When Satan comes against your mind with wrong thoughts, you don’t have to concede defeat. Let’s look today at what God’s Word says we can do to defeat them.
Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. Ephesians 6:13-14. NLT
The Message puts it this was : Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Ephesians 6:13-18 MSG
Action 1: Refuse to feel guilty for wrong thoughts
Imagine you are awakened at 3 a.m. by someone pounding on your front door. More than likely, before you open the door, you’ll look through the peephole to see who is causing the commotion. If it were a neighbor, a friend, or a family member, you would probably open the door and invite him in. However, if it were a stranger wearing a ski mask and carrying a pistol, you would hopefully refuse them entry.
If you were certain the person seeking entry into your home intended to harm you, would you feel guilty over his wanting to assault you? Would you lament to yourself, What is wrong with me that would cause this person to want to hurt me? No, you would call the police immediately to apprehend the would-be assailant.
We are not always responsible for the harmful thoughts that come knocking on the doors of our minds. Although allowing outside stimuli such as certain TV programs, reading material, or internet sites to fill our minds can incite thoughts of immorality or greed, we are not always to blame for the first assault of these ideas. If you were stranded on a deserted island, you would still battle against wrong thoughts.
How do we know this? Consider Jesus’ experience in the wilderness immediately following His baptism. For 40 days Christ was completely isolated. (Luke 4:1-13) No other people, no newspapers, no e-mail, no Facebook, and not EVEN a cell phone. Yet during those 40 days, Jesus was tempted with thoughts of discontent, greed, and pride.
“Since God hasn’t provided you with what you need to survive, turn these stones into bread.”
“You don’t need to wait to reign over the kingdoms of the world; they can be yours now if you are willing to worship me.”
“You don’t need to follow God’s timetable. Demonstrate you are the Messiah now! Put on a spiritual circus to demonstrate you are the Son of God.”
Where did these thoughts originate? “The devil said to Him” (Luke 4:3) — nowhere in the biblical account of Jesus’ temptation does Luke record that the devil appeared to Jesus. Possibly, Satan spoke to the Lord the same way he often communicates with us: through the mind.
Yet did these ungodly thoughts make Jesus a sinner? Of course not! He remained the perfect Lamb of God whose blamelessness qualified Him to be our Savior. If you and I are going to win the mind games, we need to first stop feeling guilty when evil thoughts invade our lives and, instead, learn how to deal with those unwelcome intrusions.
Action 2: Refuse to allow wrong thoughts to linger
If we entertain and embellish wrong thoughts for any period of time, those ideas have a way of transforming into obsessions. These, in turn, result in overt actions or attitudes of disobedience. Pastor and author Charles Stanley vividly demonstrates:
“The initial thoughts the devil sends to us may be just a toehold the first time we entertain those thoughts and dwell on them or fantasize about them. The longer we entertain the thoughts, however, the more likely we are to start making mental plans about how we might act on them.
“It is then the toehold of an idea becomes a foothold. The more we develop plans for acting on a sinful idea or temptation, the more we find that the foothold has become a stronghold. We come to the place where we feel compelled to try out the idea in our behavior. We come to the place where we want to act on that idea more than we want to banish the idea.”
When we reach that point, we are in trouble. How can we prevent our thoughts from turning into strongholds for the devil?
Action 3: Recognize and replace wrong thoughts with God’s thoughts
The analogy concerning a burglar attempting entry into your home is flawed in one respect. While we may be successful in preventing an intruder from coming into our home, we cannot keep unwanted thoughts out of our minds. The fact that we are thinking about something means that the alien idea has already gained entry.
Nevertheless, we do not need to allow the intruder to sit down in our favorite chair, engage us in an extended conversation, and announce that since he has been so welcomed, he is taking up residence in our spare bedroom! Instead, we need to follow the Apostle Paul’s advice for dealing with an undesirable guest:
We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5 NASB).
Remembering the words recognize and replace will help you seize control over wrong thoughts. Use the questions we discussed previously to help recognize whether or not a thought could have satanic origin
Is this thought true? Does this thought motivate me to fear more or to trust God more? Does this thought contradict God’s Word?
