His Love Ministries
Episodes
Wednesday Mar 25, 2015
RUTH 1:6-13 DON'T BE AN UNBELIEVING BELIEVER
Wednesday Mar 25, 2015
Wednesday Mar 25, 2015
Ru 1:6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she
might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab
that the LORD had visited His people by giving them bread. 7 Therefore she went
out from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and
they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. 8 And Naomi said to her
two daughters-in-law, "Go, return each to her mother's house. The LORD
deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9 "The
LORD grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband." Then
she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. 10 And they said to
her, "Surely we will return with you to your people." 11 But Naomi
said, "Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Are there still
sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? 12 "Turn back,
my daughters, go-for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have
hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons, 13
"would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain
yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much
for your sakes that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me!"
The
Testimony of Naomi 6-7 The
Backsliding Believer, she is a Moabite at heartShe is out of
fellowship with GodShe is missing God’s bestShe is experiencing the consequences of her disobedienceLev 26:3-26 If you do this, blessing, if not then consequencesSometimes we say “Lord, we’ve asked you
to bless all these things;
but, have we asked please, Lord, make us
blessable. Naomi would have had to confess, “Lord, I’m not blessable.
Whenever we have disobeyed the Lord and
departed from His will, we must confess our sin and return to the place of
blessing.
V8 -13 She is giving bad adviceNaomi
tried to influence the two women to go back to their families and their false
gods.
If it was right for her to go back, it
was right for them to go back too
·
Naomi
should have said to them what Moses said to his father-in-law, “Come thou with
us, and we will do thee good; for the Lord has spoken good concerning Israel
(Num. 10:29, KJV). Instead, Naomi tried to influence the two women to go back
to their families and their false gods.
v
11-13 She is thinking in human terms, not that God can do all thingsNaomi was trying to cover up her disobedience. If she returned to
Bethlehem alone, nobody would know that the family had broken the Law of Moses.
1.
God
providentially closed their wombs so that there would not be any ½ Israelite
children, but the promised heir would come later
2.
Over emphasis on
husband and children - she is wanting to find security in husbands and children
and bread- the physical vs the spiritual
3.
She is Saying go
back and marry a Moabite
4.
To find rest for
an OT Oriental culture was to find a husband and security
5.
With no husband
they have no way to live
Three
times Naomi insisted that they return to Moab
Thursday Mar 12, 2015
RUTH 1:1-5 THE COST OF IGNORING GOD'S WILL
Thursday Mar 12, 2015
Thursday Mar 12, 2015
1 Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled,
that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah,
went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The
name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of
his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion-Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they
went to the country of Moab and remained there. 3 Then Elimelech, Naomi's
husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons. 4 Now they took wives of the
women of Moab: the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth.
And they dwelt there about ten years. 5 Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died;
so the woman survived her two sons and her husband.
·
We have
to decide which world we are going to live in for eternity
·
We have
to decide which world we are going to live in now
·
Three fatal mistakes
o
Walked by sight not faith - Deut 28
·
Bethlehem means house of bread
·
Should have repented instead of going to Moab,
and God would have lifted the famine
o
Focused on physical not the Spiritual
§
Better to be in Bethlehem and be hungry than to
be in Moab out of the Will of God with a full stomach
§
By doing this He honored the enemy instead of
the Lord
o
He broke covenant with God by leaving the land –
Deut 28
Moab is my wash pot, in other words instead of eating at the
house of bread, he is eating out of the garbage can
§
Like the Story of prodigal
·
They became
comfortable in their disobedience
o
They remained
there – lived there 10 years, made it their home
o
Got swept up into the culture
o
They were disciplined by the Lord
After Elimelech died the sons Married
Moabite women
Am 3:3 Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?
2Co 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what
fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light
with darkness?
Lessons
1.
It’s
been said that crises reveal what we are.
They also make us what we are in God’s plan 1 Peter 1 and
James 1 says count it all joy and let patience have it’s perfect
work. Don’t get out of the trial, learn what God wants you to in the trial
2.
You
don’t want to be anywhere out of the will of God. It’s better to starve to death in God’s will rather
than be somewhere He doesn’t want you to be
3.
When
we disobey we put others and ourselves in danger of God’s discipline and all
kinds of bad things can happen. We can
lose everything.
4.
God
loves it when we come home to Him.
