Date: 2003-03-01
Church: Church On The Move - Tulsa, OK
Time: 7:00 Service
Title: The Power of Agreement (Part 5)
Speaker: Pastor Willie George
Notes:
Amos 3:3
Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?
A relationship cannot last without agreement. There has to be definition to have any lasting relationship. In other words, the rules of the relationship, what is expected have to be laid out before hand. God even did that in the creation of Adam.
Genesis 1:
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
God here is defining the rules and delegating the authority to Adam. He is defining the relationship.
Genesis 2:
8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. 11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. 13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. 14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward F11 the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. 15 And the LORD God took the man, F12 and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
God gives boundaries to Adam. He defines what it is that Adam can and cannot do in his relationship to God. It also defines what God will do for man.
Genesis 9:
1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
Again, now with Noah, God defines the relationship that He will have with His creation.
2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
God is laying out the way that the animals are to act towards man. Wild animals fear man, why? Because God has defined it to be that way.
3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
If you like it or not, Cheeseburgers are scriptural. Now if you do not want to eat meat, that is fine, but it is biblical to eat meat.
4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
Clearly, there is a rule to be followed here. Though we are to eat meat, but we are not to eat of the blood of the animal, it is the life source.
5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. 6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
Though many may try to dismiss it, it is clear that capital punishment is defined in this pair of verses. Even God says that the animals that kill man will be held accountable for what they have done, for man is in God's image.
Have you ever noticed that when people walk with God we need less rules. Our society has evolved to many rules, but fifty years ago this was not so. You took a person on his word, now signed contracts are in order, and people will sue for stupid reasons. How intelligent do you have to be to pull to the side of the road to prepare your coffee from McDonald's, yet people will sue because they burned there lap because the coffee was to hot and they were drinking it while they were driving. Or suing some fast food restaurant because you are too fat.
Jesus in His day defined the relationship He had with His disciples in His ministry
Luke 9:
1 Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. 2 And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. 3 And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece. 4 And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart. 5 And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them. 6 And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.
Since there was a relationship that all Israelites were to have with strangers, Jesus is clearly defining what they are to do to people that will not listen to what they have to see, the relationship they were to have with the people of Israel.
The strength of any relationship is in how clearly the rules are defined. Institutions that are a success clearly define the standards that they expect. That is why we are having so many problems with companies today. If things are not clearly defined then there will be problems. (Note from self: am studying this in Accounting Information Systems, these are called internal controls in companies). When things are not clearly defined, someone winds up getting taken advantage of. It is always the leaders job to define that relationship. We see an example of this in Paul's life.
Philippians 4
9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
So what is Paul saying here? He is telling them to pattern their life after his. What type of life did Paul have before them? For that answer go back to the Book of Acts.
Acts 16
22 And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. 23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: 24 Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. 25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. 26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. 29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. 32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
This story happened in Phillipi, and all the Philipians would have known it. So Paul is saying to them look at the life that I lived before you and use it as an example to pattern yourselves after.
Philippians 4
4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. 5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. 9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
It is not normal for people to be praising God when they are in chains in prison. If any of us today had it happen to us while we were doing a work for God, we would grumble, complain, and talk about never serving God in the ministry again. But Paul does not do that, at midnight, as best as he could he lifted his hands to God and praised him, and the earthquake came and freed he him. It is clear what Paul is saying, re-order your thought life. If it is not a good thing, if it is negative or bad, do not dwell on it, get it out of your mind and get on with things.
In v. 7 he talks about the peace of God, in v. 9 the God of peace. Is there a difference? Yes. When we first come to God we want more than any thing else, peace in our lives. Most often we come to Him in a turbulent time and we want that peace that only God can provide to us, so we seek the peace of God. Once we become Christians we must now keep focused on those things that are of a good report. In doing that, in stead of seeking the peace of God, we now turn to the God of peace. We must learn to focus on these things.
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