Patient... Yet Vigilant

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Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast program. Truth Matters is a ministry of the Truth Project whose mission is to empower men and women in the Christian faith to teach biblical truth in the culture and marketplace of ideas, using the Bible as a sacred trust of truth and sharing the message of Jesus. Learn more about the ministry of the Truth Project at www.projecttruthmatters.com. Let's join this week's extended edition continuing her teaching on what we're to do until Christ returns. Here's Dr. Davis.

Hello, I'm Dr. Cheryl Davis and you're listening to Truth Matters. And these last verses, you know, it gives the warning, don't add, don't, you know, don't, don't take away. And in studying the Bible, we are to look at, you know, as David Jeremiah says, and I learned this from him, look at what it says, figure out what it means, and figure out what it means for you.

It says three, it says three terms, what it says, what it means and what it means for you. And so it's reading, it's understanding and then applying the Word of God. So that will allow us not to take away and not to add to because the truth is the truth as it is intended.

It is not intended to be diluted. You know, my children say the Lord's Prayer every night and every time I hear them say, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. They are praying for Jesus Christ to come. And we should be praying for Jesus Christ to come as we see the landscape of this world changing, as we've seen the recent disruption in the world border with world peace not being so in Russia, even invading Ukraine, all the more we should be praying, come Lord Jesus come. But what we're seeing is that this is a preparation for Christ's coming. We are seeing those birth pains that I discussed before, that before Christ come, which is the birth of the New World Order, where the former things are passed away in sin and Satan is going to be defeated. We should be looking with anticipation, we should be witnessing fervently. At any time, if you have prayer requests or want to reach out to me, Cheryl Davis at ProjectTruthMatters.com.

You can send me an email, drop me a line, reach out to us on Facebook. I would like to thank all of you for journeying with us through the books of Daniel and Revelation in our prophetic journey over the last probably almost year and a half. I am excited on getting back to taking some verses out of the Bible and just really bringing out major points from commentary.

Just to update you a little bit on what I've been doing over the last year. Many of you know I'm an internal medicine physician who has stepped out on faith and resigned my job with Scotland Healthcare System and went into ministry full time. So I'm excited about my journey of faith and I'm depending on the Lord daily, but I still do not want to get away from my medical roots. I believe that the Lord had me walk that way for a purpose and being a physician, as I believe that it relates to our spiritual lives, they are intertwined. And today, specifically, I would like to talk about a healthy body.

What more appropriate topic for a physician to talk about is a healthy body. And the Bible talks about this. And I want to speak to you daily briefly on having a healthy body and how the church is a body and we need to make sure that the church remains healthy. So let's turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10 verse 23 through 25.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. The church is a living, interacting body.

The Bible describes it in first Corinthians chapter 12 verse 12. It goes on to talk about the eyes and the feet and the hands. They all are needed because they have specific jobs and in order to be healthy, all parts of the body need to work well and work well together. Some of you are very familiar if you have disease in one of your members of your fleshly body, it affects your overall health. The pastors are very familiar that if there is disease or strife in one of your members, it affects the overall church health.

I interact with a lot of people from all walks of life in my job, the radio as well as the church. Not all churches are meeting throughout the pandemic. A lot of their attendance has dropped off. Some churches right now still are doing completely online and some during the pandemic did nothing at all. Some churches closed and in the recent few weeks, as I've traveled out speaking at other churches, I've seen at 10 o'clock there is no one in the parking lot. So obviously that church is closed on a Sunday morning. What I have observed is that the pandemic has weakened the church overall. And when I say the church, I mean the body of Christ. Our inability to meet together has given us an excuse to relax our commitments to church. It has made us vulnerable to the attack of the enemy, particularly in our minds.

At a funeral recently, I overheard a young teenager say, we're watching Netflix on Sunday mornings instead of watching church. If there is not relief, we will continue to weaken. When the body gets weak, it needs a way to rehab and to restore its strength. What I want to tell you today, the pandemic may have weakened the body of Christ, but the work of the church is needed now more than it ever has been. This country needs the gospel more now than it ever has in the past. So there is a great opportunity for the church in these times and these days much greater than ever before. So I'm really speaking to churches specifically today and I want to ask you the question, so how does your church avoid losing muscle strength and stay a powerhouse for the gospel?

So I just want to share with you these four exercises and we find them in Hebrews. First, hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. Hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. In our society, people are offering hope on every corner. There is hope in the political system for change. There is hope in a 12 step program to stop addictions to alcohol and drugs. There is hope in magic bullet therapies that will cure cancers and extend your life. There is hope in a coronavirus vaccine that will cure this nation of its pandemic and get it back to normal. The only hope that will bring everlasting peace to this nation's real problem is the hope that is found in Jesus Christ. I'm going to say that one more time. The only hope that will bring everlasting peace to this nation's real problem is the hope that is found in Jesus Christ.

