“34. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, 35. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”
Examine your own heart today! What would it resemble? A viper is not just a snake, but its a serpent whose bite is remarkably venomous according to Webster 1828. Why do the mouths of born-again believers display such a wicked testimony at times? When we look at the Bible, God tells us very clearly what the problem is the HEART! Whether a backslidden Christian or lost sinner the Bible shows us that the heart is very wicked and the words that come to the outside stem from a darkened and sinful heart. Why do the words out of your mouth represent Satan in the Garden of Eden, rather than Jesus Christ? The Bible says its a heart problem! Is your heart right with God today? Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Does your mouth and your life reflect the fruit of the Spirit? When our hearts are right before God, the fruit of our mouth will be a testimony of Jesus Christ and display a love for God from the depths of our hearts! Keep your heart right before Him!
Memory Verse Week 11/27/17
James 4:14
“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
Over the last 20 years there have been many states that have seen a larger number of deer harvested year after year? What is the cause of this? It really is a very simple answer! Today, there are more hunters! The more hunters, the higher number of deer harvested! That thought is exactly the thought every Christian needs to consider in their daily prayer life! What is the cause of seeing so many deer on certain properties sometimes? It seems those are the properties that we never have permission to hunt. The cause of high deer populations are due to no one hunting, or not enough hunters to shoot the necessary deer to maintain stable numbers! What does it take for a hunter to be successful? A little bit of work! What does it take for a farmer to have corn in his grain bin? A little bit of work! When there are no hunters, there is no meat on the table, when there is no farmer, there is no one to harvest the crop. When we look at this passage of scripture we can first see that there are not enough soul winners telling others about Christ! Our human population is way to high for the Christians to be doing nothing! What does it take to reap the harvest of a lost soul? The Bible tells us here that it takes laborers! As a laborer for Christ we also need to be in prayer that God will send more to the mission field to reach this world with Jesus Christ. When hunters are not willing to go to the field, we will see the deer hunting numbers go higher and higher! When we see born again believers fail to tell others about Jesus Christ, the death toll to hell becomes more and more! What are you doing for Christ today? Are you soulwinning? Are you telling others about Jesus? Life is short! Don’t waist time on things that have no eternal value. James 4:14 “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
Where do yo stand today? Do you belong to the King? Looking at the Apostle Paul’s life we can quickly see that his life was about Jesus Christ and nothing about himself! In verse 23 it is evident that Paul belonged to the King! When you examine your own life could respond just as Paul did? “whose I am, and whom I serve,” Any time we read about angels it seems that they always came with a message from God! We don’t have those same experiences today, but we need to realize is that during Paul’s day the Bible had not been completed yet! Today, angels don’t speak to us because the Word of God is complete, whole, and absolutely perfect! Through history and study you will come to the place of realizing that the King James Bible is the perfect Word in the English language. Do you believe the Bible that you read is totally perfect without error? If you don’t believe all of it, how do you believe any of it? Though Paul had an angel speak to him, we have the Word of God that will always speak to us. The amazing thing about this passage of scripture is that God cannot fail and His Word will come to pass just exactly as He says! Paul was in bondage and being carried to Rome, in a ship, under the army of Caesar. Paul gave a very clear warning to not set sail from a place called Crete, because the weather would be to much to bear, but Caesar’s army refused to listen and set sail anyway. This passage of scripture is a very terrifying time, because they are now being tossed about the Mediterranean Sea and everyone is in fear that their lives will soon be lost! Paul says, you should have listened, but don’t worry! God spoke to me through His angels and hey, its all going to be ok. Sometimes life is like a ship being beaten down at sea, but God is faithful and powerful to deliver us out of all trials! It first goes back to the King James Bible. Do you believe God speaks to you through His Word? Do you believe things will come to pass just as God says it will? Don’t let a lack of faith derail your walk during times of the storm. God cannot fail! Paul and the crew went through some great ship wreck ahead, but not one soul was lost. God’s Word came to pass exactly as it was spoken of by the angel. Wherever your at today its important to know that God’s Word will come to pass just exactly as He speaks to you! Don’t give up in the storm. Is the Bible guiding your life today? Psalm 119:105 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” If your allowing God’s Word to be number one in your life, whether big storms or small, you will have victory through it all!
November is the time to give it all! All day sits and long hours in the stand can bring by a big buck that will go for a ride in the back of the truck. If your an avid hunter you are probably aware that November is the best time to hunt in the Midwest. Are you giving it your all right now? Will you spend enough time in the stand to receive a reward? When we look at this verse of scripture we can quickly see God’s command to every believer for how we should live our lives! James 4:14 “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Life is so short. Its nothing more than a breath when you compare it to eternity. What is the heart and soul of your life? Family? Hunting? Cars? Sports? When your cheering for your team, do you give it all? When your playing the game, do you do your best? Ecclesiastes is showing us here that when we are dead, there will be no more effort or work we can put into this physical life! Family, hunting, sports, etc. is nothing sinful unless you make it to be that way. Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for the sins of the whole world. The only way lost souls will ever hear the gospel is if born again believers are serving with all of their might! When God becomes first in your life all the other things will work out for the best. You will have a happy home, happy marriage, success in the field, all your needs, etc! If you paralleled your spiritual life to the deer stand what gets the most focus? Are you serving God with all your might, or does your heart belong to the world? Life is short and you only have one shot! Make it count for Jesus!
