Plug it In

Good morning and welcome in everybody.  Today we are  going to take a look at a passage of scripture from the book of 1st Corinthians, but before we do that, I wanted you to think about something…

Each day, people drive to a local box store, and walk back to the electronics department in order to purchase something for their home computer.  It’s known as an external hard drive.  On these portable drives, they can store a lot of extra information that they don’t want to disappear or get lost.  There are fairly simple to use, you just got to grab a USB cord and plug them in.  I’ve always felt that this is similar to the Christian faith because each of us are like a portable hard drive that need to be plugged into God’s Word.  

1 Corinthians 15:1-2  Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;  By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

When the Apostle Paul preached the gospel of Christ, some people readily received it.  When you receive something, it means to allow to enter into your life or to learn from.  It also means to assimilate through your mind or your senses; to permit to enter into your life; or to accept it as true, authoritative and accurate. Not everybody received the truth of what the disciples were preaching, but when this happened, they were taught to shake off the dust and move on. (Matt 10:14)

In order to genuinely live the Christian life, you must be capable of receiving and accepting the teachings of Christ.  It must become authoritive in your life.  A dad has authority over his own household.  The husband has authority over his wife and children.  Jesus Christ has authority over the church.  You might rebel against your dad, or even your own husband, but to truly become a Christian you must learn to accept and submit to biblical authority.  If you refuse to accept what the Bible teaches, you will never be transformed into what God wants you to become, and thus miss out on salvation.

We are called to stand firm in our faith.  The word ” stand ” means to stop and stay in one place or to maintain one’s position. It is being unmovable like an anchor that holds your boat in place as you fish.  The word ” gospel ” is defined as something that is accepted as infallible truth, or as a guiding principle in our lives. Jesus is the way the truth and the life. His Word shows us the way to heaven, and it is biblical truth that sets us free. There is more to the Christian life then just hearing and receiving scripture, we must wholeheartedly believe it and accept it.  Salvation, in regards to it’s final completion, requires keeping in memory the things that were taught to you, so that you can walk in God’s perfect will.  How good is your memory?

Committing something to memory is to store things in your mind and retain them.  Some children go to elementary school but when they are asked by parents what they learned that day, they can’t remember.  This is why we need to exhort one another daily.  The word of God needs to be preached in season and out of season.  At times, people don’t like being constantly reminded, but it’s done so that we don’t forget what we have been told. Your dad might remind you that he is taking you camping this weeked. He might remind you every single day of the week.  This is so that you don’t forget to leave that weekend open on your schedule.  Repitition is a very good way to teach. We like to have church in the morning and evening each and every day.  This is so that we can constantly refresh our minds and constantly grow in our faith day by day.  Each day we are reminded what our duties are to God. 

2 Peter 1:12-13  Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.

Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;

The church is a school, it’s a spiritual College.  If you begin to skip classes, choosing to do other things with your day, growth will come to a grinding halt, and over time, you will begin to forget.  If you don’t consistantly water a seed, what’s going to happen?  If you don’t consistently feed your own animals, what happens to them?  Our minds must be fed with scripture daily, being kept at the very front of our minds.  When you forget something, it means to lose the remembrance of, or to treat with inattention and disregard.  I’ve said many times, forgetting something simply proves that it was not important enough for you to remember.  We cannot allow this to happen in our Christian faith.

Hebrews 13:16  But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

The word ” forget ” is also defined in the dictionary as not remembering something through neglect.  Forgetting what God wants us to become is spiritual neglect.  Imagine giving your child a list of things that you needed them to do, but later on they tell you that they never got them done because they had completely forgotten about them.  How does that make you feel as a parent?  That’s called being a forgetful hearer, which is someone who really didn’t care about the information that you had given them.

James 1:22-25  But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.  For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:  For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

I remember certain roads in our area because I constantly drive them. The ones that I don’t use regularily, eventually will result in me not remembering the quickest way through town.  I used to travel across the country for my job, kris-crossing through many states and finding the fastest routes. At the time, I knew the roads and interstates like the back of my hand, but if I were to try doing that today, I really wouldn’t remember them at all because they are not constantly refreshed in my mind by usage.  We all forget things that are unimportant to remember.  If you don’t keep them in your mind,  they simply sink into the short-term memory banks of your brain.

Many times schools will cause teachers to take a refresher course in the classes that they teach, or get credits for continuing education.  Learning is not a one-time thing, it is a daily process, especially in the church.  When you get to far away from the Holy Scriptures, you can loose sight of the path that Christ wants us to walk. Some people begin to neglect their faith, and instead of remembering as they have been taught, they start to believe a lie instead.  They become willingly ignorant. Spiritual ignorance is a choice someone makes by not seeking God.  We must grow very strong roots into the scriptures so we can draw nutrients from them each and every day.  We need to be plugged into the Word of God so our hearts can be recharged.  God’s Word shows us the way and is a light unto our path.  

We use flashlights a lot in our home.  Have you ever had a flashlight go out on you on a pitch black night?  How are you able to see where you are going, so as to keep on the trail? If you forget to charge the batteries, you can get lost. You need to fill up the oil lamp of your heart right now, and remember what God’s purpose and desire is for your life.  To inherit salvation,  you must remember what the scriptures teach so that you can do what it says.  When you get too far away from the Word, and forget it, that’s when a person can get caught up in trouble and involved with sinful living.  

The word “vain” means purposeless and without any results. I call it lip service Christianity,  claiming to be one, but your works deny the Christian life because of the complete lack of desire to do what the Lord teaches.  The word vain means that it doesn’t result in anything.  Believing in vain is claiming to believe in Jesus, but it doesn’t result in a change in your life.  It doesn’t result in Godly living.  It doesn’t result in love for others.  It doesn’t result in kindness and mercy.  There is no desire to repent from dead works.  There is no contrition for misdeeds committed.  There’s no reconciliation with others you have wronged.  It’s very easy to say that you’re a Christian, it’s following the teachings of Christ that many people do not want to undertake.  

Obedience must complete her course if you really want to hear the words,.. “well done my good and faithful servant.”   We must commit God’s Word to daily memory.  We must accept it as a direct source of authority from God.  We must wholeheartedly believe in what it says.  We must believe what Jesus did for us at the cross.  Each day, we must come to the church, ready for a large download of spiritual information.  All you gotta do is take your brain…..and

………Plug it in.

Let’s think about these things for right now, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow.  Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️

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