Bittersweet Farm
An often-overlooked element of building strong and healthy relationships is showing honor. You will likely be surprised how much the Scriptures have to say about the importance of showing honor.
Here are some powerful ways to build stronger relationships with you wife, your children, your grandchildren, and others. These are based on a powerful principle in 2 Cor. 12:15
The Principle of Imitation:
You will tend to become like whoever you train yourself to admire
Who do you want to be like?
He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed. Proverbs 13:20
“He who walks with wise men will be wise…”
·
Galatians 4:19
My
little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you
·
Luke 6:40 “A disciple is not above his teacher,
but everyone who is perfectly trained
will be like his teacher.
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1 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me.
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Philippians 3:17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.
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Philippians 4:9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in
me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
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1 Thessalonians 1:6 And you became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the
Holy Spirit,
·
2 Thessalonians 3:9 not because we do not have
authority, but to make ourselves an
example of how you should follow us.
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1 Timothy 1:16 However, for this reason I obtained
mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ
might show all longsuffering, as a
pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.
·
1 Timothy 4:12 Let no
one despise your youth, but be an
example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith,
in purity.
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Hebrews 13:7 Remember
those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the
outcome of their conduct.
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1 Peter 5:3 nor as
being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock;
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Acts 20:28-38 This is why older, godly Christians are so important
in a Christian fellowship.
Here is how the process works:
1. the behavior is modeled
2. the behavior is imitated
3. I accept
by faith that the behavior is God’s
will
4. I trust the enabling power of the Holy Spirit
5. I repeat
the behavior
6. I continue over a prolonged period of time
7. I am among brothers and sisters who support the behavior
8. Over a period of time it becomes the behavior I deeply desire. (affections)
“…A companion
of fools will be destroyed.”
·
Proverbs 12:26
The righteous should choose his friends carefully, For the way of the wicked leads them
astray.
·
Proverbs 22:24 Make no friendship with an angry man, And with a furious man do not go
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1 Corinthians 5:11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a
brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or
a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
·
1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”
You don’t
need many friends.
What kind of
friends do you need?
1.
You need friends who fear God and obey Him. Psalm 119:63 I am a companion of all who fear You, And of
those who keep Your precepts.
2. You need friends who refresh you in
the things of the Lord. 2 Timothy 1:16 The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus,
for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain;
3.
You need friends who will stimulate you to love and good works. Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another in order to
stir up love and good works…
The most powerful way to fight sin is love!
5—Sin is Spiritual Adultery—Fight it With Intimacy With God.
5—Sin is Spiritual Adultery. Fight it with LOVE—AFFECTION FOR GOD. (Mark 12:28-31)
Luke 7 she loves me much because she has been forgiven much
John 21 do you love me? Three times… one for each denial.
James—spiritual adultery.
The Greatest Weapon Against Sin is Intimacy With Christ
Training children: Relationship with us: fear-favor-fellowship. Relationship with God: fear-favor-fellowship. The stongest incentive for obedience is love-intimacy.
The Central truth and it’s placement: in my personal experience and my opinion, the most powerful way to defeat temptation is to see sin as a threat to my fellowship with God and displace it with communion.
Psalms 4:7 You have put gladness in my heart, More than in the season that their grain and wine increased.(abound)
Psalm 16
Psalm 27
Psalm 42
Psalm 63
Psalm 73
Psalm 91
John 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
1 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
2 Cor 6:14-7:1
Philippians 3:10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death
1 John 3:6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
The Language of Devotion/Intimacy in Christian History. Saints of God—lovers of God through the centuries.
Augustine ‘Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; for Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee?’
Paschal “There once was in man a true happiness of which now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present. But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.” Maybe you have heard that expressed like this: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man.”
J.I. Packer says that the Puritans differ from evangelicals today because, with them: communion with God was a great thing; to evangelicals today it is a comparatively small thing. The Puritans were concerned about communion with God in a way we are not. The measure of our unconcern is the little that we say about it. When Christians meet, they talk to each other about their Christian work and Christian interests, their Christian acquaintances, the state of the churches, and the problems of theology – but rarely of their daily experience of God.
Owen (Communion with God). The Holy Spirit produces joy in the hearts of believers directly by himself without using any other means. As in sanctification he is a well of water springing up in the soul, so in comforting he fills the souls and minds of men with spiritual joy. When he pours out the love of God in our hearts, he fills them with joy, just as he caused John to leap for joy in Elizabeth’s womb when the mother of Jesus approached. This joy, the Holy Spirit works when and how he wills. He secretly injects this joy in to the soul, driving away all fear and sorrow filling it with gladness and causing it to exult, sometimes with unspeakable raptures of the mind. –John Owen
Charles Spurgeon, When a man pants after God, it is a secret life within which makes him do it: he would not long after God by nature. No man thirsts for God while he is left in his carnal [i.e., unconverted] state. The unrenewed man pants after anything sooner than God: . . . It proves a renewed nature when you long after God; it is a work of grace in your soul, and you may be thankful for it.
1-Pray
2-Obey
3-Meditate
4-Worship
1. Pray
2. Obey
3. Meditate
helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God 2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth
Necessity of the Holy Bible and the Holy Spirit for Holiness! The means of grace work together, prayer, obedience, worship, meditation—but they all have one thing in common—they are activated and empowered by the Holy Spirit…. The Spirit of God must appropriate our sanctification to us.
This requires a miracle of enlightenment to change metenoia… change Transformed by renewing of our mind. (Romans 12:1-2; 2 Tim. 2:23-26).
Whatsoever things are… (Phil. 4:8-9 filter: true, noble, just, pure, lovely, good report, virtuous, worthy of praise-meditate) This should govern what you read, watch, listen to, who you have fellowship with. NOISE…. (ill) What movies, what music, what books… the kind of media that contribute to this… I would think should be a… how does this commend Christ? How can I worship in doing this?
B. The Spirit is Speaking to You. Whose voice do you hear? That is how we know who your father is!
John 8:37; 43-47; 10:16, 27
Matthew 11:25; 13:9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23.
Matthew 17:5 “This is my beloved son, hear him!”
Mark 4:9-12
Hebrews 3:7, 15; 4:7 “if you will hear…”
James 1:19 “let everyone be swift to hear…”
Revelation 1:3; 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; 13:9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear. Jesus is speaking by the Spirit to the churches through the ages! Is the church listening…?
Jesus is Praying for you and The Spirit of God is speaking to you. He is continually speaking words of life, when we hear with our hearts (illumination) we will experience the life of God, the holiness of God in us.
Are you saved? Are you listening? Do you listen for the sound of His voice? Do you love the sound of his voice?
There is a Fountain (175)
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