Church notes - 21st March 2021

[fardell24]

Psalm 19

James 4:1 - 10
Signs of an unhealthy church.
Fights and arguments.
Conflict
vs 2
Lack of prayer
We need to take things to God in prayer.
Praying with wrong motives.
We need to pray for His plan to come to fruition,
Not treat Him like a vending machine!
Our motives should be to glorify Him, not to have more stuff.

Diagnosis
Selfishness
Obsession with pleasure
An unhealthy relationship with the World.

vs 7
Can't love God and the World at the same time. It's mutually exclusive!

Matthew 22:37
The Greatest Commandment

Spiritual Adultery
- It makes us an enemy of God!
- It is as painful to Him as to when one of us experiences Marital Adultery.

Treatment
Resist the Devil
vs 8
We need a sense of humility. A humble attitude to life.

Submit to God. Vs 7

Resist the Devil and he will flee.
Come now to God and he will flee.

Ephesians 6
The aspects of the armor.
When they are working, we can resist the Devil.

Draw near to God.
Choose to draw near to God.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son - The Father saw the son in the distance and ran to him.

Purify your hearts.
Clean up your thinking and actions.

Doublemindedness - wanting to draw close to God and to the World at the same time. That's absurd!

Grieve, mourn and wail.

Humble yourselves to God.
Yeild yourselves to Him. Your worth comes from Him alone.

We need to cultivate a teachable heart.

Proverbs 12:15

'It seemed like a good idea at the time' - usually stated after a foolish action leads to disaster!