PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 405: Welcome to the Land of More and More, Part 13
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 405: Welcome to the Land of More and More, Part 13
How can we please God more? How can we experience more of God’s power in our lives? And how can we experience the “how much more” of the cleansing of the blood of Christ?
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to the Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies, a magazine bringing strength and encouragement to families across the world.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Welcome to the Land of MORE AND MORE! I hope you are enjoying this series. Most of all, I hope you are getting to do it. Are you doing more and more in these things we’ve been sharing about? Oh, please don’t stay on the same old level. Let’s come up to the more and more.
Because, ladies, remember I’m not making this up. I’m getting it from the Word. All I’m doing is going into the Word and giving it to you. The Word of God is so amazing. The Word of God lifts us up above our normalness. Oh, don’t stay in the normalness. Are you just normal? Average, along with everyone else? Well, that’s not where you're meant to be! We’re meant to be in the MORE AND MORE kingdom. So, what has God got for us today?
No. 25. MORE PLEASING TO GOD
That’s a good one, isn’t it? 1 Thessalonians 4:1: “We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.” Now there’s another Scripture that has “abound” as well as “more and more.”
You remember that word “abound” is perissueo, which means “to exceed, to excel, above and beyond, superabundantly, from bud to the full flower.” Yes, that’s what we’re meant to be doing. So, this Scripture uses “abound,” and it uses “more and more.” We can’t really get off the hook, can we?
Now Galatians 1:10: “For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”
And also, in 1 Thessalonians 2:4, “Even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.” I find, dear ladies, that to please God (many times we will just please men, in fact fact, this happens most of the time). But, dear ladies, pleasing God is number one even if it doesn’t please others around you. We have to please God.
I know, many of you, you are doing just what you're meant to be doing. And you are pleasing God. You are serving the Lord. You’re in your homes and you're raising your children, loving them, training them, and teaching them in the ways of God. Maybe you're the only one all around you. All the other women around you, maybe even all the other women at your church are out in their careers.
But you're home with your children. You’ve opened your heart and your womb to the children He wants to give to you. And you're seeking to serve Him. Oh, precious mothers, can I tell you this morning, you are pleasing Christ. You are pleasing God. You may not be pleasing men. You may not be pleasing your mother-in-law. You may not be pleasing even friends.
But that’s not the criterion. The criterion is, are we pleasing God? I feel it is time that we got on God’s side. We’re either on God’s side or we’re on the devil’s side. Remember when Joshua called out to the people of Israel: “Who is on the Lord’s side? As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Now, how do we know if we’re on the Lord’s side? Well, we’ll be doing what He says. If we’re on the Lord’s side, we’ll know His commandments and we’ll be doing His commandments.
There are really only two kinds of people. Those who obey and do God’s commandments are on the Lord’s side. And those who, well, they may even read the Word, but they don’t really take any notice of it. When they do that, they’re not on the Lord’s side. They may be on the devil’s side.
And remember this statement. I read it sometime back, and I thought, “Wow! How true!”
“The devil owns the fence.”
If you're on the fence, trying to be between both sides, you're on the devil’s side. He owns the fence. You’ve got to be on God’s side. You’ve got to get right off the fence. You’ve got to get a three-day gap.
Remember back when Moses went to take the children of Israel out of Egypt, out of their slavery? He told Pharoah, “We are taking them on a three-day journey.” And the Pharoah kept trying to think of every way he could keep the Israelites. “Oh, yes, you can serve the Lord, and you can sacrifice to your God but do it right here in Egypt.”
“No,” said Moses, “God said we’ve got to go out of Egypt, a three-day journey.” A three-day gap between Egypt (which speaks of the world) and going into God’s ways and into His land.
And then, the Pharoah came with other temptations. This was a really sly one. “Oh, Moses, you can go and take all your people but sacrifice just over the border. Oh, don’t go too far. Just over the border.”