But know that simply labeling a thought as harmful and attempting to dismiss it from your mind is not enough. In fact, the more you try to reject an unwanted thought, the more you will find yourself obsessing over it.
To dismiss Satan’s thoughts we must replace them with God’s thoughts, just as Jesus did.
When Satan attempted to plant seeds of discontent, Jesus responded by quoting a verse from the Old Testament. “People do not live by bread alone.” (Luke 4:4 NLT).
When Satan enticed the Lord with thoughts of power and riches, Jesus recited God’s greatest commandment: “You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.” (Luke 4:8 NLT).
When Satan tempted Jesus to act independently from God, the Lord quoted: “You must not test the Lord your God.” (Luke 4:12 NLT).
Jesus understood that the best way to dismiss an unwelcome thought is to replace it with another, more-powerful thought. The best way to dispel darkness is to confront it with light!
When fearful thoughts try to seize control of your life, you can replace those thoughts with, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV).
When you are tempted with thoughts of discontent, you can replace those thoughts with, “After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.” (1 Timothy 6:7-8 NLT).
And in closings let’s look at what Paul wrote to the church at Philippi:
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8 NLT)
Any time Satan puts a thought (and all of these are bad) in your head replace it “immediately” with a thought from God AND the Bible is full of these. One that is always appropriate is “the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.” (1 John 4:4 NLT) So if you will let Him, the Holy Spirit in us can always ‘whip” the one who tempts us!
And another strong verse is from James 4:7 - "So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
It is this process Paul has in mind when he encourages us to “Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth” (Ephesians 6:14). Our success in spiritual battle depends on confronting any “loose” thoughts with the truth of God’s Word.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
The Faith of the Thief on the Cross
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:39-43
Hanging on crosses at Jesus' right and left hand are two criminals. Based on scripture we don’t know exactly what they did merely that they were criminals. Matthew and Mark don’t go into as much detail as Dr. Luke. They just referred to these two as robbers. Other translation calls them revolutionaries and King James Version calls them simply - thieves. Whatever, they were criminals.
One of these bad dudes, dying on a cross on one side of Jesus, now takes up the cat-calling begun by the soldiers, "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" The thief is making fun of Jesus' seemingly inability to do anything despite the exalted title of "Christ/Messiah" that has been used concerning him. Where is this talk of "Messiah" now? he sneers. You're dying just like us. Death is the great equalizer.
But the other criminal rebuked him. 'Don't you fear God,' he said, 'since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.'
The second criminal must have had some type of faith, for he asks, "Don't you fear God?" To stand by and participate in such an unrighteous act as to execute an innocent man is a terrible, sinful act, and the second criminal refuses to desert his sense of right and wrong.
Then he said, 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.'
By any measure, this statement is astounding! Jesus' disciples have fled or, at best, hanging around the edge of the crowd hoping they are not recognized. Their hope is gone as their leader is crucified. Their hopelessness is also echoed by the men on the road to Emmaus, "... they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel" (Luke 24:20-21).
But here on the cross to one side, a fellow condemned man, dying, looks across and sees not another dying man, but the Messiah himself. Somehow, he understands that Jesus is not an impostor, and that he will still receive the Kingdom that belongs to the Messiah.
How can this quality of faith exist at such a dark time? Already the darkness is falling over the whole land, and yet a dying thief believes.
Did he confess his sins? Yes. "We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve" (23:41). Does he repent? Not verbally, but we would think so. His repentance and hope prompt his plea for mercy, "Remember me...."
This thief would never be baptized, make restitution, attend church, take communion, sing a hymn or give an offering. He had nothing to offer Christ, no way to pay Him back. But you know what, neither do we.
The thief on the cross believes; his prayer to Jesus is bursting with faith. He has more faith that day than any other human observing this gruesome scene.
So how about deathbed conversions?
The example of the thief on the cross is often used as the example of deathbed conversions. And so it is. This thief could have had some sort of contact with Jesus – many heard Him speak. We certainly don’t know for sure. He may have come to some sort of faith there. And so have many who repent and confess Christ on their deathbeds. The difference between "some sort of faith" and "saving faith" is true repentance and the commitment to a relationship with Christ that repentance implies.
