Episode 114

The old hymn reminds us of the blessedness in obedience to the word of God. “When we walk with the Lord in the light of His word, what a glory he sheds on our way! While we do His good will, He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey.” In this episode of the Removing Barriers podcast, we share our top five picks of commands in scripture that are simple and straightforward, but difficult to obey. Can you guess what our picks are? What are some of yours?

If there’s a picture, perfect picture of the Christian life wrapped up in a command, it will be this. And he said unto them, if any man would come after me, let him deny himself. Take up his cross daily and follow me.

Thank you for tuning in to the Removing Barriers podcast. I’m Jay. And I’m MCG. And we’re attempting to remove barriers so we can all have a clear view of the cross.

This is episode 114 of the Removing Barriers podcast, and in this episode we will be looking at simple commands in Scripture that are difficult to obey. We both have chosen a number of commands we will expound on, and we have not shared our choices with each other.

All right, Jay, what is the first command you have found to be simple but difficult to obey? These are not in any particular order, but the first one that I have is do not worry. Matthew, chapter six, verses 25 through 34. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet of your body what ye shall put on. Is not life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for they so not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? Why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow they toiled knot, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon and all his glory was not a raid like one of these. And it goes on to say how, if God clothes the lilies of the field in such a glorious manner, don’t you think he’ll take better care of you? If he knows when every sparrow drops, don’t you think he’ll take care of you? So my first one is do not worry. Also Philippians, chapter four and verse six. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Simple, not easy to do.

Yeah, definitely. All right. My first is first, thessalonians five, verse 17. A very simple command pray without ceasen. Every time I read that verse, I would just say, wow! Very simple. Three words pray without ceasen. No, I don’t think the Bible is saying that we should necessarily be on our knees, 24/7, but I think it’s saying that we should always be in the attitude of prayer. What do you mean by the attitude of prayer? Well, if you look at Luke 18, verse one, and he speak a parable unto them, to this end, their men ought always to pray and not to faint conscious that with Romans twelve and verse twelve, rejoice in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. So I think the Bible is saying here is that prayer should be our first work. We should literally always be mindful or praying, not necessarily closing the eyes and putting their hands together and stuff like that, or in a formal way like we do at church and stuff like that. But that mindset that we’re going to bring everything to God. That is simple. But if you like me, I tend to try to take a stab at it in my own strength. And I think that’s where a lot of Christians don’t fall, is they wait until they exhaust all the other options before they turn to God in prayer. And I think these verses are saying that we should be turning to God first. Always been in the attitude of prayer. It was Corrie Ten BooM who said, is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire? She also said, what wings are to birds and sails to a ship. So it’s prayer to the soul. And we can look at the hymn writer who said, oh, what peace we often forfeit, all, what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. And that ties great into your first one, do not worry. Because when we are worrying, we are literally not praying right. And if we want to worry less, we should pray more. Taking it to God in prayer

key and also in the area of soul within prayer is a soul winner’s first work. But how often we need prayer and go soul within our own strength and do things in our strength. So when I look at this command, it is simple, as I said, three words, pray without ceasing. But it’s a difficult command to constantly carry out on a day to day basis. Always in that mindset, that attitude of prayer.

