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You Cannot Build on Dead Works

Sometimes people say “I will pick up where I left off” after they’ve been out for a while. Can you imagine if a building has been dilapidated and we clean the building up on the outside and inside, then we’ll take that building and connect it to that building so we can keep going on? Do you know what will happen when the first wind storm comes?

You can’t build on dead works. But if you have junk in your life and you never got rid of the junk, you can’t build a solid foundation on that, because as the junk’s being affected, you’re going to see it shake and quake. It will fall.

There are the things you never got straight; those are the issues in your life that you build another life on top of. Most people say its ok, because “I’ve put it in the past.” How many people know that your past will become your future? Its just like when people build on quick sand; after a period of time it will sink. Then after a period of time water seeps up into the building. You can’t build from dead works. You have to eradicate it and clean up.You have to be refurbished, so that when God places a load in your life of work, you can say “Lord I got this” and not “Lord its too much.” When Things are done everything comes to the forefront and the Lord gives it to you. You have a clean foundation that you can build on. A solid foundation. Amen?

Hebrews 6:1-12

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

How many have heard of the word Ichabod? This is a very important word, which stands for “the glory has departed from that place.” In the case with Israel in 1 Samuel 4:21, it had departed.

1 Samuel 4:19-21

And his daughter in law, Phinehas’ wife, was with child, near to be delivered: and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father in law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed; for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death the women that stood by her said unto her, Fear not; for thou hast born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it. And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband.

You remember when the Children of Israel were traveling from land to land and they carried the Ark of the Covenant with them? They would set the Ark in the Holy of Holies in the temple. God would commune with the priest in the midst of a cloud. This was Gods way of talking to His people before the point where He became flesh. He would leave messages to them of what they should do with the people, etc. So the Ark was taken; removed from its place. When God leaves His power, His glory and presence are gone. Amen? So now here we have in our lives when the Holy Ghost leaves you the presence of God is not in you and if its not in your what is going on? Its Ichabod that is written on your life.

Some people have Ichabod written on their lives and they don’t even know. So they are building on a shaky foundation. They think of when they USE TO worship; when they USE TO dance. They’re building their whole spiritual walk on what USE TO be. You can’t build on dead works. You can’t build on dead works. You cannot build your Christian walk on something that you use to do. People will fight you tooth and nail and say “He was with me then so I know He’s with me now.” Let me share something with you: Satan is with us 24/7. The mocker; the accuser who has imps that can watch you to mimic your ways to give the impression that you are saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. Satan can make someone jerk, he can make them speak in another tongue. Satan can give you a joyous expression. He is the mocker and accuser, deceiving the bothers to spread the message of lies to other people. What happens to you if you don’t go to your job in 4 or 5 months? You won’t have one,. What happens when you don’t go to church in 4 or 5 months? We take it for granted with God. Its ok with God. You’ve heard what people say “God knows my heart.” He does. That is why He’s trying to tell you get yourself some teaching; some understanding. Because if not, then you’re going on yesterdays work, trying to build today’s future on yesterdays work. Well what’s wrong with that? If it didn’t work yesterday it won’t work today because new mercies God brings forth every morning. How many wake up every morning?

So its time for us to begin to let go of the old foundation, and clean it and prepare it for a whole new work. The Bible says greater works shall you do because Jesus is gone to the Father. You know what a greater work is? Us sitting here in a basement in Bedford, OH at 10 am, talking to a bunch of people in another country witnessing to them, instructing them and getting them together without having them there. They didn’t have the technical capabilities then that we do now. They had Paul, Timothy, Bartholomew, walking for days or weeks to get to one Church. There were seven churches. A greater work is when you can bring someone from the dead, or when thousands of people can be fed from one basket. But what has not been done is communication from one person to another in another country! The point is these are greater works they never conceived of then. What is another great work? Reaching people in the most isolated places in the world, that don’t have internet, Google, Facebook, Instagram; who can’t text or who don’t have anything. Greater work is when you get up out of your seat, go across the seas and talk to these people. The greatness is when the people receive it, and say they’ve heard and been asking their god to teach them and tell them the truth. That is why the word of God says the harvest is ripe, but the labors are few.

Ain’t nobody doing nothing, because were all in church talking about each other, going to dinner, self devouring, usurping authority, making people jealous of others and the souls are dying. If you allow the Word of God dwell in you richly, you’ll hear the Word of God say to you “there is a brother or sister who will come, go with them.” You’ll hear the voice of God. This is what we do when we hear the voice of God; We ask “is it real?” We’ll be able to hear the voice of God when we stop fighting with one another. Then you can testify to 5 people who heard it, received it, and got baptized in Jesus name. You never would have done that when you fuss and argue with yourself and other people. The work goes undone, but you still try to build on that foundation but you’ve never heard Him and haven’t seen Him in years. If you go out and try to witness to someone else, and you’re jacked up, what will happen?

