John 19:38-4238 After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus. 39 And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. 40 Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. 41 Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews’ Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.
Have you ever been secretly a follower of something? Maybe you like a show that really doesn't make sense that you would like it? You know maybe you secretly dvr the young and restless. Obviously there are a lot of things people do in secret that do not bring glory to the Lord and it is obvious why they would desire that to be a secret. But in this scripture we find Joseph who is a secret disciple of Jesus Christ. Secret because He would have lost everything He had to openly be a disciple of Jesus. In fact we see in the scripture many who did just that, left their vocations and became identified as a disciple of Jesus Christ, losing all they had. Joseph was a disciple, hold on before you argue that point because you do not get to determine if he was a disciple, it says it in the scripture, "being a disciple of Jesus," that is what I call, clear talk. You don't have to wonder, it says he was a disciple, it also says he was a secret disciple. Why was he a secret disciple? The answer is also in the Word of God, because he feared the Jews. You know the saying birds of a feather flock together? Well look who is Joseph's running mate, Nicodemus. Nicodemus first followed Jesus by night! Nicodemus he too was a secret disciple. But when we start to say that these guys somehow missed what following Jesus was all about read the rest of the story. Joseph went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. I wonder how that conversation went between him and Nicodemus. Fear of the Jews is one thing, but fear of Pilate would have been at a whole new level. I have thought about this and I am not sure of everyone who was present at the crucifixion of Jesus, we have been given a few details, but it would be plausible to to believe that many of the individuals that secretly followed Jesus could have been at the Crucifixion. After all, they were secretly His disciples. I don't believe Joseph and Nicodemus were the only secret disciples. So it is safe to say that at the Crucifixion there were others who secretly believed Jesus was the Messiah. But Joseph and Nicodemus did not remain secret disciples. When Joseph went to Pilate and Nicodemus came bringing 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes, they were no longer secret disciples. They were shouting from the roof tops who and what they believed. Their time had come. You see sometimes we want to take the pen from our Lord's hand and write the script of our lives, but that means you play the role of Lord. Every time you play the role of Lord you lose. These two men at their time stepped forward and did the work of the kingdom in a beautiful way. We cannot question these men secret discipleship. The Lord had a purpose for them. Now, I know we cannot deny our Lord Jesus Christ. I one hundred percent understand that and will never say that it is alright to do that. The scripture is clear on that, but I will tell you that Joseph and Nicodemus worked through their fear and became more bold than they ever thought they find the courage to be. It happened when they abandoned self and focused solely on Jesus. That is exactly what they did, they abandoned self and focused solely on Jesus. This Jesus focus put them before Pilate. The disciples that openly followed Jesus, where were they? They were scattered, why? Because they were focused on self and self preservation. The result, run, run for your lives. Where are you today? Are you a secret follower of Jesus and having to muster up the strength and boldness to stand before Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus? Or are you a scattered disciple who has followed Jesus for a long time but now the time has come to stand up and fight, but all you seem to be doing is running as fast as you can away from the responsibility of following Jesus. It stops today! Stop Drop And Roll, Get up and Run head on TO your collision with Pilate. Allow Jesus to be Lord, allow your courage to come from Him. Fear is not of the Lord and you are stronger than you think, more powerful than you give yourself credit. You have the Holy Spirit. Did you hear me? You have the Holy Spirit, go LIVE LIVE LIVE!!!! RAK CHAZAK, brother david
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Luke 6:22 Blessed are you when men hate you,
And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake. 2 Timothy 3:12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Philippians 1:29 For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, When is the last time that following Jesus cost you something? When is the last time it cost you a relationship? When is the last time it cost you a promotion? When is the last time it cost you social acceptance? When is the last time it cost you a vacation? When is the last time you were mocked for your faith? When is the last time you went without a meal for the sake of the gospel? Can you really say that you are carrying your cost if it hasn't cost you anything? has carrying your cross cost you anything? If there is no sacrifice involved, if you are not at least a little uncomfortable, then there is a good chance that you aren't carrying a cross. Or maybe you are uncomfortable because you know you are not carrying your cross. Talk to me. Isaiah 40:25-31
