Lost Language (Part 3)

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you…Watch your life and doctrine closely.” 1 Timothy 4:12-16

God commanded the children of Israel to circumcise every male child that was eight days old when they first marched out into the wilderness. It was a clear commandment but after 20 years in the wilderness they just stopped talking about it. They didn’t bring it up anymore. And anything you don’t talk about will soon be lost.

Later, Joshua had to circumcise an entire generation before they could enter the Promised Land. Why did this have to happen? They had quit talking about it. Even though they had the Ark of the Covenant, which was all about worship, they did not have the mark of the Covenant on their bodies. God doesn’t just want this generation to have the Ark of the Covenant. He doesn’t just want a generation who knows how to worship, clap their hands, dance around, and be entertained by the music. He wants His mark on their lives.

God said (paraphrased), “I want the mark on their life. I want the mark of sanctification. I want the mark of being different. I want the mark.” There is a clear and distinct difference between a real Christian and somebody who lives just like the world. You can’t just have the Ark of the Covenant. You’ve have to take the mark of the covenant.

The mark of the covenant will make you different. You can’t hang with just anybody. Even though everybody else is sleeping around, drinking, and partying, you have no desire to. Why? Because you have the mark of the covenant on you. This is not just a Sunday religion for you, it is who you are.

Paul said to Timothy, “When I call your great faith to mind, I think of how I first saw it in your grandmother Lois, and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that it is also in thee.” The next generation will never speak what we don’t speak. So parents, if you don’t pray mighty prayers and if you don’t ever give God praise and all your kids see is you coming to church sitting there looking bored, they will one day come in and do the exact same thing. The only way another generation speaks a language is if they hear you speaking it. You had better teach the next generation the language of worship. Your kids ought to see you cry. Your kids ought to hear you pray. They ought to see you every now and then fast and seek God.

Jesus said, “I only speak those things which I hear My Father speak.” Jesus passed on what He heard His Father speak to His disciples. The Scripture says that even when the disciples tried to deny the Lord, their language gave them away. When Jesus was arrested and Peter was by a fire warming his hands and said, “I swear, I don’t know Jesus!” The woman listened to him, and she said these words, “Surely, thou art also one of them, for thy speech betrayeth thee.”

Our goal should be to speak the language of Jesus so much that the world will know us “as one of them” just because of the way we talk.

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