Today on Answers with Bayless Conley:
For some of you, just by your nature, you're a little more reserved. Cool. We get it. Other
people, you're out there. We get that too. Let's just make sure that Jesus is the center
of our attention and let us never despise those that are exuberant in their worship.
There are many questions you are faced with every day. We are all searching for answers
that will make a real difference in our lives. It's hard to imagine that these answers
might be right in front of us. Get ready to discover answers in the Bible with Bayless
Conley.
Have you ever been in a church service and somebody standing or sitting near you is just
like kind of saying, "Amen! Praise God!?" Or maybe during the singing time they're
just sort of singing louder? Maybe holding their notes a little bit longer? We're going
to talk a little bit about those people. You may have never been in such a circumstance.
Maybe you have. But either way I think you're going to find what we're sharing a little
bit enlightening. We're actually talking about things that God specifically says, "Hey,
don't look down on this. Don't treat this lightly. You need to value this." And one
of those things just might be that loud worshiper that gets on your nerves. We'll talk a little
bit about that. We've got some other things that are incredibly important that specifically
in God's Word that God pin points them and says, "Hey, pay attention to this. You will
have a tendency to treat this lightly and to maybe pass over this. But you shouldn't
because there is value in it. You shouldn't because it is important for you." And friend,
the things that are important to God they should be important to us. And anything that
God goes out of His way in His Word to draw our attention to it and to say, "Hey, this
thing, don't treat this lightly." We need to spend a little extra time considering it.
And that's what we are doing right now.
Woman VO: Stay tuned at the end of the program today for a special inspirational thought
from Bayless.
Well open your Bible, please, to 2 Samuel, the sixth chapter. 2 Samuel, chapter six.
I am going to finish up a message I began a couple of weeks ago, entitled Things We
Should Value. I want to look at it from a slightly different vantage point and you may
remember, let me just refresh your memory a bit. We actually are taking it from the
vantage point of looking at things that God tells us not to despise. It's interesting,
in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, there are numerous things that God felt it
was important to say, "Listen, don't despise this thing." Or there's a lesson about not
despising a certain thing.
As we pick up the story here, the Ark of the Covenant, which was a chest that God gave
Moses the instructions to build. It was made of acacia wood overlaid with gold inside and
outside and in this chest there was a copy of the Ten Commandments, there was a bowl
that had manna in it, and Aaron's rod that budded. On top of it was what was called the
mercy seat and there was two angels that were made out of beaten gold facing each other.
On this mercy seat, the presence of God would come in a literal, physical way, and it became
the reference point for all of God's people for God's presence. This Ark of the Covenant,
this overlaid chest of gold represented to the people God's presence, but the Philistines
had captured it due to Israel's sin. And it eventually ended up in the house of a guy
named Obed-Edom and God blessed the house of Obed-Edom and now David is bringing, finally,
this Ark of the Covenant, God's presence if you would, back to Jerusalem. We pick it up,
2 Samuel 6 and verse 14,
14 Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a
linen ephod. 15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with
shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.
16 Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul's daughter,
looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and
she despised him in her heart.
Everybody say "Uh oh."
Drop down to verse 20,
20 Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to
meet David, and said, "How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself
today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers
himself!" 21 So David said to Michal, "It was before
the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over
the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the Lord. 22 And
I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as
for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor."
23 Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.
Now she was David's wife and whether David never went into her again or she just became
barren, we're not told, but I think the latter is probably where that would land. And I just
wonder if there's some people that have despised others within God's family that had maybe
been very exuberant and loud and all out in their worship, they're barren in some areas
of their life because of their attitude toward such things. David was worshiping with all
of his heart, but to his wife Michal it was undignified. Her pride was assaulted. David
humbling himself before God in this way, she felt was a reflection upon her.
And you know, she'd been married to David, but while her father Saul was chasing David
across the countryside, she left David and got married to another guy. You know what?
David forgave her and he took her back and he even refused to take the crown until Michal
was restored to him as his wife. But she was so much like her father, only concerned with
how she was perceived by others, rather than being concerned with the state of her heart
before God.
David, on the other hand, was just the opposite. He said, "It was before the Lord that I
did this and I will be even more undignified than this. I will humble myself before Him."
You know, some, they're much more expressive in their worship and we need to be careful
not to look down upon them or despise them or say unkind things about them. You know,
the great revivalist, Charles Finney said, "There will be no revival when Mr. Amen and
Mr. Wet Eyes are not in the audience." And listen, to those of you that are so inclined
toward exuberant, expressive, loud worship, I have a word for you: Go for it! Go for it!
