Sunday, January 29, 2012 Message to the Winston-Salem Church of God of Prophecy

Focusing On Our Priorities and Purposes

As I mentioned the first Sunday of the year, the Holy Spirit spoke to my spirit, (Matthew 6:33) "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (NKJV)

Not only was this to be the theme for our 21Days Season of Seeking through Prayer and Fasting but a recurring theme throughout 2012. Many New Year's Resolutions have already fallen by the wayside but our Lord tells us that this purpose of seeking God is to be above all others. So today let's gain some insights from the example of Nehemiah that will aid us to "Keep Focused on Our Priorities and Purposes."

(Nehemiah 6:1-3) Now it happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall, and that there were no breaks left in it (though at that time I had not hung the doors in the gates), that Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, "Come, let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono." But they thought to do me harm. So I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?" (NKJV)

(Nehemiah 6:4-6) But they sent me this message four times, and I answered them in the same manner. Then Sanballat sent his servant to me as before, the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand. In it was written: It is reported among the nations, and Geshem says, that you and the Jews plan to rebel; therefore, according to these rumors, you are rebuilding the wall, that you may be their king. (NKJV)

(Nehemiah 6:7-9) And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim concerning you at Jerusalem, saying, 'There is a king in Judah!' Now these matters will be reported to the king. So come, therefore, and let us consult together. Then I sent to him, saying, "No such things as you say are being done, but you invent them in your own heart." For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, "Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done." Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands. (NKJV)

(Nehemiah 6:10-11) Afterward I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was a secret informer; and he said, "Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you; indeed, at night they will come to kill you." And I said, "Should such a man as I flee? And who is there such as I who would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in!" (NKJV)

(Nehemiah 6:12-13) Then I perceived that God had not sent him at all, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For this reason he was hired, that I should be afraid and act that way and sin, so that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me. (NKJV)

Now, Holy Spirit, I ask You that You would come and be our Teacher. Open up our eyes that we may see the eternal Word of God. Open up our ears that we may hear. Open up our hearts that we may receive truth today. Lord, let this truth be transforming for us I pray. I ask this in Jesus name. AMEN

I. THE ENEMY=S STRATEGY TO STOP GOD=S WORK

A. The Distraction Strategy

When Nehemiah was in the process of seeing God do some great things, the enemy came and tried to distract him from his work and get him to go over to the valley of Ono. I have discovered that when God is doing something great in our lives, the enemy likes to come along and get us off our focus and distracted on side events.

One of the great legends of golf, Arnold Palmer, a few years ago was being interviewed about how he was able over some 30 plus years to remain one of the greats of golf. They were asking him about lessons he had learned. His mind immediately went back and he began to relate the story of the 1961 Masters, the final round, in which he had one of his greatest days of golf. He was going into the eighteenth hole with a one-stroke lead. A young golfer early in his career, it was going to be a phenomenal success story. He teed off on the eighteenth hole and hit a very outstanding tee shot.

Walking up the fairway to make his second shot, he is feeling rather proud of the fact that he is about to win his very first tournament and it's the Masters, the biggie! He heard someone in the crowd yell out his name and he recognizes the voice. It is an old friend. He walked out of the fairway over to the side and greeted his friend and shook his hand. Arnold Palmer said, AThe moment I shook his hand, I knew I had just lost my focus. The next shot went into the sand trap. The next shot went over the green.@ When he finally made it to the green, he missed the putt and lost the Masters. He said, AFor over 30 years I've remembered that I can't let anything distract me from my target.@

How many of us are just like that. We are in the process of seeing God work in our lives. We are in the process of seeing God bring victories into our lives and the enemy will quickly come and say, AHow about checking this out.@

Sometimes we get so involved in so many good things that we miss the best things.
Don=t be distracted.

B. The Deceit Strategy

In our text we read about the letter Nehemiah had received from Sanballat. It was a letter that was completely fabricated to plant seeds of possible conspiracy and division. Nehemiah recognized that the letter was a lie. He responded to that lie by declaring, AI'm not even going to defend myself. It's something you made up in your head.@

Have you noticed in the GOP race for the Presidential nomination how this candidate will say this about the other candidate….then a rebuttal by the criticized candidate and more accusations…a lot of back and forth so much so you wonder who is correct? The devil will use deceit to try and hinder us in our walk with God any way he can.