Lu 15:6 "And
when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to
them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'
Wednesday Mar 04, 2015
EPHESIANS 6:18-24 TO WIN THE BATTLE YOU HAVE TO PRAY
Wednesday Mar 04, 2015
Wednesday Mar 04, 2015
Eph 6:18
praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful
to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints-- 19 and
for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to
make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in
chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. 21 But that you
also may know my affairs and how I am doing, Tychicus, a beloved brother and
faithful minister in the Lord, will make all things known to you; 22 whom I
have sent to you for this very purpose, that you may know our affairs, and that
he may comfort your hearts. 23 Peace to the brethren, and love with faith, from
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all those who love
our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.
PRAYER, the means by which we remain "watchful"
Now the fact that it
is climactic in the Book of Ephesians is planned by God's Holy Spirit, it is
not by accident. Our Lord urged men always to pray and not to faint in Luke
18:1. And He knows that in the battle when it gets hot you can faint, you can
get weary, you can give up, you can abandon the fight if you don't pray. You
really only have two alternatives, you either pray or faint, there's no middle
ground. And so in the warfare that he's just talked about prayer becomes vital.
But it's more than just that context. The reason prayer comes here is because
it fits the ending of the total book, the whole letter of Ephesians comes to a
climax and a peak and a pinnacle at this point in the great anthem of praise
that is the book of Ephesians.
We
should understand spiritual warfare as influencing life within the church, not
just as a personal matter. "Satan
trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees."
I
want you to see the general instruction in verse 18, and you'll notice there
are four all’s.
First of all let's look first of all at the frequency of
prayer; When are we to pray? Always
Secondly, we see not
only the frequency of prayer but the second “all” shows us the
variety of prayer. "Praying always with all prayer and supplication."
Now what does he mean by all prayer and all supplication? He means there are
general areas of prayer, we pray more generally, and then we also pray
specifically
Thirdly, we see the manner of prayer. He says, "Watching
thereunto with all perseverance and supplication." In other words we are
to watch with all perseverance, and again you see the idea of perseverance
meaning to stick to it, to stay at it, to hang in there, to continue, to
persevere, praying continuously while watching. Prayer is to be alert to the
issues, alert to what's happening. Jesus said, "Watch and pray" many
times. First Peter 4:7, "Watch unto prayer."
In the Garden of
Gethsemane, Jesus taught that we must "watch and pray, lest you enter into
temptation" - Mt 26:36-45, 26:51-54, 58, 69-75; Mark 8:29-33, Peter;
1Peter 5:4;
You see God answers prayer to put His power on display; if you don't
pray specifically then He can't display Himself.
What Paul is saying is this, “here
is the war and it is about the war that you must pray.” It's not easy for you
to fight the battle and so I pray for you. Oh, I pray now and then for people's
physical things but more than that I pray that God will give you victory, I
pray that you'll win the battle against the enemy. I don't really care what
happens to my physical body or yours as long as we gain the victory for the
glory of God, amen? That's the battle, that's the real issue.
Lose yourselves in
the real things that matter, the spiritual battles of other people. Lose
yourselves in consuming prayer for the Kingdom of God and you won't have
trouble with your little petty anxieties.
There's one final
thought in this verse 18, and it's this that when you've said it all, the
frequency of prayer, always. The pervasive thought is in the middle of
the verse, we are to pray in the Spirit. This does not have anything to do with
speaking in tongues, you cannot introduce tongues into this verse.
In Jude 20 it says,
"Praying in the Holy Spirit." It is not talking about some ecstasy;
it is not talking about some ecstatic language. Praying in the Spirit is the
same as praying in the name of Christ, it is praying in consistency with who He
is and what His will is. Learn to pray in harmony with the Spirit’s desires.
Then Paul closes with
a specific illustration, if you want
something specific to pray for, here it is. Verse 19, "Pray for
me," what should I pray for Paul? "That utterance may be given to me,
that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for
which I am an ambassador in bonds; that in this I may speak boldly, as I ought
to speak." He says, I'm the illustration, pray for me, not my physical
needs but my battle, my warfare, pray that God will allow me to be bold and
courageous and straight forward and give me utterance.
CONCLUSION
1. When we arm
ourselves with;
a. Truth
b. Righteousness
c. The gospel of peace
d. Faith
e. The hope of salvation
f. The word of God
g. Prayer
...then we are "strong in the Lord and
in the power of His might"!
- Ep
6:10
2. With such
strength, we are able to resist and stand firm against anything Satan might
throw against us
a. But the choice to "put on the whole
armor of God" is up to us...
b. Are we taking care to put on this wonderful
armor???