The next one I have is do not be conformed to this world. Yeah, that’s a good one. Romans twelve, one and two. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. It’s difficult to obey this command. Now, the scripture that I read has multiple commands in there, but I’m zoning in on not being conformed to this world, because this world is doing so much to squeeze and cajole and force and intimidate you into their mold. Sometimes they are blatant about it, sometimes they are subtle about it, but they are constantly doing something to put you into their mold and to discourage you from molding into Christ likeness. There’s a popular YouTube channel called CocoMelon, and I recently watched one of their Christmas videos, and I was struck by how much conviction I felt because it was just a compilation of Christmas songs, both secular and quote unquote religious. All of the songs that referenced in some measure, the birth of the Savior, Christ or anything like that, was simply relegated to music without words. While all of the secular Christmas songs like Deck the Halls or Jingle Bells or things like that, they actually sang with words. And I don’t know if they were trying to do that intentionally, but the message there is, shut up about Christmas is about this thing here. It’s not about the savior. And I found that very interesting. Like, for example, the first song that they played was Joy to the World. But Joy to the World is very overtly. Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her king. It’s obviously referring to Christ, and yet they just had it playing in music. So they just had the tune do but no words. And then they changed the melody and kind of smoothly connected it to Deck the Halls with Bowels of Holly, which is a secular Christmas song. And so it was just very interesting. It’s a kids show. It’s a cartoon for all intent and purposes. It doesn’t matter in terms of it does matter, but what I’m saying is, it’s not like this groundbreaking. It’s not like this came from Harvard or from, you know what I mean, it’s not important in the world’s eyes. And yet it’s one small way that the world is trying to mold you. The idea there, of course, as I said before, the things that point to Christ, let’s be quiet about those. You know, you could you could be that, but don’t express it. You can love God, but don’t be so loud about it. I just got that idea just from a simple kids video. I was just listening to it the other day. Very small ways in which the world puts you into its mold.

How about how they’ve elevated psychology and psychiatric or psychoanalysts and their ideas above the word of God? So when we have, say, for example, something tragic happening in the country, and we’re wondering, how did this happen? Let’s take, for example, a mass shooting. How did this happen? Oh, he must have grown up. And then a list of psychiatric or psychological issues, and I put that in quotation marks without addressing the root matter of sin, without addressing the root matter that the Scripture points to, or without addressing the way that the country and the culture has completely abandoned God, we just jump to psychiatric or psychological or scientific explanations. And if you were to dare to stand up and say, well, let’s talk about the sin that he obviously gave himself over to, and they’ll look at you crazy, like, what are you talking about? And it’s that type of idea where the things of God are kind of pushed off to the side in this box and the things of the world are promoted and elevated. I was thinking about Christmas how we celebrate it. I was just thinking about why we do certain things and should we be doing certain things. And I came to realize, I wonder if you were to stop any Christian on the street, professing Christian on the street, how many of them can name and explain the biblical festivals, the biblical holidays? Can we name, say, Day of Atonement or the Feast of Tabernacles or the holidays that are listed in Scripture? Can we list them and tell someone what they were about and why they were celebrated and what they point to and what role do they play in the future during the return of Christ. And in times, I don’t know if your average Christian can, maybe they can. Maybe I’m just the ignorant one here, but I realized that I could tell you all about Christmas and how we celebrate it here in the States, but I would struggle to list all of the biblical festivals and biblical holidays and explain those. Again, christmas is definitely about the birth of the Savior, but it’s not a stretch to say that the holiday has been completely, pretty much completely taken over by secular or corporate interests. If you really want to find anything about the birth of the Savior, you’d literally have to walk into Hobby Lobby. You won’t find it in any other store, or at least it’s difficult to. So just little things like that where it’s hard not to be conformed to the world’s mold. And it’s a constant battle against the current. It’s a constant swimming upstream and that’s difficult to do. Yeah, one of those commands, because our natural bend is to be conformed to the world. That’s over leaning. That’s the way our flesh want to go. So, yeah, we talked about this in another episode where Christians were confusing conservatism and Christianity. That’s another way we’re being conformed to this world. Because as we said in that episode, although we might agree with much of what the conservatives say, they are still very much secular. They’re not Bible believing for the most part, not Bible believing in that particular way. And so when we confuse the two, that’s another way we’re being molded into the world’s mold. Right.

