There are many questions you are faced with every day. We are all searching for answers
that will make a real difference in our lives. It's hard to imagine that these answers
might be right in front of us. Get ready to discover answers in the Bible with Bayless
Conley.
Welcome to the broadcast today, friend. We're in the middle of a message from Psalm 119.
There's so many wonderful verses in this psalm and there's a lot of them. But we
have chosen a number of them that spoke to some specific subjects that I felt would be
very, very important. And as we engage with today's message we're going to begin by
talking about spiritual dryness. Now, I know you've never been there but somebody that
you know. Now friend, at times all of us, myself included, we have gone through dry
seasons where it seemed like not a lot was happening. Like there just was no sense of
the Holy Spirit in our lives. So we're going to talk about some of those things and some
other related things. I believe you are going to be blessed as a result of today's message.
Hopefully you will be lifted up, you will be encouraged, you'll be inspired to go
out and do something for God. Let's get into the message right now.
Woman's VO: Here's Bayless Conley with part two of his continuing message from last
week.
Throughout this psalm it brings situation or scenario after scenario, and it always
directs us back to His Word to find our answers.
Now the good news is God has initiated things. He's already given us His Word. Psalm 107:20,
"He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions." And wherever
His Word is received, understood, and acted upon, it always produces results. And when
a person receives or agrees with the Word of God an understanding comes, and then they
act upon that which they understand, then God does what only He can do even as we read
in these first 32 verses. He revives us; He removes burdens from us; He strengthens us;
He enlarges us. And He does it through His Word as we read it, as we contemplate it,
and as we act upon it. And when He does it, He does it bountifully. We read, "Lord,
deal with Your servant bountifully." How many would like those kind of results in your
life? To have burdens lifted, to be revived, to be strengthened, to be enlarged… anybody
could take a little bit of that? Well, I just want to tell you, I want to get in the front
of that line.
And then we have some specific ways that we can respond to this wonderful law, this wonderful
word that's been given to us. And these are just… just from the first 32 verses.
We could glean a lot more, but this is just from what we read. Verse 1 says we can walk
in His law. Verse 2, we can keep His testimonies; Verse 16, delight in His statutes. Verse 18,
pray for illumination in His Word. Verse 31, cling to His testimonies. And verse 32, run
or be quick to follow His commands. And as we do those things… those are just some
of the ways we can respond, some of the ways that we can participate. And when we do, listen
to me: God works. God gets involved in the circumstances of our life when we do those
things. Whether we are burdened and weighed down, whether we are in trouble, whether we
are persecuted, whether we need peace in our lives, whether we're being spoken against,
whether our enemies have laid snares for us, if we will respond to God's Word and get
it off the kitchen table or off the night-side stand and get it into our hearts, when we
respond to it, God goes to work. Do you want to see God work in your life? Get His Word
in your heart.
All right, number three. We need to come to His Word for help when you are spiritually
dry. Verse 25,
25 My soul clings to the dust; Revive me according to Your word.
When your soul is in a dry place… dry where you feel spiritually listless, where there
seems to be no momentum, no impetus, obstacles seem to be unyielding, you feel powerless
and a bit discouraged, prayer doesn't just seem fruitless; it's hard and it's parched
as a desert tumbleweed. Bible study is uninspiring and it lacks motivation. There's a log jam
in your spiritual progress. Things are static and boring and without life. My friend, you
need to be revived. And God does it through His Word. "Revive me! Give me life, according
to Your Word."
