Matthew’s Story of Integrity and Humility

SPEAKER 01 : 0:10

Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. This is Jimmy Lakey, and I’m delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237, or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a Word Power Daily Reading Bible Guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address, including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let’s join Barbara in the studio.

SPEAKER 04 : 1:04

Welcome to Call to Freedom. I’m so glad you joined us today. The Lord has a purpose for you to fulfill. He really does. He’s got a purpose for you to fulfill. And what is it? That purpose may sound selfish to yourself. Well, I want a house paid for. I want a car. I want this. I want a good job. But God’s purpose is for you to pray. Yes, it is. It’s for you to pray. Second Chronicles 714 says, And what’s the first thing? Pray. First thing, pray and seek his face. And that’s what we need to do, especially at this time in America. Friend, there are riots that are being planned for Saturday, and we need to call them down in Jesus’ name, call down those strongholds, break up. All of that is the plans that are coming from the left. I think of that scripture in Ecclesiastes 10. A wise man’s heart directs him toward the right, But the foolish man’s heart directs him to the left. And I asked Holy Spirit this morning. I didn’t even think of this scripture, really. I said, Holy Spirit, do people who decide that they want to be with the left, they want to cause the riots, they want to throw bricks at the police and at ICE agents, do they become fools immediately? And the Lord says, according to the decisions they make, yes. And it’s exactly like Ecclesiastes said. Ecclesiastes 10, verse 2. A wise man’s heart directs him toward the right, but the foolish man’s heart directs him toward the left. Wow. We need to pray. We really do need to pray. We need to get on our knees. We need to pray about things that are happening in our country. Our prayers have more of a direct effect. thing to do in the results that we see than we can even imagine. So I thank you so much for praying, praying and being diligent in that prayer about our country and about bringing America into a place where we are in agreement again, not spending millions and millions of dollars, the left going one way and the right going another way. God didn’t intend for that. Oh, and I was so blessed by Nancy Wagamuth. DeMoss Wagemuth, excuse me, I get those names confused. She was talking about the wonder of the name, the wonder of his name, wonderful counselor, mighty God. And Kimberly today is doing the very same thing, talking about the wonderful God that we serve. Welcome to the program, Kimberly. Thank you.

SPEAKER 02 : 3:49

I know myself. I might just start talking and talking so fast that we forget to mention the meeting coming up on Saturday. Yep. So I’ll mention it right now for you. that’s good yes oh yeah and if you would like to attend the meeting please call and let barbara know that you are coming and call the 877-917-7256 and just tell her who you are and that you’re going to be there yeah you’ve got it down girl you got it down

SPEAKER 04 : 4:25

And it starts at 10 o’clock, and I am going to put together tacos. We’re just going to have a good time just filling our tummies and absolutely filling our hearts with the Word of God. I love that, when we get together and we’re all in one accord. So I hope you can join us on Saturday, this next Saturday. Boy, that’s coming up quickly, Kimberly.

SPEAKER 02 : 4:46

It is. I know, it’s Wednesday. I really love that you started today’s program talking about prayer. Yes. And our need to pray. I just heard just yesterday, I heard a father talking about how his young children start their day and end their day laying their heads on his chest. And he has very purposefully and intentionally brought that into the home. That’s something that he wants. He wants his children to just lay their heads on his chest. And he hasn’t told them yet. They’re eight years old and six years old. He has not told them yet that he’s teaching them how to pray.

