RESPECT - THIRD VALUE OF A SOLDIER OF CHRIST

 

RESPECT AUTHORITY - 5TH KEY TO KINGDOM LIVING

TEXT: 1 PETER 2:13-25

THIRD SET OF KEYS TO THE KINGDOM - FEAR GOD, LOVE PEOPLE

TEXT: 1 Peter 1: 17-24 

THY WILL BE DONE: PRAYER- "BE PRACTICAL"

PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM NEHEMIAH'S PRAYER

I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 I said, “I beseech You, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and loving-kindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, 6 let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned. 

7 We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. 

8 Remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples; 9 but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.’ 

10 They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand. 11 O Lord, I beseech You, may Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to revere Your name, and make Your servant successful today and grant him compassion before this man.”(Nehemiah 1:4-11)

There are so many great prayers in the Bible, they can fill many books and sermons about their content, meaning and message. One of the greatest leaders and men of God of all time, is Nehemiah, the first Governor of the Judean district (where Jerusalem was) after the Babylonian exile. Nehemiah was chosen by God to rebuild the city after the remnant of the Jewish people had withstood 70 years in exile, in pagan Babylon. As Nehemiah began to rebuild the wall, he faced a lot of opposition, taunts and real enemies from people like Sanballat, Tobiah and their Arab friend. Still Nehemiah and the faithful remnant stayed focus on rebuilding their portion of the wall (read the rest of the Book of Nehemiah), while keeping a vigilant eye open for danger. This is a great example for God's people for all time about practical living in the face of evil while persevering.

This entire prayer of Nehemiah's, to the Lord (see verses 4-11 above) stand out as one of the most powerful in all Scriptures, as the Lord not only granted victory but did it in a spectacular way.  So what was it about this was so powerful that the Lord my God responded with overwhelming victorious response. Let us briefly look at how Nehemiah wasted no time or word and was both practical and proactive in his methodology of praying.

Verse 4: "I was fasting and praying..." -  While some Christians do not fast or even believe in fasting, I can testify to the fact that an intentional fast signifies a willing heart open to hearing from heaven. Fasting sharpens the senses, and especially the spiritual senses as our hearts are more in tune with the Holy Spirit Who is our guarantor that God will hear our prayers. In dangerous times, the practical thing to do is to pray like Nehemiah - in submission, and temporarily depriving ourselves of the things of this world.

Verse 5: “I beseech You, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God...". Practical praying gets to the Point by acknowledging openly and truthfully, the Sovereign Power of God - His Might, His Majesty and His Mind Which attends the affairs of mankind. He responds any way He wishes, because He is sovereign over all.

Verse 6: "let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant..." Practical praying is pro-active in immediately asking the Father for His full attention to your petition, problem or issue. Notice how, after you read the entire verse above, after Nehemiah asked the Lord's full focus on the matter at hand, Nehemiah went on not just to confess the sins of the people but HIS OWN SINS. In verse 5, the Judean Governor praises and acknowledges the Sovereignty of God, and in verse 6, the petition and confession begins. This is our cue to lay are our souls bare before Him. Every hidden sin must be confessed before God and repentance must begin.

Verse 7: the confession and repenting of sins continues and Nehemiah uses the Plumb Line of Scripture to show just how horrible the departure from God's statutes was. We are in the same boat. Nothing in modern life matches up to Scripture and almost everything in life today, violates the Word of God. The road to restoration continues down the path of repentance.

Verses 8 and 9: "Remember the word..." Here Nehemiah "reminds" the Lord what He said He would do to His people if they strayed and while He disciplines, He is divinely merciful and loving like the Father in the story of the Prodigal Son. Practical praying for a solution is first to KNOW the promises and proclamation of God and secondly, how to apply them appropriately and recall these promises, WITH GREAT AWE AND RESPECT - back to Him! We can say something like "Heavenly Father, remember when You said "If Your people return to Your Word, obey Your commandments and statutes You will hear from Heaven, and if Your people who are called by Your Name....Lord I long to follow You more intentionally and walk in ALL Your Ways, please hear my prayer as I stand on Your Promise to hear from Heaven and heal....."

Verses 10 and 11: Notice that Nehemiah, in essence summarizes, presents and then yields to the Lord with expectation in the positive result. He is actually practical, concise and given the fact that the Holy Spirit included this short prayer in Scripture. Some of the most practical (and effective) prayers in Biblical history have been short, to the point and sweet. When Peter started walking on water towards Jesus, than took his eyes of the Lord and started to sink, he did not pull out his book of prayer from the Christian bookstore and launch into eloquent speech. Peter simply cried out "LORD, SAVE ME"...and He did! Here Nehemiah summarized effective in Verse 11 "I beseech thee"...."may Your Ear be attentive"....and I "revere Your Name"...so "make Your servant successful and grant Him compassion"

That is it! With this in mind, in spite of obstacles, in spite of serious spiritual attack, with this prayer as the foundation, Nehemiah led his people to a victorious conclusion. They were buffeted by Ezra the Scribe reading from the Word of God for hours, aloud, to ALL the people.  The lesson for us is this: be practical, be fully prayed up, be clear and be buffeted by the Word of God.