So the second one I have is Philippians, chapter two and verse 14 do all things without murmuring and disputing. That is tough. How easy it is for us to murmur about things, how easy it is for us to dispute. Just speaking for myself, it would have been better for me, or much easier for me if the Bible said do some things without murmuring and disputing. But all things yeah, that one is tough. All things without murmuring and disputing. Change the diaper. All things. Or go out into the cold and take out the trash. All things. Those really tough things. Yeah. And even there are some things you may do those without murmuring, disputing. But what about the big things that come in your life? That you want to murmur and dispute about what about the things that you don’t have any control over, that you want to murmur and dispute about. I think what it comes down to is disobedience and pride. I think that’s what you really come down to as the main reason why we cannot and don’t strive to do all things without murmuring, dispute and think about Proverbs 13 of verse ten. Only by pride comet contention. But with the well advice is wisdom. I like the fact that the Bible not only tell us what not to do, but the Bible tell us why. So he didn’t tell us do all things without murmuring and disputed, but he tell us why we should do all things without murmuring, disputed. And if you look at verse 15 in Philippians two, verse 15, the Bible says there that he may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom he shines light in the world. I’ll even take that verse and just highlighted that is us today. If we can do all things without murmuring and disputing, and we can be blameless and harmless as Christians, at least when they look at us, they know cross reference that will let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. When we do all things without murmuring and disputing, we are much like our Savior. Because if you look at the time when he was accused, the time when he was buffeted, he took it without murmuring and disputing. He endured a cross for us without murmuring and disputing. Can you imagine if when he was going to the cross, he was mumbling under his breath, why in the world do I have to take on all this for these people? He wouldn’t be loved. So the loving thing to do is to obey God and do all things without murmuring and disputing. I look at this so simple but difficult, especially when we’re in the flesh and we are not guided by the Holy Spirit. I like that one. You feel that? Those are my toes. I think I just got my toes stepped on a little bit little conviction going on there. That’s a good one.

Okay, the next one I have is Be ye angry and sin not. Ephesians 4:26 be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. I didn’t even think of this one until right before the podcast because something happened and the guilty party shall remain unnamed. But I will say it was a child. I cannot confirm or deny if it was my child, but this child did something. And I won’t mention what they did because then it will be recorded for perpetuity. It’ll be recorded forever. But they did something so egregious, but obviously something that a child would do, but it was so egregious. And I just full disclosure flew off the handle, just angry. My initial first gut reaction was anger because he was doing something that we had talked about before, that we mentioned and explained and taught and he was there doing it. My first reaction was anger, and that’s a very difficult command to obey. It’s interesting though. I mean, the Bible doesn’t say don’t be angry. You just have to be angry for the right reasons. And I don’t think at that moment that was the right reason to be angry. The Lord was angry, but he was angry when it came to the glory of the Father. He turned over tables and chased people out with a whip and all that sort of thing. I got mad because I told you that a thousand times type of mad. And that is the sinful anger. So, yeah, that is a hard it’s simple. Don’t sin when you’re angry, be angry. Sin not, but very difficult to follow. Yeah, definitely. I like what one preacher said. He said in order to be angry and sin nut, we have to be angry at sin. And that’s definitely a tough one.

All right, next one for me, number three, Luke 9:23. And he said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny Himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. Are you talking about being angry or not? In order for us to do that, we must be able to take up our cross, your cross, my cross daily and follow Him. I always say that I can deny myself, I can take up my cross and follow my Savior. But you know what gets me in that command is a simple word daily. That’s where the rubber meets the road. Can I deny myself and take up my cross daily? And of course, this command is recorded in other gospels and I guess the qualifier daily there is not even mentioned. So shouldn’t we be always be denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following our Savior? I think that’s a perfect picture of the Christian life, taking up our cross daily. And in order for us to do that, we must be always in the spirit of prayer. Because guess what? The cross is heavy and we’re going to buckle it under the weight unless we are in that constant and ready mine of prayer. I think our Lord set the example in the garden of Gethsemane before he took up his own cross. He spent time in prayer. Want to be able to take up your cross daily. He cannot be done without prayer. It would behoove me to mention here that this verse is written to Christians, not to unsafe people. Salvation is not my works. Of course we know that. So I’m not talking about salvation by works. Here where we tell us in Efgians two, verse eight and nine that we are saved unto good works, for by grace are ye save true faith and not of yourself. It is a gift of God, not of works that any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus on to good works which God had before ordained that we should walk in them. So I think here seven christ is a constant denial of myself constantly, daily picking up our cross and follow him. If there’s a picture perfect picture of the Christian life wrapped up in a command, it will be this and he said unto them if any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. What a command. And that’s where the world would meet the road in the Christian life.

You’re listening to the Removing Barriers podcast. We are talking about simple commands in scripture but difficult to obey. We’ll be right back.

