Tag: Willpower

WHOLEHEARTED RELIGION NO. 2

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Shelby G. Floyd

Good morning. We are glad to see all of you and thank you to our visitors who have come our way. We hope that you will feel welcome and will come back and be with us again.

About three weeks ago I spoke to you on “Wholehearted Religion,” and we pointed out at that time that there are Bad Hearts, Good Hearts and Obedient Hearts. Today we want to continue our discussion of Wholehearted Religion. When God rejected King Saul, the first King of Israel, he was looking for a new king and David had a lot of brothers. And they marched each brother in front of Samuel and God said no, he is not the one. Finally they came to David who was the youngest of all of the boys and God chose him. Then God said to Samuel, “The Lord sees not as man sees for the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

And so today we want to talk about wholehearted religion. We must admit that there is a lot of halfhearted religion today! I do not believe that we will make it to heaven if we serve God in a half-hearted way. Therefore we are talking about serving God with all of our heart—with the complete heart! And the word heart, translated from the Greek word kardia is found 156 times in the New Testament. God wants us to serve him from the very center of our being. He wants us to serve him with our EGO and with our ID—with our conscious and with our subconscious heart. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:4-6 and said, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:29-30 NKJV). So today we are exploring what is wholehearted religion. It is serving God with your entire being.

WHAT IS THE BIBLE HEART?

What is the Bible heart? We have before you on the screen a chart that shows you what is the Bible Heart! The Bible heart is the Seat of the Intellect! The Bible Heart is the Seat of our Emotions. The Bible Heart is made up of my thinking process, my emotional nature, and the Bible heart is the Seat of my Willpower–what we choose and determine to do in life. And in the last place, the Bible heart is the Seat of our Conscience. Now we plan to discuss each one of those areas of the Bible heart and if we serve God with all four areas of the Bible Heart, then that is what I would call “Wholehearted Religion!”

Religion is that which binds us back to God because we been separated from God by sin (Isaiah 59:1-2). So we want to be bound back to God with “wholehearted religion!” Therefore let us examine “THE EXERCISES OF THE BIBLE HEART.” Continue reading “WHOLEHEARTED RELIGION NO. 2” →

THE INDWELLING CHRIST

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(Ephesians 3:14-21)

By

Shelby G. Floyd

Credit: Google Images

I love the “ancient words” from the word of God and from the song (Ancient Words) that we have just sung. The longer we live and the more we read and study God’s word, the more beautiful they become. It was good to hear the reading of the “ancient words” from Paul’s prayer for the church at Ephesus (Ephesians 3:14-21).

The last time I spoke to you about three weeks ago our lesson was on “The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart.” At that time we pointed out that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, his magicians had something to do with hardening his heart, and the Bible declares over and over again that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. As a result God brought ten plagues upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians, the last of which was the death of the firstborn sons of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. It was at this point that Pharaoh urged the children of Israel to leave Egypt as rapidly as they could.

From all of this, we learn that the condition of our heart is ultimately up to each one of us. We have the final say as to how receptive our heart will be to the word of God. So today I want to continue that theme on a positive note. Our lesson today is on the indwelling of Christ in our heart. All of us desire to to think, speak and act better than we normally do. But we will never reach the fullness of faith, hope, and love until Christ dwells in our hearts by faith. In that regard I have always loved the Scripture that Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia, when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). So we want Christ to live in our hearts. But how does Christ live in our hearts? He lives in our hearts by faith! Why did he want us to let him live in our hearts? Because he loves us, he died for us and he cleanses us by his precious blood shed on Calvary. Continue reading “THE INDWELLING CHRIST” →

YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN

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Shelby G. Floyd

You Must Be Born Again

It is a great blessing when a new birth takes place in a family. The congregation has been blessed by the birth of a new baby boy in recent weeks. We have observed the joy and happiness this brings to the family. In the same way, when one is “born again” or “born from above,” there is great joy in heaven and on earth among the people of God. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5).

BORN INTO THREE KINGDOMS

Have you been born into God’s kingdom? We enter every kingdom by birth. We are all now citizens of the kingdom of nature. How did we enter that kingdom? We entered the kingdom of nature by a physical birth. It made natural beings out of us because we live in a natural kingdom. The church is the kingdom of God. It’s a spiritual kingdom. How do we enter into that kingdom? We enter the spiritual kingdom of God by a spiritual birth of water and of the Spirit. What kind of beings does it make out of us? It makes beings correspondent to the constitution of that kingdom. It makes gracious beings out of us because we are saved by the grace of God. And finally, one of these days when Jesus comes back again our bodies are going to be resurrected out of the grave. Jesus, by His resurrection, is said to be the firstborn of the dead. If He’s the firstborn, then that implies that others will follow. When we’re born from the dead, it will be a birth of and from the grave. The birth from the grave will induct us into the everlasting kingdom. This will be the heavenly state. What kind of beings will it make out of us? Our nature will be correspondent to the nature of that kingdom. We will be glorious beings not subject to death. We will have a spiritual body. We will see Jesus as He really is. We’ll be like Him. We’ll share in His glory. A natural birth makes natural beings. It brings us into a natural kingdom. A spiritual birth makes us spiritual beings and brings us into a spiritual kingdom and a glorious birth will make glorious beings out of us and will conduct us into a glorious kingdom—heaven itself. The new birth into the kingdom of God is a connecting vestibule between the kingdom of nature and the kingdom of glory. You need to participate in it. The new birth is not an option. Jesus also said, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). Continue reading “YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN” →