't a priest.
He had no lineage, but he condemned the opposition or the oppression of the
poor by the wicked, by the wealthy.
So when God had to intervene, X his Levitical code and his prescribed
method of worship, he sent in prophets to proclaim what he needed.
Those people to apprehend, be apprehended for.
So we have two groupings of anointing that we have talked about in the past.
Now, why was lineage unique from all other nations?
Well, let's take a look back before we answer that question.
And I'll be asking that.
Well, first let's look at what other nations did or didn't do.
Other nations leaned more on political persuasion, divine signs in the
heavens, in the stars, and again, imperial decrees.
You shall be this, you shall be that.
As an example, in Egypt, the priests often came from elite families, but not strictly
hereditary, so there was no lineage there.
And the Pharaohs, they had royal succession.
There was a dynasty, but yet they had power struggles within those
dynasties to establish their authority.
And then when it comes to Babylon and Assyria, which is basically Mesopotamia,
the priests were chosen for ritual expertise.
Lineage was not mandatory.
So it's different than what God said in motion.
And the Kings on that side, there was a dynasty that was performed and ruled.
But again, divine favor often justified new rulers.
We have to get him out because he's not part of us.
So they had skirmishes and wars, as we know.
And then in Greece and Rome, the priests and their roles would be elected,
purchased, and or inherited.
So there was a difference here.
And then the rulers, again, lineage mattered in monarchies, but again, in
republics, the second classification dam, and in empires, they shifted toward the
merit or political power.
And we know all the politics, even in the gospels and the New Testament about all
the infighting of the priests and the rulers as Jesus came into town.
But Israel was and is a nation unto God.
So my question is, why was lineage unique from these other nations?
What did God do that was different for the Israelites that wasn't part and
parcel of what we see here as the norm?
Wild guess.
Okay.
They weren't allowed to intermarry.
That's good.
So we can not allow them to marry the strange wives or whatever.
But what did God do that was different from all other nations?
Like he kind of gave the plans.
So consequently, God even today doesn't do anything but with covenant.
He has covenant to us to give us eternal life.
We have covenant with him.
We are believers.
So that's the difference.
Israel, Israel's emphasis on lineage was tied to the covenant that he
originally spoke to whom?
Abraham as a covenant.
This is God's nature.
Even today, without that, he has no association with you by covenant.
God promised to Abraham, Levi and David, their future and the social
structure that they were living in, the message that they had.
Today, salvation brings us into the new covenant with God and he's what?
He's writing that covenant in our hearts.
That's what he's doing.
So that's the answer to that question.
He is unique.
He set that forth on like every other nation.
So we are the new covenant through Jesus.
And let's let, let us declare this for those of you that, that, um, um, are
catching up in Jeremiah 31.
It says the Lord said, the time will surely come when I will make a new
covenant with the people of Israel and Judah, it will be different from the
covenant I made with their ancestors.
When I led them out of Egypt, although I was their God, they broke that
covenant and we all know those stories.
Here is the new covenant that I, the Lord will make with the people of Israel.
And this is so beautiful.
This is where we come in.
I will write my laws on their hearts and minds.
It's not an external thing that we do.
You know, Chris doesn't have an, a tally up here and puts down a check
for when you're here, when you're absent.
The Lord writes his laws on our heart that we should assemble ourselves
together, that we should be part of the body of Christ and we are
drawn to fellowship and I will be their God.
And they will be my people in Luke 22.
It says this cup that is poured out for you in communion is the new
covenant in my blood.
So there was a covenant that we enter in also second Corinthians three six.
It says this, he has made us to, uh, he has made us competent to be ministers of
a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the law, the letter was the old
covenant, the laws that we went over in, in, in Leviticus.
Oh my gosh.
We labored on those things for weeks and some in numbers, but of the spirit.
And that's a much better way in which to live.
No, just for those of you that, um, are catching up a covenant is a formal
solemn and binding agreement between two or more parties.
So what's the covenant with God and us God's part.
He offers us unconditional love, forgiveness, and eternal life through Jesus.
That's what he offers.
He does not make us do that except that he offers that to us.
Our part then is that we respond to that with faith, obedience, and a
heart surrendered to him that bonafies the covenant to parties coming together.
And when you say, Lord come into my heart, he begins to work
that covenant in your life.
So let's go back now and look at the anointing for priests and kings.
Anointing someone is setting them apart for a divine purpose and
for a divine gifting.
And in that God has commissioned priests and Kings and prophets by a ritual
of oil being poured over them, a sign to them and to the people that the
authority and empowerment comes from the Lord, not from personal merit.
So the basis for that is the anointing.
As an example, Samuel anointed David, even though David was the youngest son.
