Second Hand Information Still Leaves You a Hearer Only

Sermon outline

Knowing about God second hand leaves you a hearer only; you have to die to self, guard who is in your holy place and come every day to the showbread, the body of Christ, to eat the bread the world knows not of.

1. Hearers and doers

   Second and third hand information means you heard the preacher talk about it, watched the YouTube video and listened to the podcast, but never applied any of it. The doer of the word works the faith; the one who only hears it stays a hearer.

   “Just knowing the information is not good enough. The information has to live and abide inside of you, or else it's just words on the paper.”

   • James 1:22

2. John knew it was God in him: He must increase

   John's disciples came irritated that everyone was going to Jesus, more caught up in the do's and don'ts than in the Spirit of the Lord. John was used mightily, yet he never claimed to be the Christ; there was no pride, because he knew it was God in him doing the work. For the zeal of God's house to consume you, there must be less of you and more of Him. Do not be bluffed by those online calling themselves the Messiah.

   “He was graced, he was empowered to fulfill a purpose for God.”

   • John 3:22-36
   • James 1:17

3. Jesus was not prejudiced, and neither can we be

   The Samaritan woman was surprised He spoke to her at all, because Jews generally did not speak to Samaritans. Jesus did not look at skin colour, tribe or nation. We do not have the luxury of prejudice, because God works in our brokenness, our yieldedness and our dying to self, not in our prejudice.

   Illustration: He quotes the kind of thing people say about Indian, Black and coloured people, and tells the church to get over themselves.

   “Prejudice is a blessing blocker.”

   • John 4:7-9

4. The gifts are for every believer, through yieldedness

   Jesus said greater works than these shall you do, and the Spirit is given without measure, so prophecy, healing and the other gifts are for every believer. They elude many because they are still sitting in the outer court. There is no ritual or penance that accesses the power of God the way it worked in the paganism many came out of; it is yieldedness, dying to self and obedience.

   “There is no ritual that we can perform to access the power of God. It is our yieldedness, it is our dying to self, it is the less of me and the more of him.”

   • John 14:12
   • John 3:34

5. A woman with a history stirred a whole city

   She was not a Christian, because there were none yet. She had had five husbands and was with a sixth man. Jesus laid no hands on her; there was a conversation and a drink of water, and she went and stirred up her town with her testimony until many believed. God does not save a man He never intended to use, and the trials are for where He is taking you.

   “Why would God save a man if he never intended on using that man?”

   • John 4:16-30
   • John 4:39-42
   • Revelation 12:11

6. Who is sitting in your Holy of Holies

   He maps relationships onto the tabernacle. Acquaintances are in the wilderness, people you can pray for and minister to at a distance. The outer court holds family, friends and colleagues, limited in how deep it goes. The inner court holds those with history who know your heart. If people who pull you back into the traditions and rituals of man sit in your Holy of Holies, you need to draw a line in the sand, because they put hooks in you that drag you back into the wilderness.

   Illustration: He lists customs from an unsaved background that he will not keep, from waiting three months to take a baby out of the house to visiting a sangoma, and says anyone who presses them on him moves from the inner court to the outer court.

   “Some people at work are in our Holy of Holies, and that is unholy to have it that way.”

   • Psalm 34:19

7. Eat of the showbread every day

   Jesus told His disciples He had food to eat they did not know of. The twelve loaves of showbread sat before the Holy of Holies sprinkled with frankincense, fresh bread brought in as the old went out, a picture of the body of Christ, the bread of life. Every day you can come and access your salvation, and yesterday's offences, challenges and mistakes go out the other way. If you do not, you forget who you are, like the man who looks in the mirror and walks away.

   Illustration: On the Father's Day his father died, he sat with Dad's body until the next day. When he came home in the early morning, his mother was in the dining room before the Lord, and when he woke, he went before the Lord himself, weeping and not knowing what to pray. That, he says, comes from a lifestyle of getting to your salvation every day. Elijah, running in despair, was told to eat and sleep for as many days as it took until he could get up and move.

   “It's okay not to feel well for a period of time. But it's not okay for it to keep you there. You have to eat your showbread.”

   • John 4:31-34
   • James 1:23-24
   • 1 Kings 19:4-8

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