Is your inner man alienated by the world system or is it influenced by the Word of God? There is a war going on for our soul. God wants to renew us and save us from glory to glory. (Eph 3:14 / Psalm 90)

Speaker(s): Pastor Dennis White
Sermon # 11435
6:30 PM on 3/11/2018

P. Dennis White

Ps. 90:7-12, Eph. 3:14-16, I’ve been back from China 7 or 8 months. It’s good to be home. We are having a lot of fun. Isn’t it awesome to have fun at church? I was driving from Philadelphia and we stopped at Delaware at the rest stop. A lot of people there but not so many smiles. We can come to church and be edified and smile. We can have the joy of the Lord.

Ps 90 is an interesting passage. The people wandering for 40 years with Moses in the desert. Imagine seeing miracle after miracle and still not being touched by God. That’s a fear I have. I could come into this place, – we listened to a rap at Eurocon and P. Schaller asked what does it look like to be a Greater Grace Christian for 30 years? You see these miracles over and over and you are not changed. Your heart is hardened more and more.

Ps. 90 he is representing the Lord as a Lord of anger. In the desert 40 years and I’m 70 or 80 and only thing I remember is the Lord is angry. We read everything but we read the faithfulness of God. God gave chance after chance to come into the Promised Land and be in his will. Another amazing story is Moses coming down and having to wrap his face. They don’t want to see his face because it’s shining. You speak to God for us. We don’t want to speak to God. Those are powerful words. The Lord was angry because he was trying to motivate them to fear him or have respect or walk with him. God does a miracle, you don’t listen, and he gets a little angry. How many of your parents were like that? Sometimes as parents we are gracious to our children and loving them and want them to enter into a certain place in our life but they continue to be hysterical. All of a sudden it’s enough. No, you need to come. More often than not we physically pick up our children and bring them to the place we want them to be because we know that is best for them. God is ministering the Word, his faithfulness, his joy, his presence. All these things as believers we search for they saw on a daily basis but they weren’t having it. He picks them and says now you’re going to see it. He is saying these things because it didn’t work. James 1 the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. How many times do we become angry trying to produce godly character? It doesn’t produce the character of God. What does? What produces a healthy respect for who God is? What produces a relationship where I can walk with him and feel like I am in the right place?

Teach us to number our days in vs. 12. That is a beautiful passage. Here is Israel and they feel the anger of fGod but not what they had to feel. They are feeling this anger and that is how they remember God. If you would have changed your perspective and realize your days are short. In the songs we sang there is a feeling we will be before the Lord someday. We could be raptured but maybe not. Maybe 70, 80, 90, 100. The thing is teach us to number our days so we may gain a heart of wisdom. The King James says we can apply a heart of wisdom. We can apply our heart in wisdom. Our inner man the part that makes us who we are, not the flesh, the part God looks at, the heart. How do we define the inner man?

I was reading an article from “Israel My Glory” talking about theological terms being redefined. One author said it’s the seat of spiritual influence. The sphere where the H.S. does the renewing and saving work.” it’s the part of me where I am influenced by God. God wants you to be here but also wants to speak to you in the morning, afternoon, evening. He is personal. He wants to influence you personally. He wants the Holy Spirit to renew you and save you. We say the sinner’s prayer and accept the Lord. We are saved but we are also humans and find ourselves in a lot of trouble. Seeing the miracles of God but not recognizing them. Hearing the voice of God but running away from his voice. God wants to save us. He is active in our life. He wants to be your Savior again and again. Every time you are in trouble, he wants to be there to save you. We find ourselves growing in maturity and more dependent on who God is. Here I am God. I’m in the middle of a storm or desert. God, I need you. You’re right here. Here I am again. In trouble again. I need you. We find ourselves as sinners maybe not so sinful but we can be. We find ourselves more desperate for who God is, hungry for God. When is the last time you felt that hunger? Not in a condemning way. When was the last time I felt that hunger for you? I’m looking for you to be my Savior. I need you to renew me. You are here to renew me. How I am at work. At work something happened and I was the reason. I needed to be renewed. There is no shame in that. We are seeing the miracles of God and I ignore them. There is the anointing, the presence of God and I ignore them. I want to renew you and save you. The inner man cannot be used interchangeable with the new man. It still may be corrupted and subject to vanity and alienated from the life of God.”

