Discover the timeless wisdom of the Men of Issachar in this enlightening sermon. Join us as we journey through scripture, uncovering the relevance of Issachar’s discernment, leadership trait and spiritual wisdom, as they are needed today.

<p>Discover the timeless wisdom of the Men of Issachar in this enlightening sermon. Join us as we journey through scripture, uncovering the relevance of Issachar’s discernment, leadership trait and spiritual wisdom, as they are needed today.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

FAST Missions

Daniel Vis

Men of Issachar

Today, I want to pick up where I left off last time and ask a critical question.

If God truly wants to do something new to make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert to do something amazing, something entirely new, something explosive even here in our church, what is that going to take?

What are we going to have to do to see that kind of miraculous change with our own eyes?

I mean, if you think about it, most churches, the vast majority, get locked into patterns and it's just the same old same old year after year, year after year.

I mean, you have small changes, people come and go, and you know, positive things, negative things, but it's basically the same kind of pattern and churches get locked into those patterns.

To break out of that kind of pattern and see something radically new happen is gonna be the exception to the rule.

I invite you to bow your heads with me just a moment.

I want to pray for the Holy Spirit to be with us as we study our topic today.

Father in heaven, we're asking a big question this morning.

How can we have that change that you promised in your word that we looked at 2 weeks ago?

Please make it simple and clear to our minds we would understand exactly what you would have us to do.

And I thank you and I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.

So how do we experience real change as a church?

The kind of change that's going to transform not only our congregation but our whole community around us.

I'll tell you a couple things that probably will not produce that change.

1, it's not going to happen just by waiting for it.

If we want to see real change, it's going to take action.

We're going to have to do something different.

Another thing that you may think is the secret, but probably won't do it by itself, is just to pray for it.

Now, I believe prayer is critically important.

It's a necessary condition, but it's not a sufficient condition.

In other words, prayer alone is not gonna bring about change in our church, Because faith without works is what?

Dead faith has to be combined with action and when we have true faith It's going to spark effort on our parts.

And if we don't respond to that Initiative to act then the prayers are going to be probably futile There's an old saying pray as if everything depends on God and work as if everything depends on us.

I don't know if that's true or not, but I kind of like it.

So prayer alone is not going to create the change that we want, though it is absolutely essential, and I want to second that thought again.

We need to be praying every day for God to work here in New Albany.

There's another thing probably just as important or even more important that will not accomplish it, and that is plain old busyness.

It's not just doing something, it's not just activity.

That's not going to accomplish the change that God wants to do.

We have to get in tune with what God wants us to do because we can be busy till Jesus comes and we will never experience change unless it's the right thing.

I'd like to suggest another keyword and that's the word purpose.

We need to wait but we need to wait with purpose.

We need to pray, but we need to pray with purpose.

We need to act, but we need to act with purpose.

It's only when our purpose is right that our waiting will be right, our praying will be right, our actions will be right.

I first started to appreciate the importance of purpose many years ago when I was studying the Paul's of prayer, the prayers of Paul, rather, you may remember, notice that in many of his epistles, he starts with a prayer for the believers that he's writing to.

And I started memorizing some of these prayers because I wanted to know better how to pray for people.

And 2 prayers in particular stood out to me because they're right next to each other, right next to each other in their books, and they're the exact same reference.

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Philippians 1, And notice the words of this prayer.

Philippians chapter 1, starting with verse 9.

As I began memorizing these prayers, I noticed something that I had not observed before.

This was many years ago, but this point has stuck with me all through these years.

Philippians chapter 1, starting with verse 9, Paul says, this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in what?

Knowledge and in all judgment that you may approve things that are what?

Excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God.

And so this is 1 prayer that I was memorizing.

The other 1 is exact same verses just the next book over in the book of Colossians.

Turn to Colossians chapter 1, verses 9 through 11.

Interesting, the numbers kind of play in my mind.

Colossians 1, starting with verse 9, another prayer of Paul.

For this cause we also, Colossians 1, verse 9, for this cause we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with what?

The knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

That you might walk worthy of the Lord and all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, and so on.

Now, if you think about these 2 verses and start just analyzing them a little bit in terms of cause and effect, right?

Notice the cause and effect in these 2 prayers.

Philippians basically says, if we will grow more and more in knowledge and all judgment in our understanding of God's will, or you could say our understanding of God's purpose, right?

If we will grow in purpose, we'll be able to approve things that are excellent, not just the things that are good.

There's a lot of good things we can do, but we need to approve those few things that are the excellent things, that are going to accomplish the purpose.

If we will do that, then the result will be, will be filled with the fruits of righteousness to the glory and praise of God.

So notice, when we grow in purpose, that leads to transformation that glorifies God.

If we would be filled with the knowledge of His will and our wisdom and spiritual understanding, if we'd filled with a sense of purpose, we know what our purpose is, that's the cause, then what will be the effect?

We'll be fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthen with Almighty according to his powers.

Then God's gonna be able to work through us because we've come into alignment with his purpose.

Do you see the cause and effect relationship in these prayers?

In other words, to put it differently, Paul is not praying that they be filled with the Holy Spirit.

He's praying that they'd be filled with purpose because he knows that when they're filled with purpose, they will have the Holy Spirit.

I think sometimes we just pray for the Holy Spirit for our own enjoyment.

Just help me to get through life a little better.

And God's saying, no, those kind of prayers.

It's important to pray for the Holy Spirit.

But God is looking for men and women that are filled with purpose.

And when he finds those men and women, then he will pour out his Holy Spirit and give them power.

Back to Menu

Men of Issachar

Transcript

Description

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

For My King

45m

Emmanuel Institute - Ignite Your Church

Ignite Your Church - Part 10: The Church Board

1h 13m

Raw

38m

The Cross & The Great Controversy

Redemption and the Church

35m

Put Your Sword in its Place

45m

Morning Devotional

Why Are We Here?

29m

How To Receive the Latter Rain of the Holy Spirit, Part 2: Conquering the Obstacles

49m

Plenary Sessions

Revived by the Spirit

1h 53m

The Beatitudes

Blessed are the Meek

39m

The Health Message

Exercise: Health in Movement

1h 3m

The State of Missions in Adventism

The Bible on Missions

23m

Hebrews 11- Faith

15 The Faith of Rahab

34m

Sound Doctrine