It is possible, I believe, to be saved at one's deathbed. But too many people say, "I'll follow Christ later. But now I want to have fun." And some of them don't get a chance to repent on their deathbeds. Some of them are taken in accidents or from heart attacks, and never have a chance to repent at the end of their days.
Okay, now back to the thief on the cross: "Jesus answered him, 'I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.' "
What a wonderful promise Jesus gives the believing thief: with Christ in paradise!
We know what an encouragement the account of the Thief on the Cross has been to Christians down through the ages. But how about Jesus, dying on the cross? What did it mean to him?
Maybe the Father blessed his Son with this strange companion during his last hours -- a believer, and a very strong believer at that. Jesus had often “fussed” at the unbelief he saw around him. His disciples themselves sometimes exhibit "little faith" (Luke 12:28) Remember the storm when the apostles were so scared? (Matthew 8:26) When Peter started to sink? (Matthew 14:31). When they were worried about feeding the crowd? (Matthew 16:8) When they couldn’t cast out demons? (Luke17:20). Each time Jesus commented about their “little faith”.
Jerusalem as a whole didn’t “recognize the time of God's coming...." (Luke 19:44). But occasionally, Jesus encounters someone with great faith. A Roman centurion tells him that he doesn't need to physically come to heal his servant; all he had to do was speak the word and he has authority to have it accomplished (Luke 7:2-10). Jesus is amazed at the man: "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel" (Luke 7:9).
If you've ever taught, you know how encouraging it is for a teacher to have a student who grasps what you are trying to communicate. Many may fail to understand your point but if least one understands, this brings great satisfaction. The centurion is one of those prize pupils; the thief on the cross is another. Neither of them is acceptable to the Jewish religious leaders -- one a Gentile, the other a criminal. But both have great faith, and both, surely, bring joy to Jesus' heart.
Jesus is forsaken, in a sense, even by the Father (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34; quoting Psalm 22:1) as he takes on the sins of all of humanity - past, present and future - and takes on himself the wrath and punishment of God that saves us from it(Isaiah 53:5). But he does not die alone. The Father gives him a believer to be with him. A believer with mighty faith. A believer who can look past the raw wood and nails and blood to the heavenly kingdom that Jesus will inherit. And he is a believer who wants "in." Jesus answers him as his life on earth is ending, "Yes, you'll be with me there -- today in paradise. We'll go together, you and me."
Is God sending all humanity this message?
Believe in Me. I love you no matter what you have done.
What a promise! What a privilege!
For prayer requests, comments or to be included in our email ministry, email us at: whosoever@cottagehillbaptist.org. Also, Check out our “blog” at: http://thewhosoevers.blogspot.com/
Hanging on crosses at Jesus' right and left hand are two criminals. Based on scripture we don’t know exactly what they did merely that they were criminals. Matthew and Mark don’t go into as much detail as Dr. Luke. They just referred to these two as robbers. Other translation calls them revolutionaries and King James Version calls them simply - thieves. Whatever, they were criminals.
One of these bad dudes, dying on a cross on one side of Jesus, now takes up the cat-calling begun by the soldiers, "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" The thief is making fun of Jesus' seemingly inability to do anything despite the exalted title of "Christ/Messiah" that has been used concerning him. Where is this talk of "Messiah" now? he sneers. You're dying just like us. Death is the great equalizer.
But the other criminal rebuked him. 'Don't you fear God,' he said, 'since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.'
The second criminal must have had some type of faith, for he asks, "Don't you fear God?" To stand by and participate in such an unrighteous act as to execute an innocent man is a terrible, sinful act, and the second criminal refuses to desert his sense of right and wrong.
Then he said, 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.'
By any measure, this statement is astounding! Jesus' disciples have fled or, at best, hanging around the edge of the crowd hoping they are not recognized. Their hope is gone as their leader is crucified. Their hopelessness is also echoed by the men on the road to Emmaus, "... they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel" (Luke 24:20-21).