Well, that doesn't follow the tradition, but no, he can do what he wants to do.
And again, the spirit of the Lord then rested on David, as the word says,
empowering him for his royal office, even before he got there.
One thing you want to understand when you talk about covenant and you talk
about the anointing of God, down in here in my note, anointing
doesn't come without calling.
You don't suddenly get an anointing without the calling.
The calling has to be the first thing that is birthed within you.
And as you work that and we'll talk about shepherding that calling in your life,
whatever that may be, and as you are faithful in that, the anointing of God
will then come and strengthen you to do the bidding that he has asked you.
And that's a learning process and we'll go over that.
So why lineage in one sense and one time and just calling on the other?
Well, in a traditional theological expression, it simply has stated it this way.
Lineage-based roles, in other words, the priest and the king, again,
underscored God's covenantal promises for what stability of the nation,
endurance of a nation, not just some fancy, okay,
we're here today and going tomorrow, but endurance and shared identity of whom
God was among the Israelites.
He educated them.
Some of you remember we talked about nation building.
Can you imagine taking 12 tribes, wandering in the desert and making
them a nation?
That was a big job.
And as we know, when we went through these things, it seemed for us
impossible for him to do, but yet he sovereignly brought them together.
Now, it was their decision to rebel, but he was bringing them together
as a nation unto him.
And calling-based roles, again, like the prophet, the prophet received
God's direct empowerment and calling when the need arose for spiritual
gifting over lineage.
Here was the priests, they weren't a bang, I want to step in.
He called in a prophet, he raised up a prophet and the prophet says,
thus saith the Lord, this is what you're doing.
You're not supposed to do it.
And then together, these methods reflect God's wisdom in balancing
the order and the order breaking process that he had to go through,
empowering both the continuity of worship with the lineage, the
priests, and the fresh revelation when needed coming from his
throne, thus saith the Lord.
So you have that.
He's not bound within.
Well, if he did this, why did he speak to the prophets?
Well, he did both.
One was calling-based and the other was a gifting base.
All right, think of it this way.
The prophets or the priests functionally, functionality as a system of regular
repeatable laws of God, they did it over and over and over and over and over again.
Whereas think of the prophets functionality as an irregularity within
the system with fresh impartation of God's heart to what?
To disrupt the status quo.
He needed that.
He could have spoken sovereignly, but what does he do?
By and large, he uses people to minister to people.
So consequently, he used the prophets to be able to say these things.
My children are going in error.
I want to bring a word of declaration to him.
He raises up a prophet and he speaks to the prophet.
All right.
Divine appointment then, whatever it is, trumps lineage and birth order.
The tribal identity matter.
We talked about that, but God's sovereign choice always overrides
the human seniority every time.
He can do what he wants to do.
Jesus fulfilled God's redemptive purposes who was not of Aaron's priestly
lineage, but of Melchizedek's order.
He didn't even go along the lines of where the lineage was.
He went out and he declared that he's the, and he was in the order
of Melchizedek as a priest.
Moses, the older son of Amron was chosen to lead alongside or with his
younger sibling, Aaron, which was the lineage that was started.
They were chosen to be, he was chosen to be high priest.
So he steps out of context and he does what he wants to do.
And then lastly, David, the youngest of Jesse's sons was anointed king.
Why wouldn't he do, why wouldn't he take the oldest and work with them?
He didn't want that.
He wanted to do what he wanted to do to bring about this nation
in Samuel first, Samuel 16.
All right, let's compare these two.
Let's look at the Old Testament versus the New Testament now.
The Old Covenant lineage was determined by eligibility for
priestly and royal roles.
We, we talked about that.
The anointing was again confirmed was a divine choice.
The, again, the hierarchy within the family was something that was
part of ministry too, was also a determining factor of choice.
In early Israel, the firstborn son held the special status.
He was the oldest.
He got all the blessings and all the responsibilities.
He had inheritance rights.
He had the leadership role of the family.
He performed religious duties.
So he was the one that represented that family as the
priest represented God.
And again, in Genesis 49, three, four, and Reuben lost his
birthright because of his actions.
God took it away.
And now under the New Testament, we still have covenant.
We now have Jesus Christ intervening in the situation.
The new covenant then is a spiritual lineage that surpasses all bloodlines.
Remember the divine right of kings from England.
Just because you were born in that lineage, you were then given
the rightful heir to be king.
None of that.
Second of all, Jesus is the fulfillment of the royal bloodline.
Jesus was born of David's line, Matthew one and Luke three,
fulfilling the royal lineage.
And yet he was also a priest after the order of Melchizedek,
not Aaron, as in Hebrews 7, 11, a priesthood based on eternal
life, not ancestry.
So there's a big difference in that covenant.
