LOVE SHARPENS FELLOWSHIP

Dr. Tom M

Personal Holiness Sharpens Our Testimony
There is no substitute for personal holiness, though it is almost a forgotten thing in the ministry today.

“When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). There is no substitute for holiness.

A lot of preachers are trying to build a ministry without personal holiness. A lot of parents are trying to build a home and family without personal holiness. But there is no substitute for personal holiness! Personal holiness sharpens our testimony.

I read of a preacher who went to a place to preach. Sitting on the front row was a girl who came every service with her Bible, and she looked utterly miserable. She made an indelible impression upon his mind.

One year later the preacher went back to preach in that same church. There sat the same young lady, this time with her Bible, Yes; but this time she had a radiance upon her face and a happiness that showed.

He went down one night and said to her after the service “Young lady, I hope you will not think I am too personal; but I want to ask you a question. A year ago I came here, and you sat here with your Bible every night looking so miserable. A year later I come back and you have a sweet peace that shows on your face and a radiant glow for Jesus. What made the change in your life?”

The Young lady said, “Preacher, I have a dear girl friend who received a coveted honor. I became jealous and envious, even harboring hatred in my heart against her. One night the Spirit of God convicted me, so I got on my knees and asked the Lord to take all the hatred, jealousy and bitterness out. Then the sweet tune came back, and with it happiness and peace.”

Many a fundamental, Bible believing Christian is not right with God. Many a fundamentalist has a heart filled with hatred. Friend, you cannot be what God wants you to be without personal holiness.
You remember the wonderful story of the Shunammite woman. She saw a man of God go up and down the roads. One day she said to her husband, “I perceive that this is an holy man of God.” You talk about seeing things! Holiness is visible when it is lived in a transformed life.

She also said to her husband, “Let’ us make...a little chamber on the’ wall.” (I am delighted about that little prophet’s chamber.) She said, ‘Let’s put a bed in it and a table. Let’s put a stool in it and a candlestick.’ That was God supplying everything that man of God needed!

Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11 :28). Oh, there is no rest in this world like the rest Jesus gives to the believing heart.

Listen, you may have money to buy a queen sized bed, but it won’t buy sleep. You may have money for a steak, but you can’t buy an appetite. This sweet rest comes only from God.

That little room had a table, and it also had a purpose. That table was for fellowship. Like the psalmist said in Psalm 23:5, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.”

Oh, don’t you like to come to the Lord’s table? Don’t you like to sit down and fellowship at the table of the Lord?
The little stool had a purpose for learning. I believe God wants all to be like Mary and sit at His feet and learn.

The candlestick had to do with his testimony.
God has everything you and I need to do the job. We don’t have to go to the Philistines.
Love Sharpens Our Fellowship

Some of you are going to say, “Preacher, now you are meddling.” No, I’m not. We need a revival that will cause God’s people to love one another again.

I don’t go for all this name calling. I don’t go for this business of people’s downing and maligning everybody who doesn’t agree with them and all under the pretense of defending the Faith. This Bible says, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). And we read, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (1 John 4:20).

I learned a long time ago to love God’s people whether you  agree with them or not. You too had better learn that, or suffer.

In nearly fifty years we have had some “periods” (as you might call them) of trouble in the church.
One time it got really hot. One night someone put a bullet hole in the picture window in my living room. One night they threw some object and broke a window where my youngest daughter was sleeping nearby. One day when my wife was trying to wash the egg off the house, I said, “Honey, if we had all these eggs these folks have broken on our house, we wouldn’t need to buy another egg till the Lord comes!”

One day God laid it on my heart to preach to our church a series of sermons on prayer. While in the midst of preaching on prayer, it seemed the Lord said to me, “If you are going to preach on prayer, you start where the Bible starts.”

I took the New Testament and the concordance and began to look for the words prayer, praying, etc. The first time I found one of them was in Matthew 5:44: “Pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”

I closed my Bible and said to the Lord, “You mean pray for the folks who shot out my window? You mean the folks who broke those eggs all over my house night after night? You mean those who broke a window right where my little baby girl was sleeping?”

Now the Lord has never spoken to me out loud (He never has to Oral Roberts either); but the Lord seemed to say to me, “Yes, that is what I mean!”

That was a glorious moment in my life! With my heart literally breaking, I got on my knees and began to call their names, asking the Lord to forgive them, to help them, to bless them, to take care of them.

Yes, the Lord said, “If you are going to preach on. prayer, then start where I start in the Bible and pray for those who despite fully use you”

When I wept over my enemies, when I prayed for them, then a new day was born in my life.
God’s Word will sharpen your prayer life; the Holy Spirit will sharpen your soul winning; personal holiness will sharpen your testimony, and love will sharpen your fellowship.

We need to come tonight to the .grindstone, the great whetstone, and have God sharpen our instruments that we may be usable for Him.