Words of Jesus Podcast - Why Could We Not Help

Episode Date: November 12, 2021

CHAPTER 14:  JESUS EXPLAINS HIS ATTITUDE ON FASTING (PART 2)THE DISCIPLES of John the Baptist and of the Pharisees came to Jesus, troubled in theirhearts, asking:            “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not?”            “Jesus replied:            “Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?  But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.            “No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.  And no man putteth new wine into old bottles [skins]; else the new wine will burst the bottles [skins], and be spilled, and the bottles [skins] shall perish.  But new wine must be put into new bottles [skins]; and both are preserved.  No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new; for he saith, ‘The old is better’.” *** Why Jesus did what he did; Learned? How? - not taught of man; Understanding? How?Spoke not as the Scribes; AUTHORITY! Jesus exuded the idea of authority (humble, meek - lived as an example of what I want for you); How? b/c "My doctrine is not mine…; doctrine of God who sent me; anyone who does HIS WILL shall know; we preach what is in our lives; Spirit teaches what we need to know; Religion & Education will not get our Character Upgraded;  seeking God's glory - great!; seeking personal glory - problem! unrighteousness; Moses? none of you keep the law; traditions/idioms stop the ears of the people; can't be Messiah b/c... "we expected something else"

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris, your host, and doing what I love to do, talk about the red ink in the scriptures. Do you think red ink? You know, we're supposed to. The Apostle Paul says that we're supposed to have the mind of Christ.

When we have the mind of Christ, we think like he did. And I know that sounds impossible or way out there, but the truth is, is over time as we gradually allow our minds to conform to the mind of Christ, we become really what we ought to be. This is not a fantasy or a fairy tale. We actually can be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

I can't think of a better example than Jesus Christ to mimic or to, I mean, until it becomes a part of us. Look, I don't like, I don't like at all the saying, fake it until you make it. But there is some element of truth in that and I would have to say that that would be strictly or only that when we don't know what to do, and it does not come

naturally for us, that we should default to the commandments of God. We should default to what we know is right and what we know is just and holy and humble. And when that happens and you might be a little disappointed in yourself that you didn't think of it, or it's very uncomfortable for you to do the right thing, a natural response, it does really become natural. It's not a matter of habit. It's not a matter that I defaulted to the right thing to do so much that now it is my habit to do so.

No. When we have the mind of Christ, we consider things as He would have considered them. Now this is important in our relationship to the men and women around us. This is important to the respect level that we have toward the Father. Jesus had a huge amount of respect for the Father that I don't know that we see it

because our religion really doesn't offer as much in the way of example and our theology is so messed up that we probably don't even see it. You know a perfect example of this. You've heard me talk about how we have turned prayer into an opportunity for God to do something for us. And instead of that communicative relationship

where we can spend time with Him and open ourselves to Him and have Him speak to our hearts and show us the flaws and the foibles and the little things in our life that necessarily need to be straightened out. And if we do take that time and we replace what we have always called prayer with this time

of fellowship, there are things that start to take place in us that will I think that it will frankly surprise you. One of those things is that the Bible teaches clearly that we do not know what to pray for as we ought. We also know that Jesus said my Father knows you have need of all these things. We also know that Jesus said these people who pray these long

prayers, these big long verbose diatribes that at the end of the service you know somebody sticks their paw out and says, really enjoyed that prayer, brother. Well if anybody heard it, it wasn't done according to what Jesus said, what he said to pray to your father in secret. But you But that, even that aside, the idea that when we pray according to the will of God and according to the

Word of God, that that comes from the inside up, that He has heard our prayer. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Well, and we know that if we pray according to his will. We know he hears us. So, I know that some of the faith teachers and stuff kind of rub this in your face and kind of make it very uncomfortable about praying about something twice.

If you pray about it once, then there's nothing to pray for. Well, the people who feel compelled to pray about something twice are the people that have never prayed at all. So it's hard to tell them not to do it again. But I do think that we ought to pray intelligently and according to the will of God. And we shouldn't insult Him by turning it into a big showy thing. And well, you know what I mean. I don't have to explain this.

