Sunday service, Immanuel Khwela, 28 May 2017
Matthew 26:41, “Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
1Kings 13:7-14
7 The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me for a meal, and I will give you a gift.”
8 But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. 9 For I was commanded by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’” 10 So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
11 Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king. 12 Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken. 13 So he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it 14 and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”
“I am,” he replied.
This portion where Jesus tells us to watch and pray is of vital importance. We must each one examine our walk with the Lord.
We see here in kings how this man of God received his instructions from God not to return by the way he came neither to eat or drink anything in that place. He endeavoured to obey, but as he progressed on his way home, we find him sitting down under an oak tree. That is where the old prophet found him, and he convinced him to return with him. If he had not tarried under the oak then he would not have been found there and deceived by the old prophet.
Are you faithful to God’s instruction? We read in Rev 2:10, “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.”
How do you walk before God? Jesus is waiting for children of God to be faithful in their walk with God.
When Jesus was in great agony of soul He instructed His disciples to watch and pray. God’s name is blasphemed if your life doesn’t point to God and you’re unfaithful to what God had instructed you. Others look at you being called a Christian, but God’s name is blasphemed if you are not faithful in your walk with God.
You might excuse yourself that you were in a difficult situation and that’s why you did what you did. But as we saw that the prophet died because he disobeyed God’s instructions. And so it will go with you if you excuse your disobedience to God instead of confessing and forsaking it.
When Jesus saved you what did he instruct you? Are you faithful in that? Are you still living for Jesus as He showed you at that time? Or have you started making compromises with the world. Remember Ps 1:1-3, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither — whatever they do prospers.”
God seeks people who will walk according to His instructions.
If Jesus had saved you out of a life of sin and instructed you to be pure, are you faithful to that? God is seeking that we walk in holiness.
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