–John Hansen  (The Outfit)

       “The righteous will see it and be amazed.  They will laugh and say, ‘Look at what happens to mighty warriors who do not trust in God.  They trust their wealth instead and grow more and more bold in their wickedness.'”

                    –Psalm 52:6-7 (NLT)
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Whoopti-yay, watch out, here I come.  That’s a simple paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 2:1-2, “I said to myself, ‘Come now, let’s give pleasure a try.  Let’s look for the “good things” in life.  But I found that this, too, was meaningless.  It is silly to be laughing all the time,’ I said.  ‘What good does it do to seek only pleasure?'” (NLT)  The NKJV translates verse 2, “I said of laughter–‘Madness!’–; and of mirth, ‘What does this accomplish?'”
       So many people now see only happiness.  If it makes you happy that’s all that counts.  That is hogwash.  There is much more to life than happiness.  People use it as an excuse to compromise the Scriptures.  We see here the person who has spent his life doing what was right in his own eyes, and he now calls it “Madness.”  Pleasure, here I come, was his motto.  The humanistic view of if it feels good, do it, became his way of life.  Pleasure-seeking usually becomes a selfish endeavor and selfishness destroys pure joy.  Pleasure appeals to only part of the person and ignores the total being.  No wonder there are so many “How To” books.  There has to be a solution given to coping with life, or to at least look like you’re coping.
       Have you ever considered the palace of Solomon and its extravagance?  First Kings 4:22-23 gives us an indication, “Solomon’s provisions for one day were 150 bushels of fine flour and 300 bushels of meal, 10 fattened oxen, 20 range oxen, and 100 sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and pen-fed poultry.” (HCSB)  It was truly “eat, drink, and be merry,” and what did it leave you with?  A huge stomach ache.
       And laughter.  “A merry heart does good, like medicine…” (Proverbs 17:22, NKJV), but hold on–“Laughter can conceal a heavy heart, but when the laughter ends, the grief remains.” (Proverbs 14:13, NLT)  Laughter is nice, but it can also be used to conceal insecurities or sorrow.  Then add to the reasons for entertainment.  Is it to laugh, have a good time, or to escape from reality.  Listen, no matter what you try in regard to entertainment, there is no escape from reality.  You escape, go into your little cave, and when you come out there it is smack dab in your face.  Why do you think so many hours are played with video games?  Escape, but there is no escape.
       One of the things I cannot stand is “canned laughter.”  Watch sit-coms, which I dislike, they have to include canned laughter.  Why?  If it’s funny I’ll laugh, if not I won’t and much of what “they” think is funny I don’t.  Late night jokesters who now try to play politics–hmm, well maybe they are on to something.  Remember, royalty used to have a court jester to make him laugh, to help him out of a bad mood, to make life jovial.  Ha, it doesn’t work that way.  Let me close today with this story by Charles Swindoll.

               A distrubed and deeply troubled individual went to a psychiatrist to relieve his anxiety.  He awoke melancholy every morning, and he went to bed in the evening deeply depressed.  His day was marked by darkness and clouds.  He couldn’t find relief for this anxiety.  In his desperate condition, he decided to seek the counsel of a medical doctor.  The psychiatrist listened to him for almost an hour.  Finally, he leaned toward the patient and said to him, “You know, there’s a local show at a theater.  I understand a new Italian clown has come into our city, and he’s leaving ’em in the aisles.  He’s getting rave reviews from the critics.  Maybe he is the one that will bring back your happiness.  Why don’t you go see this professional clown and laugh your troubles away?”
               With a handdog expression, the patient muttered, “Doctor, I am that clown.”

                         –D.C. Adkisson  (Redemption)

       “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.”

                         –Colossians 4:2 (NKJV)
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How to Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World

Key Verse:  “We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the power and control of the evil one.”  –1 John 5:19 (NLT)