Everyone has seen this. Everyone has heard this. Now, as I say, as you start to think like Christ thought, all of a sudden you start to hear things in his speech and think, what was he thinking that made him say that? Well, one of the perfect examples of this is when Jesus was raising Lazarus from the dead. And he stood out in front of this tomb where Lazarus had his body placed and

he says, now Father I know you've already heard me. But because of these people standing here, therefore I said it. What did he mean by that? He was actually apologizing. Why? He has a respect for the Father that, you know,

it's not apparent in most Christians' lives. He had a respect for him like, I'm not praying this twice. I'm not doing this for any other reason other than the fact that I think that it's you who is raising this man from the dead, and I want everybody in here to know it. Now, to come out here and put on a big show in front of people,

you know, get the piano playing and get the hype level up, I think is a mistake. And I don't want to insult you with that. So here, I'm going to explain to you why I'm praying again. I know you've already heard me, but I don't want these people to think that this is anything other than you. Now see, there's a respect level for God the Father like I've not seen in Christians. Have you? That's a perfect

example of what I'm talking about. Jesus apologizing for praying twice. Alright, we are in chapter 14 of our little book, The Words of Jesus, and Jesus is going to start talking about fasting. A subject that I think should be thoroughly examined and the effects of which should be a part of every Christian's life. I think there is a place for fasting. And we're going to read here that Jesus

says that there is a place for fasting in a Christian's life. If you remember Jesus when He sent out the 70, they came back and they were rejoicing and they were happy and they were rejoicing and they were happy and they said, you know, even the devils are subject to us in your name. And he said, no, I don't want you to be rejoicing about the devils being subject to you. I don't

think he appreciates it when we praise the devil, which means talk about what the devil is doing. You did know that when you spend time with your friends over tea or you go to church or you do your little testifying and such as that, when you stand up and say, the devil's really had his way with me this week, you realize that that is praise. How did David praise the Lord?

Well, he praised him by talking about all of his wonderful works, didn't he? Well, that's how we praise the devil. Think about that next time you decide to make him a part of every spiritual conversation you have. Now, if we are intent on not praising him, as Jesus was telling his disciples, this is not worthy of praise.

This is not worthy of your undivided attention that he is subject to you. First of all, it has little to do with you and everything to do with me. I'm the one that puts him underfoot. But second of all, it has little to do with you and everything to do with me. I'm the one that puts him underfoot. But second of all, he says, I want you to be thankful that your names are written in heaven, in the Lamb's book of life.

That's what you should rejoice about. Well, after they had their little session and dealt with all these things, here comes a man with his son and says, I need you to help me. Jesus says, what's the problem? And so he decides to explain to him the problem. And says that there's a demon possession here that really

takes this child over. Throws him into a fire sometimes. Throws him into the water and he almost drowns and then as they were speaking the child started manifesting these signs of demons, evidently. And it was described by the gospel writer as the father looked down as he was talking to Jesus. And I can just see him standing there seeing a son that he loved. And he said, Behold, he foameth again. In other words, look, it's happening now.

And it was breaking his father's heart. Then he says something that broke Jesus' heart. He says, I brought him to thy disciples and they couldn't do any good. And Jesus said, oh you faithless and perverse generation. How long will I have to suffer you? How long will I be with you? I want you to notice that Jesus put

faithless and perverse in the same sentence. I know many of us who take care with our Christianity that we know that we will answer to a God one day for the deeds that we've done in the flesh, that we're careful. I hope you are. And because we know that there's nothing hidden from the eyes of our Father,

there are many things that we don't indulge in. I would say that one of the things that is just simply, well, in most cases, it's a shame you have to say that, but in most cases, a Christian is not involved in what anybody would call perverse. As I say, I hate to say that and have to make apology for it because we've had so many examples of this in recent history, especially of our church leadership. But when we think about perversity, it's hard

