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TrueWitness
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Joined: 2006/8/10
Posts: 661


 Personal Takeaways from SI 2018

I have enjoyed being ministered to here at SermonIndex over the years. Pray for Greg as he continues at the helm. I admit I don't read every thread posted on the forum. But there was a thread on here this year (2018) that struck a mighty chord in my spirit. I've tried finding it using search engines but came up empty. I'm not sure who started the thread but at some point brother Travis gave some input that was so beautiful and compelling it caused a resounding AMEN to rise up in my spirit. He was talking about how God was moving in his church assembly and doing mighty things and he sort of encapsulated the main points that have to be laid down and embraced in order that revival and renewal, both individual and corporate, can be experienced. I was so taken by the truths shared that I copied and pasted the relevant parts into a document and saved it. Here is what was shared:

These revelations have been in several key areas. One was a revelation of salvation and the gospel. We began to see that altar calls and sinners prayers for the sake of salvations is not what the gospel and the plan of salvation is all about. God's plan for each and every man was written before the foundations of the world. Each of us has, for lack of better words, a preordained destiny. The problem is, most people never realize this plan of God for their lives. His desire from the beginning was that we would be conformed to His image, be partakers of His divine nature, and walk as Jesus walked, empowered by His Holy Spirit, for the sake of being ministers of reconciliation to the world. To be reconciled does not mean to be qualified for heaven. Praise God for that, but to be reconciled means to be restored to right relationship. Unfortunately, I believe, a vast number of Christians have not real concept of this. Their salvation is about their own ticket to heaven and the promise of a blessed life for themselves.

So the second really big revelation was that we have been called to die before we can have new life. Rebirth cannot happen before death, and God made it so real to us that dying to self, total surrender to God, is the only path to true salvation. We have not had any kind of salvation altar call whatsoever in something like four years. Yet we are seeing people be born again and absolutely transformed. We have never, not even once, taught anything like a sinners prayer. Instead, we have taught death to self and total surrender to God.

The third was a powerful revelation of God's love for us. This is one that absolutely transformed by own life. So many believers have a view that God's love for them is predicated on their own performance. Some just don't understand what love is at all. But God has made this so powerfully real to us. From that foundation of His love, we have seen our faith grow by leaps and bounds.

The fourth was what it means to walk in the Spirit.
END OF QUOTE

All of these points are really powerful and necessary to not just understand mentally but to be incorporated and lived out. It is really disheartening how so many churches in an effort to get as many warm bodies inside the church building to profess Christ are actually promoting a shallow and lukewarm Christianity because they are so afraid that if they emphasize anything having to do with holiness, discipline, dying to self, repentance, bearing one's cross, etc. people will head for the exits. Jesus said being lukewarm is worse than being hot or cold and the lukewarm he will spit out of his mouth. There is also a problem of a church being legalistic, judgemental, holier than thou and speaking truth but not in love that is a problem. But let's get rid of this false dichotomy that the church has to be one or the other (lukewarm, seeker sensitive, easy believism OR harsh legalism, judgemental, holier than thou, cold and dead formalism).

I really want to relate how point number two, we have to die before we can have new life, has been key to my experiencing renewal. There are so many examples in the Bible of people God had to shape through difficult trials to get them to let go of trying to run their own lives and humbly submit and trust God instead. Jacob in the OT and Peter in the NT come to mind readily. I have seen people misapply this principle and think it means we have to be filled with self loathing and see ourselves as vile things that God can barely stand to be around. No, it does not mean that. And I don't think a Christian can truly learn to distrust his own self except God try him in the crucible of life and he learn by God's school of hard knocks just like Jacob and Peter did.

Here is this truth given from the mouth of Jesus:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal." John 12:24,25

It goes totally against the grain of how humans operate to let go of the self life, living by self-will and self-pleasing. But when we allow ourselves to die in this way God is able to live His resurrection life in and through us. It is truly a humbling experience and I continue to need to be intentional in surrendering to Him daily moment-by-moment. Major Ian Thomas emphasizes these truths in his sermons and books if you want help in this area. Andrew Murray also gives good exposition of this in his book Total Surrender. And Hudson Taylor found personal revival through surrender and trusting rather that trying by self-effort. Read about his spiritual secret here:

http://www.heraldofhiscoming.com/Past%20Issues/2018/December/in_christ_is_all_we_need.htm

And one other really good resource on this topic is by Roger Alliman and can be found here:

https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Self-Centered-Life-Revised-Understanding/dp/1449578276/

I am continuing on in this journey of being molded into the image of Christ and allowing Him to shine his light and life through me. But it is only through the door of deep humility that we can enter. Knowing how unable and unreliable we are to live the Christian life on our own. God help us all to not shrink from entering into this life He has for each of us. You will never regret paying the price to enter in.