A great minister a number of years ago had a man come to him after one of his services and ask him to forgive him. He called him by name and said, ASir, I have been lying about you. Something that you had done had greatly offended me so I had told some lies to some people. I want to know if you will forgive me.@ The great minister said, AOf course, I will forgive you. But first I want you to take that feather pillow over there and cut it with a knife and throw it up into the air.@ The feathers flew everywhere as you can imagine. The elder minister said, ANow, gather up all those feathers and put them back into the pillow.@ By that time because they were standing outside the breeze had caught the feathers and they had flown everywhere. The man looked around and said, AThat=s impossible.@ The elder minister said, AIt is also impossible for you to take back all the lies you have started.@

I read a report not long ago of a USA Today poll that was of parents in the United States of America. This poll revealed that only 56% of the American parents said that they teach honesty to their children. Lou Harris did a poll of high school students. In this poll 65% of them said they would cheat on an exam if they thought it would help them get a better grade. A few years back there was a very noted physician in our country who was appearing on a talk show. He happened to make a statement that he felt like the way our culture was that if a parent didn't teach their child to learn how to lie well….their child would not be able to make it in our world.

The Bible tells me that the source of all lies is still Satan. In fact, Jesus one day looked at a bunch of religious people and He said, AYou are of your father, the devil.@ They got rather mad. They said, AHow can You say we are of the devil?! Abraham is our father.@ Jesus said, ANo. If Abraham were your father you would believe me, but your real father is the devil because you=re speaking lies.@

Every time you participate in a lie, and every time you speak a lie, in God=s eyes, you become a partner with Satan. Satan is the father of all lies. He loves to trick the children of God with lies.

C. The Deception Strategy

When Nehemiah would not allow himself to be distracted from the work, when he would not believe the lies, then they tried a third ploy. It was a ploy that looked very religious.
It had a facade of religiosity to it.ACome on into the temple and be protected by the temple.@ Nehemiah quickly understood that was not God that had sent that person even though they sounded very spiritual.

A very sad story of deception is that of Reverend Jim Jones and members of the People's Temple. Reverend James Warren "Jim" Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 909 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the killings of five other people at a nearby airstrip. Over 300 children were murdered at Jonestown, almost all of whom were forcefully made to ingest cyanide by the elite Temple members.

Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple in that state in the 1950s. Jones and the Temple later moved to California, and both gained notoriety with the move of the Temple's headquarters to San Francisco in the mid-1970s.

The incident in Guyana ranks among the largest mass suicides in history, and was the single greatest loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the events of September 11, 2001

Think about the sadness of that story. I wonder how many times today in our culture and our society do we find young men, young ladies, and adults who are being deceived to follow somebody=s Satanic inspired vision or dream, or even deceived into following some pleasure of life, only to wind up a slave in a place they never meant to be. They would tell you, AI don=t know how I ever got here. This isn't where I was going.@

When we allow deception to move into our life, we wind up a slave in a place we never meant to be. In order to not be deceived we must know the truth. Jesus is the Way, The Truth and the Life. He left us His Word, the Holy Bible as our source of truth and gave us the Holy Ghost to lead and guide us into all truth!

II. Counteracting the Enemy's Strategy

By knowing the truth we are able to COUNTERACT THE ENEMY=S STRATEGY. Let's look at some of these specific truths.

A. Know Your Purpose

Nehemiah was not distracted because he knew what his purpose was.

AMy purpose,@ he said,Ais to build the wall. I'm doing a great work. I'm going to build this wall, I'm going to protect the city. I'm going to restore the honor of my city. I'm going to restore the rightful place of God. I'm not going to be distracted because I know my purpose.@

Knowing your purpose in life is important. I believe God has a purpose for every one of us.

I believe that God has a purpose for our Church. If we know our purpose, it keeps us on track. A sign was posted on the door of the University Christian Church some years ago in New York. It says, AGone out of business. Didn't know what our business was.@
What a sad indictment!