for a Christian to say, now wait a minute, I don't know how perverse I am. I don't know if I'm a pervert. But when it comes to faithlessness, Jesus puts these two things in the same category, in the same sentence, faithless and perverse. Now this is quite an indictment I didn't know that when I wanted to

go my own way when I wanted to make things happen in my life and not have to sell out to that wholesale faith that is so required among us, with us, and I don't want to do the sellout thing. I'll tell you what, I'm going to pray about it. Then I'm going to do everything I can to make it happen. And if it does happen, then I'll just say thank you Jesus. I'll give testimony at church or whatever else. But when it comes to actually selling out the faith,

you see, again, here we're talking about something. When I say faith, you're thinking one thing and I'm thinking another. Somebody else is thinking something else. And I know we're going to talk about all these things. However, can I just say here that faith is not hope. It's not keeping a stiff upper lip. It's not just looking at things in a positive outlook

it's not the power of positive thinking faith is moving upon what the lord has made clear to you in your heart is his will his way and what he wants you to do that's the only way you can have faith. That's just a parenthesis in the sentence, and we're going to talk about it in depth at another time, but here, and in our faithless Christianity, we've decided that we don't necessarily want to do what is required to do something by faith.

Because what does faith require? Faith requires that we hear the voice of God. We've never heard His voice. Jesus said no man's ever heard His voice or seen His shape. So what are we going to do? Well, we're going to have to rely on the promise that Jesus gave us, which was, if you keep my commandments, if you keep my commandments,

if you keep my commandments, then my Father and I will take up our abode in you. And we'll lead you and guide you from the inside. This is his promise. If you keep my commandments. So I don't know if I want to keep his commandments. I know what I'm doing wrong. I know that I'm worshiping other gods. I know that paganism is a huge part of my Christianity. I know that I've changed the Sabbath day and don't even

keep it on the day that I've appointed. I know that there's all kinds of problems I have with the commandments. And so I went to my preacher about this and said, what do I do? What do I do? And he says, nobody can keep the commandments. Oh, that was close. I thought I was going to have to keep them. Why would you think that? Because Jesus said to keep them. Well, yeah, but he was ministering under the Old Testament thought of the Old Covenant and salvation by works and after he came back from the dead, why he said all that's gone. Did he really? Where did he say that? Well,

when you have as many years in this as I do, you'll be able to see these things in the scriptures. But for now, don't worry about keeping the commandments. I know it's never been that clear or that clearly spoken or that obvious, but isn't that pretty much the message we get? So we find out that now we have an excuse really not to hear from God. Well, when you have not heard

from the Lord, how can you have faith? Well, I just take Scripture and the Bible and put faith in it. And where did you receive that instruction? I'd like to know where did it occur to you, oh gee whiz, I can just pull a Scripture out of the Bible and put my faith in it and it will happen. I dare you to find that idea, that

concept, that procedure in the Scriptures. It's not there. We've been told this all of our lives, but it's not there. We have to put our faith in the Word of God, not the Bible. We have to hear the Word of God. Jesus didn't say, he who has eyes, let him read. He said, he who has ears, let him hear. We're to hear the Word of God. And when you do, and you put faith in it, now you're exercising the faith of the entire list

of all the people listed in Hebrews 11. Do you realize that every person in that list heard the voice of God, heard the word of God, not the voice of God, but heard the word of God within themselves and obeyed it? That is faith. And that's all that faith will ever be. Jesus says that in this basic understanding of faith, there is a perverseness in the body of Christ that frankly sickens him to the point that he says, I don't even want to be here anymore.

Have you ever gone to a meeting or gone to an event or something and about halfway through you're thinking, I don't even want to be here anymore. No, I'm not talking about your job. I mean something that you thought you would enjoy. But this is what Jesus was saying. You faithless and perverse generation. How long will I suffer you? How long will I have to put up with this?

