This teaching was given by pastor Barry Forder on 7th January 2018 as a topical study to start the year.
As we head off into another year, I feel our theme this year is “he shall be holy unto thee: for I the LORD, which sanctify you, am holy”. (Leviticus 21:8)
These words were spoken regarding the Levites who had been called out from the nation of Israel to serve the Lord. They were to be holy and set apart for God’s pleasure.
Over the Christmas break I read a sermon by Spurgeon teaching on 1 Peter 2:7 “Unto you therefore which believe he is precious”. Spurgeon laid the challenge, is He precious to us? So precious that we gladly forsake everything else? On Sunday we looked as Psalm 37 and saw that it is God’s desire that we be righteous – set apart. Three times in the study we saw the admonition ‘Fret not!’. Worry is poison to the spiritual life. When unmasked, fretting is simply a declaration that we don’t trust God with our circumstances. Even if things really were as bad as our worrying would like us to believe, God is still on the throne! He still loves us more than we can know; He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. God is a good, good Father, and has promised in His word that all things do work together for good for those who love Him. One of the greatest commands in Psalm 37 is in verse 7: “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him”. In the natural this is hard. We must be walking in the Spirit daily; we need to be in the Word (or we simply default to being in the world!).
I believe that, this year, God wants us to simply be set apart for Him. To be holy just because He is holy. To spend time just enjoying our God, to delight ourselves in Him.
God has made you a promise: If you 1) trust in Him, 2) delight yourself in Him, & 3) commit your way to Him, He will do the rest! He will give you the peace, rest & righteousness we inwardly crave (but naturally cannot obtain).
May God bless you through 2018. This might be the year He comes for us! Let’s make sure we are dressed for our wedding day!
You can listen to the audio on this web page, or save it for listening to later. We have also made available the Powerpoint slides (in PDF format) that outline the key points of this study.
We hope and pray this teaching will bless you and encourage you to undertake your own personal study and adventure in God’s Word!