-Daniel

 2018/12/29 10:41Profile
Oracio
Member



Joined: 2007/6/26
Posts: 2094
Whittier CA USA

 Re: Personal Takeaways from SI 2018

Quote:
All of these points are really powerful and necessary to not just understand mentally but to be incorporated and lived out. It is really disheartening how so many churches in an effort to get as many warm bodies inside the church building to profess Christ are actually promoting a shallow and lukewarm Christianity because they are so afraid that if they emphasize anything having to do with holiness, discipline, dying to self, repentance, bearing one's cross, etc. people will head for the exits. Jesus said being lukewarm is worse than being hot or cold and the lukewarm he will spit out of his mouth. There is also a problem of a church being legalistic, judgemental, holier than thou and speaking truth but not in love that is a problem. But let's get rid of this false dichotomy that the church has to be one or the other (lukewarm, seeker sensitive, easy believism OR harsh legalism, judgemental, holier than thou, cold and dead formalism).

I really want to relate how point number two, we have to die before we can have new life, has been key to my experiencing renewal. There are so many examples in the Bible of people God had to shape through difficult trials to get them to let go of trying to run their own lives and humbly submit and trust God instead. Jacob in the OT and Peter in the NT come to mind readily. I have seen people misapply this principle and think it means we have to be filled with self loathing and see ourselves as vile things that God can barely stand to be around. No, it does not mean that. And I don't think a Christian can truly learn to distrust his own self except God try him in the crucible of life and he learn by God's school of hard knocks just like Jacob and Peter did.



Brother, I think we need to get a fire extinguisher to cool you down a bit :) ! I certainly bear witness with those two points.

Regarding the first point, I too have seen this over and over in visiting different churches. Generally, there seems to be a lack of the whole counsel of God’s Word being taught and preached from pulpits across this nation. It’s mostly like you said, either easy-believism or harsh judgmentalism that is heard in many places. Thankfully I have seen some churches here and there which do teach and preach a solid, biblically balanced message regularly.

Regarding the second point, oh how I’ve had to learn and continue to learn this hard lesson which is so hard against my flesh. I’ll share a recent example regarding my employment situation. A little over a year ago, I was working full-time at Living Waters in Bellflower CA with Ray Comfort as a customer service representative (I had been there for several years). At that time a Christian offered me another full-time position at a company that produced nutritional health supplements. That position paid about $27 an hour which was significantly more than what I was earning at Living Waters, so I took the offer. However, I found myself being away from home more hours and being more tired from all the stress involved with that position. And I felt more spiritually dry due to not having as much time to spend in prayer, in the Word and in doing street evangelism as before. On top of that, there were things going on there which didn’t sit well with my conscience, issues dealing with what I perceived were a lack of integrity towards customers. I felt that some of the online advertisements were misleading; and we were getting many customer complaints. I was under pressure to try to justify and defend certain things I felt shouldn’t be justified or defended. So, I lasted about six months there due to my conscience bothering me too much. I regretted leaving Living Waters for that position.

Afterwards, I ended up getting hired at Chick-fil-A earning minimum wages ($11 an hour), working part time hours. You could image the humbling death blow that that dealt to my flesh. I went from earning about $27 per hour to $11 per hour scrubbing toilets and wiping tables part time at a fast food joint (while having to support my wife, our two children and my mother who stays with us; my wife also works a part time job). But I sought to see it as God’s will for my life and sought to rejoice and be thankful, considering that many people in other countries wish they had what I have in this rich nation. Afterwards (about two months ago) I was offered a part time apartment management position which pays $15 per hour. I’ve been working both jobs since; and thankfully I’ve had more time to spend in prayer, in the Word and in doing street evangelism. A few weeks ago, I was offered a “Guest Satisfaction Management” position at Chick-fil-A, which pays significantly more. All that to say that I’ve had to learn the hard way to die to self and to prioritize the things of God in recent times and I have much more to learn in this regard.


_________________
Oracio

 2018/12/29 12:49Profile





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