"GOD WANTS TO GIVE YOU"
DECEMBER 13, 1998 PM
MF Blume
1Cor 10:16-17 The cup of blessing which
we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which
we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we [being]
many are one bread, [and] one body: for we are all partakers of that one
bread.
Matt 14:17-19 And they say unto him, We
have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to
me. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took
the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed,
and brake, and gave the loaves to [his] disciples,
and the disciples to the multitude.
Matt 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus
took bread, and blessed [it], and brake
[it], and gave [it] to the disciples, and said, Take, eat;
this is my body.
Mark 6:41 And when he had taken
the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed,
and brake the loaves, and gave [them] to his
disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them
all.
Mark 14:22 And as they did eat, Jesus took
bread, and blessed, and brake [it], and gave
to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.
Luke 9:16 Then he took the
five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed
them, and brake, and gave to the disciples
to set before the multitude.
Luke 24:30 And it came to pass, as he sat
at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed
[it], and brake, and gave to them.
Luke 24:31 And their eyes were opened,
and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
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TOOK
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BLESSED
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BROKE
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GAVE
Notice that this order of actions occurred exactly the same way in every
case.
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Matthew did not simply write in that style, since we see it in Mark and
Luke.
Another brother recently pointed this out to me.
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What a wonderful revelation.
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It is a pattern what God does with lives.
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Jesus did this with bread and fishes.
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He did it with bread when He fed the multitude.
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He did it again at the Last Supper.
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And speaking of Bread, Paul said that the bread we eat at communion is
the Lord's body.
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And he said that since we all partake of the same single body of Christ,
or the bread of God, we are all one bread.
We refer often to this Lord's Supper as COMMUNION.
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Notice the term UNION in the word communion.
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We are one bread with Christ.
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As we taught recently, eating that bread is showing that what is true with
Christ is within us and true of us, since we are in union with Him.
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We take the bread and put it inside us.
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This is illustrative.
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And we remind ourselves of the BODY of Christ until He comes.
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We show His death until He comes, because this death of Christ is the point
where people must first unite with Him.
DEATH OF CHRIST is where union with Him all begins.
When Paul spoke of communion he said at again in the same order:
1Cor 11:23-24 For I have received
of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the
[same] night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when
he had given thanks {Note: this is BLESSING IT}, he brake
[it], and said, Take {He GAVE it}, eat: this is my body,
which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
Jesus experienced that, and so do we.
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Why?
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Because we are one bread with Him.
And those who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus, did not know Him
by his appearance, his voice or even his teachings, after being with him,
probably, for some it.
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But when he TOOK bread and BLESSED it and BROKE it and GAVE it, then they
knew it was Him.
Their eyes were opened at that moment.
People recognize us that we are children of God, of the same BODY, when
they see a life taken, blessed, broken and given.
God wants to give you to the world after he takes you out.
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He wants to give you back in a different state than that from which he
took you out.
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But between the time He takes you and gives you back, you experience two
things.
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BLESSING
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BREAKING
We do not like the second part.
God wants to use us in this world.
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First he has to take us out of the world
Notice what we read about the words he spoke to the two to Emmaus.
Luke 24:27 And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the
things concerning himself.
Moses.
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Moses name means "drawing out"
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Moses was taken from the waters and placed in Egypt.
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Taken from destruction.
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And He was blessed with power and treasures of Egypt.
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But then he was broken for forty years in the wilderness.
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And then he was given to Israel as a leader to lead them to the Promised
land.
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He was given to help others.
You cannot be given to help others if you have not experienced the first
three.
David.
2Sam 7:8 Now therefore so shalt thou say
unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee
from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people,
over Israel:
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David was TAKEN.
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He was Blessed as he slew Goliath and all the people sang about his slaying
ten thousands while Saul the king only slew thousands.
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But then he was broken for 15 years as Saul chased him like an animal to
kill him.
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After that he was given to Israel as KING.
Jesus took upon himself the form of a man.
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He was blessed with miracles and healings.
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He was broken on the cross.
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He was given to all the world as the COMFORTER
He said the Holy Ghost is the comforter, and Jesus said He would not leave
them comfortless but would come to them.
Now look how we are blessed.
God took Adam from the dust of the ground.
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He blessed him with the breath of life.
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But Adam should have been broken by not giving into his flesh to take the
forbidden fruit,
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And then God could have given him to the world as leader of a godly humanity
under God.
So many people could be given to the world in blessing, but in the process
between being taken and given, they enjoyed the blessing but stopped
up at the BREAKING.
Experiences you go through that are fiery trials is only making you
more valuable for God to be able to give you to the world.
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Trials come and we step out of the process and refuse to continue.
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But Trials are making us greater.
