-Transcript-
00:37 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the cafe.
00:45 Welcome to the program. Pastor Clark Covington here. Heartland Ministries.
00:49 So happy to be here today. And today we are looking at God’s Word as always. As always here at KJV Cafe we look at God’s Word and today we are looking at how we are to listen to God and how things could get in the way of listening to God.
01:03 The title is What’s Standing Between You and God.In the previous episode we spoke about listening to God like a child and today we’re gonna look at more deeply what is standing between us and God.
01:15 And as we look at what’s standing between us and God we can be blessed in knowing that there’s a path to have a very close relationship with God and it simply involves doing what he wants us to do.
01:29 Listening to him. You know God knows our form. God is not calling someone to have Olympic abilities athletically to serve him or to be able to sing like an opera singer or write like a novelist or whatever else super talented thing to be close to him.
01:51 We don’t have to do that. We just simply need to be obedient. And God is near those that are brokenhearted, those of a contrite spirit, the poor.
02:03 You know God is near the needy. Amen. So I never think that oh what can God do with me.
02:10 Amen. That is not a question. God can do mighty things with you.
02:15 We’re hosting a Filipino family in our household right now, a missionary family, and it’s incredible to hear the stories of the Philippines and how they don’t have much at all but how they’re on fire for God over there.
02:31 Maybe not everyone but the people that we’ve heard about, the stories we’ve heard told, the family here, they’re on fire for God and they’re I think is still from a third world country. Yes it’s developing but it’s still technically a third world country.
02:41 And these folks are on fire for God. They love God. Some of them have church.
02:47 They’ll have a Bible study every single day. And at a tent meeting earlier this week a preacher said can you imagine if our church did that. Glory to God.
02:55 I can’t imagine. But I know the spirit would be strong. I know God would bless.
03:02 And hey we don’t have a tent meeting every day but you do have KJV Cafe every day. We broadcast pretty much every day somewhere. So we are doing this Bible study every single day and God is so good.
03:05 Amen. I can stand here today or sit here I guess on the microphone but I can tell you with full honesty I seek the Lord every single day and he blesses and that’s all there is to it you know so obedience
03:18 what is that that’s faith and that’s action that’s seeking God and that’s all and so when we look at what’s standing between you and God okay maybe it’s nothing
03:28 but maybe there is something there we start thinking about these big obstacles that we cannot overcome on our own right well in one part that’s true
03:39 because we need to work under the Holy Spirit right we need the Holy Spirit within us but on the other end oftentimes is not a big obstacle it’s simply just a priority issue where your priorities are
03:47 the Bible says where your treasure is there will your heart be also so as your treasure at work climbing the corporate ladder well then that’s where your heart is.
03:55 Is your treasure in the bank account making as much money as you can that’s where that’s where your heart is is your treasure in Jesus Christ and the things of God and
04:02 and in heavenly rewards well that’s where your heart will be and see so we put our mind on God and we say Lord we’re gonna get right with you hey maybe somebody here today listening today is gonna get right with God
04:14 what would bless me to no end to know that I was able to share some information from God’s Word nothing new nothing from me simply from God by the working of the Holy Spirit here today about how we can get close to God
04:26 and how we can turn to him and as we see here that in God’s Word it often mentions the relationship of a father and a child amen and we see the example I gave last episode which I’ll just sum up quickly
04:40 is if you’re a parent and you have a wayward child you’re hurt now if you’re a parent listening to this and your wayward child has gone off and done something bad
04:51 and you’ve told them not to and you taught them better than that but they did it anyways okay are you hurt because you’re wrong are you hurt because you’re not respected
04:58 or are you hurt because the child that you love is hurting themselves well I’m guessing it’s the latter amen
05:05 and now me being a parent I can see what my parents saw when I was young and hard-headed amen it hurts because you don’t want the child to hurt right
05:14 you you you feel very bad about that you can’t eat you can’t sleep your stomach is turning because that child has gone too far off well is that not how God the father feels when his children go far off from him
05:28 and they don’t pay attention to his word they don’t come to his house to worship they don’t spend time in prayer they don’t have a prayer closet they don’t have even time to open the Bible anymore
05:37 and they’re completely in the world and at some point they accepted Christ as Savior and meant it invited him to into their hearts believed on him for salvation
05:46 believed that their sin was only forgiven by the blood of Christ so they’re saved and now they’re out in the world and they’re living for the world here in these last days and they’re struggling and they are dealing with strife
05:58 and issues and there are far off from God that have relationship with him they are accumulating no heavenly rewards whatsoever they don’t have fellowship with the brethren on and on and on
06:07 that hurts the heart of the Lord and I believe that hurts the heart of the Lord not just because he desires fellowship with us and closest with us though he does
06:16 but because he sees the pain that his own child is going through unnecessarily amen so our text verse here Proverbs 1:5 a wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels
06:33 and so firstly we talked about a wise man will hear and we gave this example of a son and a father of Proverbs 1:8 just three verses later my son hear the instruction of thy fatherand forsake not the law of thy mother
06:48 very simple God’s calling us to hear the instruction that he gives and to forsake not his law amen and as a child children have faith in their parents
06:58 and children also are very forgiving I was my kids this morning and we were having our devotional time and I talked to them about you know that bully that kid that kicked you in the face at the playground
07:12 and he kicked one in the face and he made some kind of remark to the other one I said you know if he was really sorry would you play with him again and Jenny’s six CJ’s five and they nodded their heads and said yeah and then CJ said I’d tell him not to do that again