But here on the cross to one side, a fellow condemned man, dying, looks across and sees not another dying man, but the Messiah himself. Somehow, he understands that Jesus is not an impostor, and that he will still receive the Kingdom that belongs to the Messiah.
How can this quality of faith exist at such a dark time? Already the darkness is falling over the whole land, and yet a dying thief believes.
Did he confess his sins? Yes. "We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve" (23:41). Does he repent? Not verbally, but we would think so. His repentance and hope prompt his plea for mercy, "Remember me...."
This thief would never be baptized, make restitution, attend church, take communion, sing a hymn or give an offering. He had nothing to offer Christ, no way to pay Him back. But you know what, neither do we.
The thief on the cross believes; his prayer to Jesus is bursting with faith. He has more faith that day than any other human observing this gruesome scene.
So how about deathbed conversions?
The example of the thief on the cross is often used as the example of deathbed conversions. And so it is. This thief could have had some sort of contact with Jesus – many heard Him speak. We certainly don’t know for sure. He may have come to some sort of faith there. And so have many who repent and confess Christ on their deathbeds. The difference between "some sort of faith" and "saving faith" is true repentance and the commitment to a relationship with Christ that repentance implies.
It is possible, I believe, to be saved at one's deathbed. But too many people say, "I'll follow Christ later. But now I want to have fun." And some of them don't get a chance to repent on their deathbeds. Some of them are taken in accidents or from heart attacks, and never have a chance to repent at the end of their days.
Okay, now back to the thief on the cross: "Jesus answered him, 'I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.' "
What a wonderful promise Jesus gives the believing thief: with Christ in paradise!
We know what an encouragement the account of the Thief on the Cross has been to Christians down through the ages. But how about Jesus, dying on the cross? What did it mean to him?
Maybe the Father blessed his Son with this strange companion during his last hours -- a believer, and a very strong believer at that. Jesus had often “fussed” at the unbelief he saw around him. His disciples themselves sometimes exhibit "little faith" (Luke 12:28) Remember the storm when the apostles were so scared? (Matthew 8:26) When Peter started to sink? (Matthew 14:31). When they were worried about feeding the crowd? (Matthew 16:8) When they couldn’t cast out demons? (Luke17:20). Each time Jesus commented about their “little faith”.
Jerusalem as a whole didn’t “recognize the time of God's coming...." (Luke 19:44). But occasionally, Jesus encounters someone with great faith. A Roman centurion tells him that he doesn't need to physically come to heal his servant; all he had to do was speak the word and he has authority to have it accomplished (Luke 7:2-10). Jesus is amazed at the man: "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel" (Luke 7:9).
If you've ever taught, you know how encouraging it is for a teacher to have a student who grasps what you are trying to communicate. Many may fail to understand your point but if least one understands, this brings great satisfaction. The centurion is one of those prize pupils; the thief on the cross is another. Neither of them is acceptable to the Jewish religious leaders -- one a Gentile, the other a criminal. But both have great faith, and both, surely, bring joy to Jesus' heart.
Jesus is forsaken, in a sense, even by the Father (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34; quoting Psalm 22:1) as he takes on the sins of all of humanity - past, present and future - and takes on himself the wrath and punishment of God that saves us from it(Isaiah 53:5). But he does not die alone. The Father gives him a believer to be with him. A believer with mighty faith. A believer who can look past the raw wood and nails and blood to the heavenly kingdom that Jesus will inherit. And he is a believer who wants "in." Jesus answers him as his life on earth is ending, "Yes, you'll be with me there -- today in paradise. We'll go together, you and me."
Is God sending all humanity this message?
Believe in Me. I love you no matter what you have done.
What a promise! What a privilege!
For prayer requests, comments or to be included in our email ministry, email us at: whosoever@cottagehillbaptist.org. Also, Check out our “blog” at: http://thewhosoevers.blogspot.com/
The Faith of the Thief on the Cross
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:39-43
Hanging on crosses at Jesus' right and left hand are two criminals. Based on scripture we don’t know exactly what they did merely that they were criminals. Matthew and Mark don’t go into as much detail as Dr. Luke. They just referred to these two as robbers. Other translation calls them revolutionaries and King James Version calls them simply - thieves. Whatever, they were criminals.
