• 3 John 1:5
  Support and Opposition
  Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are,
  
• 3 John 1:8
  Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

We spoke yesterday about spending our time and that it is the only thing we can sacrifice to God. All things have been placed in Christ the Lord and all things are His. We are nothing more than stewards of the Lord’s possessions. We all want to be good stewards but there is so much to do and so many things that we care passionately about.

Passion is an emotional word and might not be the thing that the Lord wants of us.

Let us think in terms of what the Lord has given to us to serve Him.

Ephesians 4:1-7 English Standard Version

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Have we found our calling according to the gifts that we have been given?

If yes, do we know how to use them to serve our Lord?

These things take time to sort out.

Psalm 5:1-3 English Standard Version

1 Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning.

2 Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray.

3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you[a] and watch.

Footnotes [a] Or I direct my prayer to you

Using the footnote that portion of line 3 would read “I prepare a sacrifice for I direct my prayer to you.”

Do we think of directed prayer as a sacrifice? All we are doing is giving up a portion of our time with the understanding that in the morning God is listening.

When did we get the notion that the fist part of our day is the only time that God is paying attention to us?

Matthew 28:19-20 English Standard Version

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

“I am with you always.” That is not a promise to be here for us only in the early morning. So when did that change?

Considering that HIs instruction was to go and make disciples, perhaps Jesus was referring to the church age. This current church age did not truly begin until the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and the Word was declared to many of the Jews that had come from all over the known world for that event.

Many things changed from the OT to the NT and the only reason is because God the Father sent the Son into the world to change everything that was misunderstood into an understanding of the truth in a real and relevant way.

Our old way of thinking and understanding moved from intellectual to faith based relationship in which God the Father sent the Holy Spirit to oversee this life in Christ which we live by faith. The OT only had a few chosen prophets that heard God speak. Now in this church age we have access to the will of God because of the Spirit of Truth. What hasn’t changed is our sacrifice of our time.