A LIFE WELL LIVED, Part 1 - HONOR

Living well....and finishing well, is the main goal of every level-headed person I know. Several of my friends have bucket lists and are fortunate enough to have the means to accomplish the items on that list, one by one. Given the brevity of life, we are more than encouraged to get the most out of life and there is nothing wrong or ungodly about giving it your best.

This is what short series is about - A Life Well Lived. The first sign that God wants for us to "Live long and Prosper" can be found in the first commandment with a promise - The Fifth Commandment. God said "honor your father and mother that your days may be long, which the Lord your God has given you" (Exodus 20:12).  This is a horizontal or relational statute because it pertains to us on a human level. But because it comes from a Divine Source, it carries all the weight in the world.

This is the start of a life well lived - kabad in the original Hebrew - meaning glorify and treasure with respect your parents, because if you do - you will honor, revere, adore, glorify, magnify and lift up the Holy Name of God, from Whom all blessings flow! He has promised, if you do that, He will give you a long and fruitful life!

Are you living that today?

TOMORROW - PERCEPTION

it does NOT TAKE a village....!!!

FIFTH COMMANDMENT

The first four of the Ten Commandments of God define our relationship with God. There are clear;  absolute and there is no way ANYONE can mistake HOW we are to conduct ourselves before Father, through the Son, Jesus the Lord and Savior.

The next six of these Ten Commandments of God define our relationship with each other. Jesus Christ summed up all the in Luke 10:27 (“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”) What we shall do here is examine each of the remaining six and see how we are to "love our neighbor as ourselves"!

The Fifth Commandment says “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you." (Exodus 20:12 ESV). It is no accident that this is the first of the Relational Commandments. How we honor, love and respect Abba, our Heavenly Father, depends on how we do the same with our earthly parents! 

The ancient Hebrew families all lived together and the family could all be found in the same compound, for the most part. Everyone had a part in helping aging elders in this setting, which was indeed the earthly ideal set up by Holy God. For example, Jesus was on the Cross and as He looked over to His Disciple John, He said in His dying moments to him "Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home....(John 19:27). The Messiah was not saying that His earthly mother Mary was ANYTHING other than she was now John's responsibility to care for, as was the Hebrew family custom! This is ALL that verse means. Jesus' earthly half-brothers - Mary's two REAL sons - James and Jude (who wrote two New Testament books) were not yet part of the body of the Disciples. They would join in later as the entire group ended up living and travelling together.

Fast forward to 2012...how does this affect us today? The same! The nucleus of the family was determined in Heaven along with Marriage between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24). Whereas marriage today has been degraded as America and the west slouch towards Gomorrah, all children today still have parents! Children growing up in single (and unmarried) households are increasing, even faster than those in traditional families, as God intended it. Ungodly liberal policies and politicians are attempting to redefine God's plan for families by saying over and over, that the infrastructure of the local community is the one which children should honor. In other words, these people say - "it takes a village"! Well, God says in His Word that it does not take a village or a public school teacher or some social activist. It takes a parent.

Are some parents not deserving of respect and honor? Yes. 
Are some parents not raising their children with the fear and knowledge of the Lord? Yes.
Are these parents going to be held accountable by the Lord for NOT teaching these children His statutes and precepts? Yes, Yes and a thousand times Yes! Still, this does not absolved our children...as we once were, from their responsibility to be polite and respectful of their parents (or parent if the natural mom or dad is absent).

This command from the Lord sets up the foundation for the future behavior of children, as we will see over the next five commandments!

FATHER'S DAY FOCUS - PART 2

 HOW NOT TO BE A FATHER

TODAY- KINGS DAVID and SOLOMON

SUNDAY- HOW TO BE A GODLY FATHER

King Henry IV, having seized the throne of England, from the equally pathetic Richard II and had him murdered, was having trouble sleeping and wondered, according to William Shakespeare, why other men (who had done worse!!!) could sleep while he - Henry IV- could not. Shakespeare then quoted this famous line "Deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down! Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown (Henry IV, 1597).

The offspring of Royalty are usually a bunch of spoiled brats, whose fathers were too busy being "King" and denying themselves nothing - whether it is the beautiful women of other men; gold and jewelry or lands and tribes to conquer. We don't have to look to Bible history for an example - look at Prince Charles of England. Not happy with Diana as his wife, he had to go after Camilla Parker Bowles - then married to another man....all in plain view of his sons and the world.

