We read the word of God from Luke
chapter 9, beginning at verse 37 and concluding
with verse 62.
It's a long passage, but I think a
very fruitful one for our thinking.
Our Lord had been on the Mount of
Transfiguration, Luke 9.37, and it came to
pass that on the next day when they
were come down from the mountain, many people
met him.
And, behold, a man of the company cried
out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon
my son, for he is mine only child.
And, lo, a spirit taketh him, and he
suddenly crieth out, and it teareth him, so
that he foameth again, and, bruising him, hardly
departeth from him.
And I besought thy disciples to cast him
out, and they could not.
And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse
generation, how long shall I be with you
and bear with you?
Bring thy son here.
And as he was coming, the demon threw
him down and tore him, and Jesus rebuked
the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and
delivered him again to his Father.
And they were all astonished at the mighty
power of God.
But while they marveled, every one, at all
things which Jesus did, he said unto his
disciples, Let these sayings sink down into your
ears, for the Son of Man shall be
delivered into the hands of men.
But they understood not this saying, and it
was hidden from them that they perceived it
not, and they feared to ask him of
that saying.
Then there arose a reasoning among them, which
of them should be greatest.
And Jesus perceiving the thought of their heart,
took a child, and set him by him,
and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this
child in my name receiveth me, and whosoever
shall receive me receiveth him that sent me.
For he that is least among you all,
the same shall be great.
And John answered and said, Master, we saw
one casting out demons in thy name, and
we forbade him, because he followeth not with
us.
And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not,
for he that is not against us is
for us.
And it came to pass that the time
was come that he should be received up,
and he steadfastly set his face to go
to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face,
and they went and entered into a village
of the Samaritans to make ready for him.
And they did not receive him, because his
face was as though he would go to
Jerusalem.
And when his disciples James and John saw
this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we
command fire to come down from heaven, and
consume them, even as Elijah did?
But he turned and rebuked them, and said,
Ye know not what manner of spirit ye
are of.
For the Son of Man is not come
to destroy men's lives, but to save them.
And they went to another village.
And it came to pass that as they
went on their way, a certain man said
unto him, Lord, I will follow thee wherever
thou goest.
And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have dens,
and birds of the air have nests, but
the Son of Man hath not where to
lay his head.
And he said unto another, Follow me.
But he said, Lord, permit me first to
go and bury my father.
And Jesus said unto him, Let the dead
bury their dead, but go thou and preach
the kingdom of God.
And another also said, Lord, I will follow
thee, but let me first go bid them
farewell who are at home at my house.
And Jesus said unto him, No man having
put his hand to the plow and looking
back is fit for the kingdom of God.
May the Lord help us to be fit
followers.
There are some words that only Jesus can
say.
Only Jesus could say, He that has seen
me has seen the Father.
You and I wouldn't dare say that.
Only Jesus could say, I am the way,
the truth, and the life.
And there are some words that you and
I say that Jesus cannot say.
Our Lord never said, Our Father.
He said, My Father and your Father, my
God and your God.
Our Lord never could say, Forgive me my
trespasses, because he was holy and harmless and
undefiled.
And there are some words that Jesus speaks
that we have spoken and we are surprised
to hear him say them.
Have you ever said, How long shall I
be with you and put up with you?
Sounds like a drill sergeant with a bunch
of raw recruits, doesn't it?
Or a kindergarten teacher at the end of
the day.
But Jesus actually spoke those words.
In Luke chapter 9 when he came down
from the Mount of Transfiguration he found an
argument going on.
He found a young lad who was possessed
of a demon.
He found his disciples who had been left
behind powerless to cope with the enemy.
And our Lord spoke out of a soul
that was constraining.
How long shall I be with you?
How long shall I bear with you?
These words were not words of sinful impatience.
He wasn't revealing the impatience of his own
soul.
Our Lord knew that he was on a
divine timetable and he was going to fulfill
that timetable.
These words were spoken sincerely but primarily for
the disciples.
There wasn't anything wrong with Jesus, but there
was a great deal wrong with his disciples.
And I'd like to take these words in
Luke chapter 9 verse 41 and use them
as the key to examine this whole passage
from verse 37 to the end of the
chapter.
I want to talk with you about the
things that Jesus has to put up with.
Often time people say to me, Pastor, you've
got to pray for me.
I've got to put up with so much
in my family.
Or I've got to put up with so
much in that apartment where I live.
Pastor, have the church pray for me because
I have to put up with so much
on the job.
