The Word of God Fall Retreat 11/14-16/03

Preparing the Bride: Talk # 5

"Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along"

Comment regarding impact

Not enough to hear these truths or know them

Need to be changed by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit

Open ourselves to the Lord and pray them – not necessarily the very words, but the truths

Things about the Bridegroom: turn them into worship

Things about the Bride: turn them into thanksgiving and ask the Lord to establish them in our life

Introduction

Ephesians 5:25-30

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just a Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.

We are seeking to grasp God’s Word to us regarding

 

Out of the comfort zone

Song of Songs 2:8-10

8Listen! My beloved! Behold, he is coming,
Climbing on the mountains,
Leaping on the hills!

9My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Behold, he is standing behind our wall;
He is looking through the windows;
He is peering through the lattice.

10My beloved responded, and said to me,
Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along. But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them saying. "all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore…"

 

The time is right

Song of Songs 2:10-13

"My beloved responded and said to me,
‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along.
‘For behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
‘The flowers have already appeared in the land;
The time has arrived for pruning the vines,
 and the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.
‘The fig tree has ripened its figs,
‘And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance.
Arise my darling, my beautiful one,
And come along!’"

Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months and then comes the harvest?’ Behold I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.

Mt 11:4-6 4Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. 6Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."

"I have told you again and again that I am coming. I tell you I am here. I tell you I am with you. The time is now at hand. I have need of you. Rise up; rise up but draw together around me. Do not look yet to the battle that lies ahead. Look only to me. Draw near to me. My arms are wide enough and great enough to embrace you all. Draw near to me. Draw near to my heart for I will reveal my plans to you, and I will show you the part that I have given you to play. You are little, you are small, but I can use you. It is not your power; it is mine. It is not your will; it is my Spirit. Keep your gaze fixed on me. Rise up from the bench. Gather around Me. Stay very near to Me and I will speak, says the Lord." Community Conference September 2001

In order to respond to what God is doing among us, in order to express more fully how we are to be the people He is calling us to be, once again we declare our desire to give our whole lives to Him, to follow His Son, Jesus, and to live more and more in the Holy Spirit. We desire to love and serve Him in lives of daily prayer and service; to praise and worship Him always; to ever seek His face; to know and serve the truth of His Word in the joy, peace, and love of the Holy Spirit; to believe what He speaks to us and to be obedient to the truth of His Word and the guidance of His Spirit; to offer hospitality to those whom He sends us; to widen our hearts to receive those He adds to our number; and to carry out the mission that He is entrusting to us.

 

Go ahead without me

Song of Songs 2:15-17


15Catch the foxes for us,
The little foxes that are ruining the vineyards,
While our vineyards are in blossom."
16 My beloved is mine, and I am his;
He pastures his flock among the lilies.
17 Until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away,
Turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle
Or a young stag on the mountains of Bether."

John 5:17 But He answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working."

 

Let me hear your voice

Song of Songs 2:14

"O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the secret place of the steep pathway,
Let me see your form,
Let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet,
And your form is lovely." Seek the LORD while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the LORD,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD.
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

 

I sought him and did not find him

Song of Songs 3:1-3

1 "On my bed night after night I sought him
Whom my soul loves;
I sought him but did not find him. 2 'I must arise now and go about the city;

In the streets and in the squares

I must seek him whom my soul loves.'

I sought him but did not find him.

 3"The watchmen who make the rounds in the city found me, And I said, 'Have you seen him whom my soul loves?'

Bride’s disobedience, even though it is out of unbelief, weakness, and fear, results in a separation which brings on a spiritual crisis.

FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES." It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons… He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Even though she is in the night, the Bride still seeks

 
Bride moves from seeking to obeying -- I must arise now

Humbles herself to seek help from others, from spiritual leaders – who have seen the Lord

 

I held on to him and would not let him go

Song of Songs 3:4

Scarcely had I left them

When I found him whom my soul loves;

I held on to him and would not let him go

Until I had brought him to my mother's house,

And into the room of her who conceived me.

 

Bridegroom’s care for his Bride

Song of Songs 3:5

"I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the gazelles or by the hinds of the field,
That you will not arouse or awaken my love
Until she pleases."

Summary