All believers of the royal are of the royal covenant.
It says in first Peter two nine, you are a chosen nation.
A royal priesthood.
Each one of you are of the royal priesthood.
He loves you.
He's given his life for you.
He's gifted you.
We are adopted into God's family through faith, not through bloodline then.
In Christ, spiritual rebirth replaces physical
lineage as a basis for calling and anointing.
And that's where I want to go tonight.
Now question to you is what kind of person does God look
for when it comes to serving him?
What kind of person is that?
What are the attributes of that person?
He's called you.
You have a calling.
What's he looking for in your life?
All right.
Obedience is one.
Why was that important for us?
Not a challenge, a question.
Well, you, you have to obey God to follow his will.
Rather than your own, your own.
So that's a big hurdle for some people.
Really?
I mean, especially in today's society, I'm going to do it my way.
Right?
Yeah.
Anything else?
All right.
Who said that?
All right.
Yeah, not challenging.
Work it, work it a little bit.
Goes right along with obedience of your putting other's needs above your own.
Humility is something he looks for.
Not the aggrandizement of self.
Not the pride that is in our hearts.
And I still fight with that, right?
All right.
Okay.
We're in the same boat then.
Anything else?
He's after God's own heart.
That's what it said about David.
David what he threw all the way to serve God.
Can you imagine being called King and running around in all the tunnels and
caves for half his life until he became King.
That promise I think was broken in his mind sometimes.
Yeah, his was trying to not kill his soul.
If you read in Psalm, it's almost like he's a manic, the present Lord save me.
Where am I?
I'm forsaken.
And then the next breath, he finally comes around as his God.
You're the God of heaven and earth.
Yeah, really.
All right.
Okay.
Some other thoughts along those lines.
Again, willing heart, that was basically said, uh, degree of maturity, good
reputation and witness, humility, very, very good, faithfulness, good
stewardship, orderly, household, and moral.
Of course.
Yeah, you made it.
You know, when the test comes at the end, I'll give you two points on you.
All right.
Okay.
Examples of generational blessing in serving God.
Let's just use some examples here to get you the idea of what's happening.
In the old Testament, the biblical lineage of Aaron, the high priest goes like this.
Aaron in 1446 BC was the grandson of Phineas.
He acts zealously at PR and God grants him and his descendants, a covenant
of perpetual priesthood for their faithfulness.
This is where it all started.
He then develops that in his priestly line and he re it runs from Ebenezer or
Eliezer to, to, uh, Phineas to, uh, Bishai to Bayak eventually to Zodak was one of
the last priest in nine 30 BC, again, maintaining Aaron's lineage throughout
that priestly era, and then again, they exemplified God's pattern of passing
of covenant responsibilities down through the bloodline.
And then lastly, Aaron's lineage lasted about 534 years of service to the Lord
and to God.
Now I'm just going to give you my side of the story as an example,
the natural lineage of John crowds.
Okay.
Here we are.
There was a pastor John in 1684 in Heidelberg university.
He was dismissed from his ministry because of his beliefs and 18 writings of
glossolalia, which, you know, is the word Holy spirit way back in that time.
So there's nothing new about the Holy spirit.
John with two friends and their families received free passage and 2,400 acres
of land from William Penn.
He died before reaching Fairview village PA, which is about five miles from my place.
And his wife and friends arrived, lived in one house and ministered a spirit
of love to all others.
So they harvested it in my grandfather, John, another John.
There's about eight generations of Johns.
He was a lay minister in the Lutheran church and he worked in the Philadelphia
mint, and of course, yours truly is pastor teacher and elder for 45 years.
So John's lineage has lasted 341 years of ministry to the Lord and God.
And it ends soon.
Okay.
All right.
This is my last will and testament.
Good night folks.
Now, now let's look at the new Testament, the lineage that Christ offers us.
It started in 30 AD when he came and he ministered first Corinthians five, seven
says this, if any wasn't anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
All things and old things have passed away and behold knew the new has come.
That's you and I, that's the promise for us.
Thank you, Lord.
Galatians two 29 or three 29.
We are Abraham's offspring and heirs to all blessings.
There you go.
What's coming down.
We are again adopted as God's child through our faith and all covenant
blessings are forever hours.
Think about that.
Everything.
Well, I just want a corner in heaven.
I just want to make it.
I want the free ticket.
Now God wants more than that.
We'll find out about that.
God is our dad.
We receive him and the Holy Spirit and we call him.
I have a father daddy.
God, you know, did you ever complained to your father?
I do.
I complained to my father.
You know, he wants to hear everything.
You know, just not, not the sweetness of, of what said the complaints, the
discouragements he wants them as you are a father and mother, if you are,
you will understand that you always want to hear what your children have to
say, you want to console them.