07:26 though but there’s just forgiving you know you know I try to talk to an adult after they’ve been kicked in the face and see if they’ll forgive that person and so we need to get away from all of this grown-up grudge set in our ways prideful sensitivities as adults
07:44 and we need to get back to that childhood childlike faith in Jesus Christ alone in God alone that faith that says God if you say it it must be true I’m gonna take you at your word God you tell me to hear your instructions I want to hear him
07:58 and I believe many Christians today are hearing this and you want to hear God’s instructions and you’re saying brother Clark tell me how well what we need to do is identify is there anything in the way
08:08 is there anything in the way what’s what is standing in the way between you and God Exodus 23:5 thou shall have no other gods before me thou shall not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is an earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth thoushall not bow down thyself to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto thethird and fourth generation of them that hate me
08:40 well there’s a lot to that scripture right there but this is God himself telling us not to have any idols and what is an idol it’s anything in your heart above God and you say well I don’t I don’t burn incense to anything
08:55 okay where’s your thought life where’s your prayer life what are you spending the most time doing if you had to write a journal about your day let’s say you look at yesterday okay
09:08 and the day that I’m recording this yesterday would have been a Tuesday okay and you look at Tuesday and you say I’m gonna make a list of all my actions not what I said but what I did what would that what story would they tell about your relationship with God
09:23 you know and if you made that journal and you were honest would it say I woke up and I had devotional time with God and I prayed before I even ate breakfast I went to work or school
09:35 and I witnessed to a friend at lunch I was praying more in the evening time I went to a revival meeting and then I went home and spent time with my family and then I was praying more
09:51 and I woke up and I went to on and on and on was that what the journal would say now you say well I’ve got a very busy schedule hey so do I okay so do many people amen
10:04 here’s the point I’m making now maybe you can’t do all of those things every day maybe you’re homebound maybe you really do have you have to work two jobs to make ends meet maybe you’re in school and you work okay I get it there’s a lot of things going on
10:20 but there is still time that you can spend with God and there’s time that God expects you to spend with him and the exercise here is supposed to identify what is getting in the way
10:34 and so that idea is that journal if you were honest and you said I woke up and checked my phone I spent some time on my phone and then I ate after eating I went to work and I was on my phone at lunch I just looked at my phone and I was on Facebook and then I went home after work and I got takeout and I watched Netflix and then I went to bed
10:52 well now you look at that you say yeah you did go to work but you spent no time with God and what was getting in the way your phone and specifically Facebook Netflix and whatever else
11:02 well isn’t it time to go ahead and cancel it isn’t it time to go ahead and delete that app off isn’t it and you don’t have to like go on to Facebook and say guys I’m getting rid of this and some big last stand message just take a break just turn it off for a month turn off for six months okay
11:18 cancel the the bad thing whatever it is Disney Plus next Netflix whatever it may be get rid of it okay and then say okay now I’ve got a little bit more time to spend with the Lord
11:29 and so the idea is that an idol doesn’t have to be something you burn incense to it’s whatever is occupying your time maybe you say I don’t even have a smartphone I don’t do any of that but I love to shop
11:40 or but I like if you’re like me you love sports you know I’m not telling you anything I haven’t walked myself through amen it’s football season and I’ll tell myself hey you need to make sure you’re doing your study and you need to make sure you’re having time with God because I don’t want that to be an idol
11:56 and there’s examples I can give one being there was a tent meeting and there was a game I wanted to watch and there was a tent meeting is okay do you watch the game at home or you go to the tent meeting well I went to the tent meeting I told my wife I said I’m not gonna sit here and preach one thing and then go to another and God knows that I am NOT perfect
12:08 and every single day I go to him and ask him to forgive me of my sins amen but at the same time I want to be an example and I know the push and pull and I know that the Lord desires us to have time to relax
12:22 and the Lord gives us interests and gives us hobbies and gives us things to do I get that but we must look at ourselves and just because you are successful in the ministry or in work or at school does not mean that we do not need to look at what idols could be in our life
12:40 I’ll tell a quick story and I’ll be done here up my pastor at Shannon Baptist Church in Columbia South Carolina huge Church and he’s a big congregation I mean I gosh it must have been in the thousands amen
12:52 he was preaching he preached some hard biblical messages one time he got up there and he just said that he used to do flies like fly-fishing I’ll never forget this and he said he got really good at making these really intricate flies he got so good that he was making them all the time and he was selling them and so forth
13:08 and he said he had to stop the Lord had convicted him that hobby had become something above God in a way that’s at least how he described it
13:18 and I was I was really blessed by that testimony here you have a successful pastor everybody he’s doing what looks like everything is right and he’s saying look the Lord had convicted him over it well if the Lord’s convicting him over it Lord’s convicting me over it Lord’s convicting people in the ministry over it how much more
13:34 so the people in this world that are not spending every day in the Bible as their vocation but just living life needs to look inward and say what is getting in the way of my relationship with God
13:44 and here’s the point if you identify it you get rid of it and you replace time with God with that thing that you got rid of God will bless you with peace God will bless you with fellowship God will love on you
13:54 and help you and guide you and you will say man I should have done this ten years ago I can testify I can praise God over that and I’m telling you do that today get get close to God draw closer to him
14:02 and praise him as he shows up in your life now tune in next time as we talk more about what we can do with that time once we get the stuff out of the way that doesn’t need to be there and spend time with God
14:14 I thank you for listening take care God bless and amen