There are some hunters that say “I have church in the deer stand,” or “you can have church anywhere.” That is nothing more than a lie from Satan himself. Acts 20:7 “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.” The Bible shows that the first day of the week(Sunday) is a day of worship and preaching. How do hunters have church in the deer stand when there is no preaching? Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” The Bible also shows us that there are multiple people coming together to worship God in his presence. How do hunters worship God when they forsake his day of worship? In Romans chapter 1 Paul is dealing with the Sodomite crowd and how God gave them over to a reprobate mind, meaning if you reject me I will reject you. Romans 1:22-25 “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” There is nothing sinful in hunting, but if it controls you, you cant have a right relationship with God. How is your deer season going this year? Is God still first in your life? Has God ever been first in your life? Look back to the main text in James again; The Bible shows us that when we err from the truth we must turn back to the Lord. Vs 20 also shows us that we cant live in sin forever, but that death is at the door step if we continually live in sin and the error of this world! When you are right with God there is not a greater feeling when those big antlers hit the dirt! Don’t allow the devil to win in your life! Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
The children of Israel have went through their forty years of wandering in the wilderness. They are starting to approach the promise land that was promised to them so many years ago. As they approach the Jordan River, there are two tribes that like the looks of the land(Gad and Rueben) on this side of Jordan. They request of Moses that they can inherit that land and Moses makes it very clear to them; “Look” our generation of the past has caused great depression to the children of Israel because their lack of faith and fear when we first encountered the Jordan forty years ago. Moses tells them yes you can have this land, but you must go to battle and fight with Israel to conquer these wicked nations! Vs 23 sums it up, if you don’t go with us, it will be sin! Gad and Rueben make it very clear to Moses that they will be going to battle and will fight until the last city is conquered! After the cities were conquered Gad and Rueben returned to their land just as they had spoken. God has so many promises for the believer! How much do you trust the Bible today? Before every victory there is always a battle. Whether physically, like in the children of Israel’s lives, or most importantly, spiritually! There is a spiritual battle in the walk of every believer and only by trusting in the Word of God will we ever see God’s promises come to pass. What happens when the spiritual battle arises and we quit? Vs 23 tells us that our sin will find us out.How many people do you walk past everyday and never make one effort to share with them the gospel? You may not be to the point of sharing the gospel with someone, but passing out a gospel tract is very simple. Do you allow fear to keep you from telling others about Christ? Fear keeps gospel tracts in the tract rack at church, or on the counter at home. What good are they there? Even sharing the gospel with someone is not that difficult. Read Acts 9, the Apostle Paul was saved on the road to Damascus! As his life unfolds after salvation you will come to see that so many times Paul preaches to others by using his personal testimony of salvation. If you don’t have a testimony of salvation you really need to get that settled(Please visit our Lost page). If your saved, that means you have a testimony of how you accepted Christ. God has great promises for the believer, but if we don’t follow His simple instruction, we will never see God’s promises come to pass! Mark 16:15 “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Sometimes the Christian journey can become discouraging! The children of Israel had a terrible problem that would arise in their hearts many times; Looking to the past! Its seems like every time they hit a tough road they start saying “it was so much better in Egypt.” They hated Egypt! They were slaves and desired nothing more than to get away from that wicked nation. God is now leading them into the promise land, but it takes them many years and much death to get there because they wine, complain, and live in fear when things don’t go their way! Don’t that remind you of your own life sometimes? God blesses us with great things in life, but yet we look to the past and say “it was much better then.” God doesn’t lead anyone into a wilderness to fail. He didn’t die on the cross for us to lose the battle. He became a sacrifice so mankind could have victory, first in salvation, but then also in the battles of life. If your living on the path God wants you to be on, you need to accept the difficulties and misunderstandings you may have in your life. Life’s not easy, when sin cursed this world it made life become very difficult, but there is always victory when you submit your life unto Jesus. The children of Israel have just won a great battle that they prayed to God for, but yet quickly they turn to a heart of bitterness and complaining because the physical journey along the Red sea was not as easy as they thought it should be. Philippians 2:14-15 “Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;” The last thing you want to do on your Christian walk is to anger God. Don’t forget that God is holy, righteous, and without sin. He knows everything! He knew your beginning and He knows your end. Don’t doubt his promises! Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” God is faithful! Don’t be like the children of Israel when they were journeying to the promise land. You may not see a fiery serpent, but you will bring some unnecessary punishment if you anger God with your lack of faith. Your promise land may not be very far away! Just keep serving and trusting Him! HE KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING!!!
When God looks down upon this sin cursed earth, what does He see in your heart and life? When we look at Daniel’s life we can see that his faith was untouchable. He was cast into a den of lions and never touched because God closed the mouth of the lions! If you go back and read through the book of Daniel you will better understand the faith that Daniel had! A key element in seeing Daniel’s prayer answered is that he set his heart to understand and did also chasten himself before God. When you wake up in the morning what do you desire most about your day? Is it pleasing God? Life can really get tough some times, but even when it may seem like God is not listening we can see in Daniel’s life that God was open to his prayer from the first time he called upon the Lord. One big reason many Christians don’t see God work in their life and answer big prayers is because they allow sin to hinder their walk with the Lord. I John 1:6 “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:” There are many believers who pose to be right with God, but yet there daily life reflects more of a lost state rather than being a child of God. God sent one of his messengers, which appeared to be an angel, to Daniel to tell him his prayers were heard and going to be answered! Do you believe God will answer your prayers? Is your heart set upon him wholly? Are you allowing sin to hinder your prayer life? Don’t let sin control you! God will answer your prayers, but you have to keep moving forward and trusting everything He leads you to do! God is faithful!
and believers must live differently. Romans 12:19 “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written: Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” God will always deal with the enemy, but we have to let Him deal with them. II Timothy 2:3 “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” God will deliver you, He cant fail! If your going through difficulty in serving the Lord, know that God is trying your faith to make you the best you can be for Him!