You want to help them.
And so much more does he.
First Peter two nine calls us a Royal priesthood and a holy nation.
And then again, our nature moving from selfish desires.
We talked about that self to destiny now flows out from Christ's life
and into our very being.
Praise the Lord for that.
Isn't this?
Remember he writes those things on our heart.
And then again, the identity that goes along with us, we are defined
that by Christ as a pedigree, not of our past failures, the inheritance
that we have, we can stand in line for every promise God has made to his
son, because he was the example.
He was the first footprint and we will follow that.
And the purpose that we have then is to have been placed in a forever family
with a Royal calling and an anointing to accomplish his plan for each one of us.
My plan is different than Kathy's plan is different than Chris's plan.
What his plan is now, not everybody goes along with a plan, but again,
there is a plan for us.
And then finally, our lineage lasts forever to this moment.
It has been 1,995 years of generational blessings to all who know him, the
King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Yes.
Is that a question or just a yes.
Amen.
All right.
Okay, good.
Okay.
How then do we become servants?
Let's look at some first steps, the transition from just simply
salvation to a calling and anointing in your life.
That's where I would hope that we would all be going.
And I'm probably preaching to the choir here tonight, but some people
are satisfied to come in here, do the hour and a half, put their ties
in the offering, praise, sing, and then that's kind of it.
That's not what God wants.
He wants to have a calling fulfilled in your life.
And with that, he gives the anointing.
So let's look at that salvation and embracing new identity.
Salvation occurs at the moment we are rescued from sin and we are
adopted into God's family.
Amen.
Thank you for that.
Right.
So we got the first step.
Okay.
That's good.
We receive forgiveness and grace through faith in Christ.
We all have experienced that in some lesser or greater form.
We are reconciled to God and begin to cultivate a personal
relationship with him.
That's not a requirement.
That's an invitation.
Would you come unto me?
Those that seek me, I will be found.
So he's waiting for you, but he is not inflicting himself upon you.
We experience a radical identity shift from sinner to child of God.
How many have had a shift in their life since salvation?
My gosh, every hand ought to be raised.
Roger, you didn't raise yours.
There's no change in your life.
Oh, okay.
All right.
You have half a one there.
Okay.
I will leave you a slide because you're the senior.
All right.
This fundamental walk is all about the relationship that he desires.
And remember, he wanted a relationship so much.
That's why he took the 12 tribes of Israel, brought them in, wanted to set
them as example, came down in the cloud, visited them, ministered to them.
And he wanted a relationship with people.
And in that relationship, we see transformation.
He doesn't stoop to our median goals.
We, we loftily seek what he is after.
Our calling then is discovering a divine purpose for each life in this room.
After salvation, God then invites us into a unique calling.
Only we can fulfill.
It will certainly be different if there's four, six, eight, 10, 12, 15, 18 people here.
There's 18 different callings.
Some may be parallel, but yet different.
Okay.
He gives us the opportunity.
He doesn't demand us to seek him for our purpose, but we have to want that.
We have to be able to put things aside and spend time seeking him for that.
Take notice where your spiritual interests and passions intersect with needs around you.
This is how you begin to begin to be used and find out what God is saying to you.
What's, what's inside of you?
One, those are our passions and what are their spiritual interests we have?
Is it studying?
Is it proclamation?
What is it?
So you combine these two together and begin to formulate some type of path, obey these
small little promptings that God gives you.
They're of the Holy Spirit and then they will stretch you.
If you were obedient, they will stretch you.
Oh, I can do this.
Well, that's good, but God wants to take you further to where you what?
You depend upon him, not your own needs or your own abilities to do these things.
And then again, find deep joy when you have a daily life that aligns with God's
design, sometimes you have to force yourself to do that, but sometimes you'll
begin to then understand that God is speaking to you.
And then the next step in sensing and stewarding what God's calling and
anointing is, is this, cultivate an awareness for his presence.
I can't, I cannot tell you enough.
It's not coming in and praying for five minutes on your knees and getting out.
It's cultivating the presence of God in your life.
Well, how do you do that?
You begin each day simply by acknowledging God's nearness to you.
That is a declaration and he will, he will yield to that.
And he will tell you again, set reminders.
I have reminders all over the place in my desk in the lavatory.
Okay.
Sticky back things.
I basically now use a computer.
And I, when I get a thought when we have devotions in the morning, I'll stop
the, we listened to two, two individuals on a podcast in the morning.
And then we go off to our prayer and devotions intercede.
And I'll stop the thing.
She said, well, what are you doing?
Wait a minute.
I go to my computer and then put a thought in there.
Well, because you know, what happens with that thought it's fleeting.