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The next one for me is no Idols. Exodus 20, verse three thou shalt have no other gods before me. This is a tough one. It’s simple. Very, very simple. But it’s tough because of how subtle idolatry is. When we hear idolatry, perhaps in our world today, we’re thinking of a carved item or some type of figurine that you put on a pedestal and that you physically bow down and worship or that you put actual trust in. Like you pray to it for protection. Or maybe a charm around your neck that you put confidence in when you’re in a pickle or when you’re in a tough situation. But idolatry is anything at all that you give more worth to than God. So if you turn to it in a time of distress or if you turn to it in boredom, it’s an idol. If you think so highly of it that it rivals how highly you think of God, that’s an idol in many ways. We are not fully aware of how much we idolize ourselves and glorify ourselves in our minds and in our thought processes, processes whichever one it is. Because as John Calvin said, the heart is an idle factory. We are made to worship something, and when that something is not God, we’re going to run and go find something to worship. Might be ourselves, might be something else. But idolatry is really tough. I’m not saying it’s tough as in we, oh, it’s so difficult we shouldn’t even try. That’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m just saying that it’s difficult to obey because of how sneaky it is. It’s like the other one that I have. Do not lie. It’s the same thing. It’s difficult to obey because of how sneaky it is. In Galatians Six one, I’ll read a part of it here. It says, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such, and one in the spirit of meekness considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted, bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself that every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another, for every man shall bear his own burden. The reason why I brought this up in relation to idolatry is when we scroll on Instagram or Facebook or any measure of social media or any one of the social media platforms, we are constantly bombarded with people who are telling you what to do, telling you how to live, showing you how they do things. And generally, more often than not, the spirit behind it is, look at me, look at how I’m doing things. Look at me. And we compare ourselves to them. We look at their posts and we say, man, I don’t do that, or I don’t look like that, or I don’t check those boxes. And so something must be wrong with me. That’s a form of idolatry.

Some of the conservative talking heads bring up statistics of the percentage of young girls. I don’t know what the age range is, but I would imagine it would be young teenagers all the way up who are so affected by their social media, they physically and emotionally get depressed if they don’t get enough likes or if they don’t get enough engagement on their posts. They compare themselves to the women or the ideas or the routines that they see on social media. In some cases, it’s led to suicide or other methods of self harm. All of that is idolatry, like it says in Galatians Six. Also, when you think too highly of yourself, that’s idolatry as well, you’re deceiving yourself, deceiving yourself because there is only one true God, and only he is worthy of all the glory and honor. I think that if we stopped in our fast paced culture and we evaluated the absolute torrent, the litany of thoughts that go through our minds on any given day, we would be appalled at how much of it puffs itself up against God. There’s a scripture that says we should be casting down even the imaginations of the thoughts of our hearts before Christ. Anything that puffs itself up against Christ, we should be casting those things down. Even if it’s the imagination that thoughts of your mind casting those things down. Because there is only one person, one being that is worthy of that praise. It’s Almighty God. It’s the Lord Jesus Christ. Anything less than that, anything beyond that, anything in addition to or side by side with that is idolatry. That’s really tough command. Simple command, really tough to obey because of just how sneaky idolatry really is.

Yeah. One thing I would say though, in the US. Especially, we tend to think that other people, other countries have a problem with idolatry. Other countries worship these craft, man created figurines and we don’t. And that couldn’t be further from the truth. In the US. We idolize so many things. We can talk about our electronics, we can talk about our tech and our vehicles and our home and our work and so many other things. We have so many idols in our lives that who are we to point fingers at the rest of the world saying, oh, they do this. At least we know what their idols are and point and see it for most parts. But for us, our idols can be very subtle. And sometimes we don’t even recognize our idols. Yeah, we wrap our idols up in entertainment too, so they’re hard. Exactly. We are worshiping something besides God, the true God of the Bible, and sometimes we don’t even know. And until that thing is taken away from us and then we have all these withdrawal effect and stuff like that. Right, right. That reminds me a mutual acquaintance that you and I have said something to someone once. Something along the lines of, oh, you’re from such and such a country. And this country is well known for its witchcraft and voodoo and that type of idolatry. Like the overt idolatry. They got the little figurines and idols and things like that. And when this person heard that the other person’s heritage was from this person said, oh, do you practice? Do you practice the idolatry and the witchcraft and all that, without even realizing that America has that too. They just paint it pretty and call it Disney, you know what I mean? And they set their children in front of it and say that’s okay. It’s the same thing. Exactly the same thing. We don’t even see the idols that we have because we’re entertained by them. We make them so palatable one month out of the year at Halloween, we dress up like them and we glorify them. What you said is very true. America doesn’t realize how idolatrius is that even a word? Yes, idolatrous it is, because it’s so subtle and because we wrap it up in entertainment. Absolutely. Yeah.