SPEAKER 03 : 5:27

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER 02 : 5:29

To just lay your head on daddy’s chest and trust and just trust that your dad is a good dad and let him, let him rub your back. Let him tell you stories. And you know what? you may need to imagine this and if it’s too hard for you to imagine a good father i understand not from my own experience but i’ve talked to a lot of people who have a very difficult time imagining a good father so if you need to imagine your mother being the one that you’re laying on her shoulder and you’re and she’s you know rubbing your back and telling you stories and whispering good things This is a picture of our God, and this is how we pray. We rest. That’s what we do. When we pray, we get to a place where we can let go of whatever worry or whatever concern is on our heart and know that our good father. or our good mother is helping us out that, that we’re not alone and it’s not all on our shoulders. It is not on our shoulders. So Isaiah nine, two through seven, we’re just going to start right in on this passage of scripture. It says the people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. You will multiply the nation. You will increase their gladness. They will be glad in your presence as with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. As we’re reading this, I’m picturing how people are glad to see their good father, their good, good father. And how he is increasing their gladness. They’re glad in his presence because he knows how to bring a great harvest. He knows how to provide. He knows how to shield. And he does it very well. We’re going to continue in Isaiah 9. For you will break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian. We’re going to talk about that because that’s kind of a confusing verse if you don’t know the history on what Midian is. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders. And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. This is where we find our place of peace is on his chest, just resting. And that is our prayer. That’s how you pray. there will be no end to the increase of his government or of his peace. What a beautiful scripture to meditate on and just let that soak in. And this past Sunday, we celebrated the Pentecost Sunday. The Christians celebrated Pentecost. It was also a holiday for the Jewish people. And it’s called Shavuot. The Feast of Weeks. And it celebrates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai to Moses and God’s people. So those two holidays coincide with each other every year. Every year. Every year, Pentecost and Shavuot are the same day. And the holiday that Christians celebrate, it comes exactly 50 days after Easter. Well, so does Shavuot. It comes exactly 50 days after Passover.

SPEAKER 04 : 9:23

Wow. And Passover, wasn’t Passover very close to Resurrection Sunday this year?

SPEAKER 02 : 9:30

Yes. Yes. And I misspoke. Yes. And that was this year that they coincided. Yes. It doesn’t coincide every year. I know.

SPEAKER 04 : 9:38

It was great. Yes. Great celebration.

SPEAKER 02 : 9:41

Yes, both of those holidays recognize something or someone given to God’s people. And we are just asking our Lord to open our eyes and awaken us to the wonder of who he is. And I know you’ve been talking about wonder. Pele, wonder, or pala, pali, these are the Hebrew words about wonder. And it means an awesomeness that is beyond our understanding. It means something separate, something distinguished, something set apart. It’s hard, it’s hidden, because it’s so marvelous and so extraordinary. Don’t we want that in our lives? We want something so marvelous and so extraordinary that we don’t understand it. It’s beyond our understanding. Well, this this scripture from Isaiah nine says the people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Sometimes our life here and the routines that we get in and the things that we experience in our relationships or in our health or in our finances, that can all feel like darkness. And so the people who walk in darkness, they will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. I know that there’s nothing like being given a gift that just brightens your day. When somebody brings you something, it’s really fun to know that you’ve been thought about. And that is what God did. He brought his people the gift of Torah, which are the first five books of the Bible. at Mount Sinai. And that is why the Hebrews celebrate Shavuot. And we were given the gift of Holy Spirit 50 days after Easter, after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so here’s another gift given.

SPEAKER 04 : 11:45

Yes. He’s so perfect in his timing, Kimberly. I mean, in his planning, he’s just so perfect. I think it astounds most of us because we try to be perfect in this life and nothing’s perfect. But, oh, he’s a one. You’re right. He’s a wonderful God. Wonderful.