Peter speaks about God giving us in ministry to the world:
1Pet 4:10-11 As every man hath
received the gift, [even so] minister the same one to another, as good
stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, [let him speak]
as the oracles of God; if any man minister, [let him do it] as of the ability
which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus
Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
And all of us want to be used in ministry and given to the world.
But what about the next few words:
Immediately after Peter speaks of ministry, he said:
1Pet 4:12-14 Beloved, think it
not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some
strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers
of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may
be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ,
happy [are ye]; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on
their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
The reason Peter speaks of ministry and THEN fiery trials is because, in
order to be used in ministry, there is the breaking.
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When the trial has worked upon you, Peter said it has the effect of burning
away dross and purifying the inner element that is golden... faith.
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You have faith in you when you are saved.
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That is how you experienced God's grace.
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But there are a lot of contaminants in you also.
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Your faith is fine, but mixed in with it is a lot of defilement.
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You do not get better gold from another source and add it to the gold that
was purged in order to have purer gold.
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The gold was there, but it simply had to separated from the defilement
and the defilement thrown away so that only gold would be left.
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That is like Faith.
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Your faith is great.
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You simply have to have it separated from the doubts your flesh has and
the other silly things our hearts like to delve into from the world.
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And all that will be left is PURE GOLDEN FAITH.
Then God can use you in ministering to others.
I believe with everything in me that the saints of God in the Church
are meant by God to help in the ministry and touch those who reach after
God.
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To help those who try to understand how to know God.
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The overzealous person that screams a bit too loud in the ears of a new
convert, scaring them, must be more fully prepared by God to be more effective.
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The overly shy believer who cannot move out and help someone at the altar
must be refined and broken to be used by God.
All of us have to be broken.
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The goal is not the BLESSINGS.
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That is only two steps of four complete steps.
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God does not take us out to simply bless us, although that is all you will
ever hear some tell you.
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No.
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Next is the breaking and then is the most blessed of all... the giving
of you to others.
Ephe 4:11-13 And he gave some, apostles;
and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith,
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure
of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Paul gave the preachers for the sake of the saints growing up so they can
do the work of ministry in this world, too.
Ephe 4:16 From whom the whole body
fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth,
according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh
increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Every joint is supposed to supply something to the work of the body.
But everyone will do something.
We ask all to come to the altar, because we are seeking not just folks
to come and pray who have an area they need to pray about, but because
there are others whom God wants to use to help others in this altar.
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Pray for wisdom.
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Pray for usefulness.
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God wants to use you to help people.
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Pray that you have the wisdom to not turn people away when you reach out
to help them in the service.
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Be sensitive to those who are shy and those who are easily offended by
such "different" styles of worship and prayer we have, since they are so
new to it all.
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Be sensitive that many come from religious backgrounds and feel they already
know God, and you could easily turn them away for ever if you pray for
them as though they were heathens.
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Respect whatever relationship they already have with God, and do not treat
them like they know nothing about God.
But God wants to give you to the world in ministry.
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All of us are one bread.
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We are all to be taken, blessed, broken and given.
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All of us are to be given in some manner.
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God will give you to the world in a way different than He will give me.
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I found my ministry.
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You need to find yours.
Please come with us at altar service to the altar and come to help if you
feel you are strong in faith.
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Many do not come since they feel they are praying and living right.
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Why go to the altar?
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The altar is not only to get right in prayer.
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It is to minister and use your gift and help others.
God gives you gifts of the Spirit so that you can give of them to others.
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It is simply vessel to vessel.
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Gift is transformed into gift.
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You receive gift of healing so that you can give to others.
Acts 3:2-9 And a certain man lame from
his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the
temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into
the temple; Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked
an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on
us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have
give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and
walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted [him] up: and immediately
his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and
walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and
praising God. And all the people saw him
Peter did not have silver and gold, but he had a gift of healing, so he
gave to the crippled man and the man was healed and walked and leaped and
the people saw it.
The apostles were taken from the world as Jesus called them one by one.
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The Jesus blessed them with power and anointing to cast out devils heal
the sick.
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But then they were persecuted and broken in hardships.
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But look what they gave us.... THE EPISTLES.. THE WORD OF GOD.... the TRUTH
OF HOW TO BE SAVED.
2Cor 4:10-12 Always bearing about in
the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto
death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest
in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
Paul said he was broken so that others could have blessing.
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Paul had blessings, too.
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It is not all breaking.
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But without the breaking, and only knowing the blessing, there can be no
giving.
The Book of revelation is such a blessing to me to study and learn about
the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
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To see more about JESUS (not endtime wars and troubles).
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Jesus is revealed in it.
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But do you know what John experienced before he wrote that?
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Do you know where he wrote that?
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In a prison marble-mine island.
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The ancient world's "Devil's Island."
David wrote many beautiful Psalms for us to be comforted by.
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Do you want to know the music room where he composed those songs?
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On the side of a cliff, running in fear from Saul who sought to kill him.