25“To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the Lord, And my just claim is passed over by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, 31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. Your Lord and your Savior never faints and never grows weary. He understands all things. He is never caught off guard, never slack in His care for you. He loves you wonderfully and beautifully and you are important to Him. The Lord Jesus Christ provides your strength and touches your life with His power. Isaiah 40:30 states that men, even young men will faint, they will grow weary and utterly fall. However, God will not. Who do you rely on for your daily provision? Who provides your strength? Who shows you the way? Too often this is man. Do not allow your strength to be found in a man or a woman? Find your strength in the Lord. Verse 31 provides the direction for true communion with God. Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. The word used for wait here is qavah which means to wait, look for, hope, expect. You must expect the power of God to be present in our life. You must look for it, you must hope in His power, His power will come. Your walk with Him will involve waiting on Him. His timing is beautiful and laced with His wisdom. Your timing is laced with your circumstances and emotions. Jesus knows just how much and just when to provide for you. TRUST Him! Trust Him! He loves you and will protect you and will provide for you. Waiting may seem hard, but Jesus never backed away from hard and He will not let you back away either? What are you doing while you are waiting? What are you doing while it seems that there is no movement of God? You talk with Him. You tell Him what you are struggling with you ask for strength, you ask for power. You ask Jesus to let you see the situation as He sees the situation. You communicate with Him from your heart, expressing to Him your every concern. You listen to Him all day everyday. Silence is not the end of the world. Listen for the small still voice of the Lord. You must open up His Word and allow His Word to wash you and prepare you! the Lord is your rock and what a rock He is. What is your biggest struggle when waiting on the Lord? What do you do about it? RAK CHAZAK brother david It is 5:07 am and I am almost finished with my first cup of coffee. i have prayed to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, prayed over my daughter, told my wife i loved her, knocked out a few things in the shop this morning, and I am now writing my blog. I will begin my personal Bible study time by 6:00am. You might ask, why are saying all of this, because it is important for us to take care of some things early in the morning. Mitchell sent this to me the other day and I want you to read it.
Check this out..The lord has hammered this on my heart for the morning Joshua 3:1 Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim. And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. Job 1:5 And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually. Proverbs 31:15 (Virtuous Woman) She rises while it is yet night Mark 1:35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. 2 Chronicles 20:20 They rose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa; and when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, put your trust in the LORD your God and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed." Genesis 19:27 Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the LORD; Genesis 28:18 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. Exodus 34:4 So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and he took two stone tablets in his hand. Now I want you to do more than just read it, take it to heart. I know many of you want to say that you are just not a morning person. I get that, ok I really don't get that, you were allowed not to be a morning person and to act any way you wanted when you woke up and that infiltrated your adult life and you keep using it as an excuse for many things. But do you really think that works with Jesus. Really? Listen to your words, I am just not a morning person. Well here it goes (Hand Clap, Hand Clap) change! Can people who don't love the Lord say something like, I am just not a lover of Jesus? Is that ok? Simply put there is a pattern in the Bible for those people who have been entrusted to do Kingdom work and to lead and watch over God's people. They rose early and the Lord was first for them, first thing in the morning! Let us rise early and meet with Jesus and give Him our all! I love Him early, I love Him late and every hour in between. Praise Jesus from whom all blessings flow. RAK CHAZAK brother david Luke 9:23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
So here we are, destination take up your cross and follow Jesus. We have looked at desiring to go after Jesus. We have talked about denying self. We have discussed recognizing your cross. We have talked about it being a daily grind. Today, we take up our cross. You must understand that not only is your cross too heavy for you to bear, so is mine and every other surrendered soul's who reaches down and grabs what Jesus has prepared for them. However, if we have positioned ourselves correctly, if we have desired Jesus, went after Him, denied our self, said yes Lord to what He has placed before us, when we reach down to take up this cross, we will lift it and we will carry it! We will do more than is possible on our own merit. We will push further than we thought we could go, and we will never do it alone. The mighty hand of Jesus Christ will reach down and pick up your cross with you. The powerful legs of the Lord Jesus Christ will help you carry your cross. Yes, there will be moments that your faith is tested. Yes, there will be moments when you think you cannot go on. Yes, there will be moments when you think about quitting. But never forget that you are walking and talking with the Holy