And so we do pray.
Isn't it wonderful you can take your burdens
to the Lord and say, Lord, you know
what I'm putting up with and I wonder
what would happen if sometime a voice spoke
from heaven and said, have you ever stopped
to think of what I'm putting up with?
You and I take our burdens to the
Lord.
I wonder how many times we add burdens
on the Lord.
You see, our Lord Jesus Christ was greatly
concerned because of the deficiencies in the lives
of his believers.
There were some things that were lacking.
And because of these deficiencies, our Lord Jesus
Christ was burdened and constrained.
And there are three deficiencies that I see
here in this section.
And I'm afraid I see them in my
own life.
Perhaps you'll see them in your life.
The purpose of this message is not to
send anyone home discouraged.
The purpose of this message is to help
each one of us see what we can
be in Jesus Christ.
In verses 37-42, the Lord Jesus Christ
is burdened because of their lack of power.
They bring this young man to the disciples,
the nine disciples who had not gone up
on the Mount of Transfiguration.
And the father said to them, here he
is, would you please do something about it?
They couldn't do anything.
I besought thy disciples to cast him out,
and they could not.
I don't think I'm using my imagination when
I say that this scene is a picture
of our church situation today.
Our Lord Jesus Christ up on the Mount
of Transfiguration in glory.
And while he's up there in glory, his
followers are down here fighting a battle that
they can't win.
When you read this passage in Matthew, Mark,
and Luke, and put the whole picture together,
you find a great crowd of spectators.
And in the heart of that crowd is
the father with his little boy pleading for
something to happen.
And around the father and the little boy
are nine disciples arguing with each other.
And I suppose they're arguing about the best
method of casting out a demon.
And while they're arguing, they're doing nothing.
Just like our world today.
I meet people in the city of Chicago
whose lives are being ruined by Satan.
There are people crying out for help.
Our churches are made up primarily of spectators.
People who are watching.
There are some who are trying to do
something and sometimes can't do it.
And our Lord cries out from the depths
of his soul, how long must I endure
your lack of power?
You say, well, why be critical of the
disciples?
Because back at the beginning of this chapter,
he gave them the power.
Verse 1, then he called his twelve disciples
together and gave them power and authority over
all demons.
And so when this man brought his son
to the disciples, he was not coming to
persons who were not equipped.
But something happened between Luke chapter 9, verse
1, and Luke chapter 9, verse 40.
Now what happened?
They lost their power.
They were unable to exercise authority over Satan.
When you put the record together, when you
read Matthew 17 and Mark chapter 9 and
the passage we read in Luke chapter 9,
when you put the passages together, you find
out that they lost their power because of
their unbelief.
That's the first reason.
When this thing was all over and the
disciples with shame on their faces came to
him and they said, Lord, why couldn't we
cast him out?
He said, because of your unbelief.
Our Lord Jesus grants to us the power
and the authority over Satan, but this power
and authority will not work apart from faith.
According to your faith, so be it unto
you.
You have not because you ask not.
The potential is there.
The effectiveness is not there.
Unbelief.
You see, we don't really believe what he
says.
Now I know how easy it is to
sit down with your Bible and become a
theologian and pigeonhole everything.
This is for the Jews and this is
for the Gentiles and this is for the
church.
This is for the spiritual people.
This is for the carnal people.
But the Holy Spirit of God says to
me in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, ye
shall receive power.
When Paul wrote that marvelous epistle to the
Ephesian church, he ends that first chapter by
saying that Jesus has ascended far above all
principality and power and above every name that
is named.
When he gets to the end of that
third chapter, that marvelous third chapter where he
has been praying that we might know the
length and the breadth and the depth and
the height of the love of God that
cannot be known and that we might be
filled unto all the fullness of God, he
says this, and he's talking to a church,
now unto him, who is able, who is
able to do, who is able to do
exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or
think according to the power that worketh in
us.
He wrote to the Philippians and said, work
out your own salvation, your own Christian character
and conduct in fear and trembling for it
is God that worketh in you.
But is he?
Unbelief.
We don't believe those verses and we're confronted
with the problems of life and we say
they cannot be solved.
Husbands and wives who are having difficulties say,
well, we just better get a divorce.
Nothing can be done.
Where's God's power?
And someone's living in a difficult home situation
and says, I've got to get out of
here.
Where's God's power?
A change in geography will never overcome a
flaw in character.
So said Mr. Emerson and he was right.