There are a lot of people who don=t have a clue what their business is. Some people think their job is to work to make enough money so they can have food to eat and a place to sleep so they can get up tomorrow and do the same thing. I have news for you B I believe God has a much greater purpose in your life than just occupying space. He has a much brighter purpose in your life than just accumulating assets. God has an incredible design for us that will affect eternity for mankind. You need to know what your purpose is.

If our Church is going to be successful with what God is building within us, we need to know what our Biblical purposes are. God has given us a general design as to our reason for being. Corporately and individually we are to glorify our Lord. But how do we accomplish that purpose? The Bible gives us a number of ways.

We Glorify God Through Focused Worship & Prayer.

As we gather on Sunday morning our desire should be to praise, magnify, and adore the great God and Creator of the universe. We must always remember worship is giving, giving, giving. When we sing, clap our hands, pray, give in our tithes and offerings, actively listen to the Word, pray with one another in the altar, serve in ministry, etc. we are giving worship to God!

Of course, our focused worship and prayer does not end with the Sunday morning service or our other corporate meetings times. Any day that you fail to spend some time in worship, prayer and the Word you missed an opportunity to fulfill what Jesus instructed us to do—Seek First!!

We Glorify God Through Faithful Obedience To God's Word. Jesus told us to make disciples. What is a disciple? A disciple is someone who is moving to Christ-like maturity. The Bible tells me that we're supposed to grow up. You don=t stay where you start B you're progressively becoming more like Christ. What we are doing as a church is helping you get from where you are to where God wants you to be. We want to teach you the Word of God. We want you to understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. We want you to understand what it means to have the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness.

[Click Twice] We Glorify God Through Life-Giving Relationships. We desire to move people into meaningful relationships in the body of Christ. We call that assimilation or perhaps a more familiar term would be fellowship. We live in a world full of people who are lonely. Some folks have very few relationships—they tend to isolationists. I believe the greatest tool for relationship in our modern culture is the church. The church is the place that should be able to meet people=s social needs and help people to relate to one another. The Word of God lets us know that the Kingdom of God is all about relationships—our relationship with God and our relationships with one another.

We glorify God through Sacrificial and Spirit-Empowered Service. I believe that if you have committed your life to Jesus Christ then God has a ministry for you. Pew sitting is not a ministry. Screws are used to hold the pews down B we don=t need you to hold them down. When you leave, the pews aren't going anywhere. They will still be here when you get back. God has a plan for you.

• It may be working with our children.
  
• It may be working with our youth or you may decide you would like to take them on a trip or sponsor a picnic or outing for them.
  
• It may be working in the nursery.
  
• It may be working in Young@Heart Ministry
  
• It may be picking up boys and girls for Sunday School and church.
  
• It may be distributing food to a needy family.
  
• It may be working in Nursing Home ministry.
  
• It may be singing in the Praise Team
  
• It may be playing a musical instrument.
  
• It may be working in our audio/visual department.
  
• It may be working as an usher and giving someone a warm handshake.
  
• It may be working in our security detail
  
• It may be making chocolate chip cookies and delivering them to our guests.
  
• It may be cleaning the church, doing maintenance or beautifying the grounds.
  
• It may be helping out in fund raisers such as the chicken dinner we had Friday.
  
• It may be working in Vacation Bible School
  
• It may teaching Sunday School or Bible Study.
  
• It may be directing special programs.
  
• It may be a card ministry
  
• It may be a phone visitation ministry
  
• The possibilities are endless—and that's opportunities within the local church
  

Whatever we do we want to do a very good job. We want to give it our best effort not just get by effort. Remember our purpose is to glorify God. Is He glorified by us doing what we do poorly? We want to release people to find their fulfillment in life by their ministry in the church and the kingdom of God.

We Glorify God Through Powerful Witness. We believe that we exist to influence our world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, to evangelize our world. Jesus said we are to go into the entire world and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. That doesn't just mean Africa. It doesn't just mean Europe. It doesn't just mean India. It means in your neighborhood, down your street we are to be evangelists. I would like for you to think of one or two families that you are willing to work with on a regular basis to win them to you; then win them to the church; then win them to Christ.