But, just don't go for it to the point where you distract from the One that is to be the
true center of our attention and that is, Jesus. And there is a line that you can draw
and I think most people have enough common sense to know where that is. I've shared the
story that I was the first one saved in my family, and I remember when I came back to
share with them, it was in a public place. My mom, my dad were there with some other
people, and I was sitting in a little chair off to the side, reading this tiny little
Gideon's Bible. I mean, it's the kind you almost need a magnifying glass to read the
print. This thing was tiny, and my mother was so offended, she said, "Put that thing
away. Do you have to do that? You're just trying to draw attention to yourself. That's
disgusting." And you know she got saved and five months later, she's carrying around a
10 pound family Bible with her everywhere she goes.
I think it can be the same way with worship. I remember a particular person in the church,
they were quite vocal and very loud. They had a set of lungs on them. They would worship
and even when they greeted people, it was just sort of over the top loud, but it was
them. They were being genuine, and this person had another family member that they dragged
out to church with them a couple of times. It was a young girl and she just seemed disgusted
with the whole thing.
In fact, one day, you know it's during service and this girl from their family, she's sitting
outside of the church on this stairwell, and I saw her out there. So I went out during
service, I said, "Hey, what's up?" And she let me have it. She just said, "Look, you
guys are all brainwashed, the whole lot of you." She talked about her family members,
she said, "It is so embarrassing, and just, it's, it's disgusting. You know the way you
guys shout and you sing and then, you know, they especially do it." And I just talked
to her a little bit and loved on her and laughed with her a little bit. And you know what?
It wasn't three months later, I look over in the service and there she is with her hands
lifted up, tears streaming down her face and she's singing her lungs out to Jesus.
Some of you, listen to me, some of you that are more reserved mark my words, it may not
be too long, you'll be shouting "Hallelujah" at the top of your voice and shouting. God
just has a way of working in our hearts and sometimes we're just so worried about how
we appear to other people. Man, it's good. You can't serve God as long as you have the
fear of man. You can't. If you fear God, you don't have to fear men. Some of you, you just
need to get out there with your worship. God is worthy of more than you give Him in worship,
but you're just too concerned with how someone else is going to perceive you.
So I just want to say let's worship Him with all of our heart and soul. For some of you,
just by nature, you're a little more reserved. Cool. We get it. Other people, you're out
there. We get that too. Let's just make sure that Jesus is the center of our attention
and let us never despise those that are exuberant in their worship.
All right, second thing, or actually, we come to number eight, and this is closely related.
That is giving offerings to the Lord, which is another form of worship. Giving offerings
to the Lord. We need to make sure we don't look down upon the act of giving. Some people,
they only have negative things to say about you know, taking up an offering in church
or whenever an offering is mentioned, they never have a positive thing to say. I want
to read to you from the book of Malachi and I think most of us know Malachi chapter three
where it talks about bringing all of the tithe into the storehouse. The first tenth of our
income, to bring that to God. But actually, throughout the book, God deals with the heart
attitude of His people and much of it is connected with the way they gave and with what they
gave and it's so applicable to us. Listen to these verses.
From chapter one, verses six through eight. This is from Today's English Version. It says,
"The Lord almighty says to the priests, 'A son honors his father and a servant honors
his master. I'm your Father, why don't you honor Me? I'm your Master, why don't you respect
Me? You despise Me and yet you ask 'How have we despised You?' This is how, by offering
worthless food on My altar. Then you ask, 'How have we failed to respect You?' I will
tell you, by showing contempt for My altar. When you bring a blind or sick or lame animal
to sacrifice to Me, do you think there's nothing wrong with that? Try giving an animal like
that to the governor. Would he be pleased with you or grant you any favors?'"
That's quite a thought there. Some of us are more inclined to honor the government and
human authority figures than we are inclined to honor the Most High God. He said, "Try
bringing to your governor what you're bringing to Me." I mean, look, you know we all love
to pay our taxes, don't we? Yahoo. No, we do it, because the Bible says you pay taxes
to whom taxes are due, you give honor to whom honor is due. I'll tell you what, you try
and go to your nearest IRS office come tax season and you give them an old beat up chair
with torn cushions and broken leg and say, "Look, I'm giving this to pay my taxes." See
how happy they are.
Or take it, what he says there, the governor. Let's say the governor, governor of the state
is going to come visit you, or maybe better yet, the ambassador of a major country. Maybe
the Ambassador of Spain, or the French Ambassador, there's suddenly this you know, friendship
thing going on and they say, "Look, we want take it to the next level, we want to get
to know the American people." So they ring you up, the government rings you and says,
"Look, you have been chosen at random to represent your country, and the French Ambassador and
his family, they're coming to have lunch at your house." And you think, "Awesome, that's
great." Say, "Okay, you know he'll be here, you know, three days from now." And you go,
"Okay, awesome." You think, "Well, what have I got to eat? Well, we had meatloaf last night,
we've got some left over. Three days. It will still be good. Some four day old meatloaf.
