Subject: Deception XI: Humanism...in the church, Pt. II Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2003 13:11:11 -0500 From: Jesus Christ is the ONLY Way to God To: tracy@jesus-is-lord.com Jesus Christ is the ONLY Way to God - Powered by InJesus Subscribe Unsubscribe Change E-mail View Archive Deception XI: Humanism...in the church, Pt. II sis. tracy Mar 29, 2003 THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT A young preacher came to me down in Huntington, West Virginia. He said, "Brother Reidhead I've got a great church. I've got a wonderful Sunday School program, got a radio ministry, growing, but I feel a personal need and a personal lack, I need to be baptized with the Holy Ghost, I need to be filled with the Spirit. And someone told me God had done something for you, and I wonder if you could help me?" I looked at the fellow, and you know what he looked like? ME. Just looked like me. I just saw in him everything that was in me. You thought I was going to say me before. No, listen dear heart, if you've ever seen yourself you'll know you're never going to be anything else than you were. For in me and my flesh there's no good thing (Rom 7:18). He looked like me. He was like a fellow driving up in a big Cadillac, you know, to someone standing at the filling station, saying "Fill'r up Bub, with the highest octane you got!". Well that's the way it looked, he wanted power for his program. God is not going to be a means to anyone's end. I said, "I'm awfully sorry, I don't think that I can help you." He said, "Why?" I said, "I don't think you're ready". I said, "Well suppose you consider yourself coming up with a Cadillac, you've talked about your program, you've talked about your radio, you've talked about your Sunday School and church. It's very good. You've done wonderfully well without the power of the Holy Spirit". That's what the Chinese Christian said, you know, when he got back to China. "What impressed you most about America?" He said, "The great things Americans can accomplish without God." And he (the young preacher) accomplished a great deal, admittedly without God. Now he wanted something of power to accomplish his ends even further. I said, "No..., no, you're sitting behind the wheel and you're saying to God give me power so I can go, You won't work, You've got to slide over." But I knew that rascal, because I knew me. I said, "No, it will never do, you've got to get in the back seat." And I could see him leaning over and grabbing the wheel. "No," I said, "it will never do in the back seat." I said, "Before God will do anything for you, you know what you've got to do?" So he said, "What?" I said, "You've got to get out of the car, take the keys around, open up the trunk lid, hand the keys to the Lord Jesus, get inside the trunk, slam the lid down, whisper through the keyhole, 'Lord look, fill'r up with anything you want and you drive, it's up to you from now on'". That's why so many people you know do not enter into the fullness of Christ. Because they want to become a Levite with ten shekels and a shirt. They've been serving Micah, but they think if they had the power of the Holy Ghost they could serve the tribe of Dan. It will never work. Never work. There's only one reason for God needing you and that's to bring you to the place where, in repentance, you've been pardoned for His glory. And in victory you've been brought to the place of death that He might reign. And in the fullness, Jesus Christ is able to live and walk in you. Your attitude is the attitude of the Lord Himself, who said, "I can do nothing of Myself" (John 8:28). I can't speak of myself. I don't make plans for myself. My only reason for being is for the glory of God in Jesus Christ. If I were to say to you, "Come to be saved so you can go to heaven, come to the cross so that you can have joy and victory, come for the fullness of the Spirit so that you can be satisfied." I would be falling into the trap of humanism. I'm going to say to you dear friend if you're out here without Christ, you come to Jesus Christ and serve Him as long as you live whether you go to Hell at the end of the way BECAUSE HE IS WORTHY! I say to you Christian friend you come to the cross and join Him in union, in death, and enter into all the meaning of death to self in order that HE can have glory. I say to you dear Christian if you do not know the fullness of the Holy Ghost, come and present your body a living sacrifice, and let Him fill you so that He can have the purpose for His coming fulfilled in you and get glory through your life. IT'S NOT WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO GET OUT OF GOD, IT'S WHAT'S HE IS GOING TO GET OUT OF YOU. Let's be done, once and for all, with utilitarian Christianity that makes God a means, instead of the glorious END that He is. Let's resign, let's tell Micah we're through. We're no longer going to be his priests serving for ten shekels and a shirt. Let's tell the tribe of Dan we're through. And let's come and cast ourselves at the feet of the nail pierced Son of God and tell Him that we're going to obey Him, and love Him, and serve Him, as long as we live BECAUSE HE IS WORTHY! THE LAMB WHO WAS SLAIN Two young Moravians heard of an island in the West Indies where an atheist British owner had 2000 to 3000 slaves. And the owner had said, "No preacher, no clergyman, will ever stay on this island. If he's ship wrecked we'll keep him in a separate house until he has to leave, but he's never going to talk to any of us about God, I'm through with all that nonsense." Three thousand slaves from the jungles of Africa brought to an island in the Atlantic and there to live and die without hearing of Christ. Two young Moravians heard about it. They sold themselves to the British planter and used the money they received from their sale, for he paid no more than he would for any slave, to pay their passage out to his island for he wouldn't even transport them. As the ship left its' pier in the river at Hamburg and was going out into the North Sea carried with the tide, the Moravians had come from Herrenhut to see these two lads off, in their early twenties. Never to return again, for this wasn't a four year term, they sold themselves into life time slavery. Simply that as slaves, they could be as Christians where these others were. The families were there weeping, for they knew they would never see them again. And they wondered why they were going and questioned the wisdom of it. As the gap widened and the housings had been cast off and were being curled up there on the pier, and the young boys saw the widening gap, one lad with his arm linked through the arm of his fellow, raised his hand and shouted across the gap the last words that were heard from them, they were these, "MAY THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING!" This became the call of Moravian missions. And this is the only reason for being, That the Lamb that was slain may receive the reward of His suffering! ****CONCLUSION**** Selah (pause, consider with solemnity). for Jesus' sake, tracy -- http://www.jesus-is-lord.com Ezekiel 2:4 For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD. 2:6 And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. InJesus Community Recommendation To recommend this message to others at InJesus, use these links. This is good. This is excellent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Visit My InJesus to manage your InJesus Recommends: subscriptions, change your profile, or check out thousands of other great ministry Home Bible School groups. [Image] (Biblical Library on CD-ROM) by Dr. If you do not have access to the web, you Stanley L. Morris can use these addresses to unsubscribe or subscribe: Unsubscribe: jesus-is-lord-unsubscribe@MyInJesus.com Subscribe: jesus-is-lord-subscribe@MyInJesus.com