And, you know, California has been in a severe drought for quite a few years. And, thankfully,
we've had a very, very wet winter. Yeah! We're grateful for that. And if you look
at the maps; I mean, they just, you know, every few days, they will post maps on, you
know, the shrinking areas. Some areas the drought is completely over. And it's surprising
to some people, there are some areas in the Southland where we are that they're still
saying we're in drought. You're thinking, "Look, what's it going to take?" The
snowpack right now is at 185 percent. Most of the reservoirs are doing great. In fact,
many, many of them are over a hundred percent, you know, the normal fill rate. And you think,
"Well, what's it going to take? I mean, how much more does it have to rain before
these guys are going to say the drought is over?" But, honestly, the reason they're
holding off on that is because of the aquafers. You see, when we didn't have rain for so
many years, they had pumped out the ground water out of these huge, natural underground
reservoirs, if you would. They're called aquafers. And some of them are down as much
as 50 percent. And they do not recharge quickly. Now we've got the snowpack 185 percent normal,
we've got the reservoirs are filled, seems like drought is over, but there are areas
here in the Southland where those aquafers are going to need to be recharged and refilled.
And that doesn't happen overnight. In fact, I hope we have a long winter and it takes
the snow a long time to melt because then the water trickles in, seeps through the rocks.
But if we have a, you know, just a heatwave and the snow melts quickly, then those aquafers
really won't fill up. Sometimes it will take years and years for them to be recharged.
And my point is this: If you've gotten dry, spiritually… if you've gotten in the place
you need to be revived, one service where the glory of God falls and it's just amazing,
that's not enough to fix the problem. Now God revives us through His Word, but one session
in the Word, that's not enough to recharge the inner aquafer of your spirit. Sitting
under one good teaching, it's good, but it's not enough to recharge you if you've
been in a dry place for a long time. You've got to stay in the Word and stay in the Word
and stay in the Word. Now I'm not saying it's going to take years. It certainly won't.
But it will take more than just one, you know, Holy Spirit experience in a service. It will
take more than one half an hour in the morning with your cup of coffee where you read a few
psalms. Spend time in the Word. He will wash you with the water of His Word, and He will
fill your dry spirit again.
Revive me, O God, through Your Word. According to Your Word, God, revive me. Fill me with
the water of Your Word once again so that out of my innermost being can flow rivers
of living water.
And some of you, listen: The most important thing you could do in your life is get serious
about reading your Bible. Read it prayerfully. Spend as much time reading your Bible as you
do the newspaper or whatever it is you like to read, you know? Novellus or whatever you're
into, I don't know. But spend time in His Word. You can't get revived without it.
All right, number four, fourth and finally, you need to go to His Word when you are depressed
or burdened. Verse 28:
28 My soul melts from heaviness; Strengthen me according to Your word.
I remember a lady came… this is years ago in the church… and she was distraught over
her son, worried sick over her son. And he was in a dangerous place. She said, "What
do I do, Pastor?" And so she and I went to the Word together. We found some promises.
I said, "Let's pray according to these promises. Let's take God's Word before
Him." And we held hands and we prayed the Word. And she came back to service the next
week. She basically said this, "Pastor, I'm worried."
I said, "Why are you worried?" She said, "Well, I'm worried that I'm
not worried." She said, "Ever since we prayed those Scriptures, I haven't worried
about my son for another moment, and I'm really worried because I'm not worried.
It feels like something's wrong, like I must not love my son, anymore, or something.
Is it okay?" And I said, "Yes, it's okay. You need
to pray as the spirit leads you, love your son, but…" frankly, the hand of the Lord
came to help her and lifted that burden of heaviness out of her soul for her. She wasn't
worried sick about her son, anymore. God wants you to have peace, my friend.
Now I've shared this story I don't know how many times, but it is my story so I can
share it as much as I want. My mama, she's 86 years old right now, bless her heart. Daddy's
89. And when I was a young teenager, I caused a lot of grief in the family. I started using
drugs at a young age and started drinking heavy a lot earlier than that. I would go
to school drunk, as a 13-year-old pretty often. And things went downhill in a hurry for me.