III. We Must Also Understand That God's Work Is A Process.

I love it when God instantly works miracles and I've seen Him do it. However, I have discovered that most of the time God works through processes. When Nehemiah felt the calling to rebuild the wall, he didn't immediately run outside and saddle up his donkey and head off and start stacking rocks. Nehemiah understood that the calling of God involved a process of events that had to be done in order to accomplish what God called him to do.

Whatever God wants you to do, there is a process involved. Don=t give up when you're in the middle of the process. We grow up day by day…We learn day by day……

IV. We Must Commit To Proceed

Nehemiah refused to quit; he refused to become distracted; he refused to give up.ABe careful of paralysis by analysis!@I think a lot of people spend so much time analyzing everything they never get anything done.

"Seeking the King, His Kingdom and His Righteousness" has to be a daily priority—not hit and miss—not start and stop if we are going to continue growing as a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ! Fulfilling these purposes as a church and as individuals must be ongoing!

Illustration: The Young Prophet From Bethel:

In I Kings 13 there is a young man, a prophet in training, who had received a message from the LORD for the new king of Israel of Jeroboam. So he leaves his home in Judah and travels to Bethel obeying the LORD's instruction. He finds King Jeroboam next to an altar burning incense. The prophet speaks the message God gives him to speak. He speaks it with authority. He speaks it with clarity.

King Jeroboam does not like the message because it is not a favorable message. King Jeroboam stretches out his hand and says, AGet that guy.@ As he stretches out his hand, the Bible says his hand withered and the altar split in two as a fulfillment of the word that the man had just spoken. Jeroboam immediately realized that this man was a prophet of God. He asked the prophet to pray for his hand. The young prophet prayed to God and God healed the king=s hand.

Now the king had a repentant heart. He asked the young prophet to come home with him and eat a meal and receive a gift of thanks for his obedience to God. The young prophet said, ANo sir, I cannot come with you.@ The king asked, AWhy not?@ The young prophet said, Abecause the Lord told me that I was to come and deliver His Word and I was not to eat or drink anything in here. Jeroboam honors the word of God and releases the young man to go.

As the young man is making his journey back home there is an older prophet living outside of town. His sons bring him a report of what just took place in town. The older prophet asked, "Where did he go?@ His sons told him where he went and he told his sons to saddle up the donkey. The old prophet proceeded to find the young prophet.

When he got to the prophet he said, AGreetings. I, too, am a prophet. I'd like to invite you to come over to my house. I'd like to feed you.@ The young prophet told him the same thing he told the king. The older prophet said to the young prophet, AOh, but I got a visit from God, too. The angel told me to come and get you and invite you to my house to eat and drink.@ In verse 18 there is a parenthetical statement that said, "But the man was lying.

The young prophet followed the older prophet back to his house and sat down to eat in disobedience to God. While he ate, God sent another message through the old prophet for the young prophet. "Because you did not fully obey me, you are going to die.@ He got up from the table and started back on his journey. A lion attacked him and killed him.

Conclusion

Don=t let anything or anyone move you away from the word God has given to you. Don=t become distracted. Don=t become deceived. Keep your focus. Make sure you=re based in His Word. If someone comes along who may even sound religious, and maybe has a good reputation, but they tell you something that contradicts God's Word and what He has told you B hold to God=s Word. Continue to daily seek the King, His Kingdom and His Righteousness."

God wants to minister to you and through you to others. There may be those of you who through circumstances, distractions, deception, or lies have gotten off track. Your walk with God is not what it once was. God says "It is time to get back on track, get back to the purpose that God created you for."

There may those who have been deceived. Good people - in the eyes of the world - have lied to you. Maybe because of your own immaturity or maybe because of a lack of discernment you did not recognize the lies. You may be hurting today but rest assured God can heal the broken heart and make you able to trust again. God still has a purpose for your life. If you'll listen to Him, He will show you the plan and get you back in step.

Holy Spirit, we pause right now before the altar of God. We are amazed at Your mercy and Your grace. Lord, I want You to know You have our permission to do what You want to do. Holy Spirit, I ask You to come into this place, come into our hearts. Let Your call today be clear. Let Your invitation be without question.