One of these bad dudes, dying on a cross on one side of Jesus, now takes up the cat-calling begun by the soldiers, "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" The thief is making fun of Jesus' seemingly inability to do anything despite the exalted title of "Christ/Messiah" that has been used concerning him. Where is this talk of "Messiah" now? he sneers. You're dying just like us. Death is the great equalizer.
Hanging on crosses at Jesus' right and left hand are two criminals. Based on scripture we don’t know exactly what they did merely that they were criminals. Matthew and Mark don’t go into as much detail as Dr. Luke. They just referred to these two as robbers. Other translation calls them revolutionaries and King James Version calls them simply - thieves. Whatever, they were criminals.
One of these bad dudes, dying on a cross on one side of Jesus, now takes up the cat-calling begun by the soldiers, "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" The thief is making fun of Jesus' seemingly inability to do anything despite the exalted title of "Christ/Messiah" that has been used concerning him. Where is this talk of "Messiah" now? he sneers. You're dying just like us. Death is the great equalizer.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
What Has God Promised Us?
Does God promise us good health? Fame and fortune? Some in this world would suggest that God does promise us these things. Others would suggest that God doesn't promise us anything and, rather, stands distantly from the circumstances of our lives. Last week, we learned that faith is believing that God will do what he promised. If that's true, if faith is attached to a promise, if walking by faith is living as if God will do what he promised, then we need to ask the question, "What has God really promised us?"
Here are some things that God hasn’t promised us:
To find out how real life fits with the promises of God is to read the story of Jesus and read the story of His followers. Their stories can be kinda’ of a downer. The men who had the greatest faith in God and in Jesus, most of them were martyred or put on an island or persecuted or stoned or beaten. Isn’t this real encouraging? They had great faith and bad things happened to them.
So from this we find that God had not promised to keep bad things from happening to people who believe in Him! So if something bad happens to you this doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love you. At least we haven’t been stoned or beaten within an inch of our life! So we are actually doing way better that some of His closest followers. And another thing, none of the people who were closest to Jesus became wealthy because of their faith. But having said this, most of us have a moment where God gave us what we hoped for, He gave us what we asked for, He answered our prayer. So this is hope – we can bring anything to God and we can ask for anything. And sometimes He answers our prayers and sometimes He doesn’t.
But the question today is, “What has He promised?” He hasn’t promised to make us rich. He hasn’t promised to keep bad things from happening to us. In fact there is a verse that most people don’t claim as their “life verse”. A life verse is like one or more verses that people like to memorize and “carry” around with them. (My personal verses are 1 Peter 5:6-7.) Okay, back to the verse most folks don’t claim - “In this world you will have trouble.” John 16:33. Jesus promised this. So here is one promise from God! By the way, if any of you have trouble believing the Bible, hang on to this verse, ‘cause you can believe it is true! :) Jesus said this to His closest followers. He is saying that I am not promising you a lifetime with out troubles. So, any time a preacher, a speaker, a leader, a teacher, a book writer or whoever says that “if you do this, God will do this. You can say, “Well, that just not what Jesus modeled nor is this what He taught”.
But there is some great news! He did make an extraordinary promise.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses...... Hebrews 4:14-15a
The Message translates this scripture - “We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality.”
When we picture Jesus in Heaven. When we pray to God and Jesus is our “great high priest”, He isn’t going to say “What? What do you mean? I don’t understand!” We are talking to our Savior, Who says, “I know! I know! I know, not just what is happening to you, I know what that is like! I know how that feels!”
“...but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are.....” Hebrews 4:14b. The Message says, “He's been through weakness and testing, experienced it all...”
The scriptures teach that Jesus has been through what we have been through or will go through, what we felt! Jesus spent a night dreading an event that was about to happen the following day. Anybody here every spent a night dreading an event? (Don’t count exams!) For some it might have been a court case. For some a trip to the hospital. For some seeing some one you hadn’t seen in a long time and you knew they weren’t delivering good news. Most of us have or will experience such a night. Our savior spent a night knowing the next day He would be beaten, tortured, ridiculed and suffer a slow death! To us a crucifixion is something in a movie but he had grown up seeing this happen. He knew what to expect.
