Open Rebuke Better Than？ — Randy Krahn

The Call to Spiritual Growth and Ministry

Come together in this place and refresh one another through worship and through praise. Let's pray for your anointing, that your spirit would speak to us, Lord, that we could take ground, that we could get light on ourselves, that we could grow spiritually, and we could overcome through faith.

In Jesus' name, amen. Dan shared about the work that the Lord has given us to do. I've often said that we're not too much in the reaping business, but we're more in the breaking up the fallow ground business the Lord has given us to do.

To be happy and grateful for the ministry that God gave us and not to be envious of someone else's ministry, that we would not get caught up in that, because the one who plants and the one who waters are one, and God gives the increase.

I've often said that when we go to the creek, the men are hardened, a lot of them, and it's like having a tractor on a field to break up the fallow ground, to put the plow down deep, pop the clutch, and let it rip, to see people come to brokenness and get light on themselves.

And to weep with people who know that they're in a bad way, and to see them find repentance and faith in Jesus. That's the purpose of our gifting and our call. I wanted to look at a passage that sometimes we despise.

Proclaiming Repentance Despite Opposition

I've had some brothers despise me because of this specific passage and others, but we can't allow those things to discourage us. Ezekiel said that the Lord would give him a backbone of steel and a face of flint.

And if you want to preach repentance, and you want to preach the word of God, then you have to have thick skin, because if you're speaking his word, you're not going to be easily received. It's not always going to be received.

There's going to be repercussions that come as a result of proclaiming the oracles of God. And so it's important for us to understand the role that we have, and not to do another person's job. Looking at a verse in Proverbs 27, verse 5, it says, Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed.

Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. Verse 6, faithful are the wounds of a friend, much better than the kisses of an enemy, which are deceitful. The scripture says, but speaking the truth in love, right?

The goal is love, but we want to speak the truth in love. Having a word seasoned with salt that we might impart grace to the ears. So whichever way in every situation is a little different. And it takes wisdom to know how to bring forth a difficult word.

And the purpose of giving the word is not to be able to exhort someone to have the satisfaction that you were able to give them a piece of your mind or to speak the truth unto them, but that that truth would be seasoned with salt so that it could be received, so that it could preserve their life.

It says, rebuke the wicked and a great blessing will come upon you. Well, if you give a hundred blows to a fool, and his foolishness doesn't depart from him, where's the blessing? So a word fitly spoken, timely is everything.

A word rightly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. To learn how to accomplish the goal of seeing someone come to repentance, seeing someone turn back to the Lord, seeing someone be lifted up out of the miry clay and set back on the rock.

That is what we need the Holy Spirit's help for. Because that's the goal. It's not for a person's destruction or just to humble them for the sake of humbling them, but to see them reconciled. This is the ministry that we all have, and it manifests in different ways.

The Ministry of Reconciliation

The ministry of reconciliation. That's what Jesus did when he went to the cross. He fulfilled that ministry of reconciliation, reconciling a fallen man back to a holy God. And so he's given us that ministration of reconciliation.

We're ambassadors of Christ, diffusing the fragrance of Christ in every place. Sometimes it's a fragrance of life to life, and other times it's a fragrance of death to death. But we need wisdom to know when to speak and what to say.

That is why it's important. As I hear I speak, Jesus said. I don't speak on my own authority. Just because all this word is given and written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we need a now word when we come to someone to speak to them, because the Spirit is saying something specific right now.

Now if I go over here and give a word to someone who's in rebellion and tell them that Judas hung himself, what kind of a word is that? That is a scripture that is inspired by the Holy Spirit and it's something that actually happened.

But if I take a word of God out of context at the wrong time to the person, it can produce destruction. You can take that sword and you can cut a bunch of ears off with it. You can even grab two swords.

And then Jesus will have to pick up ears and do some healing. Do some miracles because of damage that we've done. So it is important for us to come to understand how to handle the word of God in a right way.

So that we might be able to bring life in the exhortation. Bring comfort in the exhortation. Bring encouragement through the exhortation. Leave some hope there. You know, Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthian church and he said to them, I believe it was them, and he said, I was sad that you became sorrowful because of the way I wrote to you.

But I am glad knowing that your sorrow became a godly sorrow that led to your repentance. And that I don't regret. So it's important for us to understand that it's not just about exhorting people. It's about exhorting people with one purpose and one goal.

To see them reconciled to Jesus. Let the righteous smite me and it shall be a kindness. That is in Psalm 141. Let's read that one. Psalm 141. Dan was speaking about this. An exhortation that at the time is bitter.

Receiving Righteous Correction

At the time quite often is not received. But the humble shall hear it and be glad. If we can humble ourselves and receive an exhortation, even if it's from an unbeliever. And take it to heart and get light on ourselves.