“No,” said Moses, “God has told us to go a three-day journey.” He would not give in. That’s what they did because they knew if they went just over the border, oh goodness me, they’d be back the next day. *
We can’t stay close to the border. We’ve got to take this three-day gap. That’s the principal God gives us in His Word. So, if we please God, we may not be pleasing men. That doesn’t matter.
Colossians 1:10: “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.”
Enoch had this testimony. We read it in the “faith” chapter, Hebrews 11:5: “God translated him, for before his translation, he had this testimony (what was his testimony?) that he pleased God.”
What a beautiful testimony to have, dear ladies. And I know many of you have got that testimony because you're doing what He wants you to do. He’s given to you these precious children and you're not giving them away to someone else. You’re looking after them, and teaching them, and loving them, and nurturing them in your own home. And you're doing that which pleases the Lord.
So, what was it that Enoch did that he got this amazing testimony, and not only this testimony, but God translated him? Let’s go back, and see what we can find out, shall we? We go to Genesis 5:21: “And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah.”
Any children listening today? Children, do you know how long Methuselah lived? Do you know? Maybe some of you got it right. 969 years! He was the oldest man that ever lived, and Enoch was his father.
Genesis 5:22: “And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years.” Now, it’s easy to remember how old Enoch lived because he lived 365 years. We have 365 days in the year, but Enoch lived 365 years.
Genesis 5:24: “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Did you notice, ladies, the only thing that’s mentioned that Enoch did? Do you remember? What was it? Yes, “he begat sons and daughters.” That’s the only thing that God writes about him.
RAISE SONS AND DAUGHTERS AND WALK WITH GOD
And if we go over to the New Testament, there is Enoch in the “faith” chapter. He had this testimony: “that he pleased God.” And God translated him. God was pleased with Enoch, because he did that which God wanted him to do. He just kept on begetting sons and daughters. We don’t know how many he had but he did what God wanted him to do. And as he begat sons and daughters and raised sons and daughters, he walked with God.
Lovely mothers, that’s the most beautiful thing you can do.
Raise sons and daughters and walk with God.
Walk with God as you do it. There’s nothing more beautiful on earth than to walk in your home with God as you raise sons and daughters. And you will be pleasing the Lord. Isn’t that beautiful?
Hebrews 12:28: “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” The word “acceptably” is the Greek word that means “well-pleasing.” It’s the same word that’s used in the other Scriptures which I gave you, although they translated it differently here. It means “to walk well-pleasing unto the Lord.” In the Young’s Translation it says: “Serve God well-pleasingly.” Isn’t that lovely? And that’s what you are doing in your home, precious mothers.
Now, let’s go back to Hebrews again. Yes, in that “faith” chapter . . . we’re now going to go to chapter 13, the last chapter of Hebrews, verses 20-21: “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
And then, I’m going to give you one more Scripture. Colossians 3:20: “Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.” Any children listening? This is a Scripture especially for you. “Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.”
Now, in all the Scriptures I read about walking well-pleasingly, it doesn’t really give a specific. It just really means in all your way of life. But this Scripture is SPECIFIC. It’s very specific about obeying parents, so this is an important one. It’s a very specific Scripture.
I did a series a little while ago. I wonder if you actually got to hear it. It was called, “Do You Want to Live a Long Life?” It was all about honoring parents. It’s worthwhile listening to it if you didn’t get to listen to it, because, oh my, God puts a lot of weight on obeying and honoring parents. I’d really encourage you to listen to that series if you can.
All right, lovely ladies. We’ll move on to the next one.
No. 26. MORE OF GOD’S POWER IN OUR LIVES
We all need this, don’t we? Let me read you Ephesians 1:18-20. Just listen and let it sink into your heart as I read the words. Oh, the Scriptures, they have to sink into us, don’t they?
We can read them on the surface. We can just read them through quickly and we don’t get it. You know, often, when we’re reading our chapter of the Word of God in the morning at family devotions, we get to the end, and we say, “Oh, we need a whole week just to read this over and over, to let it sink in.” They take such sinking in.
Anyway, here’s one to get you thinking: “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the exceeding greatness of His . . . power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.”