SPEAKER 02 : 12:04

Yes. Yes. When we think of the Torah being given to his people back at Mount Sinai, that was an agreement. It wasn’t just a list of rules for everybody to follow for the rest of their lives. I don’t know. In Christian circles, we grow up in Sunday school and we hear the Ten Commandments, which are part of… Those first five books that we find the Ten Commandments in Exodus, the first time that they’re listed, they’re listed again in Deuteronomy. And we just think, OK, rules. I have to follow these rules in life. But that’s not what these five books were to the Jewish people. They were an agreement, a covenant that drawn up between God and his people. And this covenant reflects the Jewish tradition of marriage. and a marriage contract. So once the agreement was made between two families about a new couple who were going to be married, The agreement was drawn up, there was a contract put in place, and then that couple was already considered married. Now, we might think of that as an engagement period. Well, in the Western world. In the Western world, we think of it as engagement. That’s where we become engaged before we’re actually married. consummating our marriage that’s what this was the two families would come together draw up a contract and it became like an engagement period but it was much stronger because this covenant was already in place and this is what god did with his people at mount sinai he put this covenant in place with them And it was like drawing up a contract of marriage to his people and saying, I love you and I want you to love me and I want to do life with you. Let’s do it together. Let’s do it together. Yes. The actual consummation of that marriage comes later, at a later date. And so God’s people have been waiting for that consummation because they do think of Mount Sinai and the books of the Torah being given to them as a marriage contract. So they’re waiting for that. Yeshua HaMashiach, they’re waiting for him to come and for him to be that consummation. Many of them are finding out now who that really was, that Jesus is Jewish. So many of them never even knew that. They read of Jesus in our Christian Bibles and didn’t even know that he was Jewish. So here we’re seeing that Jesus came to consummate this contract, this marriage agreement. And now he has given the gift of Holy Spirit to to be in us and with us all the time. Now it’s not just a set of memorized words or regulations. This is real relationship. This is the gift that we just celebrated just this past Sunday. And what a gift that is. Wow. Awesome. Awesome gift. This is something that should leave us in wonder and awe that God would do this for us, that he would give us his presence to be with us in this life. So that is what we celebrated at Pentecost today. where Holy Spirit was given to us to dwell with us and in us. It’s a day of great light. And that is what we can look to when we’re reading Isaiah 9. The people who walked in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. And in them, no longer do we know God just through a set of rules or written records. We know him because of his very presence within us. He leads us to goodness and leads us to love and leads us to joy.

SPEAKER 04 : 16:21

I know. And in John 1, we see that again, Kimberly, that this light is Jesus. I mean, everything points to Jesus Christ. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness. That’s Jesus. And the darkness did not comprehend it. The darkness cannot overpower the light, which is Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER 02 : 16:46

Oh, it’s so good. Yes. That’s really good. Yes. It doesn’t get more wonderful than that. It’s just full of wonder. No, that’s right.

SPEAKER 04 : 16:55

Oh, yes. You know, it keeps coming up in my mind, and I don’t know if you had this in your notes today, but I keep thinking of what Matthew did. And his wonderful humility. I do have it in my notes later, but we can bring it up now if you want to. It’s just such a wonderful story of humility and how in the article in The Last Express, I think I titled it Obedience. brings success because this is what it’s all about, folks. It’s obedience to God.