Ron, do you remember things a half an hour ago?
I don't.
How about you, Gordon?
All right.
You're the same cloth that I am.
So what we do, we pause and pray.
We, we, we ask Lord, speak to me, father.
And what he does be faithful to kind of build a chronology of events and things.
Over time, these small little pauses will train your heart to recognize the
spirit's gentle promptings throughout the day.
And that's not easy to do.
And I realized that I can say that very easily like Don, you know, he's retired.
So am I a little bit more time in life to do while Ron, you are and so forth.
But when you're in the fray of life, I get it.
I understand that.
But if as you can in your car, when I used to travel to Lehigh university, my
theater, my, my, my theater of events was an hour up in the car, going up the
Northeast expense extension over 22 and an hour coming back.
So I had two hours of solitude before my wife either gave me a
honeydew list or whatever the case may be.
So over time, you want to train your heart to recognize these
promptings.
Another thing I want you to practice consistent disciplines.
Well, today we're going to pray and we're going to do all these things.
And then two weeks later, you forget them prayer, reading, and studying
the scripture worship praise.
And even fasting is part of getting your body, your mind in tune
with what God wants structure them into your life, just like an appointment.
That's why I personally, I've said it before.
I find that in the morning, before things go crazy, I have time.
I like to really get up and have a cup of coffee before my wife gets up, you
know, just, you know, the solitude of the day, you know, in the cathedral
room up and looking at the skylights, thanking the Lord for his beauty,
his love, you know, there's, and then we kind of go into that, those
transitions that we've talked about.
The consistency, which is a gem of these habits creates special
encounters with him, special encounters.
He wants to visit you, he wants to communicate to you, making it easier
and easier to sense God's activity in your life.
But if you don't do it, but two times a month, and then three times
that month, and then the next month, nothing, it's going to be hard
to get consistency out of it.
Question now, who has stewarded their calling to a point where you
recognize what God desires for service from you?
Anybody want to take that one?
Are you more sure of that now than you were some years ago?
What does that look like for you?
I can, I'll give you my, my, my, an abbreviated testimony.
There used to be a time that I was, as a pastor, this is a confession
because it was many people in my congregation that witnessed that I
didn't, you know, I wasn't comfortable in that while they go on the
outside and I do the inside work.
Well, I'll tell you, since I have moved 10 years ago into a community
where God said to me, after I'm saying to him, well, you know, what's
my next goal, what's my next, um, assignment, he showed me 400 people
in a gathering one time.
And I said, yeah, Lord, they all have come to the end of their life.
They all have money because they live there.
Some of them are disappointed.
Their kids don't visit them.
They're old, they're lonely, they're depressed.
This is your mission statement.
Okay.
So I took that and it's unbelievable when you begin to find out what that is.
And then as I began to share, I mean, we have been praying, I'll give you
an example, we have been praying for this particular couple for about a
year and a half opportunity is that we invite them out to dinner and you
know, you build a relationship, you see them in different activities.
And we, I see this one lady that I'm referring to in my
caregivers group, yada, yada, yada.
Well, this was our fourth dinner and I said, Joni, I said, I really want
to see fruit from this thing.
I just don't want to do dinners for the sake of dinners.
Let's pray.
So we prayed and through the meal last night, all the way up to the end.
I said, okay, Lord, it's getting late here.
When are you going to do your thing?
She said one sentence and it opened up to where the plan of
salvation was given to her.
And then the question was, you know, did you ever think about where
you're going after this life?
You know, I just haven't thought about that, you know, and it was
honest, you know, and we had a very honest.
Now I didn't bring closure because that's not my mission.
Our mission is what to plant seeds and somebody may bring increase.
But I said, Lord, I said, I just, you know, when we got home, I said,
we always kind of debrief, you know, what was said, because sometimes
my wife says, I stick my foot in my mouth.
But anyway, um, that's being real.
And, uh, we just praise the Lord for that because that's a breakthrough
with this couple, you know, and somebody else may harvest those, those,
those lives, who knows, but the sensitivity of being available,
hearing God say to these, to these issues, this is what I want you to do
here and, you know, we prepared it in prayer and so forth.
Anybody want to take that?
What does your life look like in part and parcel?
A little bit.
All right.
Nobody wants to bear their soul.
Okay, Chris,
I would say mainly from my, my all the years and mortgages and credit
and all that, just God using me in areas just to give practical
advice to people, which is good stewardship of whatever the situation
is and, you know, so I still get tons of opportunities to do that now.
And it's very practical, but like people just don't know because
they've never been shown, you know,
you know, I find more and more as you begin to bring your declaration
to bear in conversations that there, and excuse the word, there's a lot
of ignorance about who God is and what he is, you know, these people
never been thought about really life after death to any great degree.