Wow! He’s describing the exceeding greatness of God’s power, which enabled Him to raise Christ from the dead and seat Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
That’s the description of the power to us who believe. He makes it personal to US-WARD, to you, to me. It’s not just a little wee bit of God’s power but it’s the exceeding greatness of His power. When I was reading this, I thought, “Wow! This is amazing!”
I wonder. Although I read the King James Version, I do love to look at other translations. So, I checked out some others. Let me read them to you. In the transcript, I’ll put the translations for you, but I’ll just read them here. Some of them say:
“Immeasurable greatness” (Holman, ESV, RSV)
“surpassing greatness” (NASB, BSB, CJB, Darby, Lexham, Moffat)
“overwhelming greatness of His power” (CEB)
“unlimited greatness of His power” (GW)
“transcendent greatness” (Weymouth)
“excellent greatness” (Wycliffe), and the
“incredible greatness” (NLT).
Others says:
“utter extravagance” (Message)
“tremendous is the power” (J. B. Phillips)
“how vast the resources of His power” (NEB, Beck)
“how infinitely great is his power” (Jerusalem Bible)
This is all to you and me, to us-ward. Now, Paul didn’t use the words “more and more” here, but this is what it means as I’ve just shared with you. “Exceeding, immeasurable, surpassing overwhelming, unlimited, transcendent, excellent, incredible, tremendous, vast.” Oh, we go on and on. It’s unbelievable, isn’t it?
Let’s read Ephesians 3:20: “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” Do we really get it? We read these extravagant words. “Unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,” in you and me. Oh my. I think we must limit the power that God wants to work in us.
Colossians 1:11: “Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.” Once again, precious ladies, this glorious power gets right down to us, to where we are in our homes, with screaming children making us mad. Did you really get it? Listen to it again: “According to His glorious power, unto . . . what is it unto? Unto doing some miraculous thing, some great thing, or being very, very powerful? No, “Unto all patience!”
Oh, darling mother, are you desperate for patience? And longsuffering? All mothers are desperate for these attributes. “Patience! Please help me.” Longsuffering. And joyfulness? Yes, sometimes we don’t have any of these. And yet, we do! Because when Jesus lives in us, these beautiful attributes are in us. Yes, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
This is the gospel. Jesus died for our sins. He rose again and is seated at the right hand of the Father, but He sent His Spirit to dwell in us. And all the attributes that Jesus has don’t fly out the window when they come into our lives. When He is in us, He gives us the power to walk in patience and longsuffering, to be joyful, even in the midst of difficult circumstances.
It is what this glorious power is for. It’s for us, in our homes, right where we’re facing all the challenges, and the difficulties, and the impatience, and feeling upset and mad. We have these things in the flesh, but we don’t have to yield to the flesh. We can yield to Christ who dwells within us.
Have I shared with you before the wonderful revelation of Philemon 1:6? The truth of this Scripture sent me into a whole new realm of living as a young mother. How does it go now? Goodness, I can’t even think of the next one. Something about your faith may be effectual. We want our faith to be effectual, don’t we? But how does it really be effectual? How does the power of God work in our lives?
Yes, I’ve got it now. “That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by . . . how? Now it’s going to tell us: “By the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.” Can you get that revelation? It’s saying that every good thing that’s in Jesus, His patience, His longsuffering, His joyfulness that we’re talking about, His love, and His rest, and His victory, they’re all in Him.
But when He’s in us, they’re in us! THEY’RE IN US! Yes, but they become effectual when we acknowledge them. We have to acknowledge them. So, when you are starting to get agitated, and you really feel like flying off the wall, you just take a moment. You say, “Oh Lord Jesus, thank You that You live in me. Thank You for Your patience. Thank You. Lord, thank You for Your patience that fills me. I’m the most patient mother in my city right now! Thank You, Lord!”
And you acknowledge His patience, or His longsuffering, or whatever it is you need. You can’t go screaming and “flying off the handle” when you're saying, “Thank You, Lord, for Your patience.” You either give into the flesh, or you yield to the Holy Spirit who dwells within you.