Romans 15:4 NLT tells us "Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God's promises to be fulfilled". This is why we look to the examples which the Lord provided for us, as to how we should or should NOT live! Hence the reason we look at these two great kings of Israel. What these men did, as fathers, have affected the Middle East and history for 3000 years now. Kings David and his son (by Uriah the Hittite's wife, Bathsheba), Solomon, are exhibits A and B of fathers whom God will never want us to be like! If you wish to learn to be a true worshiper and live in repentance, then David is your man! For Proverbs to live by, Solomon is your man. For advice on Fatherhood, run the other way from these men!

KING DAVID:

Here are some of the sons of David: 

 ¹ These are the sons of David who were born in Hebron:  The oldest was Amnon, whose mother was Ahinoam from Jezreel.  The second was Daniel, whose mother was Abigail from Carmel.
 ² The third was Absalom, whose mother was Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur.  The fourth was Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith.
 ³ The fifth was Shephatiah, whose mother was Abital.  The sixth was Ithream, whose mother was Eglah, David’s wife.  ⁴ These six sons were born to David in Hebron, where he reigned seven and a half years.  Then David reigned another thirty-three years in Jerusalem. ⁵ The sons born to David in Jerusalem included Shammua,  Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon. Their mother was Bathsheba,  the daughter of Ammiel. ⁶ David also had nine other sons: Ibhar, Elishua,  Elpelet,  ⁷ Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, ⁸ Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.  ⁹ These were the sons of David, not including his sons born to his concubines. Their sister was named Tamar”.  

I Chronicles 3:1-9

In all the kings of Israel, there was no one more faithful and worshipful of God than King David. Just look at the psalms he wrote.  The Lord Jesus comes from the House of David.So what happened? Well, the young teenage warrior whom the Lord empowered to kill Goliath with a strategically placed stone, between the eyes, had a problem with his eyes and women.

Six wives were not enough, he had to go after the beautiful wife of one of what the Bible called “David’s Mighty Men” (See 2 Samuel 23:8-39 & 1 Chronicles 11:10-47). David lusted after Uriah’s wife, impregnated her and then had one of his best friends and the Mighty Men – Uriah – murdered, so he could have her.

Most kings and rulers over time never have time or purpose to be Biblically sound fathers and parents. Kings always send their kids to the best schools; hire the best nannies and staff to ensure only the best for their offspring.

King David was no different. Look at the list of his sons above, each of them had a different mother. So it was no shock when Amnon, his oldest son, set out to seduce and proceed to rape his own poor beautiful sister Tamar.

It was also NOT shocking that David did NOTHING about it! Here is his only daughter brutalized by his oldest son, his only heir at the time, and NOTHING, nothing from the man whom we know, wrote all the Psalms and prayers under the Power of the Holy Spirit!

When he was 45 years old, he had Uriah killed and married Bathsheba immediately afterwards. His other son, Absalom, witnessed all of this and years later, led a rebellion against his own dad – David!  Absalom also fulfilled the judgment pronounced by God against David after God sent Nathan to expose David’s crimes. God said He would punish David by letting others sleep with David’s wives in public to shame him…..Absalom, David’s own son, was that man!

 David was a man after God’s own heart, whom the LORD still loved and referred to as His faithful servant throughout history! What we should want to do is follow the David of the Psalms who loved God with all his heart and will return with Christ one day, just like Uriah and Joshua and all the great warriors of God! Yet as a man and father, he is the biggest example in the Bible of How NOT to be a Father.

SOLOMON:

The son of Bathsheba and David, after the latter’s marriage to her, Solomon was favored by God immediately. The Almighty promised to bless Solomon forever if Solomon obeyed all the Precepts of God, and loved God, just like his father – David – did.

Solomon did just that – for a time. He prayed for wisdom, God gave Him wisdom. He prayed for discernment, God gave Him riches. And if that was not enough, God gave him worldwide fame. In all of history, there was never a more popular and wealthy king like Solomon. Kings and queens came from far and wide to visit and see for themselves, the great King Solomon.

Like his father however, he had a major flaw – women! UNLIKE his father, David, the gentle and wise warrior king, allowed these women to turn him from the one true God in heaven.

He got off on the wrong foot, right off the bat, marrying the daughter of Pharaoh of Egypt….the same Egypt of sun gods, animal gods and more. He built Asherah poles for some of his 700 wives and more…...”King Solomon of Israel had built shrines for Ashtoreth, the detestable goddess of the Sidonians; and for Chemosh, the detestable god of the Moabites; and for Molech, the vile god of the Ammonites” (2 Kings 23:13 NLT).

The poet and teacher of Israel who wrote the book of Proverbs, Song of Solomon about the love and power God for teaching and everyday living, ended up writing Ecclesiastes about the meaningless life of pleasure and lust he lived. Even worse, is what he taught his sons.

