Basic Conduct

WORLD WIDE MINISTRIES Basic Conduct PEOPLE REACHING PEOPLE Don Krider, Director World Wide Ministries "...SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE…” EPH.4:11-16 BASIC CONDUCT 1 DK BASIC CONDUCT FOREWORD As we begin this study, we need to learn to be disciplined. One thing that God's people haven't been is disciplined and yet the word discipleship means a disciplined one. We set patterns in our lives that make us late to classes, and you will find that carries over into every area in our life, not only our spiritual life, but also our physical life. We are going to begin with the Introduction. It took me awhile to learn that God meant that we could live in the Kingdom of God NOW. We have a problem with the NOW. We can all live in tomorrow land or in yesterday's world, but it is hard for us to get into a relationship with a NOW GOD. We are always saying, "Well, someday, or tomorrow, or this or that," but God wants you to be the people of God today, representing Jesus Christ in your everyday living. The Kingdom of God in Romans 14:17 simply states this: "It is not meat nor drink, but it is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." Two things are here: the Lord tells us what the Kingdom of God is and where it is. The Holy Ghost is not something to come; the Holy Ghost is HERE. He was sent two thousand years ago, and now what we have to learn to do is how to press into the Spirit. The Kingdom of God is in the Spirit. It is wonderful to have the Holy Ghost in you, but it is more wonderful to be IN the Holy Ghost. That means He has you spirit, soul, and body; your mind, your spirit, your soul, and everything about you. This teaching is to help you become stronger leaders, both in the pulpit and in your everyday life style. What we need today are some people bringing righteousness, and peace, and joy to a world that has none. God is far more interested in our daily walk with Him than He is with all of the words that we speak. We are to glorify God in our body and in our spirit. DON KRIDER DIRECTOR, WORLD WIDE MINISTRIES BASIC CONDUCT 2 DK BASIC CONDUCT INTRODUCTION Let us start with I Corinthians 6:19-20. The key verse is 20, but 19 is an important verse, because it is a statement that Paul makes by the Holy Ghost. I Cor 6:19 "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost..." It is not if you want to be, or if you would like to be. He didn't say: "If you think about it and desire the Holy Ghost to dwell in you..." No! He made a statement to a carnal church at Corinth, and he said, "I want you to realize something: your body IS the temple of the Holy Ghost." There is a tremendous thing that we are going to have to answer to God for - WHAT DID WE DO WITH THE TEMPLE OF GOD? It is funny how we think that all we have to do is whip out of this body one day and be before the Lord, and it won't make any difference what we did in the body. That isn't what it says. The word says that man shall give an account for every idle word and deed that is done in the body (Matt. 12:36; Romans 2:6). So here in Corinthians, the Holy Ghost says through Paul: I Cor 6:19 "...your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own." How many know today that you cannot do what you want to do? Not and please God. You really didn't have any option as to whether you wanted to study or not. You thought you did, but you are bringing your body (which is the temple of the Holy Ghost) under subjection so the inward man can grow and take control of the outer man. Then people can look at you and know what the Kingdom of God is like. Out of every Christian should come three things: righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. That is all that should come out of you, not temper fits, not anger, not jealousy, not malice, not hatred. You might say, "The devil made me do it!" No, you had better read the scriptures (Heb. 2:14-15). He said he destroyed the works of the devil, but he left the works of the flesh for you to destroy. The church has given too much power to an enemy that is already defeated. You will do what you will do. You will either live to the flesh or to the Spirit. 3 BASIC CONDUCT DK So he said here, your body IS the temple of the Holy Ghost. You will give an account for your body and the deeds that are done in that body at the day of your appearing with the Lord. When you finish this study, you will be dead, but there will be a new person living in you that you never realized was so beautiful. It is called the one that is created in the likeness of Jesus Christ. This body will not have importance as to what it eats or drinks. It will only want to glorify the Lord. I Cor. 6:20 "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." This is a commandment of God; we believe in keeping the commandments of God, don't we. Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Every commandment that came through Paul was a commandment from the Holy Ghost, just as it was when it came through Jesus Christ the Lord. What happens when I do what I want to do? If it is not what God wants, I become disobedient. I become rebellious. If the Lord tells me that I am to glorify Him in my body and my spirit which belong to Him, and if I go about mumbling and grumbling and complaining in this temple, what am I doing? I am sinning. And when I sin against God and His commandments, then I open myself for all kinds of things to happen to me, and the devil didn't have one thing to do with it. I did it because I gave over to the flesh emotions. It is just this simple: I have an option. I can love you or I can hate you. I can't like you; I don't have that option. I can't even like my enemies. I either love them or hate them. But if I want to walk where God wants me to, in order to glorify Him in my body and my spirit, I will love and not hate. You have to get these basic truths into your heart. God is not talking to the temple; He is talking to the inner eternal man. If we do not have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church, we will become confused and try to do it in our strength, and we will fail. But when we turn this body over to God, He will begin to do that which is right in His sight. Unfortunately, too many Christians speak of Godly lives. It is cheap to talk, but the only problem is that when you tell people how a Christian should live, you do not live it. You have set a double standard which is called hypocrisy. People should be able to look at you and know what God is like. They should be able to look at you and see what the Kingdom of God is like. The born again Christian should have righteousness, peace, and joy manifested in his life outside the walls of the Church. Too many Christians do not have enough peace to give to someone else; they just barely have enough to make it from day to day. So the Lord is saying here that we need some people that are not only talkers, not only hearers, but the doers. It is not the hearers that are justified. The doers are those who have put the word of God into action in their own life. Blessing those who 4 BASIC CONDUCT DK curse them. Loving their enemies. Praying for those who despitefully use them. (Matt 5:43-44; Luke 6:27-28) Romans 2:13 "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." Many times we just talk about a godly life. That doesn't impress people. Daniel could have talked about a godly life, but the King was impressed when he lived it. The three Hebrew children could have talked about a godly life, but the King saw Jesus when they lived it in the fiery trial. God is saying that we need a conversion factor here, but so few live in these places of holiness to be examples to those who follow. We need somebody that other people can follow, don't we. Paul was not ashamed. He said in I Cor 11:1 "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." He admonished them to be followers of Him.

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