Got some stale saltine crackers. I'll give them some water out of the garden hose. I
think yeah, we've got enough paper plates and plastic forks and knives. Great."
No, none of us would ever do that. We'd put out the best cutlery. We'd get our best dishes
or you're going to go borrow some dishes from the neighbor. You come up with your best recipe
and you might even have to fast a few meals just so that you can put on the Ritz for them.
All of us are inclined to show great honor and to go the extra mile in giving toward
an earthly authority figure. But God said, "Hey, where, where's My honor? Where's My
respect?" And He talks to His people here and He says, "You despise Me, because you
bring Me your leftovers." You wouldn't do that to an earthly authority figure but yet,
you would do it to the King of the universe. And I think that there's something that we
can really, really consider here. We must place value and honor on our giving, because
God values it. Number one because it demonstrates our faith in God as our provider. In fact,
I would say it is the main way that God has given us to demonstrate our faith in Him as
the One who meets our needs. As our Provider.
My wife was raised on a dairy farm and I remember the first time I went out to meet her family,
you know, they're way out in the country and they had a big huge plot that was a garden
and there was an old-time hand water pump. Some of you may know what that is, some of
you may not, would you put a picture of that up there? There was an old water pump just
like that. In fact, I think theirs was red though. Out on the farm and you would have
to pump that to get water. But you know, with some of those old pumps, there was a unique
aspect about it, you would have to prime the pump before you would get any water. You would
have to pour some water down the pump and then start pumping it before it would give
water out. So you had to put a little water in to get an endless supply of water out.
Let's say you come up to the pump and there's a jug of water there and there might even
be a little sign, Prime the Pump. And you say, "No, I'm thirsty. This is my water, I'm
going to drink it." But you've got to prime the pump. "No, this is my water, I'm keeping
it." But if you will pour it in, it'll give you more water than you know what to do with.
"No, this is my water and I'm thirsty and I'm going to drink it." Did you know that's
what some of us do with our finances? "No, this is mine, I need this. You know, I want
to get this and I've got this bill to pay." And God said, "Look, honor Me with the first
part of your income. Go ahead and pour it in and see if I don't pour out a blessing
for you that you don't have room enough to receive." If you give sparingly, you reap
sparingly. If you give bountifully, you reap bountifully.
But some of us, so stubbornly, we hang on to that jug and say, "No, it's mine. I worked
for this, I'm going to keep it." And God said, "Look, I will supply your needs. I can open
doors that no man can shut. I can do things that you could not do through a lifetime of
human networking and hard effort. I can do some supernatural things in your life and
I will do it if you will honor Me with this." God places great value, because when we do
that, our faith is tied up in those finances that we give. That faith honors God and God
uses that to meet our needs.
Secondly, He places value on it because when we give it's always a revelation of our love
and our respect for God. Always. You can't separate it. Jesus said, "Where your treasure
is, there your heart will be also." We can never separate our treasure and our heart.
They're always tied together and God knows that. That's why He places great value on
giving, because He knows if He can get your money, He can get your heart. But if He doesn't
have one, friend, don't kid yourself, He doesn't have the other.
Yeah, I thought it would be quiet at that point too. I did. I knew it. I knew it. Yeah,
we talked about this. Third. We need to value it because it's a critical support for spreading
the gospel throughout the world and it helps maintain and advance the work of the local
church. We give because we want to see other people come to Jesus and we want to see those
people that have come to Christ strengthened. We want to see their families taken care of.
We want to see them blessed.
All right. We come to the ninth thing that we're told in Scripture not to despise and
that is prophecies. Prophecies. 1 Thessalonians, chapter five. Let me read to you. 1 Thessalonians,
five and verses 19 through 21. It says,
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies. 21 Test all things;
hold fast what is good.
When we despise prophecies we do quench the Spirit and he's not referring to the prophecies
that are recorded in Scripture. He's talking about the prophecies that are spoken out by
God's people today as they're inspired by the Holy Spirit, but you know, he didn't say
you just have to swallow everything that's said. He said test whatever's said and if
it's good hold fast to it. If it's not good, just put it in the round file cabinet next
to your desk.
Test it. Test it against the Word. If somebody tells you, "Well the Lord told me to tell
you this." And it doesn't line up with Scripture? The Lord did not tell them to tell you that.
You can always test things against God's book and if you don't know, talk to someone that
you respect. You know, solicit the input of a pastor or a spiritual leader, but you know,
God does speak through His people.