Then the Lord can work with us. But if we can't receive exhortation, then we're in a bad way. Because we become proud, have need of nothing. We become rich, increased in goods. And we don't know that we're wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.

And he says, I counsel you to buy of me gold or find in the fire that you may be rich. Speaking specifically of genuine saving faith. That your faith being much more precious than gold which perishes.

We need to have saving faith in Jesus Christ. That's what's going to save your soul out of difficult things. You know, we spend a lot of time chasing after things that perish. Chasing after things that don't profit.

We get the order backwards. We get everything all upside down. And we forget about Jesus. Jesus has to be your source. He has to be the center of your life. He has to be the reason when you get up with a song in your heart.

A scripture in your heart in the morning. He has to be the reason why you live and move and have your being. And all the other things he adds unto us. But if we think Jesus is compartmentalized over here.

And now he knows that he wants to give us good things. He wants us to have a business perhaps. He wants us to have a wife perhaps. He wants us to buy a field perhaps. He wants us to prosper and be in health and all these things perhaps.

But if those become our focus. Then all those blessings will be a curse unto you. Because when Jesus called the man and said, I have need of you to come to the wedding, to the feast. He said, I'm married a wife, I can't come.

Well that wife might be from the Lord. It might not be from the Lord. But either way, the Lord is not happy with you. If that's your excuse when the Lord calls you. Because it says, because of the present crisis.

Because brother said, now those who are married should live as though they have no wives. That means you have to say, honey, I love you. But right now the Lord has called me to something. And I have to fulfill the purpose and call of God in this moment, at this hour.

Because that is more important than watching TV or whatever it is that I need to do right now. Or you name it. Many times we talk about how fulfilling the purpose of God is loving your wife. That is all part of it.

But you can get it way out of context. And you can say to the Lord, I cannot come. I'm married a wife. He said, that man will not taste any of my supper. Or you bought a field. Or you have a business.

And you say, you know what, I'm going to go weep with the sinners some other time. Right now I have money to make and I have cares and commitments. And the Lord blessed me with this business. The Lord did bless you with the business.

But if he speaks to you and he has it on your heart that you need to go do something, you better drop your tools. You better drop your money box. And you better follow the Lord in that. Or there will be no blessing in the end.

The Cost of Refusing God's Invitation

We were recently at my son's wedding. And I had a message that I kind of had worked out. A safe message. One that wasn't going to cause too much offense, at least I felt. And as I was walking up with Josh, we were walking up to the front.

The Lord changed my message. And I thought, Lord, this is going to cause a rift. This is going to cause a stirring. This is not going to be easy received. And part of that message was from Matthew 22 about the man called to the wedding for his son.

He called a banquet. And many began to make excuses. Because they went one to his field, another to his business, another got married. They could not come. And he went and he said, go into the highways and the hedges.

Even go to the creek. Compel them to come. That they might follow me and worship me. That they might fulfill the purpose and call of God on their life. Go out into the highways and the hedges. Go to the ditches.

Wherever you've got to go. For my house must be full. And that's where the Lord found me. He didn't find me among the proper folk who had businesses and who were proper people. Who had the invitation.

He found me in the gutter. And I don't know if that's where he found you, but that's where he found me. And because they refused to come, God made provision. There was a seat for me at the table. And there's a seat for you.

But fulfill that purpose and call of God. Don't get yourself out of order and out of line. You know, after I shared that message. At that wedding. There were very few people who came and shook my hand.

Not that I was looking for that. But I knew that it wasn't something that was a popular message. But before I went home from that wedding, there was a man who came up to me. Never met him before. And he said, you know, he said, I was weeping during your sermon.

He talked to me for an hour and a half after the reception. I was weeping during your sermon because he said, you see, I told the Lord way back. If you would bless me. I never drank. I never smoked. I set myself apart like from all the others.

I said, if you just bless me with a section of land. Then I'll serve the Lord. And you know what? He said, after I bought one section of land, I went and drove my vehicle to another area where there was another section.

I was really wanting that land. You could call it covetousness. And I prayed the Lord would give me that section of land. And I prayed for years. And you want to know the miracle? God gave me that land.

And he said, today I own between six and eight sections of land. But my wife and children say that I have no time for them. I have no time for the Lord. He said, I'm the man you were preaching to about the man who bought a piece of land and said, please have me excused.

I can't come now. I have to go see it. The blessing of God in your life can be the thing that keeps you from heaven. Don't let it happen to you. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. All the other things he will add to you.

Surrendering Blessings and Ambitions to God

But if you go seeking them out, to seek and to grasp something and to go searching and hunting, don't you think the Lord is able, by faith, to raise Isaac from the dead, even as good as dead, when Abraham holds the knife up to him to surrender his son, which was a blessing from God, by the way?

