PRECEPTS FOR LIFE
a Production of
Precept Ministries International
P.O. Box 182218, Chattanooga, TN 37422-7218
1-888-734-7707/ www.preceptsforlife.com
The following is an actual transcript of the PRECEPTS FOR LIFE Broadcast. For the purpose of filling transcript requests quickly, they have received only light editing. If you have questions concerning the material covered in this broadcast, Kay has published a number of books explaining the Scripture in depth. These books may be ordered by contacting the telephone number or address printed above.
SERIES: NWC 03 Ministry Of Reconciliation
TITLE: Program 1 – NWC 03 Ministry Of Reconciliation, Part 1
TUESDAY (1/12/10)
OPEN
You know, Beloved, I wonder if you really understand how very important you are to the work of the kingdom of God. God has given each believer a ministry. It‟s an awesome ministry. It‟s called a ministry of reconciliation and that‟s what I‟m going to talk about in part at the National Women‟s Convention. So let‟s go and let‟s listen to that message and may God open the eyes of your understanding and may you see how important you are to the kingdom of God.
PART ONE
Early this spring I had the awesome, awesome privilege of going to the world‟s largest women‟s prison. It was in California and there‟s a precious woman here by the name of Mary Alice and Mary Alice loves Jesus and she‟s been a Precept leader for us for a long, long time and God called her to go into the prisons.
And so she was at the ministry and I ran into her and we
sat down and we talked and I listened to her heart and I listened to what God was doing in this woman‟s prison and I listened to some of the stories and I said, “Oh, my heart is so touched.”
And she said, “They love you so much. They have never seen you but they just love you so much. How they would love to see your face.” And I said, “I‟ll come.” It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life and I went in fear and I went in trembling. Because I was going into areas that very few people get to go into in that prison. And so as I went into the SHU, to the secured housing unit, it‟s a prison within a prison.
That‟s where they take the women that have transgressed the prison rules. They‟re tough, they‟re rough. Some of them don‟t deserve to be in the prison within the prison but they got caught up with the wrong crowd and they ended up in the there.
When I went in they dressed me in a flack jacket. I was told that when I would go to the cells if I did want to go to the cells, if I did want to get closer to them I would have to wear a face helmet to protect me from their spitting. I was told that these women were very, very violent and very, very noisy and very, very bitter and very, very hard.
As I walked into that unit I walked in and I looked at two tiers of cells. The center of each cell was a dirty rusty kind of orangey brown. On each side was a narrow window. There was a place to speak through the door and down at the bottom there was like a doggy door that they would slide the food and slide the books or slide anything that they wanted in through that place. There were guards and I would see the guards come to a cell and take a woman out and she would be literally in chains with two guards walking beside her taking her where they had to go.
I stood before them and they had already told them that I had just flown in from Washington, DC where I had spoken to a Senate Wife‟s Bible study. I had gone, so to speak, from the White House to the big house. And as I walked in I was so in fear and trembling and so excited. And I told those women and I meant it with all my being I said, “I want you to know that speaking to you is a far greater privilege than speaking to the Senate wives of the United States of America.” I said, “I have a message for you from God. I have a message of hope. I have a message of absolute pure, unadulterated truth and
I want you to know that if you will listen to me this will change your life.
There is hope. You are in prison but you are alive and you are not dead and because you are not dead then you can have a brand new beginning.” It was so awesome. I taught out of 2 Corinthians 5. I taught them all over the place. It was so wonderful. They were standing at the door. They had their pieces of paper there.
They were taking notes. I would watch them every now and then wipe the window where they were standing and I thought what are they doing? It‟s because they were crying and because they were steaming up the window. I watched one woman and I could see through her cell because there was a kind of like a light or a window behind it and she was sitting way back.
And she looked tough and on the door it said, “Beware Spitter.” And I watched her and as I would talk to them I didn‟t know their names but I knew the numbers of their cells and I‟d say, “Cell so and so and cell so and so,” and this gal and I would talk to her and I‟d say, “I know that you‟re angry. I know that you‟re hurt.” and I watched her get up eventually and come to the window.
I looked up and I saw lesbians that had their heads shaved. I saw women with tattoos all over their body to cover their track marks. I saw young girls that you never would dream would ever be in prison. I watched them with tears streaming down their face and tears streaming down my face and as I talked to them I knew that I was there by divine appointment and I knew that I had a message that could set them free maybe not free from prison but free in such a way that they could live in prison or out of prison as an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ. I knew that. But when I gave the invitation I said, “I can‟t see your eyes because you‟re too far away from me.