Jesus said I want you to prepare a place for Me for the Passover. Go to the city, see a man…God will use others to get you to where you should be in Him. Jesus said go and tell them that the Father has need. Sometimes we say we don’t hear the voice of God. Well maybe we need to shut up for a while. I know what His voice sounds like to me, but it may be different for you. You need to find out how He will speak to you. God uses whom He will to get his point across to His child. Little kids will be used in this way. He wants us to get rid of that mentality of trying to go on…you’ve been wound forth last last 45, 50, 60, 70 years. You know how many people in the Church are wounded and they try to say something to someone about Jesus? They know absolutely nothing. If you’re not happy how can you tell that God is ecstatic? If you’re not delivered how can you tell someone else that He delivers. How can you say God is awesome and you’ve never seen His awesomeness. How can He talk to You? Does He have to take a number? This is what we don’t really understand. All the stuff in our past will, and has been, and can become our future.

The word build; to assemble; the way a thing is put together; pattern made up composition; in other words, the material used to build upon; to construct; building. If you’re building a new highway, do you build atop the old highway? No, you take out the old concrete, then level out the soil, then build anew. But we say, why can’t they hurry up and build that high way? If you go over that highway that isn’t reinforced, when you drive over it, you’ll be dead in rubble. They aren’t building on dead works, they are gutting it out and restructuring so they can build on solid foundation. Same with a Child of God, you can’t have all that mess in your life; you can’t carry all that baggage with you and try to witness to someone. You can’t build on anything in your life if you’re still going through other things in your life. If you haven’t been redeemed from the burdens and things in your life that are causing your to be weighed down, you can’t build on it. You don’t want to assemble something atop of shaky ground, you don’t want to pour into something that will leak out. You’re a bucket with a whole in it, because while your walking there is a trail. It could be a trail of devastation, where onlookers will say sister or brother has been though here with their leaking bucket.

We Look at the word Dead: lifeless, deadly; passes away.

We look at the word work:physical labour, effort, metal; physical, its work; time spent; time management.

You can’t build on dead works. You have to get old works out and ask the Lord to clean up the stench in you. What’s in the past is in the past, but my life isn’t connected with that. I’ve been forgiven, and given a new life, direction and focus, now Lord You show me what You want me to do, because now I don’t have all that mess in my ear anymore.

When the presence of the Lord has left a ministry, there can be no rebuilding on the foundation of which that ministry was building. That means the person who started cannot rebuild again. Because Ichabod is not only tied to that location, but that ministry. If they restart it, they are building upon an Ichabod foundation. It will not flourish nor be glorious even though they may talk about it. When the name of Ichabod has been written on your ministry its time for you to go out, go to another ministry and get cleaned up. Then it may be He will open the door for a new ministry and new direction. You can’t build on an old messed up situation. It has become dead.

You build on good foundation. Start afresh, start anew.

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Don’t Let Another Man’s Burden Become Your Test

People have a way of uploading to you their mess. We’ve been allowing people to download mess back and jack us up. The burden of them, what they’re going through becomes our test. Allowing people to put weights upon your life, and then wanting you to deal with it. They dump and dump. Some of us make good dumping grounds. If I dump usually its off of me. But now my burden becomes your test. We have our own to deal with. So if you have some dumping to do, don’t dump it on me. I don’t want the mess you’re in to become my mess. Burden, loads, responsibilities…When you grab a hold of something from someone else, it becomes your responsibility. I don’t want someone else cross to become my burden.

Burden: Greek word is baros meaning load, abundance, authority, weight. Anything pressing on one physical thing.

I understand what you’re going through, but when you take someone else burden it makes a demand on one’s life, spirit, resources, time…most people don’t realize that. When you look at a test. What is a test? Everyone has been to school. When you take a test its a critical examination and evaluation of ones trial. How many have done an evaluation on yourself? Did you find yourself wanting? Lacking? The point is…how often do we admit our failures to ourselves? I have come to the conclusion its a daily battle to exist and a daily war to walk upright before God. Daily. The Bible tells us no one knows what tomorrow will bring. One day you’ll be all together, with inspiration of wisdom, and you think wow, I must be going somewhere. Then the next day, you are miserable and think everyone hates you. The point is that one moment we’re this way, another moment were that way, but we don’t even realize there is a day-to-day life we lead, and live walk and breath. You cannot fix things that moment. You cannot fix things that day or hour or month. Even the world can’t fix problems because it’s not them who are fixers, they are causers.

