Proverbs of a 42 yr. old man

What God offers compared to what the world offers. The world can offer you love, joy, peace, happiness and prosperity. An enjoyment of the pleasures of sin for a lifetime. Living a life on the edge people of the world speak like this: They may say, “Come and join us. Let’s hide and kill someone! Just for fun, let’s ambush the innocent! Let’s swallow them alive, like the grave; let’s swallow them whole, like those who go down to the pit of death. Think of the great things we’ll get! We’ll fill our houses with all the stuff we take. Come, throw in your lot with us; we’ll all share the loot.” Amen. No concern for their lives, people take the attitude of today we drink because tomorrow we will die! Man, don’t go along with them! Stay far away from their paths. They rush to commit evil deeds. They hurry to commit murder. But these people set an ambush for themselves; they are trying to get themselves killed. Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money; it robs them of life. Amen.

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. God in Christ Jesus has promised to give us real lasting virtue and fruit in our lives. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Amen. These virtues are eternal and not temporary because it comes from the Spirit of Christ, Jesus Himself who overcame this world. He is alive and well and the same spirit that rose Him from the dead lives in us. We have a peace and love and joy and hope and faith that surpasses human understanding. The world and its vices operate in the spirit of sin and death. Hear this: So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So, God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. Amen. Jesus, is the Vine and we are the branches that live from His Life in us. We were dead in our sins and He brought us to eternal life and righteousness. We have an eternal well within us that pours out love that satisfies. Peace that quenches, joy that is perfect, hope that is freedom, and a faith that endures forever. The world and its ways are passing away. All the joy, love, peace, happiness, and comfort it brings leads to fruit of sin and death. Let me count the ways as I close: The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Amen. We have received the Kingdom of God in our hearts, a deposit of Holy Spirit, The Spirit of Christ. Let's live a life depending on the precious life-giving gift of Jesus our LORD. Christ in us the Hope of Glory! Read Heb. 12:14-29

Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord, 15 looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and many be defiled by it, 16 lest there be any sexually immoral person or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal. 17 For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears.

18 For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm, 19 the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them, 20 for they could not stand that which was commanded, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned”.[a] 21 So fearful was the appearance that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, 23 to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.

25 See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven, 26 whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more” signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let’s have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.