You know, I've got a friend, pastors a church in an interesting community. The community
is rife with alcoholism, it's an indigenous population. The guy got radically saved. Came
to service, I mean, radically saved. He was a raging alcoholic, had been extremely abusive
to his family and the change in him was like night and day. Completely off the bottle,
loving his wife. Loving his family. I mean, radically changed. Serving God. Every time
the doors were open, he'd be there greeting people, a grin on his face. Just everyone
could see that his life was changed. But during a particularly difficult season, was a lot
of pressure on him. He succumbed to temptation and he fell off the wagon. He went out and
got drunk and he did something shameful and he was so embarrassed and so ashamed, he wouldn't
come back to church.
My friend went after him, went to his house, knocked on the door. The guy answered, and
when he saw it was the pastor, he went to slam the door. My friend put his foot in the
door. He said, "Go away Pastor." He said, "I'm not leaving." He said, "Take your foot
out of the door." He says, "I'm not leaving until you let me in." He said, "Go away, I'm
never coming back to church again." He said, "No, I'm not leaving." And kept his foot in
the door for about 10 minutes. Finally, the guy opens the door, pastor walks in and the
guy won't even look up, he's just got his face down.
He said, "Look, you need to come back to church." "I'm not coming back. Not after what I did."
He said, "Jesus saved me. He changed my life and I knew better and went back and got drunk
and I did the stupidest thing. I don't deserve to come back to church. I don't deserve to
be forgiven." My friend said, "Look, none of us do deserve it. You need to come back."
And just stayed with him and stayed with him. Ended up praying him through. Got him restored
and back to church.
Woman VO: Thank you for watching Answers with Bayless Conley. Bayless will continue with
part two of his message next week.
Friend, the Scripture is clear. It says, "Do not despise prophecies." And yes, we should
measure every prophecy against the written Word of God. And the Scripture says that he
that prophesies speaks to men to edification, exhortation, and comfort. There's no revelation,
there's no foretelling of the future within the simple gift of prophesy. And we need to
keep those things in mind. And yet, we also need to keep in mind that there are times
that God will inspire someone to speak a word of encouragement to us. God may encourage
someone, inspire someone to speak a word for the congregation and we should not despise
that. Even though God only has fallible human vessels to use we need to realize that, that's
all God has. We're His Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. God uses people. Now friend, I don't
think it's a coincidence that you have been listening to me or that you are watching me
right now. In fact, you may be standing in the kitchen, I don't know and you can just
hear my voice. I believe that God is trying to get your attention. He knows what's going
on in your life and yes, He wants to guide you. And He's saying, "Listen, listen.
Give ear. Lean out. Look for Me. Listen for Me." God will make Himself known to you.
You are loved by the Creator of the universe. And for what it's worth, we love you too.
Woman VO: And now here's Bayless with an inspirational thought you can apply today.
Matthew 6, verses 31 to 33: Therefore do not worry saying what shall we
eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear; for after all these things the Gentiles
seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.
Priorities. You know, Jesus said if we´ll seek first the kingdom, if we´ll put the
spiritual above the material, if we´ll put our pursuit of God above our own personal
pursuits that all the things that we tend to worry about, they'll be added to us.
If you will get your priorities right and put God first in your life He promises to
meet all of these needs. And I think we can look to our Heavenly Father to meet our needs
as far as clothing, food, rent or any other earthly thing that concerns us. Now I know
for some people it almost seems too simplistic. They want to brush it aside as some childish
notion.
But friend, to do so is a grave mistake. You put first things first. Put God first and
that does mean something for you. Now, for some it's going to mean giving God the first
part of your income, because you've never done that before and the Word teaches us to
honor Him with the first fruits of all of our income. He needs to come first. Others
it may mean to give Him the first part of your time during the day. Spend the beginning
of your day reading the Word or praying. Others it may mean you need to start getting to church
on a regular basis but however that translates out to you, you need to exercise it in some
practical ways.
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness or what's right with Him and all of those
other things that you tend to worry about God said He would see to it that they will
be added on to you.
Bayless Conley: You know, we always go through different things in life. We always have besetting
circumstances. The storms of life come to everyone. But in the midst of those storms
there is hope. God always has an answer for us. He always has a pathway for us to walk
and I have a special bundle of messages that will be a blessing to you. In whatever circumstance
you are going through, they will bring you hope. I hope that you get it.
God wants to get your hopes up . . . way up! Or maybe the hopes of a loved one. Along with
2 hope-inspiring CD messages, this bundle includes a booklet with Bayless' amazing
story of how God completely turned his life around, setting him free from years of addiction
and confusion. Call or order online now. Just use the information on your screen. And be
encouraged: There is always hope!
Thank you for watching Answers with Bayless Conley. For more information and inspiration
visit AnswersBC.org.
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