He experienced the rejection and betrayal of His closet friends. Some of us know what that is like. You married him/her because you were best friends. And maybe you thought you were still best friends until someone sat you down and said “I don’t know how to tell you this but _____”! And now you don’t even know how to pray. But the author of scriptures says, “Heads up! Jesus has been there!”
He experienced the rejection of a close family member. He saw everything He had lived for and worked for, crumble around Him. He faced ‘crushing’ temptation. Anyone ever had a temptation that you tried and tried and tried to overcome but just couldn’t? You prayed and prayed but you still gave in! You wonder if God is even listening? But our Heavenly Father says “I know! Because My Son faced the most powerful temptations imaginable. I know!”
You don’t have to even explain your circumstances to God because your Savior, your High Priest, knows! Before we even begin to pray He knows. He’s been there!
Let’s look at how the verse ends: “...yet he did not sin.” Hebrews 4:15b NLT
So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. Hebrews 4:16a NLT
Notice it reads “boldly”. Other translations say “with confidence”, There is nothing here about formality. Formality went out the door when the veil was torn from top to bottom.
Boldly and with confidence. Why? Because He knows!
“..so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16a NIV
When you come to God with sincerity, with all the emotion, with all the passion, with all the hope, with all the hurt, when we come to God boldly, with confidence, we can know that He is a God that understands! Because He allowed His Son to experience what we experience. So if we come boldly without the formality that some religions require, then every single time we will receive something from God!
What will we receive? First “mercy”. He is going to take our issues seriously not because they are serious issues but because they are our issues. And He knows how that feels! Sometimes mercy is something we can “put our hands on”. We can’t take it any more and someone calls and invites you to lunch and you have someone to talk to. Sometimes nothing externally changes but you have the peace of God. You pour out your heart to God and nothing on the outside changes but you just have peace. Or maybe you have changed. Mercy is “I know and I am not angry that you feel the way you do”. Mercy is a promise from God that you can count on.
The second thing he promises is we will “find grace to help us in our time of need”. Grace in this context is the strength or the ability or the energy to endure. God has not promised to deliver us from our circumstances; he has promised to deliver us through them. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that “He (God) will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
Many of us can remember circumstances in our life where we didn’t think we could get through them, but somehow God just gave us the strength to endure. The memories are not pleasant but somehow we made it through the “fire”. And when we look back, we may not opt for easier circumstances because of what we learned from it and how we came out stronger because of the enduring grace of God.
Sometimes God will intervene in the circumstances and sometimes he may not. But this promise says “That your prodigal daughter may not come back, your spouse may not come back, you may not get that job, the deal you are working on may fall through, you may never have the financial situation that you would like, but you know what? I am going to give you the grace, the endurance “to help us in our time of need”. Sometimes I may deliver “from” your circumstances but I promise that every time I will deliver you “through” them!”
Jesus, himself, asked for the circumstances of his death to be changed, but ultimately yielded control to God's plan. A day will come when God will directly intervene to rid the world of sin, sorrow, and death. But in the meantime, how should we balance our prayers of, "God, please do this," and "God, I trust you"?
This week, ask God to change your circumstances, but trust him for the grace to endure in the meantime.
Lesson based on a sermon by Andy Stanley
Here are some things that God hasn’t promised us:
To find out how real life fits with the promises of God is to read the story of Jesus and read the story of His followers. Their stories can be kinda’ of a downer. The men who had the greatest faith in God and in Jesus, most of them were martyred or put on an island or persecuted or stoned or beaten. Isn’t this real encouraging? They had great faith and bad things happened to them.
So from this we find that God had not promised to keep bad things from happening to people who believe in Him! So if something bad happens to you this doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love you. At least we haven’t been stoned or beaten within an inch of our life! So we are actually doing way better that some of His closest followers. And another thing, none of the people who were closest to Jesus became wealthy because of their faith. But having said this, most of us have a moment where God gave us what we hoped for, He gave us what we asked for, He answered our prayer. So this is hope – we can bring anything to God and we can ask for anything. And sometimes He answers our prayers and sometimes He doesn’t.