The enemy is trying to wear down the saints mentally, physically, and emotionally during these times and over the past two years. Hold fast without wavering. Hold fast without wavering. There are not a lot of things in this life that are for sure. Benjamin Franklin said in 1789, our new constitution is now established and has an appearance that promises permanency. But in this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes. I know many of you have heard this a number of times. With the hope of Jesus Christ, you can pass from death unto life and live in eternal peace. But even before then, you can have peace that passeth all understanding by making Jesus Christ Lord of your life and living in accordance to his will. So hold fast to your hope and don't waver when it comes to the Word of God.

The Bible says, I am the Lord and I changeth not. Hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. That's the first exercise. Hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. Now let's move on to the second exercise to build muscle strength so that your church remains a powerhouse.

Consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. My home church is Mount Airy Baptist Church that is based in Pembroke, North Carolina. And Mount Airy Baptist Church has a strong legacy of stirring up love and good works. And in my opinion, it is one of the most successful churches in this regard as it really shaped who I am. And whether my home church, you know, the people of my home church, whether we were blood related or not, it was as much my family as a child and in my teenage and adult years as my mother was. The church opened its arms to us when we needed it most. The church helped me live out my dreams even when my mother did not know how to get me there. My church stepped in when she needed the church to be there. The church watched over me when she could not. And when my mother got sick, my church was there to care for her and for me. And when the Lord was ready for her, my mother went home to be with her Lord and Savior, not worried about me because she knew that my church would be faithful in stirring up love and good works. I am forever grateful to God and to my church for what the Lord and my church has done for me.

There are many out there in the future that will be in need just like she and I were. And even though churches may not see the immediate gratifications for your efforts, know this, that your church's labor and my church's labor, our labor is not in vain. We need to keep loving the way that God calls us to love, even when other churches may not keep loving and stirring up good works, stir up love and good works anyway. Galatians 6 verse 9 says, And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Stir up love and good works.

That is the second exercise. Let's move on to exercise number three, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. The way God intended for church to be is a living, breathing, interacting body.

The purpose for assembling is for participation and worship of God and fellowship, one with each other. But in this current day and time, it is a lot of work. It takes dedication, really, to put COVID protocols in place.

It takes dedication to meet outside. It takes dedication to set up, to break down each Sunday. But there is a movement, even before the pandemic, to move the church to more of an entertainment platform and a consumer type model. Church is not for entertainment.

That is what radio and TV is for. There's also a movement among the modern day church to turn church into more of a granary for dispensing food rather than an interacting body. That is the purpose of the fast food industry.

You pull up to the window, you get what you need and go. Don't come back until you are hungry again. Chick-fil-A is great at that, but that is not what the church is meant to be. We must not desert the assembling together because lives are changed when we do church the way God intends for it to be done. I want to leave a very important point, but I want you to think about this statement. The assembling of the believers is often an outward indication of an inner condition. If a man's faith will not get him to church, it is doubtful if it will get him to heaven.

What I'm saying is that an outward symptom of a sick heart is that a man or woman does not have a desire to be in church. Fail not to assemble yourselves together. That is the third exercise. And the last exercise, remember I promised you for. The last one is so much more as you see the day approaching. So much more as you see the day approaching.

And this part is often left off when these verses are quoted, so I want to give a particular emphasis in this. The day that the writer is talking about is the day that Isaiah writes about in chapter 61 verses 1 and 2 of the book of Isaiah. That day of vengeance of our God is the day of Christ's second coming. And pastors and church members and church lay leaders, I am here today to tell you that I see the day approaching. When I look out on the horizon, I see the day approaching.

Jesus came first as a sacrificial lamb in the form of a baby, but I see on the horizon he's coming back as a reigning king. And let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for your word. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light into my path. Lord, you give us a daily guiding system and to walk in your ways.

Your word says you'll never leave us, you'll never forsake us. God, and in these uncertain times that we see a disruption in world peace, there is wars, there is rumors of wars, we are seeing that we are living in the last days. Let us take the words of Revelation, let us take the words of the book of Daniel and apply them to our lives so that we walk more obediently. I pray that those that are listening may discover your will for their lives. I pray that those that are listening will submit themselves and surrender themselves to your will for their lives and that they'll walk in obedience. God, and I pray that we're watching and waiting expectantly for Christ to come and for our redemption and we thank you and we glorify you today, Father. In your name I pray.

Amen. You've been listening to the weekend edition of Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis. Truth Matters is a ministry of The Truth Project, a North Carolina-based ministry dedicated to teaching biblical truth and sound theology to those inside and outside of the church. If you'd like to listen to these messages on demand, go to ProjectTruthMatters.com and click on the podcast link. Dr. Davis is also available to speak to your ministry group or church function. She can be reached by email at CherylDavis at ProjectTruthMatters.com. Or if you'd like to send a letter, the address is Project Truth Matters, Post Office Box 159, St. Paul's, North Carolina, 28384. You can hear Truth Matters devotionals on weekdays at 820 a.m. and 520 p.m. Until next time, let's all work together to teach a biblical truth to assist, equip, edify, and encourage one another and bring the Gospel to the world because truth matters.