So anyway, okay.
The next step in sensing and stewarding God's calling and anointing
are these, listen and discern the spirit's voice.
So we talked about these little inklings on the inside, the still
small quiet voice that you know, that you know, that you know, that
God said that.
And sometimes you have to test that you want to act on it.
And if it's wrong, that's fine.
You come back.
It's a learning lesson.
Okay.
When you pray and read scripture, jot down these impressions,
emotions, and verses that jump out at you as a cornerstone to
build on other things and then evaluate them by asking, does
this really align with God's character?
And is it a biblical truth or am I thinking because I ate too
much meatloaf last night that I have indigestion?
You know, one of the things you can ask this, God doesn't
mind, he wants to speak to you.
And over time, a pattern, I guarantee you a pattern will
emerge.
It'll be a personal understanding of how the spirit speaks
uniquely to you.
Sometimes people have visions.
I don't, I have a still small voice inside that, that, that
again, I hear not always right, but I hear, I act upon that.
Other people have impressions in their mind, obey these
promptings immediately.
But what happens if you hesitate that moment goes by and
then he needs to ask somebody else to fulfill that carousel
moment, that timely moment where you know, God was in it.
How many ever have missed that?
Oh man, don't you feel bad Lord?
I'm sorry.
He loves us anointing grows in strength as you respond in
faith.
If you don't respond, the anointing won't grow in your
life.
When you feel nudged to reach out or to speak a word of
encouragement, like you said, act on it.
No matter how small it is, it can simply be if somebody's
going through grief and pain or facing an operation that
we, you know, we're dealing with one person in and out
of a particular lobby.
Her 24 year old son has, has, has rectal cancer.
You know, and it was just an opportunity to say, okay,
we're going to pray for you and we're believing for you.
No matter how small it is, each step of obedience deepens
your sensitivity to the Lord and the trust in the
spirit's guidance.
So you'll get to know, okay, that's you, Lord.
I'm confident of that.
Do not be afraid of making mistakes as you hear his
voice on the inside.
I think sometimes, you know, you, you kind of know
where the, where the stones are because you've fallen
in the water long enough.
You know, you know what you know by virtue of the
negative aspects of learning.
Walk us through your experiences about learning to
listen to his leading, the do's and don'ts, and
what are the results?
So nobody raised their hand and offered except Chris
the first question.
So I don't know whether you're going to want to do
this one or not, but walk us through some
experiences that you may have had in hearing God's
voice, whether it was wrong or right.
Yes.
Oh, good.
We have somebody else.
All right.
Bear your soul.
I think I'm understanding this.
Walk us through the word says let the peace of
Christ rule in your heart.
So I know, and I'm a school bus driver and drive
and I have time to pray and think, and I know, I
guess a year or two, maybe a year or two ago when
I'm, you know, and this is what happened all the
time where I feel a lot, a loss of peace, the
lack of peace.
And so I came, Lord, well, what is it?
And then I realized what happened.
The Lord will show me what happened at the
moment and where I had the loss of peace.
But I remember driving one morning and I've had,
you know, some, my daughters, you know, going,
going through many, many, many things.
And I was driving and I, and I noticed it, you
know, I, what I, you know, I, I think I'm praying,
but I'm not feeling peace.
So I said, Lord, what is it?
You know, what am I doing here?
And he goes, I felt the Lord was saying,
she's not your problem.
I am.
In other words, you worship me, seek me first.
I'll take care of the rest.
I'll take care of her.
And then I felt the peace.
So I had to definitely say, you know, put him
first, let him take care of her.
And then I had the peace again.
So praise the Lord for that.
It's hard to put your kids on the altar, isn't it?
Because you have an empathy and emotion.
You've raised them, you birthed them, but yet
when they're not obedience, Lord, here they are.
This is a, it's just a really neat experience
that I had with the Lord where, and it wasn't just me.
There was, we were in the Liberty Thrift Store,
the old one in Quaker Town.
There's one really nice one and there's an older one, right?
And I'm in line and there was the Liberty, Liberty Thrift Store.
It's, they're fun.
Have you ever been to them?
Well, you have to catch the sales.
Actually, these thrift stores aren't thrifty anymore.
But, but the man, there was, we were waiting in line
and there was a, there was a, an African-American man
in front of me with two daughters.
And he just seemed like a really wonderful person.
And the girls were really good.
So I just remember thinking,
well, that seems like a really nice guy.
Well, there was an older man in front of him.
All, we're all waiting in line.
So the older man turns to the African-American man
and said, just looks at him and says,
can I pray for you?
Is there something you like?
And I thought, well, isn't that neat?
This is somebody, this is somebody, you know,
operating in the spirit.
