Inspire Ohio 2013: Look Up!

<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>

Advent HOPE Kettering

Steven Conway

The Purified and Refined Will

Father in heaven, we are thankful for the privilege to be alive today and we're thankful that you've given us the opportunity to live during the time when your last message goes to the earth.

We pray that as we speak together today that you would give us something that is both uplifting as well as practical instruction.

We thank you in advance for hearing and for answering our prayers, not because we are good, but because our elder brother in heaven is.

It is in his name, the name of Jesus we pray, amen.

I wanna begin this morning by taking a look at Matthew chapter 18.

Matthew chapter 18, beginning with verse 8.

"'Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee.

It is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed rather than having 2 hands or 2 feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee.

It is better for thee to enter into life with 1 eye rather than having 2 eyes to be cast into hell fire.

Now I must admit to you that when I used to read these verses, I would think about stuff, you know, stuff in my life that I thought was important but obviously God didn't agree with me about.

So, you know, cut off my music, Cut off the things I'm watching on television.

But I want to suggest to you today that that's not what God is talking about.

This is from thoughts from the mom of blessing, page 60.

To prevent disease from spreading to the body and destroying life, a man would submit to part even with his right hand.

But if you're right-handed, the Bible says, and Ellen White is commenting here, that if my right hand was filled with disease, gangrene, and I understand that if I keep my right hand, it will mean that I will lose my arm and eventually my life.

It would be a difficult decision to make, but we would part with our right hand.

Those who are left-handed, you would part with your left hand because your hand is not more important than your life.

To prevent disease from spreading to the body and destroying life, a man will submit to part even with his right hand.

Much more should he be willing to surrender that which imperils the life of the soul.

In order for us to reach this high ideal, that which causes the soul to stumble must be sacrificed.

And again, Like I said, I used to believe this was stuff in my life.

It is through the will that sin retains its hold upon us.

The surrender of the will is represented as plucking out the eye or cutting off the hand.

Often it seems to us that to surrender the will to God is to consent to go through life maimed or crippled.

But it is better, says Christ, for self to be maimed, wounded, crippled, if thus you may enter into life.

That which you look upon as disaster is the door to highest benefit.

So in thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, We are educated that cutting off the hand, plucking out the eye or even the foot is not necessarily speaking about stuff in our lives.

Jesus is not interested in merely trimming the hedges of our spiritual lives and making us look fancy and cute on the outside.

Jesus wants to get to the root of the matter in each and every 1 of our lives.

And The root of the matter is a perverted will.

Now think about this with me, because I'm sure everybody has heard someone say something about the will before and it's like, okay, the will, yes, I need to surrender the will.

I don't know, but I'll just give it all to Jesus.

I heard a grunt and that was a, yeah, okay.

If you're not a morning person and you know that you have an event you needed to attend, let's say morning devotion.

There is something in you that says it's time to wake up, right?

I'll stay here for just a few more minutes.

But then that something comes back and says, No, you must get up now.

If you don't get up now, you will be late or worse, you will miss out altogether.

Let's say it's not morning devotions, but it's work.

I got off late yesterday or last night and now it's time to get up and go in again.

I don't feel like doing it, but something says, no, you must.

How many, well, some people may like to run.

I don't like to run just for the sake of running.

I don't think God created man to just run just to cross a finish line or something like that.

But anyway, There are some people who enjoy running.

Now, when I run, when I have run, okay, we got 1.

But when I have attempted to run, you know, there is always something inside me that says, what are you doing?

Now, for those who are successful runners, unlike myself, that something says keep going, don't stop.

And we push ourselves further and further and further until some people have done what are called ultra marathons.

I don't know what's wrong with those folks, but that is another example of the wheel.

The wheel says keep going when the body says I'm tired, stop.

The wheel pushes further and further and further.

It's the wheel that has kept many, many an individual up late at night studying for the next day's test.

Your body says I'm tired, I've been up too long, I need rest.

The will says no, if you do sleep, you will fail this course.

The will is what motivates us, what moves us, what pushes us.

Jesus says That motivating force inside of each and every 1 of us is what must be given to him.

This is from, again, the pen of inspiration.

It will require a sacrifice to give yourself to God, but it is a sacrifice of the lower for the higher, the earthly for the spiritual, the perishable for the eternal.

God does not design that our will should be destroyed, For it is only through its exercise that we can accomplish what he would have us to do.

Let me, I'm just, I guess I'm confessing to you this morning.

I used to believe that being a surrendered Christian meant that I would give my will to God and God would simply tell me what to do or program into me what I should do for that day.

And that was a pretty neat arrangement for me.

Just get up and say, Lord, have your way.

Whoo, have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way.

Whatever you tell me to do, you just press the buttons and I will do it.

God does not design that our will should be destroyed for it is only through its exercise that we can accomplish what He would have us to do." Listen to this, friends.

Our will is to be yielded to him that we may receive it again." So, what I thought, God takes my will and he keeps it and he locks it up and he programs into me what I should do every day was completely incorrect.

It says here, God takes my will, but then he will return it to me again.

Here's what takes place during that process.

Our will is to be yielded to him that we may receive it again purified and refined and so linked in sympathy with the divine that he can pour through us the tides of his love and power.

Back to Menu

The Purified and Refined Will

Transcript

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Living Faith

1h 6m

Division In the Home- A Divided House Is Not Able to Stand

23m

Love Is...

44m

Power of the Hour

Mountain Climbing with Jesus

47m

Intensive: Gardening 101

6. Gardening 101: Winter Salads

49m

His Way is in the Sanctuary

13. The Sanctuary Shall Be Cleansed (Part 2)

57m

Something Bettering

41m

Bible As the Center of Academic Curricula

1. The Bible: The Basis for True Education

1h

Faithfulness with Joy

1h

Lifestyle

Fighting the Metabolic Disease Conspiracy

48m

When Righteousness Becomes Sin

35m

Testimonies

Abortion Recovery Testimony

36m

Sound Doctrine