But if you want to receive Christ,” Cause usually I‟d say if you want to receive Christ and you prayed that prayer will you just look at me and I get down and I walk the aisles and I see you face to face and if I can touch you, I touch you and it‟s just incredible. But I said, “I can‟t do that.” And I said, “So if you prayed to receive Christ would you just put your hand up on the window.”
It was so awesome „cause I would look and say, “I see that hand cell 22. I see that hand,” but I watched as hand after hand went up but longingly looking to my lesbian up here and finally her
hand goes up on the window. Looking at this young girl and finally her hand goes up on the window and I‟d taught them about the crucifixion and what Jesus Christ endured and I said, “It says that you‟re a spitter.” And I said, “You know they spit on Jesus Christ.”
And then I explained all of that and the spitter got up finally and put her hand on the door. I put on my helmet and I went from cell to cell and I would just kiss my hand and put it on there and they would put their hand and they would tell me and they would hold up pictures of babies and children that they had left because their lives had gotten so messed up. It is a trustworthy statement that Christ Jesus came into the world to what? To save sinners of whom Paul said, “I am chief.”
And I was able to share with those women my testimony, the pit that I dug. My life of immorality. The things and failures that were in my life as a mother and as a wife. I had a message and you have a message and I want us to look at that and I want you to go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 I want to start at verse 14. I read through verse 13 and I‟m going to cover this in a hurry but I want you to know that the teaching in greater depth is in my book Lord, Give Me a Heart For You and I just can‟t tell you how important that book is and studying it because it will, it will give you a heart for God.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 14, I love this. “For the love of Christ controls us,” now to understand is this Christ‟s love for me or my love for Christ? I have to go back and look at its context. So I want to read verse 13. He says, “For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us….” Now when he says it in that way and he‟s saying it‟s for God or it‟s for you then you know that he‟s speaking about his love for Christ. A love for Christ that controls him.
A love for Christ that shuts him up to one purpose. One of the things that makes Beth Moore so attractive to you is her unabashed love for Jesus Christ and her love for the Word of God and the fact that she explains it in on all of her choleric personality and you look at it and you long for it and you want to love the Lord that way with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. You may not be as excited or as verbose but it‟s there.
It‟s there. Now when you love Christ and what Paul was saying is
this. He‟s saying that what I do, I do for God. What I do, I do for you. Death works in, let‟s say it. Death works in me that life might be in you. So he says, “ it is the love of Christ that is constraining us.” “It is the love of Christ,” King James English, “that constrains us, that controls us.”
That love of Christ means it shuts us up to one purpose. We‟ve talked about temptation. I want you to know that although I have been saved for I don‟t know. I was saved in 1963. You do the math. But anyway, although I‟ve been saved that long and I used to think, “Oh,” when I would meet people that were saved so long I‟d think, “Oh, wouldn‟t that be wonderful?” It is wonderful to be saved this long.
But because of my past, because of my immorality I came to a cross roads as a Christian because there was something that I desired. There was something that I wanted. There was something that I wanted more than anything else in my life and I thought that this might be an opportunity to have it. And I was pulled and I was tempted and this verse is the verse that held me, “for the love of Christ controls us.” “The love of Christ constrains us”.
And what I realize now as I look back that if I had gone after that thing that I wanted so much that I longed for from the very depths of my being and I cannot tell you and I don‟t have time to explain it and it‟s not necessary. But if I had gone after that I would never be where I am today and I would never have the privilege of ministering to you and loving you and patting on you and praying for you and watching you grow in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man and in the knowledge of God.
PART TWO
The love of Christ controls us. Now what does it say? “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore,” what, “all died.” Now he says this is the love of Christ that constrains me. I have come to this conclusion. I know this truth. I know this doctrine.
I understand it and what I understand is this. That the love of Jesus Christ constrains me because I know that one, the Lord Jesus Christ died for all, therefore what?
All died. Listen; there are things that you want. There are things that you crave. There are things that you desire and it depends on your personality, it depends on your past, it depends on your present, it depends on where you are in life and you want them and you desire them but the thing, Precious One, that will hold you is this.
Death in me, what? Life in you. That when Jesus died, Romans 6, you died with Him. And because you died with Him, you do not have to live according to your passions but you can live according to the Holy Spirit. Now as I say this I want you to know you may be sitting here thinking, “But I went after what I wanted. Now God cannot use me?” No I‟m not saying that. I‟m saying that me personally, that if I had done what I wanted, me personally, I never would have had this ministry. It would have changed the direction of my Christian walk with the Lord.