But there was another reason why they'd lost
their power.
Unbelief, lack of prayer.
In Mark chapter 9, he says to them,
this kind goeth not out but by prayer
and fasting.
They hadn't been praying.
I know what they were doing while they
were waiting for Jesus to come back.
They were fussing.
They were saying, how come Peter and James
and John got to go and we didn't
get to go?
We laugh at that, but that's one of
the biggest problems in our churches today.
Paul wrote and said, in honor, preferring one
another.
And we don't practice that.
Instead of these men saying, isn't that wonderful?
Peter, James and John got to go up
there.
Boy, let's pray that they'll have a great
time up there and come back and Peter
won't talk so much when he comes back.
In honor, preferring one another.
We don't do that.
They weren't praying.
While Jesus was gone, they weren't praying.
They should have said, man, we got to
get together and pray.
He's given us power.
We don't know what we're going to have
to do while he's gone.
There's going to be some emergency come up.
Every time he leaves there's an emergency.
We better pray.
But they weren't praying.
That's why we don't have power.
You announce a prayer meeting and the faithful
saints come out.
You announce a banquet and people show up
you haven't seen for a long, long time.
We don't believe in prayer.
Prayer is something we do when there's nothing
else to do.
There was a third reason why they'd lost
their power.
This kind goeth not out except by prayer
and fasting.
Denial.
You call a fast and people look at
you and say you must be strange.
You call a feast and they say isn't
it great to have this fellowship.
We've substituted the supper room for the upper
room.
Nothing wrong with eating.
Moses saw God, sat down, ate and drank.
Jesus prepared a table in the wilderness.
Paul fellowshiped with the church until after midnight
and broke bread with them and ate.
Nothing wrong with eating, but there's nothing wrong
with fasting.
Denial.
I tell you when we're making decisions and
when we're fighting battles and when we're dealing
with the devil sometimes we haven't got time
to eat.
Sometimes we are so wrapped up in the
battle like a soldier out there on the
field.
We haven't got time to eat.
We aren't even thinking about that.
We're not thinking about sleeping.
There's more than one kind of fasting.
We're not thinking about the comforts of life.
We're thinking about the battle that we're fighting
and they lost their power because of unbelief
and lack of prayer and lack of self
-denial.
Our Lord today must look upon us and
say how long must I bear with you
because of your lack of power?
There's a second deficiency that is pointed out
here in Luke chapter 9.
Their lack of love.
Verses 43 through 56.
And you have here three concentric circles.
Lack of love in three different areas.
In verses 46 through 48 they didn't love
each other.
They were arguing over who was the greatest
and love never does that.
Love always says you are the greatest.
And then in the next section they didn't
have any love for people outside their own
fellowship.
We saw a man casting out a demon.
You should have learned how to do it
from him.
And then they didn't even love their enemies.
So here you have the target.
At the heart they didn't love each other.
The next circle they didn't love believers outside
their own fellowship.
The next circle they didn't love their enemies.
Our lack of love.
By this shall all men know that ye
are my disciples if you carry the right
translation.
By this shall all men know that you
are my disciples if you use the right
cliches.
No, no.
He said by this shall all men know
you are my disciples if you have love.
Now you can't manufacture this love.
We're born selfish.
I got a nasty letter from a man
one day who heard me say that over
the radio.
He said children are not born selfish.
I wonder how many children he had.
We're born selfish.
God has to teach us how to love.
And the Holy Spirit pours the love of
God in our hearts and Jesus says a
new commandment I give that you love one
another.
And God the Father has said the greatest
commandment is to love the Lord thy God.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
And Jesus said let's love our enemies as
well.
Love for each other.
Now you know why saints don't love each
other?
They're too concerned about being great.
We have a lot of verse 46 going
on today.
Who's the greatest?
Who's got the greatest church?
Who's preaching the greatest sermons?
Who's writing the greatest books?
Who has the greatest Sunday school?
Who's doing the greatest missionary work?
Did you know that God is not impressed
with our press releases?
Almighty God is not the least bit impressed
with our statistics.
We are.
And here they were arguing who's the greatest
and Peter was saying wait a minute I
just came down from the mountain.
I met Elijah.
I met Moses.
James says hold it I was there.
John said yeah Peter I was there too
and you opened your mouth to change feet.
Oh we had a mountaintop experience.
But now you're down in the valley.
What good is the mountaintop if you can't
take it down into the valley with you?
And so Peter and James and John were
saying well we must be the greatest because
we're the closest to the Lord.
