Commit Everything to the Lord
Hosea 6:1-3 (ESV) 1 “Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. 3 Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”
Introduction:
- So far in the new year:
- Aim small – miss small – intentional living.
- Having a love for the House of God.
- The Lord’s Day belongs to the Lord – Let’s us return it to the Lord.
- The Lord is our stability and will establish the work and plans that are committed to Him.
Isaiah 33:6 (ESV) and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.
- The Story of Hosea is a strange one.
- How the Lord had him take a lady of the night to be His wife.
- There marriage was to be a prophetic picture of the people of God.
- Consistently running out and prostituting themselves with other Gods and loves of life.
- There would be times when she would disappear and the Lord would tell Hosea to take her back.
1 “Come, let us return to the LORD;
- We are continually challenged to return and commit everything to the Lord
Proverbs 16:3 (ESV) 3 Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.
- “Everything is safe committed to Him” “Nothing is really safe which is not so committed”
1.1.1. “Our gifts and talents should be recognized for what they are, God’s loan to us, and should never be considered in any sense our own.”
1.1.2. “For who makes one differ from another? And what do you have that you didn’t receive?”
1.1.3. “Now, what shall we do?”
1.1.4. “First of all he should put away all defense and make no attempt to excuse ourselves either in our own eyes or before the Lord.”
1.1.5. “Remember this is a holy business. No careless or causal dealings will suffice. Let’s come to God in full determination to be heard. Let’s insist that God accept our all, that He will take things out of our heart and Himself reign in power.”
1.1.6. “Let us not forget that truths such as this cannot be learned by rote as one would learn the facts of Physical science. We must in our hearts live through Abraham’s harsh and bitter experience if we would know the blessedness which follows them.” – Tozer Pursuit of God
God’s truths are not like ABCD… or Twinkle twinkle little star that we can recite…
1.3. There is a deep conviction that truth and experiencing Jesus forms in our heart… and that life and success and failures and challenges alike provide different kinds of opportunity to deepen or depart.
1.4. We learn how to experience the Lord and walk with Him hearing His voice.
We begin walking in more and more holiness before the Lord.
Ela… Don’t sell yourself short by saying I could never be that person.
- * Question: How do we commit all things in His hands while still having what we need for life…?
Encourage yourself by feasting on his faithfulness.
Psalms 98:3 (ESV) He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
2.1.1. My life was spared a number of times before becoming a Believer.
2.1.2.He met me in a jail cell at 18 and SAVED me, set me apart, and CALLED me.
2.1.3.He guided me and set me on the path.
2.1.4.There has never been a day when I or my family lacked any good thing in America, Philippines, China or Taiwan.
2.1.5.In starting over 4 times in our adult life He was always there to open doors, encourage us and make provision for the VISION upon our heart.
2.1.6. In 1999 at 24 years old I went to the Philippines with a suit case and a whole lot of passion.
2.1.7.At 30 I returned with my TREASURED wife and two arrows in our quiver.
2.1.8.At 33 we left for China with 4 arrows, soon in our quiver, an 10 suit cases to see the Lord quicken a work there that continues today.
2.1.9.At 43 we returned to America with two shipping containers full of provision for a house and church plant.
2.1.10.Bought a house.
2.1.11.Planted a church.
2.1.12.God gave us this Church facility.
2.1.13.And today at 48, 30 years later, 7 arrows in our quiver, a beautiful congregation, first grandchild on the way, I am feasting on His faithfulness saying to myself he is not finished with me yet.
2.2. Committing to returning the tithe into the Hand of the Lord.
Malachi 3:6-8 (ESV) 6 “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ 8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.
2.2.1. How do we commit all? – How do we return all ?
2.2.2. A part of the whole is *We return the tithe.
2.2.3. Returning the tithe is a demonstration of the trust and commitment of our heart to the Lord.
2.2.4. But we are talking about committing all but the tithe is only 10%.
2.2.5. That is the beauty of it: In the Lord’s eyes the Tithe represents the whole.
2.2.6. He does not ask or require the whole as a whole but only a minority part that represents the whole.
2.2.7. The same is true with the Lord’s day. Not every day is the Lord’s day to come into the House of God but we should be here on the Lord’s day.
2.3. He has even made putting all things in His hand possible.
2.3.1. Not every single person has to sell every single thing and move to the farthest regions of the earth to receive the blessings of cutting the strings of this world and obeying the commands of the Lord.
- 2.3.2. But we can honor the Lord’s, Return to trusting the Lord, honor the Lord’s house, honor and separate the Lord’s Day, the Lord’s tithe, and the Lord’s people…
- Committing to raising an altar to the Lord on this earth and in your life..
Luke 14:28 (ESV) For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
King David had a love for the House of God.
3.1.1. There is no person in Scriptures who had a greater love for the House of God than King David.
2 Samuel 7:2 The King said to Nathan the Prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent”
3.1.2. David greatest desire was to be in the Presence of God.
3.1.3. David’s greatest aspiration in life was to build a House for God.
3.1.4. David raised His sons to be Priest of God. – 2 Sam 8:18
3.1.5.David dreamed of an altar to the Lord.
3.1.6. A place where the Presence of the Lord would reside.
3.2. David was keenly aware of the cost of serving the Lord.
3.2.1. Though David’s desire was to bid the Lord a House his son Solomon would eventually build it.
3.2.2. But David spent the rest of His life accumulating wealth that would be used in building the hOuse of God.
2 Samuel 8:11 (ESV) These also King David dedicated to the LORD, together with the silver and gold that he dedicated from all the nations he subdued,
3.3. Raising up an altar to the Lord has a cost.
2 Samuel 24:18-23 (ESV) 18 And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, raise an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David went up at Gad’s word, as the LORD commanded. 20 And when Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Araunah went out and paid homage to the king with his face to the ground. 21 And Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be averted from the people.” 22 Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. 23 All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.”
2 Samuel 24:24-25 (ESV) 24 But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 And David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.
3.3.1. I will not offer what will not cost me nothing.
3.3.2. Take what you need.
3.3.3. It has to cost the worshipper something.
3.3.4. Ela… it has been pretty cold right… how many appreciate having a home with heat? Our electric and gas bills go up when it is 18 degrees outside. But we gladly pay that increased cost because we are happy for the warmth it provides.
3.4. This is holy business.
3.4.1. That the Lord may reign unchallenged on the altar of our heart.
3.5. Why did David enjoy being in the courts of the Lord so much?
3.5.1. Why did Joshua not leave the tent of meeting after Moses left?
3.5.2. Because of the Holy Presence of God that we are encountering in the House of God.
Conclusion:
- Ela… there are actually Christians today that would say that we should not expect a continual moving of the Holy Spirit in our life and that we get all there is of Him at thee first moment of Him entering our life.
- There are also those who teach erroneously that the moving of the holy Spirit was only for the Apostolic age. The time of the early Church and first Apostles.
- I would argue in defense of the Holy Spirit, not that He needs my defense but it is part of our job to stand up for the Lord, His Gospel and the moving of God upon the earth.
- Without the moving of the Holy Spirit upon the earth today men would not be being drawn unto the Jesus and salvation.
- Without the power of the Holy Spirit prevailing in our heart, empowering the Word of God, and flowing out of our life we would be dry lawful bound up people.
- Moses, David, Solomon, the Prophets all experienced the Presence of God long before the Apostles.
- All of Israel attempted to be law abiding people but when Jesus stood right in front of them they denied who he was to the salvation of the you and I – thank you Lord.
- Building an altar for the Lord’s glory assist in detaching our heart from the things of this world