Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday,
May 23, 2018
The first thing that God did is the means of glorifying Him.
The means of glorifying Him is to reach a point where you can handle suffering for blessing and adversity for blessing by developing a capacity to receive both.
What is the first thing God did for us, create or bless us?
The first thing God ever did was to grace us out with divine blessing and then He elected or chose us to be “in Christ” and receive these divine blessings in time and in the eternal state.
It is the releasing of these divine blessings and the releasing of your personal assets to the believer who has fulfilled the PPOG and their very own personal sense of destiny.
The apostle Paul talks about this in the longest sentence in the Bible found in Eph 1:3-14.
God the and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the One who planned and provided us benefits by every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.
God the Father is worthy of glorification having provided us benefits for every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.
EPH 1:5 should read In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the gracious intention of His will.
Notice that in love He pre-designed us to become adult sons for himself through Jesus Christ, according to the benevolent purpose from His will.
This is the result of recognizing the glory from God the Father as the source of His grace in providing for us that which He has pursued us with grace as one who has been loved.
ROM 9:25 As He says also in Hosea, “I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’ And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.'”
He is involved with the planning of the divine decrees while God the Son is the One who executes the plan by creating mankind and the PPOG for all believers.
1CO 10:14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
EPH 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;
F = Planner
S = Executor
H.S. = Revealer-Teacher
Having heard the expression of the doctrine, the good news of your salvation: in whom having believed, you have been stamped with a seal by means of the Spirit of promise, by means of the Holy One [Spirit].”
Learning to embrace what God does for you is the best thing you can ever do for Him.
Who would ever think of setting up pagan idols in God’s Holy Temple which is your body?
Those who have NVTD, reject spiritual authority, refuse the Lord’s supper, and do not gather together with the Royal Family of God.
Who would ever think of setting up Pagan idols in God’s Holy Temple which is your body as well as allowing the devil to rent a room in your soul?
Believers and unbelievers who have both rejected the Gospel and the communication of Bible doctrine, Eph 4:27.
Who else rejects the PPOG, the personal sense of destiny and the baptism into the spiritual body of TLJC for remember we are His workmanship, Eph 2:10.
2PE 1:10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing or electing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
The key word here is the aorist active imperative of the Greek verb epichoregeo which speaks of the suppler that the choir had in the ancient world to support the actors in Greek drama.
Those who have NVTD, reject spiritual authority, refuse the Lord’s supper, and do not obey the command of gathering together with the Royal Family of God.
Those who think “I am a rock, I am an Island” — ” I don’t need anyone but Jesus ANYMORE, so they say.
Loser believers call our Lord just “Jesus” when He is not just Jesus, He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the King of Kings and the Lord of lords!
The Almighty One
The Alpha and Omega
The First and the Last
The Beginning and the End.
He is Our Advocate
The Author and Perfecter of Our Faith
The Bread of Life
The Beloved Son of God
The Bridegroom
The Deliverer
The Faithful and True One
The Good Shepherd
The Great High Priest
The Head of the Church
The Great I Am
Immanuel – ‘God with us.’
The indescribable Gift
The Righteous One
The Lamb of God
The Light of the World
The Lion of the Tribe of Judah
The Lord of All
The Mediator
The Messiah
He is Our Hope
Our Peace
Our Prophet
The Redeemer
The Risen Lord
The Rock
The Sacrifice for Our Sins
The Savior
The Son of Man
The Son of the Most High
The Resurrection and the Life
The Door
The Word
The True Vine
The Victorious One
The Wonderful Counselor
The Mighty God
The Everlasting Father
The Way, the Truth and the Life
The Prince of Peace
ISA 9:6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
God himself put it this way: “I’ll live in them, move into them; I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.
2CO 6:17 “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you.
Leave the corruption and compromise; leave it for good,” says God. “Don’t link up with those who will pollute you. I want you all for Myself.”
Every time we hook up with something or someone in the cosmic system, we are in partnership with the cosmic system.
Your reliance on yourself, your desire to have your own programs to follow, or to live and make your own decisions is dealt with by TLJC.
JER 13:23 “Can the Ethiopian change his skin Or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good Who are accustomed to doing evil.
EPH 4:22,24, “You lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and you have put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
2CO 5:17 Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Gal 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.
GAL 6:15 “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”
What is preventing you from taking the promises of Word and appropriating them in your life?
Ask God to defeat these giants and build His heavenly attributes in our hearts and He will says JAM 4:2 “You do not have because you do not ask.”
With the powerful weapons of spiritual warfare we can tear down the strongholds and fortresses of these giants; 2Co 10:2-4.
2CO 2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.
Victory is supposed to be the norm and standard in Christianity.
What is preventing you from taking the promises of the Word and appropriating them in your life?
We cannot make excuses for defeat. Why?
Because we were made to triumphant in Christ.
If I were to ask you, can you name some of the giant killers mentioned in the Bible, chances are that all of you would point to David (who killed Goliath the giant; 1Sa 17).
The Israelites under the leadership of Moses and later Joshua (who killed the kings Sihon and Og; Deu 3:11, Num 21:21-35, Jos 2:10)
and Caleb (who killed the gigantic descendants of Anak that lived on a mountain; Jos 14.
Under the leadership of Moses and later Joshua (who killed the kings and giants in Sihon and Og; Deu 3:11, “For only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant and it is referring to the giants in the land known as the Rephaim.”
He was approximately 12 feet tall and if the weight correlates with the size of the other giants, he would be about 450 pounds.
There is a good chance that Church history may record your name as a giant killer.
Speaking of their victories over the giants in the land, Jos 2:10.
Moses, Joshua, Caleb and David, as well as members of David’s family, just to mention a few all had on their eternal resume the fact that they were giant killers.
They will be rewarded as giant killers says 1Co 3:11-15; 2Co 5:10.
Caleb killed the gigantic descendants of Anak that lived on a mountain; Jos 14.
It is unlikely that one of the names in that list would be of man known as Elhanan.
Elhanan is mentioned once in the Bible (in two verses) and what makes him stand out is that in his introduction (in both verses), he is identified as the killer of Lahmi, a giant, who was the brother of the giant Goliath.
Elhanan carried weapons and a spear very similar to that of Goliath (1CH 20:5; 2Sa 21:19)
1CH 20:5 And there was war with the Philistines again, and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
2Sa 21:19 And there was war with the Philistines again at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare‑oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
Goliath the Philistine or Goliath from Gath is the name of the giant that David killed, Goliath the Gittite is one of the giants that one of David’s relatives killed.
It is not how much is known OF us, but what is known of us that matters.
Sometimes our feats and accomplishments, though it may be similar in magnitude, may not be very well known by others as that of some others.
However, the important thing is that we must be diligent in our duties to do what is required of us.
Elhanan is recorded as a giant slayer and will forever hold that accolade, irrespective of the extent of how much people known of him.
And every time someone talks of Elhanan, he will be known as a giant killer, placed in the same echelon of David, Moses & Joshua and Caleb.
Whatever the giant is that we face, we must be willing to acknowledge its existence in order to overcome it.
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