Sermon Central
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Give Me That Old Time Religion Series
Contributed by Joe Rowland on May 2, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: What we need in the Petecostal churches is the Holy Ghost and fire. We need what the old time saints had. More than anything else they had a dedication to God. When they prayed you knew that God was there.
Give Me That Old Time Religion
Part 2
15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: {in...: or, for the acknowledgement}
18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, {his mighty power: Gr. the might of his power}
20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
We have discussed that what we need is that old time religion, what I mean by that is an old time walk that has been walked by our fathers, mothers, and grandparents.
They were willing to live what they say; now days we have too many people who are living in a shadow of what they could have.
I want what the old time saints had because what they had that seems to be lacking in Christians today.
They were persistent in what they were doing, they never let the world side track them, they just kept on pushing and fighting the battles they faced and they were over comers.
They weren’t wimps, they were warriors!
We need that old time persistence that Paul had. No matter what he went through, he knew that God was his answer.
It didn’t matter if he was in prison, stocks and bonds, shipwrecked, stoned and left for dead.
He knew that he had had a revelation; he had had a visitation from Jesus.
Paul, no matter what obstacle he faced, knew that he was a believer, a believer is obedient to the Son, which he was going to face and win.
12 For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. {believed: or, trusted}
There were going to be times Paul would suffer. It did not matter because he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.
“Nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day”.
Paul was persuaded that Jesus was able to keep what he had committed unto him.
What the old time saints had was a day by day faith which they exercised in daily living.
16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: {in...: or, for the acknowledgement}
Paul had a life which practiced intercessory prayer.
In other words, he had a prayer life.
In verse 17, when it says wisdom and Revelation, wisdom is referring to the knowledge of Christ.
The knowledge of Christ we receive through the Word of God, and this enables the Holy Spirit to increase our wisdom and revelation.
Paul received the revelation of Jesus on the road to Damascus.
Paul had heard the Word of God, but he had a hard time accepting that Jesus was the Messiah.
So, on the road of Damascus, there was a revealing of Christ, sometimes when we receive Revelation we still have to dig into the Word to figure out what is going on.
A lot of people have heard about Jesus, but hearing is not enough.
You have to accept that the Bible is true, and that Christ really did die for our sins.
A lot of people who used to go to church as a children have heard, but they have fallen away from what the Word says and what that they have been taught.
Somebody, this morning, needs to get some of that old time Pentecostal religion and start applying it to your life.