So the next one I have is Matthew chapter five, verse 43 and 44. He have heard that he had been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. There’s a lot there, but I want to zone in on love your enemies. That’s a thought that you should stop and pause at. Love your enemies and you take it a little bit further. Bless them who curse you. That’s difficult. Simple words, but that’s difficult. It’s difficult to love your enemies. It’s difficult to look at them and realize, hey, that is a soul for whom Christ died. It’s difficult to bless someone who’s cursing you, do good to them who hate you, pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you. That’s difficult. He does. Look at that go again. Wow, what a high calling. All these lists of things that you should do to people who are not being nice to you, who are not being civil or even extending human courtesy to you. They’re prosecuting you, they’re cursing you, they are your enemies. And yet we are commanded to do good to them, to love them, to bless them. So this is definitely something that we cannot do in and of ourselves and something that we cannot do in the flesh, because the flesh craves the opposite of what this command is telling you. This command is telling you to bless someone who is cursing you, or flesh want to do the opposite. This command is telling us to love your enemies when our flesh want to hate them. That is a difficult command. Yet we act. Well actually I should not say act. We are commanded to do those things. We truly cannot live a Christian life without the power of prayer, without the power of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible. The Christian life is an impossible life to live without Christ. That’s why all these people walking around say they are Christians, but they look nothing like Christ. You can claim the name of Christ all you want, but unless you are being filled with the Holy Spirit, you’re taking up your cross daily. You’re in the mind and attitude of prayer and you have the power of God behind of you. You cannot live the Christian life. This is not a life you can just choose to live. This is something that you have to have the power of God behind of you to live. That’s why the Christian life is so wonderful and so unique, because God call us to do things that is not in and of ourselves, but we can do it with the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s what we make it so unique. And at the end of the day it’s. Not by works. We are doing all these things because we love Christ, we want to serve Him. But at the end of the day we’re not relying on our failures because we’re going to fail at times because of these commands. We’re at times we’re going to get in the flesh. Sometimes I get in the flesh, but I pray the Lord that I don’t have to do this in my own strength because there’s no way I could do this. I think about one thessalonians 5:15 see that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good both among yourself and to all men. Simple command, but very difficult to obey.

Okay, the last one that I have is do not lie, do not lie. Colossians 3:10 lie not one to another seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. Exodus 20:16 thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. And there are so many others in scripture. Lying is like idolatry. It’s very sneaky. There are so many ways to do it. There are so many ways that it happens and you’re either callous to see it or you’re unaware. There are so many ways to do it. You can lie by saying something, you can lie by omitting something, you can lie by misrepresenting something, you can lie by not correcting something. You can lie by ignorance because you just repeat what you heard or you can lie deliberately. There’s so many ways to lie and we justify lying because there are degrees of lying. There’s like huge conspiracy level lies and then there’s all the way at the bottom, what we consider to be white lies. Lying is very much like a dollar tree in that it slips in. We don’t even realize it. And it’s so prevalent, ubiquitous, it’s everywhere that we often don’t realize until afterward that we are engaging in it. And God hates it. God hates lying. God hates liars. The Bible is very clear about that. Liars will partake in the flames of hell. Bible is very, very clear about that. And yet it’s something that so easily done. Christians, non Christians alike, and the reasons why people lie vary as well. It’s not always because you want power or you want to subvert or subdue or undermine someone. It could very well be because you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. It could be because you want to cheer someone up. So it’s very sneaky, very, very difficult to obey because you mentioned pray without ceasing, you mentioned carrying your cross daily, being on guard, watching for that sin, warring against it. Lying is one of those things. So it’s a very simple command don’t lie. But it’s very difficult to do.

