Two Become One, Part 12

Calvary Temple

Two Become One, Part 12

August 6, 2006 • Pastor Star R. Scott

Well, He is coming back soon. Amen? Looking forward to that, praise God! Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus! Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 13 and allow the Lord to continue to speak to us. I understand that Jeff went through 1 Corinthians 13 a couple of sessions ago on friendship. We can never get enough of trying to apprehend the love of God and see it manifested in our midst; being able to, as we shared this morning, having freely received be ready to freely give. Such a precious gift; such a sobering responsibility that we have before us. As we were going through this morning we, of course, reviewed in Ephesians and in Titus the commandments for us to love one another: Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. The mature women to teach the less mature how to love their husbands, love their children, tend to the call of God on their lives, to their homes. Then we see here in 1 Corinthians, as we go over to the thirteenth chapter, this discourse on love. Now, remember where it fits, here, in its context, between Chapters 12 and 14. The whole context of that is the edification of the body of Christ through the gifts of the Spirit. We're coming out of 1 Corinthians 12 as it speaks of body ministry, the building up of the church. The key word over and over again: the church, the church. He says that the only way that you can effectively use these gifts is through love. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not [love]... and though I give my body to be burned, and have not [love], it profiteth me nothing..." the Scripture says. Everything that we do-all of the good deeds, all of the observable works-the heart motive has to be love. It has to be the natural flowing forth of our gratitude for having been loved. Freely we've received; we freely give.

As Paul's speaking here in 1 Corinthians, and we were going down through the passages, I think we were finishing up this morning on the area-let me see, I don't remember how far we got-behaving itself unseemly, I think, is where we left off. One of the things that we were talking about in that particular passage was being courteous. We were talking about allowing God's love to manifest itself through us. One of the things that I think we need to watch, as we'll finish up on this subject of not behaving itself unseemly, we talked about bringing public reproof and tearing down our loved ones publicly. There might be a time when that would be necessary, but most of the time you don't want to demean the object of your love in the eyes of others; we're looking to esteem them. We're not talking about overlooking sin, we're not talking about speaking toward certain aspects that need attention, but, we're just talking about that sharpness, that shortness...

Two Become One, Part 1

July 5, 2006 • Pastor Star R. Scott

So let's go to Genesis and we'll see what happens. In that particular foundational principle, we see, then, that it's natural for there to be an attraction, for there to be relationships, none wanting to be alone. So what's the biblical order and what are the guidelines that lead to this particular phenomenon of two becoming one, because that's really what we're talking about-how do two become one? That's the end of relationships: two becoming one. The pursuit, the covenant, the union that is spiritual, and evidenced in the physical, for the purpose of being able to bring glory to God, because two are better than one. Now, in Genesis we find the Lord speaking to us. Look at Genesis, Chapter 2; we'll pick this up. Following the admonition, the verses that we've been teaching on for two years or more in so many different ways, about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil versus the tree of life-following those verses you read this in verse 18, "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone . . . " I'm pausing for some of you men to say [the men in the congregation say "Amen"] and some of you ladies to say "It's about time"-I mean "Amen." "It's not good for man to be alone." I want you to catch this phrase and let it speak to you in the spirit. " . . . God said [this is God], It's not good that the man should be alone . . . " You've heard the will of God, and yet like everything, if we're walking in the flesh, we take things into our own hands. We want to control it, we want to manipulate, we want to know, we want to plan, we have an agenda, and that's why we mess up so often and are never able to really arrive at spiritual relationships, life in the spirit, and God's best for us. I heard such a sad statement, some statistics, just the other day on Father's Day. It said that 50 percent of our homes in America, on Father's Day, have no male figure in the homes at this particular time. And of those that do, 70 percent are not the original male figure of the home. That's a sad commentary on where we've come-man's way...

Two Become One, Part 2

July 9, 2006 • Pastor Star R. Scott

Let's turn to Matthew, Chapter 19. We want to continue along with the study on two becoming one. I'm going to reiterate a number of things that we shared at Men's Breakfast the other day, because as confident as I am that all the husbands came home and shared everything that took place in the meeting verbatim-I know that happens all the time-we'll try to hit some of the highlights anyway and see what we can do. It really starts there with the men. That's why we took the time in Men's Breakfast yesterday. Men, you are the final authority in the lives of your children as it pertains to their individual course that you oversee and spiritually as the patriarch of your household. There are requirements placed upon you, and you can't take it lightly. Ladies, of course, your role is to support them in God's ordained role as the head of the home. Children obeying their parents in the Lord; wives submitting to your husbands as unto the Lord; husbands loving your wives as Christ loved the church, willing to die to self for them: that's what love is really all about. So as we look at this subject, I was telling the men yesterday that the thing we have to do first of all is unravel all of the bondage that we're in in our thought processes. We just taught a couple of weeks ago on the battle of the mind: renewing the mind and putting on the whole armor of God, holding up the shield of faith against the fiery darts of the enemy, pulling down every thought and imagination that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. We talked about the battle we're having with the spirit of this age. As I taught that, many of us are thinking, "Yes, okay. I'm free from that. Praise God." I shared that we're under greater bondage than many of us really know as it pertains to the spirit of the age, the spirit of this world, the spirit of antichrist...

Two Become One, Part 3

July 12, 2006 • Pastor Star R. Scott

Amen. Let's turn to Matthew's gospel, we'll pick up where we were Sunday morning and just allow the Lord to minister to us. I've heard a lot of rumblings since we started on this subject. Some of you old folks are mad at me from Sunday night and those different areas. We're in a place of really trying to identify in all of our lives-remember why we started this teaching, and how we're relating to the wisdom of this world, that's what this teaching's all about. Are we people that are living by faith, walking in the spirit, living from the Tree of Life, or are we more influenced by that Tree of the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; humanism, secularism? What in our lives is out of order as it's pertaining to our fulfilling the will and the promises of God? We were studying-we saw as we talked in the relationship thing, and we'll get into the practical parts as we continue through, but the Scripture says it's not good for man to be alone. He tells us why and we realize the necessity of two becoming one flesh. So let's turn to Matthew's gospel, Chapter 19, and again refresh our hearts with the Word of God, and remembering the Pharisees that come to the Lord tempting him. Their motive was not pure, they weren't wanting to know the truth and they were just wanting to try to trip him up. [Verse 3] "http://...is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?" They were looking for a way to justify their position. One of the positions that were being very strongly held by Hillel at that particular time was a perversion of biblical truths which is the authority of the man, prominent position of the man, and even until recent times outside of Christianity, women were seen as chattel, they were seen as property of men. Jesus, of course, debunked that, defused it, and revealed the truth. The Holy Spirit, through Paul's epistle, revealed the truth that it's not male or female (Galatians 3:28), amen? This body of Christ that we're in, we realize the unification of what God's doing in bringing two together, making them one is to bring that healing, that wholeness to man in the spirit, and that completion that was lost when God saw that Adam needed a help meet...