Spirit dwelling in your heart. You are not weak, you are strong. You are strong and able, powerful and true, there is nothing you cannot do through the power of this indwelled Spirit. Remember this Spirit was placed in you for a purpose with a purpose. The Holy Spirit convicts you. This conviction is to direct your path. You still have to drive the vehicle. You have to turn when the Spirit says turn, love when you don't want to. Help when you are exhausted. Adjust your schedule when you are against a deadline. Give when you have nothing to give. Speak when you have no words. Cry when your tears have gone dry. The Spirit of God convicts you of sin, righteousness and judgement, to push you through all these moments. John 16:8-9 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. Lets us examine the purpose behind the conviction of the Holy Spirit. First the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin. John 16:9 says, sin because they did not believe in Jesus. You and I must understand this every sin you and I ever commit ultimately is grounded in a belief issue. If we sin against God, we are basically believing that the ways of sin are better, more fulfilling or more beneficial than the ways of Christ. In a nut shell, we don't believe Jesus when we sin. Secondly, the Holy Spirit convicts us of righteousness. Righteousness because He is now with the Father and they see Him no more. Jesus steps on the scene and showed His disciples what righteousness really looks like. It was certainly unlike anything they had seen in the past. Righteousness was tied to religion and religious practice before Jesus stepped on the scene. Jesus showed them that the road to righteousness is through relationship. Jesus healed the blind and the hurting. He went the see a Samaritan woman, He healed on the Sabbath, He invested in people and relationships. Jesus says to His disciples that He is leaving, but the Holy Spirit will continue to show them how to walk in righteousness. The Holy Spirit is showing you and I exactly how to walk in righteousness today. So walk strong and allow Him to show you the way. Thirdly, the Holy Spirit convicts you of judgement. He says judgement because the ruler of this world is judged. The deceiver of all men, the devil himself has been judged and because judgment awaits us all, the Holy Spirit touches us and convicts us of this fact. To the child of God judgment is real and should be a piercing and driving force in our life. Our Lord and Savior is examining what we do and what we say as well as our attitudes behind our words and actions. Judgment is real. The child of God does not and must not ignore this internal guidance. We must allow the Holy Spirit to direct our lives so that our judgment will be a pardon and the Book of Life will contain our name. Praise Jesus for His Spirit. I have a few question for you to answer. How have you experienced the work of the Holy Spirit through conviction in these three areas, sin righteousness, and judgement? What did you do in response to this conviction? What is God calling you to do in the path of righteousness right now? Are you saying, yes Lord? Are you saying more like, maybe Lord? Are you flat out saying, no Lord? What is holding you back? YES LORD YES LORD YES YES LORD, is your only response! It is the only response the Lord wants. Give Him His desires and experience Him giving you your desires. It is amazing, but when you say yes to the Lord, His desires truly become your desires. RAK CHAZAK, brother david Luke 9:23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
The past few days we have been on a collision course with the end of this scripture. We are instructed to take up our cross daily and follow Him. Thus far we have seen that we need to desire to go after Jesus. We learned that this desire comes only from the Lord and it is actually the Lord drawing us to Him, John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. But the drawing of the Lord leads us to pursue Him. We must go after Him. To do this we must deny ourself. We must deny our desires and trust that Gods way is the way we must go. I see this as the perfect picture of salvation leading to discipleship. When we get to the part of the verse that instructs us to take up our cross daily, now this is the place, this is the ground upon which intimacy is cultivated and lives are radically and forever changed. Please understand that we are not instructed to take up "a" cross, instead their is ownership in the cross we bear. The scripture says, he must take up "his" cross. You see you have a cross that has your name on it. You have to pick up your cross. You don't need to pick up my cross or your friends cross. You must bear your cross. This is a pretty important part of your walk with Christ, identifying your cross. You see this requires a great deal from you, to locate your cross you must be intimately in tune with Jesus, through this intimacy He will direct you to your cross. How does this happen? You do this by cultivating intimacy with Jesus Christ. You must communicate with Jesus all day every day. Your prayer life must be active and you must be responsive. When Jesus speaks you must listen and respond. You must actively seek His face in all areas of your life, You must deal with the sin in your life and stop acting like you can control your sin. The scripture is clear that a man who sins is a slave to sin. The sin controls way more than you think. Repent from it and seek Jesus. To be in tune with the Lord you must repent from that which is sinful in your life. You must seek forgiveness, but then you must walk forgiven. Do not wallow in your sinful deeds thinking that forgiveness is not available to you. Forgiveness is a beautiful thing