SPEAKER 02 : 17:32

It’s following his wonder. That’s why we want to be awakened to the wonder of God and how wonderful he is. The light of God is not just shining on us. It is in us to guide us. And I won’t forget. Let me just let me go to this point next. The next part of the verse in Isaiah nine says that you will multiply the nation. He wants to multiply you in your work to increase your gladness. Yeah. Your gladness, you’re listening today, your gladness will be increased as you look to the good path. Look to the good father. Look to the love of God. They will be glad in your presence as with the gladness of harvest as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. It will just start coming in for you, the provision and the health and the wholeness as you put your eyes on who God is and what he wants in this world. It is the Lord’s joy. to include us in his life. And we want him to awaken us to that joy and to the wonder of that, because we are messy people and it is his joy. His joy is a supernatural, powerful substance that increases as we keep our mind and our affections on things above. And that’s what Colossians 3 tells us, to set your mind on things above. That is something that we have to work at because we can get so distracted by the things of this world and the things that we want, the things that our senses lead us to, that our feelings lead us to. And we’ve talked at length about the Lord’s joy in the past, so I won’t go into too much detail here. But just a quick reminder is that this joy is your strength, right? It’s a supernatural joy. God’s joy is your strength. So if you’re needing more strength in this life, we need to be looking to his joy for that. And the next part, this is the part that might sound confusing, but here’s how I’ll tie this in. In Isaiah 9, it says, for you will break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. As at the Battle of Midian, when we are feeling oppressed in this life and we’re feeling heavy burdens in our life and on our shoulders, like it’s our responsibility to to make life work, to figure out what the what the answer is going to be. We need to remember Midian here, by the way, I looked up Midian. It’s associated with judgment. That’s what it means. The root of the word Midian has a D, Dalet, that’s a Hebrew letter for Dalet, and an N, Nun, the Hebrew letter for N. And it forms the name of one of Jacob’s sons, Dan. Don, Don is how they would say it. Dan, we say Dan. And each of Jacob’s sons formed a tribe. Now here, I’ve remembered this from the Hebrew teaching. Dan is actually left out of the last list of tribes in Revelation 7, 5 through 8. Yes. He is not recorded and neither is Ephraim. So some believe that Dan and Ephraim did not make that list because of their involvement in idolatry early on. It was Dan and Ephraim that set up the golden calves way back in the Old Testament and And so some believe that they are no longer going to be mentioned or they won’t exist. Now, that doesn’t mean that the people, every single person from that tribe is now excluded from Christ’s kingdom. But so we’re not saying that. But it is interesting to just note that Dan. is not in that list and dan means judgment it’s because we human beings are no longer going to have to make the judgment call for life yes that’s right we we don’t have to do it it’s it’s on his shoulders the government will be upon his shoulders yes and so the yoke the burden on our shoulders and that oppression is broken off We don’t have to worry about making all those decisions anymore. He’s going to do it. Now, how does he do that? He leads us by the goodness, the light, the love that is inside us. His presence is in us to guide us now. And He wants to make us very aware of what that feels like when goodness is leading as opposed to your own reason or your own feelings and senses. It’s two different things. I’ll come to that story and I think we have plenty of time for me to say that Matthew has an account and they order their product from him in large barrels. And they just call him when the barrel is empty and he brings a new full barrel and he takes the empty barrel away. Well, Matthew started noticing that they would call him when the barrel was quote unquote empty. He started noticing that there was another gallon, two gallons, sometimes as much as four gallons left in the bottom of the drum. Now, it’s easy to miss that because you’re getting 50 gallons or a little more than that in a drum. So it would feel kind of empty if you got down to four, I guess. But he started taking those empty drums and then pouring them all together into one big drum. And after a year, he ended up with another full drum of product. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER 04 : 23:56

And what does the natural person think? Oh, I’ve got another drum to sell to someone else. Yep.

SPEAKER 02 : 24:05

Yes. And he would have every right to do that because the work was on him. I mean, he picked up the drums. He’s the one that was emptying them all together into another drum. So it was on his shoulders. He could have justified, you know, he could have justified making the decision to sell that drum for extra profit. And it would have been really good profit. Yeah. But he believed in the goodness of his heart that that product was their product because they paid for it in the first place. So he delivered the whole drum back to them and said, here, this is yours. I’ve been collecting it over the last year. And you know, that manager sat down with Matthew and he said, okay, that is why I will never leave your product and go with one of your competitors is because of the relationship that we have. And I really trust you. There’s no other salesman that would have done that. They would have just sold it for their own profit. This is the government that we want to look to, the government of goodness, the government of love, the government of light. and peace and joy. So sometimes it takes sitting in our situation, whatever it might be, and looking for that place of peace, imagining it going one direction. And I like to think that Matthew sat with that and he imagined, oh, I could sell this and make thousands. Okay, so he probably imagined that and had kind of a yucky feeling in his gut. Follow the yucky feeling.

SPEAKER 04 : 25:48

That’s right. He knew in his heart that he would have greater peace knowing that he had been honest and forthright. Praise the Lord.

SPEAKER 02 : 25:58

That’s wonderful. So God does not leave it all to us to figure it out and to manipulate and to control everything. He he is the very best at leading us and guiding us into the new kingdom, into new creation living. And we might as well start practicing that right now. Dan’s name is not included in that list of tribes in Revelation 7, 5 through 8, because human beings will no longer be making the judgments, no longer be manipulating in any way, no longer be making all the decisions. And let’s practice that now. Yes. Let’s be taking everything that brings some concern to our hearts, worry or stress. Let’s bring it to the Lord and trust him to work it out.

SPEAKER 04 : 26:52

Oh, amen. Amen. Oh, beautiful story. Remember, folks, humility brings great rewards for us. God bless you and keep you and take joy.

SPEAKER 01 : 27:02

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SPEAKER 1 : 28:41

Thank you.