       One thing for sure you need to survive in this wicked world is prayer.  Prayer keeps the communication line open with God.  There are many books on how to pray, a method of prayer, etc.  The thing that must be done is to pray.  James Moffat said that, “Prayer is love in need appealing to love in power.”  We are most surely a needy people, in many, many ways, and God is the power.  In fact, that is one of His names for Jesus is sitting on the “right hand of Power.”  
       Matthew Henry wrote that, “Prayer is the nurse of faith.”  We stay strong in the faith through God’s Word and through communication with Him.  Part of our communication with Him is His Word.  We must realize and understand that.  We know Him by His Word.  Also because of His Word we know how to pray, and I don’t just mean the Lord’s Prayer.  We must pray according to His will which we find in the Word.  The better we know the Bible, the better we can pray, and we must pray to get through this life.
       We must communicate with God to get through this wicked world.  When things are lurking ready to pounce on you, when obstacles arise in your path that you were not expecting, when things don’t go as planned, when there seems to be no understanding we must go to the Lord in prayer.  Paul, Peter, John, and Jude all speak about false teachers and prophets.  We need to know the Word to recognize who these are.  Contemplate on the words of Jude, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.” (vs 20, NKJV)  Notice, we build ourselves up.  We build on our faith, but we do it.  Works?  Of course it is, it is faith that is alive and active.  It is growing in grace.  Now, the question is how hard do we want to work.  There are sluggards in the world, you have worked with some of them, but remember, there are also believers that are spiritual sluggards as well.  They have a “ho-hum” type of Christianity.
       So how do we pray?  How do we keep the messages flowing back and forth between heaven and the throne?  First, test everything that comes your way by the will of God, therefore you must get into the Bible to know the will of God and take everything that comes your way to God for His approval.  Second, we are insufficient and weak; we must take our insufficiency to the God of sufficiency.  He is the One who takes care of our need.  Third, we are admonished to pray in the Spirit so that our prayers are right.  I remember a preacher one time asking his aunt why she moaned so much when she prayed.  She told him that one day he’ll get to the place where his prayers are filled with moans.  The Holy Spirit can interpret those moans.  And fourth, we must know the Word of God to pray properly.  

               “Pray, no matter how bad the chances,
               Pray, whenever the foe advances,
               Pray whatever the circumstances,
              God has got to come through.”
                          –Ralph Carmichael

                         –D.W. Ulsterman  (The Irish Cowboy)

 

        “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.”
                         –Romans 12:2 (NLT)
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I am bothered by the fact that too often we come to church less solemn than we should.  By solemn, I mean seriousness of purpose.  When we do that we make God weary.  Look at Malachi 1:8, “And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil?  And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?  Offer it then to your governor!  Would he be pleased with you?  Would he accept you favorably? says the LORD of hosts.” (NKJV)  He continues on in verse 10, “…I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts.  Nor will I accept an offering from your hands.” (NKJV)
       I can hear some of you now, “Oh, but that was Old Testament,” or “that is legalism.”  No, it’s the Word of the Lord.  God expects us to give our best.  And don’t think its only Old Testament.  There was trouble in the Corinthian church when they made light of the Lord’s Supper.  They were taking it lightly, not respecting the purpose and the symbolism behind it and Paul wrote much of chapters 8, 10-11 regarding proper respect regarding the Lord’s Supper and proper habits.  He goes on to say that because of the way some treat the sacrament of the communion unworthily.  Remember, Paul is writing to believers in the church at Corinth.  “So if anyone eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily, that person is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.  That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking from the cup.  For if you eat the bread or drink the cup unworthily, not honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself.  That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.”  (11:27-30, NLT)
       Malachi warns about bringing blemished sacrifices to the altar.  There was a proper sacrifice that was laid out by God in Leviticus.  The lamb/sacrifice was to be without spot, without blemish.  It was to be a “perfect” sacrifice.  They not only brought unworthy sacrifices, they actually expected God to bless them for it.  Here they hold the worship of God in contempt and they expect blessing.  
       Paul writes that we are to be “living sacrifices.  “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice–the kind he will accept.  When you thing of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?” (NLT)  What does that mean?  “It means that when we accept Jesus as our personal Savior, we choose to obey him over our own will and desires.  We no longer seek to fill our lives with earthly pleasures.  Instead, we seek to serve God in all that we do.” (NLT notes)  I like what one of the early church fathers, John Chrysostom wrote,

                    “How can the body become a sacrifice?  If you don’t let your eye look at anything evil, it has become a sacrifice.  Don’t let your tongue say anything filthy, and it has become an offering.  By not letting your hand do anything lawless, it has become a burnt offering….  For a sacrifice can’t be unclean.  Sacrifice is a first-fruit of all other actions.  So then, let us give the first-fruit of our hands, feet, mouth, and all other parts to God.  Such a sacrifice is well pleasing.”

       No the pure, holy sacrifice is what is pleasing to God.  One with spots will not be accepted.  One that is given half-heartedly will not be accepted.  One that has blemishes will not be accepted.  Oh, my, is there any hope?  The problem is that we have forgotten the doctrine of sanctification.  We have turned sanctification into the despicable term of legalism.  Legalism is what adds to your salvation, sanctification is what comes out of your salvation and continues until we meet the Lord.  It is growing in grace, not sinning and asking forgiveness over and over, but growing in grace is the lifestyle that is practiced so that sin is not part of our life.
       Part of our problem, and I say part, is that we don’t prepare ourselves to meet with the Lord.  We don’t “wash up” before going to the “supper table.”  There is a time for repentance (every day in fact), a time when the Holy Spirit removes the daily stain so that we can have full fellowship with the Lord.  Therefore, there should be seriousness of purpose when we go to meet with the Lord, when we partake of the Lord’s communion.  Don’t offer yourself as a second-rate sacrifice.