My inner man needs to be renewed by the living word of God. It will change my life and make a difference. This is the word of God that is incorruptible, not vain. It will bring me into a place where I experience the life of God face to face. Moses spoke to God like a friend speaks to a friend. It doesn’t say that about Israel. Abraham was the father of our faith. His faith wasn’t perfect. Moses wasn’t, David wasn’t. Their inner man was corruptible and subject to vanity but they made a choice to allow the Word of God to renew them and save them. I’m talking to myself. I need to be renewed. I need the Holy Spirit and the Word to come into my life and move. I can be corrupted, subject to vanity, and alienated from the life of God. But I don’t want to be. The Word is God’s image in the inner man. Your inner man is God’s image in you. The more we develop that relationship with the Word and come to church and have raps and fellowship dinners and prayer meetings and evangelism we begin to see the image of God is inside of me. Not because of what I am doing but because I am surrounding myself in a place where the word of God is influencing me. I am influenced by word of God in my inner man. I can have the inner man go into a place where there is wisdom.

Eph 3:16, riches of God’s glory. What does that mean? I think of glory and famous people. They are rich but lacking something. What is the riches of God’s glory? The Greek word for glory can mean opinion. The riches of God’s opinion. The N.T. word glory is meant for good concerning me. It results in praise, honor and glory. Here is God the Creator of the universe, the same God who led Moses through the wilderness. He is speaking today and he is rich. The riches of HIS glory, not the glory of this world. We can’t compare the glory of God with the glory of this world. We are not talking bout money or these worldly things. We are talking about the opinion or judgments or the way God thinks. The way God thinks about you is good and rich. God’s thoughts about you are so rich and good. Those thoughts are meant to lead you to a place where there is praise, honor and glory in your own life. We get this idea the Christian life is a drag and I’m meant to suffer. Yes, there is the doctrine of suffering but we are serving the living God. He has designed me for a certain purpose. The only way I don’t live in that purpose is when I go against the character of God. If I allow God to influence my inner man, I begin to see, to realize, to read the thoughts of God toward me. It leads me to a place where there is praise, honor, and glory not from man. It is not praise for man but it is from God. That is all that matters. One day we will be alone before God. We will be alone before God. He is going to say well done, my good and faithful servant. That’s all the praise, all the honor, all the glory I need. When Jesus Christ says well done. It is the riches of his glory. We are strengthened with might. God himself is giving his ability to us. The ability of God, the same power where he creates. As humans we create. How many watch the space X program and the rocket? That was cool. That was historic. I don’t know if this guy is saved but he’s part of God’s creation and creating. He is unregenerated and he is creating. We are saved and we are creating. We create life inside of others. We create capacity, joy, and peace, not with our strength but the strength we have been strengthened with. We are not designed to only receive from God. God wants to give you peace and joy but we were meant to give it. I become a participant of God’s work. I have given you something so you can be active in my work with others. You can be active in other people’s lives and be a vessel of salvation. How many times we hear stories and stories. Soul winning and knocking on a door and someone is going to commit suicide. We are strengthened with the strength of God. Being involved in other people’s lives. It says by his Spirit. These three things are so important: the riches of God’s glory, the strength of God and the Spirit of God. It is all God. My inner man is affected by these three things. I’m being affected by God’s opinion about me, his strength, and the Spirit of God. I’m being influenced here.

Back to Psalm 90. Israel is being influenced by God. I’m pouring my glory on you, my strength, my Spirit on your inner man. They were nope, nope, nope. I want some meat. I want a good steak. I want this or that. The natural man was thinking naturally. They were not thinking with their spiritual man. The inner man was unregenerated.