We were up there on the mountain with
him.
Judas was saying but you've forgotten something.
I carry the treasury.
And when he sets up the kingdom I'm
going to be the chancellor of the exchequer.
If you fellas want any pocket money you've
got to come to me.
We have this going on today.
The saints don't love each other.
They're fussing over who's the greatest and Jesus
had just talked about the cross.
He had just said I'm going to be
delivered into the hands of man and they
were fussing over who's the greatest.
If we'd remember the cross we'd quit talking
like that.
Paul wrote God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ by whom the world is crucified unto
me and I unto the world.
All of the values of the world, all
the cheap things of the world mean nothing
to me.
I've seen Jesus on the cross.
And our Lord is burdened because of our
lack of love.
We don't love each other because we're too
proud.
We all want to be great.
And our Lord says you want to know
who the greatest is?
The servant is the greatest.
The least is the greatest.
Here's a child.
A child is the greatest.
John was pretty convicted about that time and
so he had to say something.
He said now master we saw somebody casting
out demons but he doesn't belong to our
group.
He's never come to any of our meetings.
Doesn't even subscribe to our magazine.
And we told him to quit.
Isn't it too bad the saints don't love
people outside their own fellowship?
We sing what a fellowship.
We mean our fellowship.
We mean the group that belongs to the
pin we have on our lapel.
Some of the saints of God are going
to have to go through a decompression chamber
during the rapture before they get to glory
because they think they're the only ones going
there.
I can never forget a few years ago
counseling with a Moody Bible Institute student to
whom God was doing some marvelous things and
she said you know the church I was
raised in taught us that we were the
only ones right and really we were the
only ones spiritual.
I came to this school and I was
shocked.
I met people from different denominations who were
really more spiritual than I was.
And God taught me that there are other
Christians.
What a great lesson to learn.
I have learned the hard way that God
blesses people I disagree with.
There are groups I disagree with.
There are assemblies I disagree with.
But God blesses them.
He never comes and gets my approval.
I'm not saying we shouldn't have convictions.
I have certain convictions about certain things.
My convictions are not weapons to fight with.
They're tools to build with.
And when I meet another Christian I don't
try to find out where we disagree.
I try to find out where we agree.
I try to build bridges not walls.
They did not love those outside of their
own fellowship.
And yet the people outside the fellowship were
casting out the demons and they couldn't do
that.
Did you ever notice we tend to criticize
other people for the things we're failing in
ourselves?
And then they didn't love their enemies.
Our Lord was on his way to Jerusalem
and they went through Samaria.
And of course the Samaritans have no dealings
with the Jews.
And the Jews have no dealings with the
Samaritans.
The Jewish males would pray every morning, Oh
God I thank Thee I'm a Jew and
not a Gentile.
I thank Thee I'm a man and not
a woman.
A free man and not a slave.
And may there be no Samaritan ever in
the resurrection.
A Samaritan couldn't even become a proselyte.
A Gentile could become a proselyte but not
a Samaritan.
And so here they are going to Jerusalem
and they have to have some place to
stay during the night.
And so they stop at this Samaritan village
and Jesus says can you take care of
me?
And they said where are you going?
And he said I'm going to Jerusalem.
He said you just keep moving.
Move on man, move on.
And James and John did the spiritual thing.
Lord do you want us to call fire
from heaven?
That's how you take care of your enemies.
Singe them.
Burn them.
Have you ever noticed that in our hearts
often when we are rebuked and rebuffed our
first desire is vengeance?
There is something in the human heart that
says I'll fight you back.
And here is John.
John has been up in the mountaintop.
James has been up in the mountaintop.
Please don't come and tell me about your
mountaintop experiences if you want to burn people
up.
It didn't do them much good.
And Jesus rebuked them.
He said you know not what spirit you
are of.
You know what he is saying here?
He is saying man do you remember that
boy that was wallowing and foaming and frothing?
He was demon possessed.
Oh yeah.
The same spirit, the same kind of demonic
power that was controlling him is controlling you.
But you are acting religious.
Satan is a great imitator.
Whenever you find a saint of God who
says burn up the enemy.
You can be sure Satan is there because
Satan is the destroyer.
Jesus didn't come to destroy men's lives.
He came to save them.
He didn't send you and me out to
destroy men's lives.
We lack love for those who don't believe
the way we believe.
Now I want to point out that the
Samaritans were wrong.
Their theology was wrong.
Their religion was wrong.