and the Lord desires to redeem and restore you. You must also study the Word of God. Yes we always go back to this, mainly because I believe it is the centerpiece of your relationship with Jesus. If you are not studying, the relationship is suffering. Additionally, worship your Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to music that sings praises to His name, thank Him for who He is in your life. Worship all day long, identify His work all throughout your day. Fellowship with His children. Let you conversations be about Him and your talk be real. Respond to Him through every little thing you do each and every day. If HE says turn right, then turn right. If He says call, then call. If He says stop and pray, then stop and pray. Be in the practice of following the lead of the Holy Spirit, it will become how you live and when this happens identifying your cross will be easy because you will be guided to it with precision. The Holy Spirit will guide you to the exact place at the exact time for you to take up your cross. This same Spirit that helps guide you to your cross is the same Spirit that will help you take up your cross. We will get into that tomorrow, but one thing you need to know today is that if you try to take up someone else's cross, you will be worn out. You will be exhausted because the cross that you are called to bear require the assistance of the Holy Spirit. Truthfully, without the Holy Spirit you simply cannot and will not handle what you have been called to do. The Holy Spirit is not going to empower you to take up my cross. He loves you way to much to do that! So I leave you today with your cross identified. Tomorrow we will see what taking up our cross is all about. RAK CHAZAK dw Luke 9:23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
From yesterday we understand that we must first have a desire to go after Jesus. We touched a little on denying self, but what does that really look like for you personally? Seriously, what pulls you away from Christ and you intimately walking with Him? This question is difficult because it will touch some pretty dear things to you. The Greek word for deny is aparneomai pronounced ä-pär-ne'-o-mī and it means to deny- 1. to affirm that one has no acquaintance or connection with someone, 2. to forget one's self, lose sight of one's self and one's own interest. We are to deny the connection with ourselves, we are to lose sight of ourselves, we are to lose sight of our own interests. For you and I to do this we must place TRUST in Jesus Christ and His way. If we are to walk as He is describing, denying our own interests we must TRUST that His way is the better way. If we were trapped in a cave and needed to get out, there would be many thoughts, desires and directions we would have swimming in our head. However, if we had with us a guide who had explored this particular cave many many times, would you override His instructions and do it your way, or would you follow His lead and allow Him to guide your route to safety. You know the funny is this seems like a no brainer to me, but I know people who no matter how much of an expert the guide was, they would do it their own way. They would rather die than to admit that someone else could and should lead them. That attitude is a breeding ground for death. That attitude makes it very hard to deny self and to follow. One thing I have discovered since I have been in the ministry, the only pathway to heaven is that of a follower. If you cannot follow, you will be lost. I don't care what position you are in, if you cannot follow, you will be lost. In the midst of following you may be called to lead; however, you must be able to follow to effectively lead. It is really simple, how can I lead the flock at theway church, if I cannot follow Jesus Christ? This may sound crazy to you, but I purposefully place myself in situations that I follow the lead of another. Why you might ask? Because I never want to be in a position where I cannot follow, I believe this will be the death of my ability to lead. It is really quite simple, there is no better leader than Jesus Christ Our Lord and Our Savior and He requires me to follow Him. Therefore I must follow before I can lead. Just so we understand something, following is not arguing every step of theway. You do not see a great deal of that in the disciples of Jesus. Instead, you see men and women who might night understand their leadership, might even disagree with their leadership at the time, but they trusted their leadership and followed. We have leadership problems in our homes because our husbands are not good followers before they are good leaders. When you try to lead without first following you end up with all parties in a mess. I want Jesus to lead me so I can lead my family and the church He has called me to lead. Tomorrow we will discuss the weight of picking up the cross. Today we will finish with a self examination, are you a good follower? If so why? If not why not? Are you so arrogant that you would rather diffuse the bomb than allow a seasoned leader on the Bomb Squad to lead lead you to safety? Are you attempting to lead others without following Jesus Christ yourself? Do you pick and choose what to follow? Is that really following? Are you able to deny yourself? Do you deny yourself? In what way do you deny yourself? In what ways do you refuse to deny yourself? Why do you deny yourself? You may be thinking why so many questions, but think about for just a second, Jesus is saying that you must be able to deny yourself before you can ever lift your cross. You must be able to follow before you will ever be able to do what Jesus has called you to do. Praise Jesus from whom all Blessings flow. RAK CHAZAK david wilson |