Ps 90, God wants our inner man to be strengthened so we can be in a place where there is wisdom. Any man lacks wisdom ask of me. What are we asking? Put me in a place where your Spirit can influence my inner man. We are sitting in our bed worried about something and asking God how to deal with this problem. What that prayer means is put me in a place where my inner man is influenced by the Spirit of God. He answered it in his way and we don’t necessarily like it. You don’t understand. Here is my problem and I need a solution. The solution to my problem is the wisdom I want. I am having money problems and you want me to sign up for Bible school? Your inner man is going to be influenced by the character of God. That is where you will receive wisdom. Here the word for wisdom means to be skilled in war. Wisdom means to be skilled in administration, in our walk with God, to be skilled in making moral decisions. I don’t know if you have been outside today but there is a war for your inner man. Satan would have nothing more than your inner man to shrivel up and die, to be unregenerated, not be influenced but be alienated from the life of God. It happens different in America than other places. We see Satan’s attack. It’s different here. We are not novices. We have to listen to God and be ready for that. There is a war out there and I’m skilled in it not because I work out or have knowledge of the word of God but I’ve allowed the living word of God to influence my inner man. I’m not alienated but in the inner circle with God. When I allow to be influenced and I’m incorruptible, that incorruptible seed is inside of me and I’m allowing these things to influence me is when I become skilled in warfare. We are fighting a battle for our souls. We are fighting a battle and who is going to influence me? Am I going to allow the world system to influence me? Garbage in, garbage out. Taking in the world, watching TV worldly music and intake, intake. Who is going to influence me? The world. I find myself in need where I am in a place with God. God, I am broken before you. There is a battle and I’m before you. I need you to influence me. Read your Bible and what did I just read? You pray and get lost in your worry. God sees your heart that you are before him. I’m here to renew you. You find yourself being skilled in war. Gideon wasn’t an amazing fighter. He was just available to God. Skill in our walk with God. The more I allow the H.S. and word of God to influence me, I find myself skilled in my walk with God. I recognize where the Lord is moving and I go there. There is no respect. I don’t like that person. Doesn’t matter. God is here. I don’t like that restaurant. Doesn’t matter. You don’t have to eat. How many people can we fit in Dunkins without buying anything?! I’m able to see where God is and that is where I want to be. Find a pastor or someone who has the anointing of God and follow them. Paul said as I follow God, follow me. That word of God has potential to heal you, save you out of that trouble you are in. You’re too stubborn to follow because of personality. Don’t be like the Jews in the wilderness. See the presence of God and go there. Watch and see what the presence of God is going to do in your life. How many of those Jews could have had something amazing in their life if they listened to the voice of God. They allowed something else to influence them, their bellies. We become skilled in our morals. Does God care about our morals? Different influences come up as time changes. Are they moral issues or spiritual? If the Bible talks about them, they are spiritual. They will affect my walk with him. There are sins in our life and we are not here to bash people for their sins. There are sins and they are forgiven and come as you are but that sin has potential to influence you in the wrong way. We are all sinners and saved by the grace of God, by the blood of Jesus. Sometimes there are decisions and we have to make them, big decisions, and what is going to happen? I want to be influenced by God. I want to be in a place where my inner man comes into the presence of God. My inner man, that part of me that is supposed to reflect the nature of God needs to be in a place where it is in the presence of God. My soul needs to be in a place where the presence of God is infusing me. The war, the walk with God, the morals. What really matters is am I here with God. Worst of all sinners, but that did not affect their decision making. Here is a man of God. I want to be here. Here is Christ, here is Paul, Peter, James, and they find themselves following these people of God because the presence of God was there. They went into these places and these issues of warfare, walk with God, and morals, – do they matter? Yes. But are you in the presence of God today. Like David. I sin and say God I’m here.

Let’s go forward with God and find ourselves in the presence of God. Isn’t that good? Think about it. I want to be in a place where the Spirit of God is.

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