As a young teenager I wouldn't show up at home sometimes for days at a time, and they
didn't know where I was. And I'd walk up at like 2 or 3 in the morning stumbling
drunk or high on drugs and broke their hearts, just literally broke their hearts. And then
I left home as a teenager, and they didn't know where I was, didn't know if I was alive
or dead, and just that I was hanging around with a bit of an unsavory crowd. And I didn't
find this out until years later, but my mom cried herself to sleep every night. I was
that wayward and foolish child. And she had such… she and my dad both had such a burden
of heaviness and brokenness and sorrow because of me. Now Mom had never had an encounter
with Jesus. She hadn't heard the gospel, but she'd always believed in the God of
the Bible. And one night she got down, knelt next to her bed, and she prayed. She said,
"God, I can't take this, anymore. Worrying about Bayless is killing me, and I can't
take it another moment." She said, "I'm giving him to You right now." And she literally
gave me as an offering to God. She said, "I'm giving You Bayless right now. Please take
this burden from me." And she said it was like this immense stone rolled off of her
chest the moment she prayed that prayer. She never worried about me again.
Or
maybe you've come to Christ later on and you weren't able to give the guidance to
your children that you could have. It maybe that or something unrelated to your children.
I just want to tell you that God wants to strengthen you and wants to help you with
those burdens. You don't need to carry those on your own.
Won't you stand with me, if you would. I want to quote to you a couple of verses. Psalm
55 and verse 22, the psalmist said this: "Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain
you; He shall not… He shall never permit the righteous to be moved." Cast your burden
on the Lord, and He will sustain you. First Peter 5:7 says, "Casting all of your cares
upon Him, for He cares for you."
Now if your soul is heavy tonight, if you're depressed and weighed down over whatever it
might be, let's just cast our burdens on God right now. Occasionally I'll lead the
church doing it. I think it's a good practice. In a minute I'm going to count to three;
we're going to imagine our burdens in our hand; when I get to three, we're just going
to literally throw them up. Just like that. Now that… all that is, that's an outward
expression of what we're doing in our hearts. God has people do things sometimes outwardly
as an expression of faith. Jesus told the blind man, "Go wash in the Pool of Siloam."
Naaman, the Syrian, who had leprosy, was told to go dip in the Jordan River seven times.
There are no healing properties in the Jordan River, but it was an act of faith. It was
a way for him to express his obedience. And that's all this is, just a simple way for
us to express our faith in what we're doing. Well, right now maybe just cup your hands
in front of you. It may be a son, a daughter, some other family member, and you've been
grieving so deeply. And maybe some other sickness… I mean, some other situation, such as sickness;
maybe a job situation. Who knows what it is? God does, I don't, but you do. We just want
to give the burden to God right now. Cast your burden on the Lord. He will sustain you.
Expect strength to come to you according to His Word. His Word says He will do it. One.
This is your moment, friend. Literally, we want to release this and put it in the hands
of Jesus. Two. Are you ready? We're going to throw it up, and God is a good catch. Three.
Come on, throw it up.
Thank you, Father, for taking those burdens. We release them to You right now. We release
them to You. Thank you for Your sustaining power. Thank you for Your strength, O Lord.
Thank you for ministering to Your people right now by Your Holy Spirit. Thank you for oppression
being broken in Jesus' name. I speak to oppression to leave that person's mind.
You have no right. They are a child of God. Father, I thank you for Your grace. Thank
you for Your favor. Thank you that You smile upon us, Lord. We praise You tonight. We praise
You tonight. Lord, help us to be people that will quickly go to Your Word for our answers,
quickly look in Your Word for counsel. Help us to be people that linger in the Scriptures,
that meditate and contemplate and soak in the Word. We thank you, God, that it is breathed,
God-breathed, and supernatural. Jesus, You said the words that You've spoken, they
are spirit and they're life. Thank you that as we interact with Your Word Your hand will
get involved in the affairs of our life. We praise You tonight, Lord. Praise You.
Just remain standing, if you would. I want to read just one other verse. Its a few verses
past where we stopped. It's verse 41. It said, "Let Your mercies come also to me,
O Lord, Your salvation according to Your Word."
