O V E R C O M I N G
SERMON STARTER
We live in the day of “pastor-make-me-feel-good” sermons that emphasize how wonderful we are and how we deserve all of God’s blessings. Scripture tells us that there is a two-way interaction between ourselves and God when it comes to consecration. Consecration is our way of being involved with Him in the process of overcoming.
The early church monastics (desert hermits) concerned themselves with purity of their thought life. They wrongly believed that if they could somehow purify their thought life by withdrawing from the world, then they could present themselves to God in a more dedicated and consecrated way. They were plagued by obsessive sexual thoughts that convicted them. Some even mutilated themselves through self-castration. That didn’t stop the “sinful thoughts.”
Over the centuries other movements rose and fell in Christianity over how to consecrate oneself and become closer to God. In and before the reformation (about 400 years ago) the Pietistic Movement concerned themselves with their outward appearance. How you dress and your apparel somehow made you closer to God. Unfortunately, the women carried the load in this movement. They had to wear dresses that covered their femininity. No makeup was allowed. Austere hair styles and coverings were the norm. Black or drab grey was the color. Pietism wrongly believed that how you looked outwardly made you more consecrated and religious.
Just before they went over into the Promised Land at Gilgal, the children of Israel were told to consecrate themselves for they were to be involved in amazing things with the Lord. They had to wash off. . .
- 1) The dust of 70 years of faithless desert wandering because of their parent’s unbelief;
- 2) The spiritual contamination of 300 earlier years in Egypt with its affluence and idolatry.
- 3) Their old nomadic way of desert life with the Lord’s daily provision of food and water.
They had to put on. . .
1) The whole armor of God and prepare to participate in
God’s plan for them to possess the land of God’s
promise. Ephesians 6:11-18
2) Courage to begin the fight without physical weapons.
3) Perseverance to fight until victory was theirs.
This sermon explores how to consecrate ones self in the process of overcoming. The Word of God challenges and convicts us. I have read the end of His Book: we win.
Pastor Phil <><<
Sheepfold Ministries
July 8, 2007 - Rev. Phil Roland
O V E R C O M I N G
THE INCREDIBLE POWER OF CONSECRATION
By laying down our lives before God and one another, we release the incredible overcoming power of God to do things we formerly thought were impossible.
Pastor Phil Roland
Consecration = "To be clean, dedicate, or purify"
I. BURY YOURSELF IN THE JORDAN - Gal. 2:20; Joshua 3:5
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
"Then Joshua told the people, 'Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do
amazing things among you.'" NIV
“And Joshua said - Or rather, had said, the day before their passage; for it follows, to - morrow. Sanctify yourselves - Both in soul and body, that you may be meet to receive such a favour, and with more reverence observe this great work, and fix it in your hearts.” Wes. Translation
A. SEPARATION - Rom. 6:4-7
“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just
as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may
live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will
certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self
was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we
should no longer be slaves to sin--because anyone who has died has been freed
from sin.”
B. A STEP OF FAITH - Joshua 3:3,4
"When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests,
who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it.
Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.
But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the ark; do not
go near it."
C. AN ACT OF OBEDIENCE - Joshua 3:9
“Joshua said to the Israelites, "Come here and listen to the words of the LORD
your God.”
1. Memorial Stones - Joshua 4:9
“Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at
the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And
they are there to this day.”
2. Put to Death Old Self - Col. 3:5-10
“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual
immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of
these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life
you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these:
anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to
each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have
put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its
Creator.”
D. We Have Death and Life - Romans 6:8-11
“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we
know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no
longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but
the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin
but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
II. RECEIVE RESURRECTION ON THE OTHER SIDE - Joshua 4:19-20
“On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan.”
A. Gilgal = "Reproach Rolled Away" - Joshua 5:9
“Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt
from you." So the place has been called Gilgal to this day.”
B. Your Reproach of Sin is Rolled Away at Calvary - Rom.6:8-11
“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we
know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
1. Death Precedes Life - John 12:24
“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it
remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
2. Our Sin Is Nailed to His Cross - Colossians 2:13,14
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful
nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having
canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that
stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.”
III. CONSECRATE YOURSELF FOR VICTORY - Rom 6:12-13; 8:13
“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.”
“For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”
A. Guidelines for Consecration
1. Have No Other Gods - Ex. 23:32-33; 1 John 2:15
“Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in
your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of
their gods will certainly be a snare to you."
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the
love of the Father is not in him.”
2. Wholly Follow God - Num. 32:12; Luke 9:23
’Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not one of the men
twenty years old or more who came up out of Egypt will see the land I
promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob--not one except Caleb son of
Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they followed the LORD
wholeheartedly.'
3. Walk in God's Will
a. Remove and Renounce - Joshua 7:11-13
“Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded
them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have
stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions.
That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn
their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction.
I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is
devoted to destruction. "Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: That which is devoted is among you, O Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove it.”
b. Purge the 'Old Leaven' - 1 Cor. 5:7,8
“Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
4. No Compromise - Josh. 23:12-13; Lk. 9:62
"Or else, if indeed you do go back, and cling to the remnant of these nations; these that remain among you; and make marriages with them, and go in to them and they to you, "know for certain that the LORD your
God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. But they shall
be snares and traps to you, and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the LORD your God has given you.”
“But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."
5. Do Not Covet - Josh. 7:21; 1 John 2:16;17
"When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it."
“For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
6. Total Commitment - Josh. 24:15; Matt. 6:24
"And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love
the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You
cannot serve God and mammon.” (money)
B. Put on the New Self - Col. 3:10
“Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image
of its Creator.”
STONE CIRCLES
Massebah, Mysterious Stone Piles in the Desert
Numerous standing stones have been found in the Negev and Sinai deserts. The Hebrew Bible calls them masseboth (mah-tseh-vot; singular massebah), which translates a "pillars" or "standing stones." Most are circular in nature and have been set vertically into the ground, individually or in groups, and are abundant in these desert regions. There are at least 142 independent masseboth sites and most face east, the direction of the rising sun.
They date back to the 11th and 10th millennia BCE. (“B” = “Before;” “C” = Common Era, Current Era, or Christian Era.) The most common period was the sixth to the third millennia BCE and were continually being erected through the Biblical period and beyond.
See BAR March / April 2006
Mysterious Standing Stones
Circumcision
Bleeding and Blessing
Circumcision is God’s plan to allow to bleed what He plans to bless. The blood letting is an integral part of Judaic and Middle Eastern Worship. It was practiced in the Middle East for millennia. God through Abraham instituted circumcision as a way of establishing and sealing Israel’s Godly covenant. (Genesis 17:7-11) Jewish males were required to have circumcision before coming before God in temple worship.
Paul draws a comparison between the fleshly unrepentant heart and the uncircumcised, un-submitted rebellious believers. (Colossians 2:13) Submitting to God is like this ancient rite. It is humiliating, embarrassingly painful and indignant, especially when required of adult males. Our hearts must have the excessive flesh cut away. Our hearts must be broken and allowed to bleed before we can stand before Him.