Do You Not Know?

September 11, 2017

Do You Not Know?

I love the Lord. Together we love the Lord, as a body united to give Him glory. To praise Him for His greatness. To worship Him for who He is. Unified in our purpose to make a difference in the world we live in.

We walk in faith. Believing that God has called us, and positioned us to fulfill destiny. Our individual destiny, and our corporate destiny will define this body. It will be what people remember long after many of us have gone to our eternal destiny.

I want to share 2 verses before I get into my message. It will kind of set the tone for the rest of the day.

Philippians 4:6-7 Amplified

6 Do not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything [every circumstance and situation] by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your [specific] requests known to God.

7 And the peace of God [that peace which reassures the heart, that peace] which transcends all understanding, [that peace which] stands guard over your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus [is yours].

“Isn’t that awesome?”

I come in His name to share some thoughts titled, “Do You Not Know?”

My mind has been focused this week on how God thinks. It came to me while remembering something that happened more than 38 years ago. I may not get to that, but when I considered understanding God’s thoughts this came to mind.

Isaiah 55:8-9

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Since I can’t fully understand His thoughts, for just a few minutes I want to talk about what He has said. It is relatively easy to understand what He has thought, by what He says.

Exodus 32:1-3

1 Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

2 Aaron said to them, “Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”

3 Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.

Moses was gone a relative short time. The people needed a god that they could embrace. One that they could see.

Little has changed even today. “It has always been easier to believe in what you can see, than it is to believe in what you can’t.”

God responded to this lack of faith.

Exodus 32:7-10

7 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.

8 They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’”

9 The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people.

10 Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”

Anybody wonder what God was thinking?

The word obstinate interested me. God used it in the same context in Exodus 33:3 and 5, and in Exodus 34:9.

In the KJV the Hebrew word is translated, stiffnecked.

It is used figuratively to mean, “apostasy.”

Today the word apostasy means, “The abandonment or renunciation of a religious belief.”

Here is what it meant in 1446 BC. “Faithless, turning back.”

All the spoil they left with, still they wanted to go back.

Why? Because they understood and accepted where they were at. They did not know what awaited them ahead, and they were afraid.

How many today want to live like they are, and never move forward in the Kingdom promises of God?

Romans 11:1-4

1 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

3 “Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.”

4 But what is the divine response to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”

“No matter how much division there is. There is always someone held close to God. Someone He has kept close, called to carry on His purpose.”

David said it this way.

Psalms 55:22 Amplified

Cast your burden on the Lord [release it] and He will sustain and uphold you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken (slip, fall, fail).

What’s my title?

Isaiah 40:28-31

28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.

29 He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power.
30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly,
31 Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

Moving forward, not looking back!

“inHisname”