In Isaac, your seed shall be blessed. God calls him to put it on the altar. Don't you think God is able to give it back to you if you put it on the altar and surrender it to the Lord because you love the Lord more than father, mother, wife, children, your own life also?

May the Lord give you understanding in what I'm saying. Psalm 141 verse 5, let the righteous strike me and it shall be kindness. Let him rebuke me. Like Brother Dan shared, it shall be as excellent oil.

Let my head not refuse it. You want the anointing oil in your life? You want the oil of gladness more than your companions so that you can skip like a stall-fed calf like Brother Aline? Then let the righteous smite you and let it be a kindness.

Don't despise correction. Kiss the son lest he be angry with you. Embrace discipline. Receive correction. Say, thank you, Lord. That person loved me enough to point out an area that I was blind to. Forgive me of my sin.

Help me not to make the same mistakes. Help me not to get the cart before the horse. We spend so much time seeking how we can make money, how we can get some extra interest. Maybe we're something for the future.

And we start thinking, well, I'm going to get a wife over here. And we spend all our time on all this foolishness, which could be a blessing one day. And I say it's foolishness because we're not seeking Jesus himself.

We miss out on seeking Jesus himself by seeking all the other things that are going to perish when he puts the fire to it. You say, well, you're telling me a wife is foolishness? Tell me, is she going to be your wife in heaven?

Yes or no? That's what the scripture says. In heaven, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they're like the angels. How about your business in heaven? You're going to be running big business in heaven because you're so good with business now?

We have such narrow-mindedness because of the things that we can taste, touch, smell, and see. But we need more faith, a righteousness which comes by faith in Christ. You know, a lot of us, we're trying to seek righteousness by doing good things and not doing bad things.

Justification by Faith and God's Promises

But Abraham was a father of faith. He received promises, and he believed in God. And even though it was impossible in the natural, he did not waver in unbelief, and he received a righteousness which is by faith.

And we want to tap in to that righteousness which is by faith through grace. This is not of ourselves because it's a gift from God, lest anyone should boast. So when God gives you a wife, you say, it's from the Lord.

When God gives you business, it's from the Lord. When God gives you a house or a field, it's from the Lord. It's not what you could do, it's what He can do because your focus was on Him. And even if you don't see a land or a property in this lifetime, Abraham never saw it in his lifetime.

He lived in a tent, and he tabernacled with God. And he moved from place to place, and he made his mistakes. He went to Egypt when God didn't tell him to go there, but God delivered him from Egypt. Just like out of Egypt, He said He called His Son.

And He'll deliver you from Egypt if you find yourself there. Just cry out to the Lord, and He'll answer you and show you great and awesome things that you don't yet know. And you know what? He'll bring it to pass.

He'll give you a son. He'll give you a family. He'll give you a seed. Maybe not natural, but a spiritual one. If you let your heart align with Him, if your ways please the Lord, He'll make even His enemies to be at peace with you.

May the Lord help you to get a revelation that we seek the Lord while He may be found. Let's call on His name while He is near. Let the wicked forsake their unbelief and their running around and their wicked thoughts about trying to accomplish a purpose in a call of God.

Let them look to the Lord and be saved. Let them be radiant, and their faces will never be ashamed. The God who owns a cattle on a thousand hills, is He broke? Does He not have daughters in Zion? Does He not have all the blessings?

Establishing Men Before Marriage and Leadership

You know, I've told my son. My son says, well, at what age do you think I can start looking for a wife or dating? I said, forget about all that. I said, you're not in any purpose or any way to even think in those kind of terms.

You seek the Lord. You get your roots down. You become established in Christ. You become a man who can lead. When you become a man who can spiritually lead, then you're not gonna make as much mess as those of us who had to get married and learn to lead along the way.

Man, do we make mess. Our wives don't respect us because we take dumb decisions. Take them in the flesh. And then we become unstable because we panic and we do things from fear and we do things from impulse.

And we just say, well, then I'm just gonna do this then and see how it works out. And then we lose the respect and the trust of our wives and then it brings chaos into the family. And then the Lord has to do another miracle there.

We have to, as husbands, we have to repent and humble ourselves. Ask forgiveness from our wives and from our children sometimes. We don't know how to lead, but the Lord can lead us if we get our eyes on him.

May the Lord help us in these things. To be content just to be a son without having huge ambitions to succeed. Can you be content to be a son? Can I be content to be a son with no ambition to succeed?

This was Brother Warnock's poem that he brought over to my house. We had it on the fridge for a while. Just content to be a son with no ambition to succeed. Jesus was content to be a son with no ambition to succeed in this life, but to do thy will.

That's what was written in the volume of the books. Did you know? To do thy will, O God. If you can make that your ambition, to do thy will, O God, whatever it is, if he gives you opportunity, take it.