Begin to live by this principle. There will be times when you’ll fail, of course, but you’ll gradually live more and more and more this way, so it becomes your habit of life. Yes, it’s acknowledging that every good thing that is in you is in Christ Jesus. Amen?
And this power, this glorious, exceeding, abundant, immeasurable, transcendent, incredible power is for us and for our needs in our homes to help us to have patience. Isn’t that wonderful? To help us have longsuffering, to help us have joy and victory. Amen! So, we sure need more and more of that.
No. 27. MORE POWER IN THE BLOOD OF CHRIST
Hebrews 9:13-14: “For if the blood of bulls and of goats . . . sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
How much more shall the blood of Christ? There is power in the blood to cleanse us from every sin. And yes, when we come to Christ, we receive the cleansing of the precious blood of Jesus. I don’t know about you, but I need the continual cleansing of the blood of Jesus. Because when you are in the Word, and when you walk with the Lord, if you're keeping close to Him, you will find that the Holy Spirit will be convicting you.
He will show you things that are not pleasing to Him. He’ll bring things to your mind, and you think, “Oh, wow! That’s not right!” And you have to, once again, confess, “I’m sorry, Lord Jesus. I confess this thing. I repent of it. Cleanse me with Your precious blood.” And we can continually receive the cleansing of the precious blood. But “how much more shall the blood of Christ?” Oh, it has such power.
1 John 1:7: “The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” Children listening, do you know that Scripture? 1 John 1:7? If you don’t, learn it. Mothers, if your children don’t know that Scripture, please make it a memory verse. I knew that verse from a child, and I am so glad. I believe every child should know it from a child, so it is with them all through their lives; the power of the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from all sin.
And there is coming a day. The Bible speaks about that day, a day that is coming, a day when we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We will give account for all our works that we have done and all the words that we have said, except those that have come under the blood. Because if we’ve brought them to the Lord, and confessed, repented, and received the cleansing of the blood of Jesus, He says: “I will forgive you, and I will remember them no more” (Hebrews 8:12).
So, I want everything under the blood before I get there. Help! I’m scared to stand there on that day and I’m sure there will be things that I’ve forgotten about that will come up on that day. Oh, help! But let’s seek to keep short accounts with God and keep under the cleansing of the precious blood of Jesus which is so powerful. Yes, the precious blood, the pure blood, the powerful blood of Jesus Christ.
In Revelation 12:11, it says: “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony, and loved not their lives unto the death.” That’s another good memory verse to teach your children, for you and your children. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.” Amen and amen.
I love to sing the hymns about the blood of Jesus. We sing the beautiful worship songs that are currently around in our church service. But at our daily devotions, we always sing, morning and evening, and in our prayer meetings during the week. We have two prayer meetings during the week too. I don’t know how we could even have less. Help! There is just so much to pray for at this time in our world. So much going on, so much evil, so much need of God to come. Oh, so our hearts are always crying out.
But at these times, we sing the hymns, because I believe there’s something so powerful about the hymns. Yes, I love the powerful worship music too which takes you into the glorious worship. I love it. I truly do, but I also love the hymns. I’m sad that this young generation does not know them. They’re full of doctrine and wonderful truths. I don’t know, maybe you don’t know them.
We have our big pile of hymn books beside our table where we have our devotions. But I also have put together five different hymn sheets, about ten pages in each one of special hymns we love to sing. Just recently I put one together, HYMNS ABOUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS. It is volume 5 for us now. I have ten pages here, but I’ve got 29 hymns that are all about the blood.
Oh, it’s so wonderful to sing them and remind ourselves of the power of the blood of Jesus. If you don’t know them, you can (maybe on my transcript, I’ll have to remember that) I could put a list of some really wonderful hymns about the blood. But you go on to the Internet where you can get music for any worship song or any hymn you like.
