PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH; GO TO CHURCH!

"You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips" - Oliver Goldsmith

Once upon a time, there lived a very rich snob who planned a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He met with the bishop to discuss his plans. He said, "My greatest ambition is to reach the top of Mount Sinai. Standing there, I will proclaim aloud the 'Ten Commandments of God' to the whole world with all my strength." The Bishop advised him, "In my opinion, it would be more rewarding if you can practice the commandments at home, with your family, at work, in your neighbourhood and even in the market place; instead of shouting from the mountain top."

We're told in the scriptures, (2 Corinthians 5:20) that, "we're God's representatives on earth." A representative, lives in a different environment from his boss or master (in most cases). His duty is to stand in for his boss . The representative is expected to know his master's business, and thus be able to correctly represent him.

YOUR WORTH DETERMINES YOUR PAIN 6; THE HEAT

"Our trials, our sorrows, and our griefs develop us." - Orison Swett Marden

 

Going through some breaking, the furnace and the process of refining are not easy experiences. Like all other useful products today, the process is inevitable. It is a requirement. After gold has gone through the Breaking, the Crucible and the Dross has been expelled, it's exposed again to ; THE HEAT.

The refiner raises the temperature to higher degrees. After the painstaking efforts of skimming off the impurities. He turns up the heat, and places the crucible back into the blistering furnace. Again and again - about seven times more, we are told - as more impurities rise to the surface. An expert refiner knows that only certain impurities are released at certain temperatures. Different impurities require varying degrees of heat to expel them from gold.

ONE GOD

"That to which your heart clings is your god." – Martin Luther

The Bible proclaims plainly and clearly that there is one, and only one God. When the Bible says that God is one, the word "one" does not refer to a "Family of gods," but to ONE, ONLY, IRREPLACEABLE God.

In some of the villages on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu in the South Pacific, Prince Philip of Great Britain is worshiped as a god. It seemed as though, this began during the 1960s, when Vanuatu was an Anglo-French colony known as the, New Hebrides.

For centuries, villagers had believed in an ancient story about the son of a mountain spirit, venturing across the seas to look for a powerful woman to marry. They believed that, this spirit had pale skin. Somehow the legend gradually became associated with Prince Philip, who had indeed married a rich and powerful lady. Villagers would have seen his portrait - and that of the Queen - in government outposts and police stations run by British colonial officials. Their beliefs were bolstered in 1974, when the Queen and Prince Philip made an official visit to the New Hebrides. Here was their ancestral spirit,

YOUR WORTH DETERMINES YOUR PAIN 5; THE PROCESS

"The most important lesson that I have learned is to trust God in every circumstance. Lots of times we go through different trials and following God's plan seems like it doesn't make any sense at all..." - Allyson Felix

We will pause this morning, from our series to quickly examine, The PROCESS. Every finished product today went through a process. The cars we drive, the houses we live in, and even the food we eat. If this is true of THINGS, how much more, of us humans?

We were all born with a plethora of EMBEDDED talents, abilities and gifts that can only be harnessed after we might have gone through tedious, rigorous and painful processes. There's a saying that, "The child who washes clean his hands, will eat with elders". That is a process.

To become, that MAN, God wants you to be, you must go through the REFINING process; The BREAKING, The CRUCIBLE and the FURNACE, The DROSS must be separated from you. These processes are unpleasant, painful and uncomfortable. During this period you might lose jobs, houses, friends, finances and for some, it might seem that your prayers don't go beyond your ceiling anymore. It'd seem as though, God shut His ears to your cries and

YOUR WORTH DETERMINES YOUR PAIN 4; THE DROSS

"We all face storms in life. Some are more difficult than others, but we all go through trials and tribulations. That's why we have the gift of faith." - Joyce Meyer

Refining is a process that rids impure gold of impurities, leaving behind only pure gold. The process has gold become liquid so all "Dross" can be drawn out. Dross is a mass of solid impurities floating on molten gold or dispersed in it, after it's out of the furnace; still in the crucible.

 
The dictionary defines "Dross" as impurities. It's scum, waste or foreign matter. Something that is base, trivial, or inferior. In an attempt to refine gold, having broken, and taken the impure gold through the heat of the furnace, the refiner moves to the next step; THE DROSS.

The refiner places the crucible in the heated furnace to remove dross. As the ore melts in the crucible under the watchful eye of the refiner, a layer of impurity called “dross” eventually forms on the surface. If you observe a refiner at work, you'll notice that he sits with his eyes steadily fixed on the furnace. If the time necessary for the refining process exceeds, the gold is injured. The process is complete when he (the refiner) sees his image reflected in the gold.

In the same way, our refiner, God, puts us into the crucible and into the furnace to purify us. His eyes affixed on us, never blinking, watching till every dross is separated. He doesn't take us out of the heat until He sees His face reflected in us; till we become like Him. He doesn't see his reflection if He stops the heat too soon, so he waits patiently for the right time.