And, and the guy, the older man,
so then the African-American man says,
well, yeah, well, yeah, you can pray for me.
I'm, I'm, I'm just about to move to Allentown
with a group of people.
And we're going to start a church in Allentown.
And, and, you know, so you could pray for that.
So I'm there listening and I'm like,
this is a total divine moment.
So once he said that, I just said, hey, listen,
I just heard you're starting a church in Allentown.
I got somebody you have to meet.
So it was the pastor, Emmanuel Suarez,
who we started a church in Allentown with them.
And so we were ministering up there for seven years,
but Emmanuel has this, you know,
this incredible ministry of children
into that whole neighborhood.
So anyhow, I said, can I,
would I be able to have your number
and I could just put in touch with him.
Long story short, Ron becomes the assistant pastor
to Emmanuel.
They joined churches.
They're still ministering together.
And it's just such a great relationship.
And I just think bam, bam, bam.
Like that man was listening to the Lord
and said, can I pray for you?
And it was so funny that the answer to prayer
was in line behind Ron.
I was like, this is so,
it was like the intersection
of a lot of people really praying.
So that was a really neat experience.
What happens, Francine,
if you wouldn't have obeyed the Lord?
Think about that.
Yeah, but you wouldn't even know on the outcome.
Somebody else would have had to step in.
Just one thing I will say,
and I've noticed that the God,
whether you're naturally shy or whether you're not,
whether you're somebody that talks,
but God expects all of us to reach out.
And I don't think,
we don't get that message preached enough,
but Jesus, I'm sure,
didn't want to talk to everybody all the time like he did,
but he forced himself.
And I know that when I've gone out of my way,
because like I was either too busy or whatever,
and I didn't want to, but I'm like, no,
I got to do what the Lord wants.
Like, I'm going to do this.
It's always been a blessing,
but it's also always been where you feel like,
yeah, that's a character development
that we should all have,
that we should be willing to just speak up
and reach out.
Really, amen.
The declarative word of the Lord brings life, not death.
Anyone else?
All right.
Don't want to leave any, yes, go ahead.
I have a quick one.
I remember one time, somebody I knew through business,
this was like 30 years ago,
but someone I knew from business was,
she had cancer, I knew she was terminal.
And the Spirit just kept saying,
you need to visit her and give her the gospel.
But I was kind of newer believer,
but it was whatever 30 some years ago.
And I'm like, yeah, but I don't know.
I'm not comfortable with that, you know?
And so I didn't do it and she died.
And I just remember like it was an annoying thing.
And I said to God,
if you ever give me an opportunity to do that again,
I won't let you down.
And with that, one after another, tons of opportunity.
It was like a terminally ill ministry suddenly.
And it was so cool.
He just kept on giving me more and more opportunities.
So yeah, it was great.
Oh my God.
You know, generationally speaking,
there's an opportunity that just came across our desk,
not an opportunity in answer to prayer.
One of my early marriages that I performed
were with this couple in church.
And long story short, they lived a life.
He was kind of, you know, disciplined in his ways.
She got into drugs, married, had two children.
They separated.
The two children got into drugs.
And we just heard recently,
now this goes back setting the seed again
in these people's lives,
that the daughters came back to the Lord.
They got married.
And one of them went on a missions trip last week
and prayed.
She stepped out in faith.
She prayed for a blind man
and the blind man received his sight.
Oh my gosh.
I said, boy, I said, that's a winner.
That's beyond me.
I've never had that happen.
Praise the Lord.
Okay.
Next step in sensing the stewarding
of your gifting and calling is this.
You wanna partner with others.
That's a safeguard.
That's why the Lord says,
do not forsake the assembling of yourself together
because you learn from the ebb and flow
of our Christian experiences,
even what we learned tonight from each one,
or from some of you.
Share what you sense with a trusted friend,
a mentor in a small group.
And that's half of why we have small groups
because if we give testimony Sunday morning
and that's all we do Sunday morning,
probably five people will get up out of what?
100 and 120 people.
We're not inclined to do that,
but in small groups you can open yourself up
much easier and better.
Again, invite feedback and prayer.
Others can often help confirm or clarify
what God may be saying and leading you to do.
And then stewarding your anointing with others
prevents self-deception and keeps you accountable.
I can't say that enough.
There are lone rangers that if they're not getting
their needs met here, they're gonna take their marbles
and go elsewhere.
And okay, goodbye, out the door.
The fellowship of the brethren is a valuable,
most valuable asset which you need to use
and want to experience,
only because that's the safeguard that we have.
It's not Chris alone in what he says on Sunday.
It's the gathering of the saints,
the opportunity to worship together in declaration
and it keeps you accountable.
