Take My Life Pt 2 Scripture Reading: 1 Cor 6:19-20

Take my voice, and let me sing, always, only, for my King  “Take my voice…”  It is as distinctive as our fingerprints (1 Cor 14:10, Gen 27:22)  Acts 12:4 “ 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her gladness she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate.”  We praise God with our voice (Ps 77:1, 92:1, 135:3)  Ps 147:1 “147 Praise the L ORD ! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful.”  “Let me sing…”  Praises to God (Ps 100:1-2, 147:1)  Ps 69:30-31 “ 30 I will praise the name of God with a song, And will magnify Him with thanksgiving. 31 This also shall please the L ORD better than an ox or bull, Which has horns and hooves.”  Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Col 3:16)  Eph 5:19 “ 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,”

Take my voice, and let me sing, always, only, for my King  “Always, only, for my King”  Always (Ps 35:18, 86:12;)  Acts 16:25 “ 25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”  Only (Ps 62:1-8, 148:13)  Ps 62:5-7 “ 5 My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him. 6 He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved. 7 In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of my strength, And my refuge, is in God.  For my King (Ps 24:7-10)  Ps 47:6-7 “ 6 Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! 7 For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding.”

Take my lips, and let them be, filled with messages from thee  “Take my lips…”  “Keep watch over the door of my lips.” (Ps 141:3b)  From “Perverse lips” (Pr. 4:24)  From “Lying lips” (Ps 120:2)  From “Deceitful lips” (Ps 34:13b)  Let my words be acceptable  Ps 19:14 “ 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O L ORD, my strength and my Redeemer.”

Take my lips, and let them be, filled with messages from thee  “Let them be filled with messages from thee.”  We are to speak, “All the words of this life” (Acts 5:20)  Praise is the fruit of our lips  Heb 13:15 “ 15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”  Out lips declare all the judgments of God  Ps 19:13 “ 13 With my lips I have declared All the judgments of Your mouth.”  God’s message is the power to save (Rom 1:16)  The lips of the righteous feed many  Prov 10:21 “ 21 The lips of the righteous feed many, But fools die for lack of wisdom.”  The lips of the wise disperse knowledge  Pr 15:7 “ 7 The lips of the wise disperse knowledge, But the heart of the fool does not do so.”  It is our responsibility to speak God’s message (Mt 28:18-20, Acts 4:20)  1 cor 9:16 “ 16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!”

Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold  “Take my silver and my gold.”  It belongs To Him anyway (Ps 24:1, 50:10-12)  Hag 2:8 “ 8 ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the L ORD of hosts.”  Of His own we give back to Him  1 Chr 29:14 “ 14 But who am I, and who are my people, That we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from You, And of Your own we have given You.”  We are merely stewards  1 Cor 4:1-2 “4 Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.”  It is ours while we have it  Acts 5:4 “4 Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.”  We should not use it selfishly  As Nabal (1 Sam 25:2-11)  As Israel (Amos 2:6; 6:1-4)  As the rich man (Lk 16:19-31)

Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold  “Not a mite would I withhold.”  To do so is to rob God of what is His (Mal 3:8-9)  Money is necessary for our needs  Mt 14:15 “ 15 When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.”  It is not to be stored up or wasted  Lk 12:15, 21 “ 15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, [a] for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses… 21 “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”a  Riches and wealth are temporary (Pr 2:4-11)  Mk 10:24-25 “ 24 And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches [a] to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”a

Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold  Not a mite would I withhold  Examples of liberality  Israelites: Ex 36:2-7  Widow’s two mites: Mk 12:41-44  Saints at Philippi: Phil 1:5, 4:14-18  Churches of Macedonia: 2 Cor 8:1-5  God blesses those who give (Mal 3:10-11, 2 Cor 9:6-11)  It is more blessed to give then receive  Acts 20:35 “ 35 I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”  We must give as we are prospered  1 cor 16:1-2 “16 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: 2 On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.”  There is no sacrifice if it costs us nothing  2 Sam 24:24 “ 24 Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the L ORD my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. “

Take my intellect, and use, every power as thou shalt choose  “Take my intellect”  We are not to be carnally minded (Rom 8:6, Phil 3:19)  The thoughts of some are evil continually  Gen 6:5 “ 5 Then the L ORD [a] saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”a  The mind of the unbelieving is blinded by satan  2 Cor 4:3-4 “ 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”  We are to be spiritually minded (Rom 8:6, Col 3:2)  To bring every thought into captivity (2 Cor 10:5)  To receive the word with all readiness (Acts 17:11)  To be renewed in the spirit of our mind (Eph 4:23, Rom 12:2)

Take my intellect, and use, every power as thou shalt choose  “Use every power as thou shalt choose.”  God can use every intellect, whether great or small  Those of small intellect are inclined to bury their talent (Mt 25:14-30)  Those of high intellect run the risk of glorying in themselves  Rom 12:3 “ 3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”  God’s thoughts are far above man’s  Is 55:8-9 “ 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the L ORD. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Take my intellect, and use, every power as thou shalt choose  “Use every power as thou shalt choose.”  It is as He chooses  He revealed His will to the minds of men  1 cor 2:10-16 “ 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy [a] Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the L ORD that he may instruct Him?” [b] But we have the mind of Christ.ab  We are to remember the words spoken  2 Pet 3:1-2 “3 Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), 2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, [a] the apostles of the Lord and Savior,a  We must do all that He says  Mt 7:21 “ 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”

Conclusion  Let us all remember that everything we have comes from the Lord and we are just stewards  If in any way you feel you have not been found faithful as a steward we invite you to come forward, make that known, and submit your all once again to the master while we stand and sing