But the question today is, “What has He promised?” He hasn’t promised to make us rich. He hasn’t promised to keep bad things from happening to us. In fact there is a verse that most people don’t claim as their “life verse”. A life verse is like one or more verses that people like to memorize and “carry” around with them. (My personal verses are 1 Peter 5:6-7.) Okay, back to the verse most folks don’t claim - “In this world you will have trouble.” John 16:33. Jesus promised this. So here is one promise from God! By the way, if any of you have trouble believing the Bible, hang on to this verse, ‘cause you can believe it is true! :) Jesus said this to His closest followers. He is saying that I am not promising you a lifetime with out troubles. So, any time a preacher, a speaker, a leader, a teacher, a book writer or whoever says that “if you do this, God will do this. You can say, “Well, that just not what Jesus modeled nor is this what He taught”.
But there is some great news! He did make an extraordinary promise.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses...... Hebrews 4:14-15a
The Message translates this scripture - “We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality.”
When we picture Jesus in Heaven. When we pray to God and Jesus is our “great high priest”, He isn’t going to say “What? What do you mean? I don’t understand!” We are talking to our Savior, Who says, “I know! I know! I know, not just what is happening to you, I know what that is like! I know how that feels!”
“...but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are.....” Hebrews 4:14b. The Message says, “He's been through weakness and testing, experienced it all...”
The scriptures teach that Jesus has been through what we have been through or will go through, what we felt! Jesus spent a night dreading an event that was about to happen the following day. Anybody here every spent a night dreading an event? (Don’t count exams!) For some it might have been a court case. For some a trip to the hospital. For some seeing some one you hadn’t seen in a long time and you knew they weren’t delivering good news. Most of us have or will experience such a night. Our savior spent a night knowing the next day He would be beaten, tortured, ridiculed and suffer a slow death! To us a crucifixion is something in a movie but he had grown up seeing this happen. He knew what to expect.
He experienced the rejection and betrayal of His closet friends. Some of us know what that is like. You married him/her because you were best friends. And maybe you thought you were still best friends until someone sat you down and said “I don’t know how to tell you this but _____”! And now you don’t even know how to pray. But the author of scriptures says, “Heads up! Jesus has been there!”
He experienced the rejection of a close family member. He saw everything He had lived for and worked for, crumble around Him. He faced ‘crushing’ temptation. Anyone ever had a temptation that you tried and tried and tried to overcome but just couldn’t? You prayed and prayed but you still gave in! You wonder if God is even listening? But our Heavenly Father says “I know! Because My Son faced the most powerful temptations imaginable. I know!”
You don’t have to even explain your circumstances to God because your Savior, your High Priest, knows! Before we even begin to pray He knows. He’s been there!
Let’s look at how the verse ends: “...yet he did not sin.” Hebrews 4:15b NLT
So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. Hebrews 4:16a NLT
Notice it reads “boldly”. Other translations say “with confidence”, There is nothing here about formality. Formality went out the door when the veil was torn from top to bottom.
Boldly and with confidence. Why? Because He knows!
“..so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16a NIV
When you come to God with sincerity, with all the emotion, with all the passion, with all the hope, with all the hurt, when we come to God boldly, with confidence, we can know that He is a God that understands! Because He allowed His Son to experience what we experience. So if we come boldly without the formality that some religions require, then every single time we will receive something from God!
What will we receive? First “mercy”. He is going to take our issues seriously not because they are serious issues but because they are our issues. And He knows how that feels! Sometimes mercy is something we can “put our hands on”. We can’t take it any more and someone calls and invites you to lunch and you have someone to talk to. Sometimes nothing externally changes but you have the peace of God. You pour out your heart to God and nothing on the outside changes but you just have peace. Or maybe you have changed. Mercy is “I know and I am not angry that you feel the way you do”. Mercy is a promise from God that you can count on.