In John chapter 4 Jesus said to the
Samaritan woman salvation is of the Jews not
the Samaritans.
But even though their theology was wrong and
their religion was wrong and their attitude was
wrong that was no excuse for James and
John to be wrong.
James and John had good theology and bad
attitudes.
Why is it that so many people can
be very very fundamental and orthodox in their
theology and so difficult to get along with
in their character and attitude?
Some folks have the idea that the only
way to prove you are orthodox is to
be mean.
He said don't you even love your enemies?
I find it sometimes very difficult to pray
for those who despitefully use me and those
who lie about me but I have to
do it.
On more than one occasion I've had to
bow before God and say dear God you
know how I feel.
Here is this piece of published material that
is full of lies and I can't do
anything about it but God I want you
to help me to love my enemies.
I am not an enemy to them but
for some reason they are an enemy to
me.
Now Lord help me to love my enemies.
And you know what he does?
He does.
Our Lord in heaven must be deeply grieved
at our lack of power, our lack of
love for each other, for believers outside of
our fellowship and for our enemies.
But there is a third deficiency that burdens
his heart.
Our lack of discipline and discipleship.
Verses 57-62.
We are just like these men today.
Lord I will follow you wherever you are
going.
Great you got a sleeping bag?
Oh I thought you stayed in Conrad Hilton.
No.
You there follow me.
Oh let me first go bury my father.
Now his father wasn't dead or he wouldn't
have been there.
This is an oriental way of saying as
a son I have an obligation to my
father when he is gone I will follow
you.
Jesus said you let the dead bury the
dead.
Let the sinful dead, let the dead in
sin bury those who are dead.
You follow me and preach the kingdom.
Lord I will follow you but let me
go say farewell.
Don't look back.
We are like these men today.
We call him Lord, Lord, Lord and don't
do what he says.
We hear him tell us what he wants
us to do.
We won't do it.
We argue about it.
And the whole trouble is in some bad
grammar and some bad theology.
Me first.
Notice that?
Lord permit me first to go and bury
my father.
I will follow thee but let me first
go bid them farewell.
That's the whole problem today.
Me first.
That's bad grammar.
Terrible theology.
Jesus never said me first.
If he had said me first he would
never have left heaven and come down to
earth and laid aside all of his glory
to die nailed to a cross.
He always said you first, others first.
Love always says you first.
Earlier in this chapter our Lord talks about
what discipleship really is.
Verse 23.
If any man will come after me let
him 1.
Deny himself.
2.
Take up his cross daily.
3.
Follow me.
Now take those three conditions and look at
these three men at the end of the
chapter.
If any man would come after me let
him deny himself.
Lord I will follow you wherever you go.
Oh but there is going to be discomfort.
You won't have a place to live.
You won't have a big budget.
You may occasionally miss a meal.
Oh can't do that.
Sorry Lord.
Deny himself.
Not deny things.
Deny himself.
God doesn't want my wallet.
God wants me.
God doesn't want my talent.
He wants me.
He wants you.
Deny himself.
Take up the cross.
Lord let me go first and bury my
father.
Oh you haven't died have you?
Follow me.
Oh I'll follow you but let me first
go.
Oh you can't put your hand in the
plow and look back.
Now I wasn't raised in the farm.
You know that.
I grew up in the concrete jungles of
the city.
But I know this much about plowing.
You better watch where you're going.
Plow a straight furrow.
And if you're plowing the way they used
to plow and you look back before you
know it you'll be in your neighbor's yard.
Look back.
No he says you deny yourself and you
take up your cross and you follow me.
I wonder if this doesn't explain why we
have the situation in Luke chapter 10 verse
2.
The harvest is great but the laborers are
few.
Few.
They say that we have some 40 million
born again people in the United States of
America.
I'd like to know where they are.
That much salt ought to be doing something.
That much light ought to be doing something.
Elijah was discouraged in his ministry.
He was sitting under his juniper tree saying
oh God take my life.
I'd rather have a death certificate than my
ordination certificate.
God says to him look don't give up.
There are 7,000 who have not yet
bowed the knee to Baal and if I'd
been Elijah I would have said Lord where
were they when I needed them.
Here I was up on Mount Carmel all
by myself.
Where were they?
Spectators.
The laborers are few because of the price
to pay.
There's no price to pay to become a
Christian.
Jesus paid that price.
I confess to you it didn't cost me
anything to trust Jesus Christ except a humbling
experience of repentance that broke me.
Oh I lost a few friends and I
was laughed at by a few relatives but
that's no price to pay.
But it cost something to follow Jesus.
Not to take up your Bible.
Not to take up your hymn book.
Take up your cross.
A cross means suffering.
A cross means shame.
A cross means death.
Take up your cross daily.
Paul said I die daily.
Follow me.
And so friends in the midst of all
of our celebrating 40 million people who are
born again.
Evangelical books selling beautifully on the newsstands.
All of our celebrating great people are born
again.
In the midst of all of this our
Lord looks down and says I wonder what's
going on down there.
I wonder.
There's more sin than ever before.
More darkness.
More rebellion.
When I was in high school if a
student showed up with any kind of alcohol
he was dismissed from school immediately and boy
he really had to do something to get
back.
You know where the alcohol problem is in
our schools today?
Not in high school.
Nor is it in junior high school.
It's in grade school.
40 million people born again.
More religious radio than ever before.
Religious TV.
Religious columns in the secular newspapers and magazines.
And we say oh Lord aren't you proud
of us.
We're doing such a great job.
And our Lord is quietly saying how long
must I put up with you?
Lack of power.
Lots of window dressing but no steam coming
out of the boiler.
Lack of power.
Lack of love.
The inter-family fighting that's going on among
evangelical believers must break the heart of God.
Lack of discipline and discipleship.
Me first.
I did quite a bit of going to
and fro up on the earth these past
two or three weeks.
I appreciate your willingness to share me with
other places and I'm finding the same thing
true every place I go.
Churches are having a difficult time with evening
services and Wednesday services.
I was in Texas.
I was on the east coast.
Pastors telling me the same thing.
Because when 6 o'clock rolls around on
Sunday night people are saying me first.
When Wednesday dawns and there's a prayer meeting,
me first.
When the missionary committee says we need thus
this amount of money just to maintain the
status quo, me first.
We may be impressed with what we're doing.
I'm not so sure God is impressed with
it.
I was chatting recently with a man who
is quite knowledgeable in Christian schools and he
says to me the thing that burdens my
heart is that many of our students in
our Christian schools don't know why they're there.
And when they graduate they don't know what
they're going to do.
Me first.
Is there an answer to this?
Of course.
There always is.
The answer is found in 2 Timothy 1
verse 7.
God has not given us the spirit of
fear but of power and of love and
of a disciplined mind for all of my
deficiencies and I have them.
I have his sufficiency and his efficiency.
The Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit came down upon these
men they had power and they had love.
John and Peter went to Samaria in Acts
chapter 8 not to burn the place up
but to give them the gift of the
Holy Spirit.
That's the way to win your enemies.
God has not given us the spirit of
fear.
Don't be afraid of the enemy.
God has given us the spirit of power
and of love and of a disciplined mind.
If you and I are going to have
power and love and discipleship and discipline it
has to come from the Holy Spirit.
And that's why we have to surrender to
the Holy Spirit and say Holy Spirit of
God fill me.
Fill me.
I don't have power.
Grant me your power.
Oh I am selfish.
I need your love.
Grant me your love.
The fruit of the Spirit is love.
Oh dear Spirit of God give me the
discipline that denies.
Give me the ability to say no to
sin.
Help me to have a disciplined mind and
to live like a disciple.
I think there are times when I burden
the Lord and he looks down upon me
and says how long must I put up
with you?
How long must I bear with you?
Your lack of power, your lack of love,
your lack of discipline.
And then Paul says to me from the
heart of the Lord Jesus God has given
us the spirit of power and of love
and of a disciplined mind.
Heavenly Father I pray that the Spirit of
God will as it were examine us, search
our minds and our hearts, strip from us
all of our pretense, all of our man
-made measurements and measure us O God by
the things of heaven.
Measure us O Lord by the measure of
the sanctuary not the measure of the world.
We don't know what true greatness is apart
from Jesus.
Forgive us for our lack of power.
Forgive us for our lack of love.
O God may Christians who know Jesus Christ
and love him be able to love one
another.
May there come Father peace in the ranks
that brother not be fighting against brother.
And gracious God grant to us that we
shall have discipline.
We shall carry the cross.
We shall pay the price.
We shall not look for the comfortable way
but the conformable way.
Conform to the image of your Son.
And grant that anyone here today who has
never even begun this life will begin by
faith in Christ.
And may each of us take new steps
now of sincere dedication to follow Christ.
I pray in his name.
Amen.