Remember The Sacred 1 25 09
Remember Series PT 2 – The Sacred
1 25 09 HT AM
Proverbs 22:28 NKJV
Proverbs 22:28 NKJV
Do not remove the ancient landmark, which your fathers have set.
We have moved it seems from a culture that kept everything to one that keeps nothing.
Have you ever looked on the wing of an airplane and noticed the words – “not a step” or “do not step” – there are some places in life where we should never step. Maybe if you’re like me you wonder, what happens if you step there, or if someone did and it could impact the planes ability to fly. You may ask the question, what is so significant about the spot could stepping there be all that bad?
In the summer of 2006 I was Washington DC for an event to honor Israel, I had few hours of down time, so I hit the streets of our Capital moving about as if I was looking for clues to the National Treasure. I visited amazing sites, I walked with awe past buildings steeped with power and monuments that spoke of sacrifice. I found myself on the Constitution Ave side of the National Archive Museum, a historic place that provides cover to documents such as the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. While it was the documents I went to see, it was something on the outside that literally changed my life.
James Earl Fraser’s statue, a young female figure in “Heritage” with this quote “The Heritage of the Past is the Seed that Brings Forth the Harvest of the Future.”
In that moment, my heart was stirred and my spirit embraced what I had just read. See the past must be carried forward, not in fruit form but in seed form. Old fruit is rotten and draws flies, but seeds can pass from generation to generation, each seed planted at that time for that Generation, to create their harvest. What is the seed? HERITAGE? Any generation that desires a future harvest must understand their HERITAGE!
I had a conversation with one of our YOUNG staff people this week about Harvest Time – (BTW, I am not longer in that young staff category, thanks to Pastors prayer invitation last Sunday eveJ) I talked to him about the fact that we created none of this! Yet we are assigned to carry it forward for our generations – we right now reap the benefits of past generations – we must ensure that future generations enjoy the same benefits
Jesus understood heritage /the sacred; he understood His assignment was to continue and complete the things that the Father had already established – not to start everything over.
Luke 4:16 NKJV
So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
Luke 4:17
And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
Luke 4:18
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me ◙ to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
Luke 4:19
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”…..
Luke 4:21
.. “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
The Apostle Paul echoed the same –
1 Corinthians 3:9 NKJV
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.
1 Corinthians 3:10
According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
When I think of present culture and how we live, in the areas we are building on the foundation, we are succeeding, in the areas we keep trying to redefine the foundation we are failing.
Today I want to share with you three foundations, three points of our sacred heritage, given to us by God and experienced by each of us today, as individuals, and corporately. If we build on these, we will succeed, if we redefine, we will fail!
Three Sacred things –
1. PRAYER IS SCARED–
Matthew 21:12 NKJV
Then Jesus went into the temple ◙ of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.
Matthew 21:13
And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”
Jesus was a frustrated about what they were not doing as He was what they were doing. They had forgotten what the Temple was for – prayer, sacrifice, and the sacred! Today, we do not sell sacrifice birds or exchange worldly money for holy money – have we fallen prey to making the temple of God a place of personal exchange rather than supernatural change.
The Key to Prayer is Passion-
James 5:16(b) NKJV The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Today, God is seeking for those who will seek His face, turn from their ways and allow Him to heal their land!
2. AUTHORITY IS SACRED-
Romans 13:1 NKJV
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
Romans 13:2
Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
The Key to Authority is SUBMISSION
· Submit to those above
1 Peter 2:13 NKJV Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme,
· Submit to those beside
Ephesians 5:21 NIV Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Today, God is seeking for those who will allow him to work in and use their life through their submission.
3. MARRIAGE IS SACRED–
Mark 10:6 NKJV
But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ ◙
Mark 10:7
‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
Mark 10:8
and the two shall become one flesh’; ◙ so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Mark 10:9
Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Notice the last verse, “God has Joined”
The Key to Marriage is – BENEVOLENCE! –
1 Corinthians 7:3 Young’s Literal Translation - to the wife let the husband the due benevolence render, and in like manner also the wife to the husband;
Today, God is seeking for the generation that will return marriage to its state of sacredness and leave its present state of selfishness
Proverbs 22:28 NKJV
Do not remove the ancient landmark, which your fathers have set.
Today in your life, have you moved some landmarks?
Thanks for the word,
Good Study