If you have an accountability partner,
we just finished a meeting with three guys
in another room, we work together.
We pray for one another.
Sometimes we cry together.
But the accountability, the exchange of ideas
and thoughts is safeguard for us.
Please, please reflect, record and rejoice.
Keep a notebook or a computer like I do
near your desk or use a phone.
Some of you put your messages on phones.
For moments when you sense God's direction,
I put things down, okay, when I have this one,
I'm out somewhere and the Lord prompts me to call,
I put the message, just the person's name, contact.
And then I read that because long behold,
10 minutes later, I'll forget the guy's name
or the person's name.
And sometimes your responses to grow from these things.
Review of these things periodically
to celebrate answered prayer strengthens us
when we read these notes and the lessons learned.
I used to keep, it's just got too big now,
a list on my phone of the requests
and then I used to cross it out
and put on an answered thing and got pages and pages.
I used to read that thing
and really get blessed with all the things God did.
And it was with the date, don't do it anymore.
This practice turns simple impressions
into a documented journey of spirit-led growth.
You can look back and say, Lord, you did work in my life.
You are working in my life.
And it also acts as a faith builder
when looking back on his guidance in your life
and especially when you're discouraged with your growth.
I'm not growing.
I don't feel the Lord's close to me.
There may be a season that he doesn't speak to you.
I had a season like that in my life.
God wanted to speak to me and his absence,
it was like driving down a turnpike
and the fog comes in and you don't even know
where you're at.
You can see the white line in the road
but you can't see 20 feet in front of you.
And it was about a year and a half.
It was a very lonely time.
But out of that experience,
I really learned a lot of things.
Okay, mentoring steps,
anointing is empowerment by the spirit.
Anointing is the Holy Spirit's power poured out in you
to equip you for the active service
that you are going to do.
Through it, you ask for wisdom and insights
beyond your natural ability.
Lord, I can't do that what you're asking me to do.
Yes, you can.
If he's spoken to you,
he will give you that strength to do it.
Open your spirit to receive
supernatural boldness and authority
to act in Christ's name.
And you know, my real learning process
was when I started to deal in spirits and demons.
Not everybody wants to do that.
But the ability to do that when it comes up
to take authority over that
because he has given us authority to do those things.
And that's a whole different experience.
And learning, and doing.
Depend daily on the spirit rather than your own strength.
I can do this, Lord, I got it.
It's not what he wants.
He wants dependency.
And like you say, humility.
The power of God's anointing
is a dynamic and transformative force
equipping believers for service,
guiding them in truth,
and enabling them to live out
their life's calling in Christ.
That's the only deal at the end of the game
that's important, what you've done for him.
Now the final steps, and then we'll close.
Plan for your legacy.
What is your legacy?
What will you have sown that is permanent?
Is it retirement accounts?
Is it a Mercedes camper?
Oh, Don, I'm sorry.
I'm kidding you.
He doesn't have a smile on his face, Chris.
I'm in trouble.
Always be open and look to train
and release the next generation onto their calling.
You will have an opportunity to do that
if you're open to it.
The spirit of multiplication goes like this.
It's in Timothy 2-2.
The things that you have learned from me,
that's Paul speaking,
among many witnesses,
commit to the same faithful men
who will be able to teach others also.
The replication of the deposits of God
in your life transferred to others.
That won't be the same experience,
but those experiences are valuable.
And then, again, discipling others as opportunities come up.
Always look to, again, impart your experiences
and your message to others
in order for them to learn God's ways
and not walk on your mistakes.
Because I made a lot of them.
Establishing, finally, a sustaining life in others.
And I'll tell you,
this is the only reward that is lasting.
Nothing is greater and brings more reward in your heart
than when you see people that you've nurtured,
that you've cried with,
that you've worked through difficulties with,
and they move forward in their lives
and in their calling,
having helped them in some way.
You almost bring tears to your eyes
when you think of the people
that you've influenced by God's grace.
So I want you to think about
the lineage that you have in Christ.
What he wants to do for you, yes,
but through you.
That's most, most, most important.
What does God want?
Well, John, I don't know where to start.
I've given you some tips here.
The beginning and regular time with him
and start that life of service.
So Father, we thank you for your love toward us,
for each one in this room.
Lord, not only have you called us to be holy,
you've called us to be missional,
to be a declarative word of life,
even by our presence and our stature
to others that don't know you.
And Father, we thank you that you live within us.
Help us to be bold for you, we pray.
And Lord, we ask a blessing on each one tonight
as they go their way.
In the name of Jesus, everyone said, amen.
God bless you and thank you for your time.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church
as we praise God and discuss his word.
Don't forget to join us for Worship Live Sunday mornings
at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day.
Amen.