5-23-10 PM: The Dangers of Sanctification without Service

The Dangers of Preparation without Service

Psalm 26:1-7 Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide. ²Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart. ³For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth. ⁴I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. ⁵I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked. ⁶I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O LORD: ⁷That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.

Intro:    Preparation is not the reason we prepare.

Athletes – fat and lazy

Musicians – lose their skills and put their instruments in the closet

Farmers – Say forget it and watch their crops grow over with weeds

Students – drop out and spend rest of life wishing they had not

I.          God’s Children: read, study, repent, listen, crucify, seek God’s scrutiny, for a reason

            Text

John 17:14-21  I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁵I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. ¹⁶They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.  ¹⁷Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. ¹⁸As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. ¹⁹And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. ²⁰Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; ²¹That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

II.         Danger 1- Sin

2 Samuel 11:1-2 And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. ²And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.

III.       Danger 2 – In Fighting

2 Chronicles 25:5-13 Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together, and made them captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, according to the houses of their fathers, throughout all Judah and Benjamin: and he numbered them from twenty years old and above, and found them three hundred thousand choice men, able to go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield. ⁶He hired also an hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of Israel for an hundred talents of silver. ⁷But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the LORD is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim. ⁸But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle: God shall make thee fall before the enemy: for God hath power to help, and to cast down. ⁹And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The LORD is able to give thee much more than this. ¹⁰Then Amaziah separated them, to wit, the army that was come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again: wherefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in great anger. ¹¹And Amaziah strengthened himself, and led forth his people, and went to the valley of salt, and smote of the children of Seir ten thousand. ¹²And other ten thousand left alive did the children of Judah carry away captive, and brought them unto the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they all were broken in pieces. ¹³But the soldiers of the army which Amaziah sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, fell upon the cities of Judah, from Samaria even unto Bethhoron, and smote three thousand of them, and took much spoil.

III.       Danger 3 – Fear of the Battle

1 Samuel 17:11 When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.