The only problem with the hymns is that, often, when you go to the Internet to get music for them, they’re very churchy and stilted. They don’t seem to sing them with such a beautiful, flowing anointing. But maybe you can search until you get a good one. When we sing them, we sing them with, oh, such a beautiful flow and with gusto.
My husband leads. I’m so blessed to have him because he knows thousands of hymns. He can lead us in them. It’s so beautiful. I understand that there are many who don’t know them, so you can’t lead them. If I was leading them, even if I knew them, it would be terrible, because I can’t even sing in tune. So, I love having my husband lead us. It’s so wonderful. But anyway, they are great. I will give you a list in the transcript. I’ll make a note of that.
But another little thing that I do, in fact, is every day, when we have prayer time (I have my own time in the early morning) then, after breakfast, we have our family time, our family devotions. When we have devotions, as you know, we read the Word, we pray, and we sing.
So, I love every morning to thank the Lord for His wonderful salvation, for His blood that He shed. I don’t think we can ever thank Him enough. I don’t think we’ll ever, even in eternity, ever absorb the enormity of the sacrifice of Christ for us, shedding His pure, spotless, precious blood.
And so, as the Israelites, for years and years, they killed the lamb and shed the blood, morning and evening, looking towards Calvary when Jesus, the Lamb of God from the foundation of the world, would come to give His life once and for all. There is no longer any need for sacrifice again.
But I like to look back, not to sacrifice again, of course, but to thank Him. I love to do that. Can I encourage you to do that? Because I don’t think we thank Him enough for His sacrifice, for His precious blood, His blood, which is how much more. It’s a much more. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God purge your conscience.”
Do you notice there, in that Scripture, in Hebrews 9:14 that the whole of the trinity is involved in our salvation? Everyone. “How much more shall the blood of Jesus Christ,” the Son, “through the eternal spirit,” the Holy Spirit, “who offered Himself without spot to God,” God the Father. They were all involved in our salvation. That’s a beautiful Scripture involving the whole trinity in our salvation. And there are many others, too.
Well, time has gone again, precious ladies. May the Lord bless you this coming week. May you walk more and more in all these beautiful things that we are discovering in the Word. Let us pray.
“Dear Lord Jesus, we do thank You, with all of our hearts, for Your great redemption, Your eternal redemption. Oh, thank You, Lord God, that because You shed Your blood on the cross, Your pure, spotless, precious blood, You have given us an eternal inheritance, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. Lord, already You have a place reserved in Heaven.
Oh, we thank You for Your great sacrifice, and Your great redemption. We’re so unworthy. But, Lord, You did this for us, and we thank You with all our hearts. Help us to be thankful people. “Lord, I pray that You will bless each family who is listening today. Fill their homes with Your Presence, with Your joy, with Your love, and the wonderful joys of family life. In the Name of Jesus, amen”.
* Read the Scriptures about the three-day gap:
Exodus 3:18; 5:3; 8:27; 10:9, 25, 26; and 13:51.
Suggested Hymns about the blood of Jesus:
Are you washed in the blood?
And can it be that I should gain?
Alas! And did my Savior bleed
Christ has for sin atonement made
Blessed be the fountain of blood (Whiter than the snow)
Down at the cross where my Savior died
I hear thy welcome voice
I heard an old, old story
I will sing of my Redeemer
Jesus keep me near the cross
Just as I am
Lead me to Calvary
Man of sorrows! What a name
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
O for a thousand tongues to sing
Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it
The blood that Jesus shed for me
There is a name I love to hear
There is a fountain filled with blood
There’s victory in Jesus
The way of the cross leads home
There was One who was willing
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus
There is power in the blood
What can wash away my sin?
When I survey the wondrous cross
A few samples of current worship songs about the cross:
The cross has the final word (Cody Carnes)
Lead me to the cross (Brooke Ligertwood
At the cross (Chris Tomlin)
The power of the cross (Keith and Kristyn Getty
Nailed to the cross (Rend Collective)
Your royal blood (Rend Collective)
Hallelujah for the cross (Ross King and Todd Wright)
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Transcribed by Darlene Norris
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