Jesus has already done the work for salvation. The Son of God has died upon Calvary's tree,
He's taken our sin out of the way, paid the ultimate price, paid a debt He didn't
owe. But He did it freely. On the third day He was raised from the dead. And here's
what the Bible says in Romans, the tenth chapter, this word, it says salvation comes according
to His Word. "The Word is near you, even in your heart and in your mouth. It's the
word of faith that we preach," that God raised Jesus from the dead. And if you believe
that in your heart and confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. The heart
and the mouth must agree. And I think perhaps the majority of people in this place tonight,
you do believe in your heart that Jesus is God's Son and that He's not just a historical
figure, but He is more than that. You might even go so far as to say, "I believe He
bore my sin on the cross and that He was raised from the dead." All right, you're half
way there. Now your lips have to agree. Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth,
resulting in salvation. And why that's so important is it's a commitment that you
make. The Bible says we believe; therefore, do we speak. When you confess the Lordship
of Christ, it's not just a promise to show up on Sunday for an hour or an occasional
Wednesday night. It's a commitment of your whole life. It's a declaration that I died
of my rights of independent living and I come under the Lordship of Christ. And when you
do that of your own free will, the hand of God, the Holy Spirit, brings salvation to
you. Literally, it will change you on the inside. Jesus called it being born again.
Do you want to see the hand of God in your life and salvation? Put your heart and your
lips together.
Won't you bow your heads just for a moment, if you would. I'm just going to look across
the auditorium for a quick moment. If you've come in here with family member or with friend
and you know you need to pray a prayer like this, you want to put heart and lips together
and make that declaration of the Lordship of Jesus, you want the hand of God, the salvation
that Jesus died to provide in your life, I'm just going to count to three. When I get to
three, I'm going to ask you to lift a hand; again, just an outward reflection of what's
taking place in your heart. I'll acknowledge the hands. You can put them down. We'll
all pray together.
But let me include you if you are a backslider; you're miles away from God tonight. You
are in a dangerous place, spiritually. You've had a genuine encounter with the Savior, but
tonight your heart is light years from God, and you know you would not be ready if Jesus
returned tonight. Well, the great news is God is not angry with you, but He brought
you here tonight for a purpose. It's time for you to come back to Him with a fury, my
friend. Start living for Him once again with your all and your everything. So I want to
include you in the prayer.
One, two… if you want in on the prayer, three. Just put your hand up. Let me see it.
I'll acknowledge it. All right, a lot of hands. Good. Awesome. Wonderful. Go ahead
and put them down, if you would. Everybody in the house put a hand on your heart. Tie
your heart around these words and speak them to God. Say,
Dear God, I believe Your Word. I believe that Jesus Christ is Your Son. I believe He died
on the cross for my sins and that He was raised from the dead. Jesus, come into my life. Be
my Lord and Savior. Lead me and guide me. From this moment forward, my life is no longer
my own. All I am and all I have I place in Your hands, Jesus. And it's in Your name
I pray, amen. Awesome, awesome.
Woman VO: Stay tuned at the end of the program today for a special inspirational thought
from Bayless.
You know if you just prayed with us as I led the church in that prayer to accept Christ,
God heard your prayer if you meant it from your heart. Now the next important step for
you is to find a community of Believers: a church. Start going to a church where they
teach God's Word, where they love Jesus, and where you can find strength from others
that love the Lord. Where you can pray with them. Where you can ask questions and also
so that you can contribute. Because frankly, you have some gifting's. You have some deposits
in your life from God that other people need. That's one of the wonderful things about
the body. Paul, using that analogy of believers in Christ as being part of the body of Christ,
like a physical body. He said every person supplies something and the body grows together.
So there's things that you need to receive from others and there are things that you
need to give to others. No one person has it all. No one person can do it all. We need
to be plugged into a local church. Listen, a Christian that doesn't go to church is
like a sailor that never goes to sea. There's just something wrong with that. Christians
need to be in the house of God. Those that are planted in the house of God they will
flourish in the courts of our God. So I pray that God would guide you to find a good Bible
based, Jesus loving church that's interested in reaching a lost and a dying world for Him.