One of the things that we have to understand and it‟s so apparent and I‟ve been teaching, writing inductive study courses all the way through the Old Testament and we‟ve just finished 1 and 2 Samuel and one of the messages that I have and if you want to get it you can call the ministry.
But we do not realize this. We do not want to believe it in our society. But sin has its consequences. Sin has its consequences and you need to know that if you love God you are going to obey Him. How do you show your love of God? “By this shall all men know that you love Me if you what? Keep My commandments.”
And so he‟s saying the love of Christ constrains us. He says we have, “…concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and,” and this is so important, “He died for all, so that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” My dear little Mary Alice in order to have her quiet time with the Lord because when she‟s in the house the kids are all over her like flies and they love Jesus Christ. And she has taught that autistic child and she has taught that Dons Syndrome child and she has taught that Cerebral Palsey child and she has been a wonderful mother and she‟s been a wonderful wife but I mean there‟s just no space in that house.
Every morning she would get up and go and sit in their truck in order to have peace and quiet and be with God. The love of Christ constrained her. She‟s died to everything. She is
living for the Lord Jesus Christ. She‟s not living for herself.
Finally, someone said there‟s a tiny little trailer for sale. That little trailer now sits in her yard and that is her sanctuary. Let‟s go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. He says we no longer live for ourselves, “but for him who died and rose again on their behalf.” Now I want to ask you a question. I have to ask you a question. For whom are you living? See, if you go out of here. Listen to me.
If you go out of here, Precious One, and you live for yourself you are going to be so sorry. You are going to be so sorry. You are going to grieve so greatly. God has called us to die to ourselves and to live on for Him. In verse 16 here‟s another therefore. Put your dots there. Your thee dots. Therefore because He died and we died with Him and because He died once for all so that we would no longer live for ourselves.
“Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.” Recently I went to Rome because we will be taking a teaching tour to Rome. If you want to go with us get on our website and go with us in these smaller intimate groups where I can eat with you and have fellowship with you.
But, I went to Rome. All over Rome what you see are statues of Mary holding Jesus in her arms. You see her with her foot on the head of the serpent, which is not biblical but you see this and you look at Him. You either see Him as a baby or you see Him hanging on a cross. He was a baby but He grew up. He grew up and He had a public ministry because He was the Lamb of God who was slain for the foundation of the world. He hung on a cross and when He hung on the cross He was made sin for us. But they took Him off the cross.
They buried Him in a tomb but He came out of that tomb. He rose again from the dead and He is coming again as King of kings and Lord of lords. We don‟t know Him as He used to be. We know Him now in His ascended resurrected state as the God man that sits at the right hand of the throne of God whoever lives to make intercession for us. What do we see here and what do we know? That we don‟t look at Jesus Christ as He used to be because He‟s resurrected. Because He‟s in His brand new body. All right now, he says, “Therefore,” and I just love this. You want to get these
therefores.
Verse 17, “Therefore if anyone is,” where, “in Christ, he is a,” what, “new creature.” What does it say if I‟m a new creature? Old things have what? Passed away, behold all things have become new. And as we no longer look at Jesus as a baby because He grew up, no longer look at Him as hanging on a cross because He was taken down but we look at Him as He is now so listen to me very carefully.
When you look at me, do you think harlot?
Do you think whore?
I‟m glad. Very glad. Very glad. No you don‟t think that. Why? Because I‟m a brand new creature in Christ Jesus. I ain‟t that anymore because that Kay died. When Christ died, Kay died. When Christ was buried, Kay was buried.
When Christ was raised to walk in newness of life, Kay was raised to walk in newness of life with Him. That‟s the glorious gospel. You‟ve had questions and you have questions because you don‟t know the Word of God and that‟s all right because we have a time of growing but you have questions. Well if I was a homosexual in the past, am I still a homosexual? If I was a lesbian, am I still a lesbian? If I was an adulteress, am I still an adulteress? No, honey! When you come to Jesus Christ what you were ain‟t no more because it‟s dead! God buried it! Leave it in the tomb and walk in that resurrected life!
Walk in the power of the Holy Spirit! Walk in the knowledge of who you are, where? In Christ. The gospel is this. Christ in you the hope of glory. It‟s you in Christ never to be separated from Him again because you are bone of His bone and you are flesh of His flesh because you are the body of Christ.
He‟s the head and we‟re the body and we are going to live with Him, in Him. We in Him, He in us forever and ever. You aren‟t what you used to be because you‟re a brand new creation.
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