11-02-2018
Look back:
Look
back and see God's faithfulness for and in our lives. Remember His faithfulness
and goodness. God supplies bountifully. This causes our faith to arise.
Children of Israel at the threshold of the Promised Land: "Remember"
Deuteronomy 7:18-19 New International Version (NIV)
18 But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the Lord your
God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. 19 You saw with your own eyes the great
trials, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which
the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all
the peoples you now fear.
They saw God's hand in their trials. Remember God's hand in our trials. Remember the time when God performed miracle in our lives.
Deuteronomy 8:2New King James Version (NKJV)
2 And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way
these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what
was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
Remember God's testing and dealings to humble us so that we learn to trust in Him.
Recall those times that God had to deal with us.
Deuteronomy 8:18 New King James Version (NKJV)
18 “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who
gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He
swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
Our abilities are from God. Look back and recognise and realise that God bestows the talents.
Apart from Christ, we are nothing.
Deuteronomy 16:3 New King James Version (NKJV)
3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat
unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of
the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came
out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
God's deliverance from the bondage of sin and brought us from darkness into His marvellous light.
Thank Him for all the times that God had been faithful and the times when God had to teach us a humble lesson and we moved on and saw the goodness of God in our lives. He gave us the talent and ability and it is not something that we should boast about.
God gave us the gift of salvation. He has adopted us into His family. He had been with us through the darkest mountain and the deepest valley.
Look inside:
2
Corinthians 13:5New King James Version (NKJV)
5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test
yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless
indeed you are disqualified.
Examine yourself. Have you really put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ?
How is my relationship with God? How much time am I spending with God on a daily basis?
Am I aiming to please God with my life?
God, what do You want of me, or is it what I want for me?
Is our life committed to Him or not?
A prayer to God to reveal to us:
Psalm
139:23-24 New King James Version (NKJV)
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
Look up:
Psalm
121:1-2 New King James Version (NKJV)
God the Help of Those Who Seek Him
A Song of Ascents.
121 I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
Hebrews 12:1-2 New King James Version (NKJV)
The Race of Faith
12 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud
of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily
ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that
was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus is at the finish line.
Pray. Seek the Lord. Stand in the gap and intercede for the needs around us.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 New King James
Version (NKJV)
17 pray without ceasing,
Philippians 4:6-7 New King James Version (NKJV)
6 Be anxious
for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 2:1-3 New King James Version (NKJV)
Pray for All Men
2 Therefore I [a]exhort first of all that supplications,
prayers, intercessions, and giving of
thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in [b]authority, that we may lead a quiet and
peaceable life in all godliness and [c]reverence. 3 For this is good
and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
Prayer pleases God.
Our nation needs our prayer.
Turn to the Lord. Cry out to the Lord and ask Him to intervene.
We are privileged to have direct access to the throne room of God the Father.
Prayer directs our direction and focus towards God. Let God be the first person that we turn to.
Prayer helps us to see things in perspective.
Prayer humbles us. Prayer puts us in a position that we recognise that only God can do it. It puts us in our place.
God had chosen prayer to be the vehicle that He moves in this world. God has chosen to respond to our prayer.
Look forward:
Proverbs
29:18New King James Version (NKJV)
18 Where there is no revelation,[a] the people cast off restraint;
But happy is he who keeps the law.
Have a vision of the future. Have a vision of eternity.
God has created us for eternity.
Most of us just can't be bothered with eternity and spend so much time focusing on the physical life and totally forgetting about eternity.
Matthew 6:19-21 New King James Version (NKJV)
Lay Up Treasures in Heaven
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and
rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do
not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also.
Where is my heart? Is it in all the material trappings of this life? Or is it storing up treasures in heaven?
Matthew 7:21-23 New King James Version (NKJV)
I Never Knew You
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the
kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many
will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name,
cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then
I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice
lawlessness!’
Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of eternity.
Invest in souls. Invest in sharing the Gospel.
Do you know for sure that you would be with God in heaven when you die?
2 Corinthians 4:18New King James Version (NKJV)
18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the
things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the
things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 5:1-11 New King James Version (NKJV)
Assurance of the Resurrection
5 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed,
we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our
habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not
be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not
because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be
swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God,
who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
The Judgment Seat of Christ
9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be
well pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of
Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to
what he has done, whether good or bad. 11 Knowing, therefore, the terror of the
Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well
known in your consciences.
Look around:
John
4:35New King James Version (NKJV)
35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the
harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for
they are already white for harvest!
Luke 10:2 New King James Version (NKJV)
2 Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the
laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers
into His harvest.
Share the Gospel.
2 Timothy 2:1-2New King James Version (NKJV)
Be Strong in Grace
2 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses,
commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
2 Timothy 1:7 New King James Version (NKJV)
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of
love and of a sound mind.
Matthew 28:19 New King James Version (NKJV)
19 Go therefore[a] and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Mark 16:15 New King James Version (NKJV)
15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature.
Make disciples.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7New King James Version (NKJV)
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your
heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of
them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down,
and when you rise up.
Who are we discipling today?