Yeah, let’s bring a little bit closer home though, because a lot of Christians can think of, oh, I don’t practice lying. I’m not a liar. At least I’m not a practicing liar. But I wrote that article that’s on removing barriers net you can go and search for this article by the name of Dignified Lies. And I would say that a lot of Christians lie in this way. How many times have you gone to church and song the hymns of the fate, but yet you never really meditate upon the words and truly mean what you’re singing. Think about the hymns that we sing in church. I surrender all. Do you really, though? All to Jesus I surrender all, to Him I freely give. Really? Really. How about you, Lord, send me anywhere, only go with me. Really? To Iran too? Really? Yeah. I remember in the last I think it was mission outreach that we have I don’t know if it’s the mission conference or the other one we have. After the mission conference, we were singing that song Lord sent Me Anyway only go down with Me. And I stopped singing for a little bit and just start thinking about it because I can’t truly say that I want the law to send me anywhere, even though my heart cries towards that. I cannot say, man, Lord, send me and we only go there with me. But when it’s that name in some countries, quickly, I wouldn’t want the law to send me quite honestly to Russia or to the Ukraine or to China or how about this? People who was in Lord, send me anywhere, but they’re absolutely refusing to go out and witness to their neighbor right across the street. Exactly. You know what I mean? They don’t want to go witness to their neighbors because they don’t like people knocking on their doors. So they don’t want to go knock on people’s doors or they feel like it’s not effective or whatever the excuse they want to give. But then they will sing in church, lost at me anywhere and truly they don’t want to go anywhere. So that’s a very good one. In terms of him that we sing in churches, you know, those are one of the dignified lies that I mentioned in that article and many others. Truly, I think that when the Lord tells us that we should not lie, we should not be a false witness, I think the Lord is intended that we should not sing those lies either. Probably if many church practice that, we probably stop singing a lot of those him that we sing because truly we really surrender and all do we love to tell the stories of unseen things above when we go to church? I love to tell the story of unseen things above. Really? The last opportunity you got to tell that story. Did you tell a story? So lying is definitely a big one.

The next one I have is one thessalonians 5:18 in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning, you know, the Bible didn’t say in some things give thanks, but in everything give thanks what about when you lose a loved one? In everything give thanks. What about when things are not going your way or things are not going my way? In everything give tanks. What about when you have a protocol child in everything give tanks. What about when that knucklehead cut you off in traffic? In everything give tanks. What about when the doctor gives you news that you did not want to hear? In everything give tanks. That is difficult command to be yet simple, but very difficult in everything. Ephesians chapter five, verse 20 giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks always for all things unto God. Philippians four, verse six be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. Colossians 3:17 and whatever he do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, give it thanks to God and the Father by him. And Psalms 34, verse one I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth. Simple but also difficult, without the power of prayer and without daily taking up our cross.

And the last one I have is Mark 16:15. The Bible says here and he said unto them, go he into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Oh, how often this command is disobeyed. Go ye. Note the Bible did not say pay ye. Do not get me wrong, I think you should support the local body, I think you should support missionaries. But the Bible didn’t say pay ye, say Go ye. This is personal command as well. There’s a personal aspect to the Great Commission. Bible said Go ye, not pay ye. Note also the Bible did not say Invite he. I have no problem with people inviting folks to church, but when we go, the Bible didn’t tell us to go and invite the Bible to go and preach. We ought to be inviting people to a person, and that’s the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and not the location of your local church. Invite them to Jesus. That means you have to be presenting the gospel to them, letting them see their sin and judgment to come and make a decision between their sin and trust in Jesus Christ. So the Bible didn’t say pay ye. The Bible didn’t say invite ye, but the Bible say Go ye. The question is, are you going and preaching the gospel to every creature? If you are saved, you have a mandate from your Savior, your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May I encourage you to go today?

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