If opportunity hasn't passed your way, don't grab at it. Because as Brother Dan shared, he'll grant you your request, but he'll send leanness into your soul. And you know what? Your life will become hard, pierced with many sorrows, pierced through with many sorrows.

Can a man bring fire into his bosom and not get burnt? If you go outside of the parameter of God's will for your life, are you not going to get hurt by it? The good news is there's mercy with God. We can repent.

Some of us have taken decisions and we can repent of it. And sometimes repenting of it means selling stuff. Sometimes repenting of it means moving. Sometimes repenting of it. Who knows what it looks like?

Let the Holy Spirit reveal it to you. I remember a time in my life when I got disillusioned with the things going on in the church and I said, I go fish. Brought ourselves a nice trophy boat. This was probably about 15 years ago maybe.

Returning to God's Purpose

And we decided to take the family because of the things, the chaos in the church at the time, I go fish. Well, you know what? He allowed me to have that request, but he sent leanness in my soul. And he kept prompting me.

What are you doing here? Why are you here? What are you doing here? Have you any food? We had fish, but we were not satisfied. We were left empty inside because we were not walking in the purpose and call of God.

Eventually he got my attention. We sold that boat. And we got back in the way and we started to fulfill the purpose and call of God for our life. There's nothing wrong with fishing. There's nothing wrong with Peter and John going to have a fish and getting some food.

But you know what? God did not call them to that anymore. He called them out of that. And you know what? You need to hear for the Spirit yourself and what the Holy Spirit is calling you to. And if he's prompting you by faith, then go through with God.

Whatever God is calling you to, go through with God by faith. That's where the righteousness is. It's not of works because then there's boasting. But a righteousness by faith. Abraham believed God. It went on his account for righteousness.

He says, God, I don't understand it, but you said that I'm going to be the father of many nations. You know, I don't even have a piece of property where I can pitch my tent. I'm just kind of like ranting here.

But you know what? You said it and I'm not going to waver not one second in unbelief. Not one second. And God says, it's going on your account for righteousness. Our idea of righteousness is totally warped because you know what?

When you're in faith, you're going to walk according to the ways of God. The Holy Spirit's going to lead you and guide you in the ways of righteousness. You're going to walk in truth. But if you walk according to your own ungodly lusts, then you'll eat the fruit of your own way and you'll have a whole plate full of it until it comes out of your nostrils, as our brother already shared.

The quail. They wanted meat to eat. Give us the meat to eat. And you know what? He granted them their request, but he sent leanness into their souls. Oh, may the Lord have mercy on us and help us. You know, the messages that sometimes come from this pulpit, they are convicting.

Hearing God's Voice and Walking in Faith

Not just for you, but for me also because I'm preaching to myself. There's a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is destruction. It might seem like a good way, but you need to hear his voice and when you hear his voice, that's when you move.

You need to be fully assured of the hope that you have in Jesus. You need to hear and know the way that he's calling to you, saying this is the way, walk in it. And most assuredly, he wants you to become rooted and established in the faith, rooted and grounded in love.

He wants you to have a burden for the lost. He wants you to have a love for people so that you don't waste the days and the hours eating all that you can, canning all that you can get. Because all those things that we are laboring for, the food that perishes, is temporary.

But Jesus, his brother Dan shared, the food that endures, I have food to eat you know not of, is unto everlasting life. To do the will of the Father is going to satisfy the longing and the thirsting of your soul.

I'd encourage you, you don't have a wife and you have a desire in your heart, pray for that wife every day. The Lord will keep her pure. The Lord will protect her from evil. The Lord would take care of her and bring her about for you at the right time.

And don't waver in unbelief. Trust the Lord with all your heart. He's not going to withhold any good thing from you if that's a desire of your heart. But you seek the Lord. You seek, you say, Lord make me a kind of man that's not going to wreck my marriage.

Make me a kind of man that's not double-minded. Make me a kind of man that's not angry and impatient. And says foolish and says hurtful things and all these things. Change my character, change my life.

Help me to fulfill the purpose and call of God for my life. And you know what? He's going to make everything beautiful in his time. His time, not your time. Because you'll spend a lot of money, travel a lot of miles, searching to and fro in arid places and you won't find rest there.

May the Lord give you understanding in these things. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for speaking to us. Thank you for exhortation and for comfort and for conviction. I pray, Lord, that we would not get outside of your perfect plan and call for our life, that we would fulfill it.

Lord, that we would see people come to Jesus through our testimony. That you would help us, Lord, to know the call of God and the purpose of God for our lives. That we would walk worthy of that call, Lord.

And that you would be able to trust us as faithful, wise stewards to fulfill the purpose that you've predestined us in Jesus to have. Thank you for your blood and for your mercy. In Jesus' name, amen.