How many have ever had an evil thought? Think about it, so the negativity in the air is also because of what you thought and did. So, this world is the way it is because of us. We have allowed another man or woman’s burden to become ours and we’ve spread that disease like never before. People use the term, “I hate your guts.” No one’s ever seen your guts, how would you hate someone you’ve never had a gut to gut relationship with? You walk away feeling proud, and then when you walk away you say “why did I say that.” Now you’ve taken over someones problem. Have you ever thought about why you hate an individual? Because it didn’t meet a personal need or physical awareness, because they kept you from being fulfilled by a thing. So you traded your love for hate. How could you love one moment and hate the next? Sometimes we don’t even have to say we hate, we just live a life of hate toward that individual. How many are carrying others burdens right now? How many are in a test today? Did you create that test?

When you look at a test scenario, evaluation of yourself, a lot of times we get mad at a person because it’s expressing who we are. We’ve painted a picture of us being something different, but the truth comes out of what we really are. When our mind has told us that we are what we made ourselves out to be, then we get mad at the person calling us out. Then we inspire others to see our point of view. When we set a trap for ourselves, the Lord tells us to love everyone. But Lord I can’t love someone who treated me bad, talked about me, stabbed me in the back, called me names…sometimes we’ll reap things we’ve done from a long time ago… thought we got away with it, when the Lord says He has a time for us. Then we don’t understand and say “Lord why me? I’m the one that loves You.” As you define love and relationship in your life, what are the elements you use to define love?

How many forgive people? The sort of prayer that says “Lord I forgive them for what they’ve done and what they’re doing.” When you allow the hardship and burden of someone else to become your difficult state, then they become a detriment to yourself. You may not have said it out loud, but you may have acted like it. Its like this…you speak things into existence. Out of your mouth you condementh yourself. And that is just after you sang “I could sing of your love forever.” When you come into the house of God, I don’t want you to leave the same way you came. Most come jacked up, broken, confused, and then whats next? Did I speak about trials earlier…if you didn’t get it right the first time…you’re going to repeat it. And it doesn’t come on a time schedule. It comes when you are doing everything you like under the sun. Weigh it before you say it. Before things come out your mouth out of hatred, anger, lust, even love, make sure you weigh it against the heart and mind of God. Don’t say anything out your mouth that hasn’t been checked. The words that come out of your mouth vibrate. Everything has a vibration to it and it is stored in objects. If you take the test of someone else upon yourself when no one asks you to, then if they get an F, you get an F. Don’t get mad when the result is not positive toward you. Don’t get upset and say “Lord that wasn’t my test it was their test.” The Lord will look at you and say “were you in agreement with them or did you entertain it?” Your test is your test. So if someone is in a test, say I don’t want your test. Your test is a mess. If you aren’t able to bear it, or go through your own personal test, how will you bear it? Another man’s burden will not be mine.

Galatians 6:1-18

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.For every man shall bear his own burden. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand. As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Don’t call someone out of their name, or say you hate their guts or say you can’t stand them. “Galatians 6:5 For every man shall bear his own burden.” “Galatians 6:2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” When it says this, it doesn’t mean bear another persons sin. Your walk is your walk. If I see another person going through, I will help, but I won’t bear it. How do you help? By praying that God’s will be done in his life, not to grab it and try to work a will, but to pray that God’s will be done. So if you take on another persons burden in another way other than prayer, it becomes your test, and it’s not what God has given you. Now, you’re bearing another’s burden through prayer because its your brother/sister, don’t get involved. We get sick, they get well and we’re still sick. Don’t hold onto some else’s burden because if they go down hill, so will you.

Jonah was given a command to go to Nineva to preach to the heathen man. The Lord said that if he preached to them, they would repent. He instead took his burden to a great fish. He said swallow me! If you do then I don’t have to say what He has to do. You’d rather be swallowed by a big fish than to do what the Lord told you to do, then you deserve everything coming to you. But the Lord didn’t let that happen. So the fish spat him out. He made a 2 weeks journey in 2 days, and did what God told him. When someone is disobedient to God, don’t be around them, run. When a grenade goes off, does it make distinctions about whom it will blow up? No it blows up everything. So if God is after someone because of their disobedience and you are associated with them, you will take the burden too. Rather you should pray that God deals with them, that God delivers them from themselves.

Why do we go through for someone else’s mess? I want to go through my own trials, because its something I didn’t get right. I don’t want you to go through for me because I won’t get the point. I won’t get it if I don’t go through because the Lord takes us through to make us, not to break us. You can’t go through what another person goes through because God is dealing with them individually. You have to realize you help people better by allowing God to take them through. God is trying to let us know He wants to make us.