When his son Rehoboam succeeded Solomon after his death, the wise elders of Israel warned the new king to be civil to the people. Solomon had taxed the people heavily and laid heavy burdens on them to support his extravagant lifestyle.  Rehoboam ignored their sound advice and doubled down after listening to his rich young friends.

He then caused the Kingdom David and Solomon inherited from Saul and Samuel to split. The seeds which Solomon sewed bore very bitter fruit and led to centuries of pagan kings and rebellion against God. Finally the Lord had enough and wiped out the northern Kingdom and its 10 Tribes completely by sending in the Assyrians. They are gone to this day. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and sent them into exile in Babylon.  Modern day Israel is now a very secular society with only a few Orthodox followers of Judaism left, along with a strange Kabballah cult. Of course there are a lot of Jewish followers of Christ (Messianic believers) and that number is growing steadily!

For us today, let us not just be grateful our "crowns" are not of this world, but in a heavenly place, which we will one day cast at His Feet in honor! 

Let us resolve to be the example to our boys especially in the way they should treat women - not as sex objects and notches on a belt - but as fellow heirs of the Kingdom who deserve Godly respect just as their mothers and sisters do....regardless of how some young women conduct themselves in this modern society.

Let us remember that we will one day give an account for our stewardship and that we would want that to go well, even though we are not as perfect as our heavenly Father!

(image by google)

THINK ON THESE THINGS - FRIDAY

STRESSED AND DISTRESSED

Yesterday's message/devotional on "CRUSHING" seemed to have touched a nerve on an issue we must address. There was some amazing response, which you will not see in the comments section of the blog. Therefore, I have postponed the daily look at Hebrews 11 (the Faith Chapter) until Monday. Today, I wish to speak to what is becoming a huge problem in families...and that thing is RESPECT.


My friend Lynn Mosher spoke about the 'Aroma of Crushing'.  It was a beautiful premise which underlined Christ's teaching about the grain of wheat having to fall to the earth and "die" so that beautiful wheat fields can be produced.

What also seems to be dying daily is the spirit of many young people - women and men - in the workplace! It is especially so for many young mothers, who are moms of kids from toddler to college age. It pertains to an increasingly out of whack balancing of a stressful work environment , where the demands to excel are increasingly conflicting with the duty of childcare, education and well-being of the family unit!


In the Sunday Message, I will go in depth into Anxiety and other issues and how to deal with them, using the Word of God. Today, I wish to briefly look at one side of this equation to inspire any mom reading this to not let the hyper-caffinated daily drumbeat devour her in a hostile, oppressive environment.  


"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?" 1 Corinthians 6:19 (New American Standard Bible).

More and more women in the workforce are being viewed as sex objects and I have witnessed this first hand. Most men like myself have no problem with women supervisors as most of my own supervisors have been women. Having been brought up by a single mother (after my dad died when I was 11), I have nothing but respect for women.


But what is disconcerting, after a generation where the clouds of "sexual harassment" hung over the workplace (especially after the 1980's and 1990's Tailhook and Clarence Thomas scandals), is a brand new paradigm of "whatever"! This paradigm is powered by the ease and seemingly lack of accountability in social media relationship; sleazy reality shows on almost EVERY TV channel in America and a culture where more and more young women are using their bodies shamelessly.


As a result, because some working and/or professional women find themselves stretched by the demands to help pay (with their husbands, if they are married) the bills; pick up the kids at daycare or run Joey to football practice, they are sitting ducks for exploitation. What I am witnessing with great shock, is the ease some of this is manifesting itself in flirting, inappropriate lunch dates and extra-marital flings. To be sure, any man who has an affair with a married woman is both culpable and out of his mind.


While yesterday's message was on "Crushing", today's focus is all about on "Respect"....namely - "Self - respect". Nothing can be done, in the short run, about the demands of family, if we have children. This is called life. What we can affect is our conduct.  Some of my fellow male employees have to keep their eyes in their heads and have some sense of morality, for goodness sake. Exploiting a vulnerable stressed out lady is as despicable as attacking a referee at a school soccer game for making a call against your son.


At the same time, there will be less stress in those situations, which you and I observe, could be diffused and avoided, if appropriateness in dress and demeanor is practiced. I am not picking on women here. This is a suggestion which may lead to some pigs, who call themselves men, from taking advantage. Whenever possible, we men of God also need to step in, pull some of these men aside (whether they are Christian or not) and tell them to knock it off, respectfully. In some cases, we will have no influence or opportunity as some of the men are in higher positions than we are. In this case - PRAY!! Yes, pray!


While we are at it, let's pray for families; latch-key kids and all moms of all ages who have to work just to survive and make ends meet, just like the rest of us. Remember...the Key Word for today is  RESPECT....and it all starts with knowing who you are in Christ and WHOSE YOU ARE! Once this is understood, we can handle any situation! Agreed?


"....but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin..."1 John 1:7 (NASB).