Now, it sounds to me like, I would think that the Lord would be somewhat unfair if he was expecting behavior from his disciples that he didn't clearly delineate ahead of today or before now. It's like when God was judging Cain for killing Abel. I always thought, hey, wait a minute, wait a minute. There's no law. There's no stones. There's nothing that says thou shalt not murder. You know, I mean, take it easy on the guy. And then you continue reading and you find out

that the Lord had had conversations with Cain before that day and said didn't I tell you didn't I tell you friend if you want to put your finger on Christianity if you want to put your finger on what's wrong in Christianity, why things don't work, why prayers aren't answered, why we have no power over ourselves,

why we have no power in the earth, why we're laughed at and lampooned and now even murdered around the country just for being Christian. Why do they despise us so? Why is this country known as the great Satan? Why is that? What has happened? How can a country supposedly founded on Christian principles be

considered by other religions as the great Satan? How can that be? Because we're perverse. I know, I know, the Muslims complain, one of the Muslims complain with the United States is more pornography pours out of this country with the crummy internet that we have than does any other country. You know, Hollywood is constantly pumping it out. Lies come across the television. You know, they're all pushing their own political agendas.

They see nothing over here of honor and character and dignity. And look, I'm not trying to give points to any particular religion, but I'm saying Christians ought to shine, but we don't. We're perverse. Why is that? Perhaps because we've changed the voice for a choice. And now we, through intelligence and through education and through what makes sense and what the psychologists say and what the professors say and even what the preachers say. And we've educated ourselves and educated ourselves and we've

finally made ourselves into people who can choose between right and wrong. Friend, you want to be Christian? You want to think red ink? Do you really want the mind of Christ? You're going to have to change. You're going to have to exchange. You're going to have to give up the choice for the voice. We're going to have to go before our Lord. We're going to have to hear what he has to say to us so that we can have faith. If we don't, we're perverse. We're a perverse people. We're perverse and in reverse

and it's just, it's getting worse. No, I didn't mean to make a rhyme. But it absolutely is a fact. This is where we are. This is where we're going. And so how are we going to stop this? Well you're going to find as we go through here through to the red letters of Scripture as we talk about all the principles and the character of God and what He expects us to do and what His

Son has to say to us and everything that's in our future and everything that's been in our past you're going to find that there's a common thread that runs throughout. And that is many people who call themselves Christian have never known the Father, Jehovah. They've never known Him. They've never spoken. They've never communed with one another. They've never heard the word of God within themselves. Jesus said, you know if you ever eat this bread,

you'll never hunger again. You're not going to be running back and forth from church to church trying to get fed. You're going to be the supplier of food. You're going to find out what Jesus meant when the disciples came to him and said, look at all these people out here. They've been fasting. They've been doing without food. We need to feed these people. Jesus looked at him and said, how many loaves have ye? You know what? We're perverse. We're broken.

We are bankrupt in this area. And something has to change. I can help you. I can help you. I can channel you into, plug you into, wire you up to the most prominent power in the universe. But you're not going to get to do what you want to do anymore. This is going to cost you everything you have. Well, this doesn't sound like a free salvation to me.

Well, it's not. I know you've been told that, but it's not. It's not free. Not in any way other than the fact that you can't pay for it. You know, really, there's a big difference in being free and being priceless. Friend, our salvation is absolutely priceless. And until we have that relationship that feels like gold, that feels like silver, that feels like value,

that actually is priceless, you're not going to know what I'm talking about. You're not going to read yourself into this. You're not going to study yourself into this. What are you going to do? Hopefully you're going to start thinking red ink. Our time's gone. Sorry about that. Join us next time to hear more about the words of Jesus and in this Words of Jesus series. I want to hear from you. If you're listening to this show,

can I just hear from you that you're watching, it's your listening? All you have to do is send an email to don at thinkredinc.com. You can write to Think Red Inc. Ministries, P.O. Box 718, Pytown, New Mexico, 87827. All right, it's just a matter of thinking, what did Jesus say? How are you going to know that? You're going to know that because you think ready. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye. You've been listening to Don C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries.

Email don at thinkredink.com. That's thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you