And hey, until next time I pray that God would bless you richly. We'll see you then.
Woman VO: And now here's Bayless with an inspirational thought you can apply today.
Hi there. One of our viewers asked me: Bayless, how have you learned to walk in obedience?
The answer to that is: You know, you just do it.
But I have some thoughts to share with you that may be helpful. Isaiah said if you'd
be willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land. So there are rewards to
obedience, but it's not just a matter of obedience. It's being willing in obedience. Obedience
is the outward act, but willingness is the inward attitude. You know, when our children
were small, we can always make them obey. They would do what we would say, but they
would be fighting it on the inside. You can make your child sit down, but on the inside
they are thinking: I'm standing up. I may be sitting down on the outside, but I'm
standing up on the inside.
If we want to reap the blessing of God, we need to be not just obedient, not grudgingly
obedient, but willingly obedient. You know, when it comes to obedience some people say:
Oh God, just talk to me, I'll do whatever you say, show me what to do! Show me what
to do! And I think that's okay. That's good, but you need to start with the written Word
of God. You know, don't be praying and ask "God, show me what to do." if you don't
do what's clearly written in the Word. He's already told us to honor Him with the first
fruits of all of our income. You know, I wouldn't pray about "God, what should I do about
finances?" until I have already obeyed what He said. We are to love our wives like Christ
loves the church. We're to forgive others like Christ has forgiven us. The Bible says:
Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as this is the manner of some. And
as you see the day of Christ approaching and nearing, so much the more you need to gather
together.
So we need to be obedient and go to church and gather with the Saints. And there's
so much that's just clearly revealed in the Word. And I would say: Just start there.
Just do the things that God clearly commands us and tells us to do in His Word, and then
be concerned with some of the other things: Praying for specific direction and being willing
to obey that.
And always remember: If you're willing – inward attitude – and obedient – outward action
– you will eat the good of the land. And I believe if we eat the good, we can wear
the good, we can drive the good. In other words: God will bless us. He doesn't mind
if we have things. He just doesn't want things having us. He doesn't want anything
to take our heart away from Him. So listen: Obey God whatever He's telling you to do
and you will never regret it.
Promo: Bayless Conley: You know, we always go through
different things in life. We always have besetting circumstances. The storms of life come to
everyone. But in the midst of those storms there is hope. God always has an answer for
us. He always has a pathway for us to walk and I have a special bundle of messages that
will be a blessing to you. In whatever circumstance you are going through, they will bring you
hope. I hope that you get it.
Male VO: God wants to get your hopes up . . . way up! Or maybe the hopes of a loved one. Along
with 2 hope-inspiring CD messages, this bundle includes a booklet with Bayless' amazing
story of how God completely turned his life around, setting him free from years of addiction
and confusion. Call or order online now. Just use the information on your screen. And be
encouraged: There is always hope!
Ad: Cottonwood Church: A place where you can find real answers and hope for life.
Join us this weekend at Cottonwood Church. Located near the 405 and 605 freeways on Katella
Avenue. Offering you a casual welcoming atmosphere, great music and a life giving message. Visit
our family friendly campus on Katella Avenue. Cottonwood.org that's Cottonwood.org. Real
answers and hope for your life.
For more infomation >> Parkland Park Prepped For Saturday March And Rally - Duration: 3:02. 
For more infomation >> Sheriff's office releases wanted poster for Punxsutawney Phil - Duration: 1:00. 
For more infomation >> Pittsburgh Students Head To Washington, D.C. For 'March For Our Lives' - Duration: 2:17. 
For more infomation >> WBZ Midday Forecast For March 23 - Duration: 3:08. 
For more infomation >> Helena students qualify for robotics world championship - Duration: 0:55. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét