Colossians chapter 3, verse 23, Colossians
chapter 3, thank you Norman, Colossians
chapter 3, verse 23, and whatsoever ye do,
that is what we call an inclusive statement,
meaning there is nothing outside of that statement.
That statement is comprehensive.
I would like everybody to please, in your
own hearts, read along with me.
And whatsoever ye do, everyone together in your
heart, and whatsoever ye do, that
whatsoever is comprehensive.
There's been a wonderful ministry of the Holy
Spirit this morning, as each one of us
can attest to.
A precious ministry of the Good Shepherd in
our midst.
All that was shared this morning was from
the heart of the Lord.
Sister Colette and Brother Norman articulated by the
grace of God very clearly and precisely what
God is speaking to us.
Are you thankful that the Lord has placed
the members in particular in the body and
that each one is able to share and
contribute so that the whole is edified and
built up in the faith?
Aren't you so thankful for each in particular
member?
One of the signs of growing in the
Lord is you become less occupied with yourself
and what you perceive to be your gifts
and your calling, and you become more amazingly
appreciative of others.
You're not so concerned about being heard as
much as you are hearing.
You're not so much concerned about speaking as
you are listening.
Did you know that a mature relationship is
governed by this principle, and therefore there is
very little, if any, conflict one with another?
Because the root of conflict is 99.999
dot dot dot 99.9 percent self-assertiveness.
I want my way.
You are preventing me from having my way,
and therefore there's going to be a conflict.
The conflict the Lord has with his people
is rooted in that very problem.
I want my way, Lord.
The conflicts that we're having in our life
today are not the result of the circumstances
that you find yourself in, and don't think
they are.
Don't blame the circumstance that you are currently
in as the source of your conflict.
Perhaps some of us have said, Oh Lord,
the source of my pain is this thing
or that thing.
This person or that person.
This trial, this tribulation, this difficulty.
Not so, the Lord would say.
Not so.
The source of problem, the source of conflict,
is the problem that we have with wanting
to assert ourself, our will, our desires.
And whatsoever ye do, do it
heartily, springing from the heart, as to the
Lord and not unto men.
There's our problem right there.
Some of you may know, some of you
may not know, that I have 12 chickens
at home, and these 12 chickens require daily
attendance.
They require water regularly, they require chicken feed
regularly, they require gathering the eggs that they
lay regularly, and semi-regularly they require the
cleaning of the chicken cage.
Recently I was aware that my chickens needed
water, and frankly I didn't feel like going
out and getting them water, which requires going
in and taking the water, thank you, dispenser,
and going to the pump and cleaning it
from the filth that gets on it from
the chickens, and filling it up, which takes
three gallons of water, and three gallons of
water go quite quickly with 12 chickens.
Approximately every two days I have to fill
it, and then of course when it's cold
out, it's almost inevitable that the water is
going to get on your hand, and that
makes it even more trying, and so out
of necessity, knowing that if I didn't do
it, the chickens wouldn't get water, and that's
not good, because their egg production will begin
to slow down if you don't give them
water, because as you know, an egg is
made of mostly liquid water, so they need
that water to produce the adequate fluid for
laying good eggs, and we want good eggs,
that's why we have the chickens.
We average anywhere between 9 and 11 eggs
a day, depending on the time of the
year, how cold it is, it's a seasonal
thing.
Well, out of necessity, a few days ago,
I went out, just walking very quietly in
my heart, got the water dispenser, and did
my normal routine, cleaned the filth off of
it, and filled it up, and brought it
back, and put it on the heater, and
the wintertime it has to sit on a
heater, or the water will freeze, and after
I finished that responsibility, I stepped out of
the chicken pen, and closed the door, and
proceeded to walk back toward my house, when
all of a sudden, the Lord began to
speak to me, and he said to me,
son, I wouldn't have done it that way.
I said, well, Lord, is there another way
to put water in a water dispenser?
Is there something I don't know?
Is there a special way to do it?
Am I able to save time?
What do you mean I wouldn't have done
it that way?
And then, very clearly, the Lord began to
speak to me, and say, no, I'm not
talking about what you did.
I'm talking about how you did it, and
with those words, how you did it, I
saw that the whole process that started, the
moment the thought came to me, oh, the
chickens need water, to the very end of
the process, walking home, that whole act was
done in my own strength.
Precisely what Norman shared.
Precisely.
And because it was done in my own
strength, the Lord didn't accept it.
You say, well, wait a minute now.
Don't get weird, Phil.
You weren't serving the Lord.
You were getting water for chickens.
That is where we make the great mistake.
We departmentalize our life.
We segregate our life.
We separate our life.
And we, in our own foolish human wisdom,
because it's human wisdom that thinks like this,
we, in our own foolish human wisdom, make
a decision on what we're going to do
as unto the Lord, and then we make
a decision of, well, what we have to
do.
But we don't equate it to as unto
the Lord.
You know, who would consider going into a
chicken coop and cleaning chicken droppings off of
a water dispenser and filling it up with
water and putting it back on as something
we do unto the Lord?
No.
No, we don't do that.
We come to church unto the Lord.
And as a result of that whole project
being done out of the strength and ability
of Phil, because you see, any human being
is capable of water changing in his own
strength.
But yet Jesus said, for without me ye
can do nothing.
And so, even though I was able to
go and change the water, the thing that
the Lord is most, the thing the Lord
is after in our lives wasn't satisfied.
And that's the issue of Christianity.
That's the crossroads that we're at today as
Christians.
If, in fact, I take any of the
deeds or activities that this scripture, Colossians 3
.23, and whatsoever you do, if I take
that inclusive statement whatsoever, and by my human
wisdom, I delve into some area that applies
to that whatsoever, and I take it and
I somehow make it something that I'm going
to do by my own strength, by my
own wisdom, not unto the Lord, but unto
men, then what I have done is I
have, in the presence of God, robbed him
of the glory that he is worthy of
and stole it for myself.
Because whenever I engage in something, and it
is not from the heart that is touched
by the grace of God, and being enabled
by that sweet grace of God, and you
know what I'm talking about, when that grace
enables you to do whatever it is with
the loveliness and the fragrance of Christ, and
you're able to do it because you're doing
it out from His resources, when I fail
to come into that appropriation in the littlest
thing that I'm doing, then I am robbing
the glory that comes to God when I
am enabled by Christ and stealing it because
I'm doing it by my own strength, and
my own strength and wisdom always results in
a stench that rises up to the Lord.
Why aren't things working out in our lives
and in our homes and in our families
which spreads into our church?
No great theological mystery, no great need to
come to a deep revelation.
It's very simple, because we are failing to
see that whatsoever we do, we must do
it heartily unto the Lord and not unto
men.
Now these are things the Lord had placed
in my spirit a number of days ago,
and then with the testimony of Colette and
Norman, it was a marvelous, marvelous confirmation.
I want to just put a little title
on this.
Lord, what are you doing in my life?
Listen, you want things fixed in your life
this morning?
You want things fixed?
Ask God to enable you to lay hold
of this revelation.
You want that relationship fixed?
You want that attitude adjusted?
You want that root of bitterness to be
healed?
You want that complaining spirit, that grumbling spirit
that's got a hold of you and that's
not many people, you want that healed?
Whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto
the Lord.
There is healing today, there is restoration today,
through coming to see
those things that we have laid hold of
by our own strength and our own power.
Acknowledging them before God, and then asking God,
Lord, change my heart, my attitude about this
thing that I'm doing.
I have failed to see that this thing
that I'm engaged in is to be done
from my heart unto you and not to
men.
The reason why, listen carefully, the reason why
there is such a mess in my life
over this issue is because I have laid
hold of it myself.
I have got my hands on it, and
I'm doing it out from my own wisdom
and my own strength, and I'm making a
miserable mess.
Lord, you've got to stop this pattern in
my life.
You've got to stop this dreadful pattern in
my life before I destroy myself and others.
Now, do you believe that Jesus Christ is
able to break that pattern of laying hold
of something and in your own strength doing
it, as Norman said, no matter how small
it is, and transform you into a kind
of person where no matter how small the
task, no matter how apparently humble and of
no significance it is, you can do it
heartily with a heart touched by the grace
of God, with a heart inflamed and energized
by the love and the Spirit of God,
and you can do it unto the Lord
and not to men, and in doing it,
the fragrance of Christ, the beauty of Christ,
the loveliness of Christ can be seen, and
God can be glorified, and you can minister
life-changing water in chicken coops.
Yes, you can.
You can be a minister of life even
in the chicken coop.
God doesn't want you singing in church and
speaking in tongues in church and then cursing
the chickens because you don't want to be
in the chicken coop.
God doesn't want you cursing the cars on
Route 80 or Route 78 because they're moving
too slow, and then come to church and
praise Him.
You know why we're cursing the cars and
the chickens?
Because we come to church with the mindset,
I'm here as unto the Lord, and the
fragrance of God flows, and then we get
into our cars, we get into our chicken
coops, and we lose that mindset, and we
take a hold of it by our own
wisdom and our own power, and we end
up blowing it.
That's why we do it.
James said, these things ought not to be.
What's going on in your life now?
What's going on?
Now listen, listen carefully.
The problem and trouble that you are having
right now in your life has nothing to
do with what you're going through.
So I want you to ask the Lord
now to help you be delivered from that
mindset that makes you think that the current
problem in your life is because of something
external.
Alright?
Just ask the Lord, wash that from my
mind now.
And in its place, I want you to
think about Colossians 3.23, and whatsoever ye
do.
Now that includes your response to what you're
going through, because your response is something you're
doing.
This doesn't only apply to something physical, it
applies to your attitudes, it applies to how
you respond, how you react to what you're
going through.
Listen, your problem is not that person that's
slandered you.
Your problem is you've allowed it to cause
your heart to be filled with bitterness toward
that person.
You think your problem is that person slandered
me, and now your life's miserable and you're
making everyone else's life miserable.
But see, you've got the whole problem wrong.
You've got the focus wrong.
You're looking at it externally.
That's not your problem.
Your problem is that slander caught you off
guard, and you feel like you failed to
quote this Scripture when you found out about
that slanderous report.
Whatsoever I do, do it heartily as unto
the Lord.
And you took that report into your own
hands, and you failed to trust in the
grace of God, and you've allowed it to
offend your pride.
You've allowed it to offend your sense of
dignity.
And apart from the Lord, you responded, and
now you're reaping the consequences.
What have you done?
What are you doing?
Word, deed, and action, right now.
Not what's going on outwardly.
The Lord is in control of what's going
on outwardly, and the Lord is allowing things
outwardly to happen for this precise purpose, to
teach us the all-important imperative lesson.
Whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto
the Lord, and not unto men.
I believe the Spirit of God is speaking
to my own spirit to say this to
every one of us here this morning.
If we will have strong dealings with the
Lord over this simple truth, and let this
truth penetrate and search every nook and cranny
and area of our life, and be subject
to God's searchlight, we will experience the
most incredible, lovely release of freedom and emancipation
from the things that are controlling us that
we know are not pleasing to God, and
be brought into a life of peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost that we've never
known before, without even our circumstances changing.
Because we always think that the happy life
comes when our circumstances are happy, and the
miserable life comes because our circumstances are miserable.
If I only had more money, if I
only had another wife, or another husband, or
if I only had a husband, or if
I only had a wife, if my boss
was only a nice guy, if my car
was only ten years newer, then I would
be happy.
If my nose was just a half inch
shorter, if my thighs were just a little
smaller, if my hair was just a little
longer, if my hair was just a little
longer, if I had blue eyes like Sally,
or if I had a belt like Tom,
if I could preach like T.D. Jakes,
you may have heard of T.D. Jakes
preach, then I would be happy.
Or if I could be a super mom,
if only these kids wouldn't drive me crazy.
You see, you see the train of thinking
that we've entrapped ourselves into?
We equate happiness to external things, just like
the world does.
Aren't we supposed to be different from the
world, Gary?
Aren't we supposed to be children of the
king?
Aren't we supposed to, as Alan has shared
numbers of times from Romans chapter 12, aren't
we supposed to be people who are not
conformed to this world, but renewed in our
minds?
How many times has the brother gotten up
and says, I don't know why, but God
just won't let me off this scripture.
You know why?
It's because we need to hear it.
That's why.
And thank God when a brother will go
three or four times in a row and
talk about the same scripture and not be
intimidated.
Well, I spoke about this last week.
I need something fresh to appear like I'm
really hearing a lot of stuff from God.
No, that's not what we need.
We need men and women who are sensitive
so that if it's two years we're talking
about one scripture, so be it.
You see the mindset, though?
You see the mindset?
Now, how many here can see that you've
been entrapped with this thinking?
You know how?
That's rhetorical.
That's a rhetorical question.
I hope everyone is saying that.
Okay?
Well, I'm asking the Lord to take all
of our thoughts away that are wandering and
all of our meditations that have got us
somewhere else.
If we can focus in on this, this
is a word from the Lord.
This is addressing issues in your life this
morning.
Listen, there's some here this morning that have
been asking God for years to deal with
some areas.
You've had no victory.
Today is your day.
God is speaking to you.
Now, I want to invite you to turn
to Deuteronomy chapter 8.
Deuteronomy chapter 8 captures the spiritual truth that
the Lord has communicated to us this morning.
Beginning in verse 1.
Lord, give us ears to hear all the
commandments which I command thee this day ye
shall observe to do.
This opens up expressing the incredible desire of
the heart of God for His people to
learn obedience.
Listen, the bottom line, the ultimate intention of
God's heart for His people is that He
would have a people who from the heart
obey Him.
From the heart walk in His commandments.
There is nothing more important to the Lord
Jesus than to have a people whose hearts
are conformed to His will.
Everything that is happening in your life today
is intended by God to give you an
opportunity to learn obedience from the heart, not
outward religion.
Outward religion gives the appearance that the heart
is alright, but it's not.
Outward religion is all outward, but inwardly you're
cursing the chickens and you're cursing the cars.
You see, outwardly it looks good, but inwardly
whatsoever ye do is not happening.
There are still areas in your life where
the heart is not in obedience to the
will of God.
And so therefore, here's the wisdom of God.
Here's what God does.
Now, before we go into it, I want
you to turn all the way to verse
number 16 of Deuteronomy chapter 8.
This is God's ultimate intention.
He said, "...who fed thee in the wilderness
with manna which thy fathers knew not, that
He might humble thee, and that He might
prove thee," listen here, "...to give thee good
at thy latter end."
God's intention for you is to give you
good.
But when is this good to come?
At thy latter end.
Oh, I wish, I pray, I hope the
Lord in this few minutes will enable me
to communicate the thing that He brought into
my spirit through this.
As I was reading through this scripture in
Colossians during the week, the Lord began to
reveal to my spirit that there are many,
many, many of God's people who are seeking
this end blessing, to do thee good at
the latter end, but they're seeking the latter
end blessing but they're wanting to bypass the
journey that prepares us to be able to
receive that latter end blessing.
We want to go, and isn't that indicative
of the world?
Young families want to get married, and in
one year they want to own a $300
,000 home, they want to own a $40
,000 car, they want a salary of $100
,000 a year, and subsequent to that each
year a 15% raise.
They want the nicest everything.
They go into a company and they don't
want to start at the bottom of the
ladder, they want to start at the top.
They knock at the door of the CEO
and say, hi, I'm here, when are you
ready for me to come and be mentored
by you so I can take your job
over?
We don't want to start at the bottom
and work our way up.
We don't want to go through the process
that is necessary, that qualifies us in order
to receive this latter end blessing that God
has in mind for His people.
And I'll tell you in one sentence what
qualifies us to come into the place in
our life when God can give us that
latter end blessing.
That is His ultimate intention for us.
Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do
it heartily as unto the Lord and not
unto men, and ye shall receive the reward
of the inheritance.
There it is.
Now, listen carefully.
How does God get us to the place
where inwardly we are doing all things unto
the Lord heartily by the Spirit of God
and resulting in the fragrance of Christ oozing
out of our life when we're changing the
diapers, when our wife is telling us to
do something and we just don't want to
do it?
That's what qualifies us.
It's not how you look outwardly.
Young men think they go to Bible school
for four years and they memorize some books
in the Bible and they learn how to
do it, which is impossible.
You can't learn how to do anything except
the Spirit of God teach you and bring
you through.
The only way to learn is to go
through something.
You can't learn how to be an overcomer
going to Bible school.
You've got to overcome even as Jesus overcame.
That's what He said in Revelation.
How did Jesus overcome?
Though He were a Son, yet learned He
obedience by the things which He suffered.
He learned to overcome by suffering, by being
placed in situations where He demonstrated the spiritual
principle of not trusting in Himself, though He
could have, because He was sinless in Himself,
yet never relied upon Himself.
What a testimony!
Anyone who had the right to do what
he wanted, it was Jesus.
But because He was representative man, He said,
I refuse to do my own will, but
I seek the will of God.
That's how Jesus overcame.
That's how you and I overcome.
So you don't become a preacher by going
to Bible school, getting some theology books, and
exercising a gift.
There's a preparation that we must go through.
And here it is, captured for us in
Deuteronomy chapter 8.
Hear the word of the Lord this morning.
We are almost done.
Hear the word of the Lord.
This is a healing word, a delivering word.
This is a word that if you bring
it into your family, your family will be
revolutionized.
Your home life will be revolutionized.
Your attitudes in the morning, in the afternoon,
and in the evening will be revolutionized.
You will have praise on your lips.
It's not necessarily an emotional thing, but inwardly
your heart will be right with God.
Listen carefully.
God said, I want to give you a
blessing in the latter end.
The preparation work to get you prepared for
that blessing entails a work of grace on
the inside of your heart, enabling you to
go through life day and night so that
whatsoever you do, both in word, deed, action,
and thought, you are doing it heartily as
unto the Lord and not as unto men.
There is a lot that is involved in
that one statement.
I will leave that to the Holy Spirit
to expound on.
Verse 2, chapter 8, Deuteronomy.
Thou shalt remember all the ways which the
Lord thy God led thee forty years in
the wilderness.
Point one, the pathway to prepare you to
receive the full intention of God is a
personal wilderness that God prepares for you.
Do not despise the wilderness of the Lord.
Do not despise that special plan that God
has in your life.
Do not resent it.
Don't miss it.
You say, oh, I wish I was different,
or I wish I was like so and
so, or I wish my life wasn't like
this.
You're missing it.
If you will adjust your attitude and realize
that God has especially planned that for you,
He has especially brought you into that wilderness,
and you realize that it's not that wilderness
that has the capability of destroying you, but
it's your reaction to it that has the
capability of destroying you.
You can either react in the flesh, or
you can respond from the heart and find
grace in time of need and end up
demonstrating the overcoming power of God in that
wilderness that you are in.
Hallelujah.
That's refreshing, isn't it?
My God.
Point one, a personal wilderness.
Under that point, A, to humble thee, B,
to prove thee, and C, to know what
is in thine heart, and D, with an
asterisk next to it, whether thou wouldest keep
His commandments or not.
There you go in one scripture, the eternal,
infinite wisdom of God that is currently being
exercised in the life of every blood-washed
child of God today.
Why?
Because He doesn't like you?
Because He's cruel?
Because He's unfair?
I say no.
Because He loves you with an everlasting love,
and He said that He has a good
end for you, to prosper you, to bless
you, to fill you with the glories of
His goodness.
That's why He's given you a wilderness.
Number one, to humble you.
That means to lower every attitude in your
heart that exalts itself above the principle of,
I'm nothing more than an unprofitable servant.
Any attitude that rises up in you that
makes you think you're better or you're too
high to do something in the name of
the Lord needs to be humbled.
And let me tell you, you'll be brought
down in the wilderness.
God, listen, God will search every attitude, every
thought, every meditation in your heart.
If you are one of His, and if
you're set on obtaining the prize and winning
Christ, God will not let any stone uncovered
in your life, this is a prophetic word
now, listen, God will not let any area
of darkness in your life be excluded from
the light of His Word.
And every thought and reasoning and every attitude
that exalts itself above the principle of, I
am nothing and Jesus is everything and I
don't have the right to anything.
We exert our rights, I don't have the
right.
Or, I've got the right to do this,
I've got the right to do that, I've
got the right to demand your respect.
And when you don't respect me, I've got
the right to get angry at you.
No, you don't.
What if God exercised that toward you and
said, alright, with that judgment that you are
bringing on another, I'm going to bring on
you.
So now where do we stand?
When God comes to you one morning and
says, you failed me last night, therefore I
have the right to withhold my grace from
you for two months, ha ha ha, have
fun.
Where would you go?
What would you do if you experienced that
attitude toward you from God?
Then why do we think we have the
right to exercise that attitude toward one another?
Jesus said, as I have loved you, so
love one another.
To prove thee.
That word means to test, and to try,
and to scrutinize.
Not only will you be humbled in the
wilderness, but the very motives of your heart
will be exposed.
Not what you're doing, but why you're doing
it.
Why?
If you're into anything, whether it's service in
the church toward the saints, a secular job,
or in church, no matter what you're in,
whether it's a marriage, whether it's a secular
job, or whether it is serving the saints,
serving the church.
If you're doing it, why?
Remember, to prove you, to test you.
The motive of your heart.
If you're after something in a selfish way,
you are going to fail that commitment, because
you're not going to get what you're after.
You can't.
Selfishness can never be met, because selfishness always
wants more, more, more.
It's never satisfied.
The eye of man is never satisfied.
The grass is always greener on the other
side.
And so God will try your heart, and
prove it, and test it, and reveal the
motives of your heart.
The Word of God is quick and powerful
and sharper than any two-edged sword, even
to the dividing of soul and spirit, and
it is a discerner of the very thoughts
and intents of the heart.
Hebrews 4.12. Revelation chapter 3, that all
the churches might know that I am the
Lord that tries the hearts.
Is God trying your heart this morning?
Next.
To know what is in thy heart.
God knows what's in your heart, but you're
going to come to know.
And may I say to you, when you
come to see how crooked your heart is,
don't despair.
God knew it all along, and He didn't
reject you, He saved you.
So when you see how crooked you are,
repent, mourn, and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning, it
says in James.
Let your rejoicing be turned to sorrow, but
be encouraged, because the Lord has mercy on
the humble and the contrite.
And He knew you were crooked, He just
wanted you to know, so you would cry
out to Him for mercy, so you would
see the desperateness of your situation.
Don't despair, don't let the devil lie to
you and say, you see, you're so crooked,
you're so corrupt, what would God want to
do with you?
You just rebuke him and say, God uses
the crooked and the corrupt and the sick
in order to show the testimony of His
grace, devil.
Get behind me.
Jesus didn't come to call the righteous.
If I was righteous, devil, then Jesus would
have no need for me.
Don't let Him intimidate you.
And lastly, and I'm closing, whether thou wouldest
keep His commandments.
What commandment?
Let's capture the whole commandment.
Jesus said, the whole law and the prophets
hang on what?
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, mind, strength, and soul, and
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
That statement, that statement captures and whatsoever ye
do, because the whatsoever you do is going
to either be in relation to your relationship
with God or in relation to your relationship
with others.
So to obey the whole law is summed
up in one act of grace, a heart,
hallelujah, that is able by grace.
Whatever it does, it does by grace in
the heart from the Spirit unto the Lord
and not to men.
That satisfies the whole demand of the law.
That brings pleasure to God because it is
not the work of flesh.
It is the work of His Son that
is oozing from our life then.
And we become a corporate vessel where the
fragrance of Christ is rising in the heavens
and God is glorified and our lives are
filled with praise and glory and honor.
Jesus quoted to the devil after his first
temptation in the wilderness, man shall not live
by bread alone but by every word that
proceeds out of the mouth of God.
God is teaching you today to live by
His word.
What's the end of this?
The end is that ye may receive the
reward of the inheritance that you might receive
at your latter end.
That latter end does not necessarily mean when
you're 95.
Latter end simply suggests that which follows the
wilderness, the transformation in the wilderness and the
heart that is set aright for God.
Are you looking for your latter end?
Are you believing God for it?
Then don't despise the chastening of the Lord.
Neither be weary when you are corrected.
For whom the Lord loves He corrects and
every son whom He receives He chastens.
Now correction is not joyous but grievous.
Nevertheless it works the peaceable fruit of righteousness
to those who are exercised thereby.
So be encouraged.
The Lord is doing a work in your
life today.
Receive it in Jesus' name.
Amen and amen.
We want to spend a few minutes before
the Lord if you'd like.
If you have to go...