The second thing he promises is we will “find grace to help us in our time of need”. Grace in this context is the strength or the ability or the energy to endure. God has not promised to deliver us from our circumstances; he has promised to deliver us through them. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that “He (God) will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
Many of us can remember circumstances in our life where we didn’t think we could get through them, but somehow God just gave us the strength to endure. The memories are not pleasant but somehow we made it through the “fire”. And when we look back, we may not opt for easier circumstances because of what we learned from it and how we came out stronger because of the enduring grace of God.
Sometimes God will intervene in the circumstances and sometimes he may not. But this promise says “That your prodigal daughter may not come back, your spouse may not come back, you may not get that job, the deal you are working on may fall through, you may never have the financial situation that you would like, but you know what? I am going to give you the grace, the endurance “to help us in our time of need”. Sometimes I may deliver “from” your circumstances but I promise that every time I will deliver you “through” them!”
Jesus, himself, asked for the circumstances of his death to be changed, but ultimately yielded control to God's plan. A day will come when God will directly intervene to rid the world of sin, sorrow, and death. But in the meantime, how should we balance our prayers of, "God, please do this," and "God, I trust you"?
This week, ask God to change your circumstances, but trust him for the grace to endure in the meantime.
Lesson based on a sermon by Andy Stanley
Sunday, May 2, 2010
What is Biblical faith?
Last week we talked about circumstantial faith where our faith in God often depends on God’s activity or inactivity in our everyday life experiences. Today we are going to look at Biblical faith.
So what is Biblical faith? Is it a force? Is it a power? Is it something we use to get God’s attention? According to Scripture, faith is none of those things. Faith is actually very simple.
What is faith? Is it different than hope? How do you even measure faith? If things are going well with you and God, does that mean you have a lot of faith? If things are not going well in your life, if your prayers are not being answered, does that mean you don't have enough faith? Unfortunately, messages about faith today are very me centered. Do I have enough faith? Am I praying or believing enough? In reality, the object of our faith is much more important than the amount of faith we have. The object of our faith should be Jesus and what He did!
What is faith NOT? Faith is not a power or force. We have a tendency to believe that God is over there and we are over here and if we make a lasso out of faith we can “rope Him”. And because of our great faith, get Him to do things He was never going to do. It is not if we believe, we will receive. Faith is not a formula and once you get it figured out then God will start doing things for you. Prayer, prayer, prayer, go to church, prayer! Nope, not the right combination. Okay. Prayer, go to church, go to church, prayer, fast. Nope that didn’t work! Faith is not a formula.
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. Hebrews 11:1-3 NLT.
We tend to resist the biblical definition of faith because it takes faith out of our hands and puts God back in control. Much too often, we don't want God - we want a genie. But the goal of faith is not to get God to do what we want him to do; the goal of faith is to get us to live in accordance with the character and promises of God. Ultimately, faith comes down to trusting that God knows what he is doing.
Faith is what we hope far, so there is a difference in hope and faith. Faith is the hope taken one step further. Hope is “I think this is going to work out” but faith is being absolutely sure that something is going to work out. The bridge between hope and faith is the Promise of God!
In Hebrews 11:2 we get an illustration. “Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.” This is how the faith of the Old Testament and the New Testament is defined. In verse 13, the writer of Hebrews wrote: “All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it.” Somehow something happened to these ‘saints” of the Old testament that allowed them to not only be hopeful but to have confidence – their hope became faith.
“It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going.” Hebrews 11:8. This is from a story in Genesis, where God told man named Abram (Abraham) to “start walking in that direction and I will tell you when to stop! Just leave your family, your land and go, go, go, until I tell you to stop! I am going to take you somewhere new but I’m not telling you where.” The Bible says BY FAITH, He obeyed God.
God told Noah that “It is going to rain”. Noah said “God, I believe you. Boys, get to building”! God said to Abraham, “Go” and Abraham said “Family pack up. We’re moving.” These are acts of faith.
Let’s look at a story of faith from Luke. “In one of the villages, Jesus met a man with an advanced case of leprosy. When the man saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground, begging to be healed. “Lord,” he said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.” Luke 5:12.
He came to Jesus saying with confidence saying “I don’t know if you are willing, but if you are willing, I know you can make a difference in my circumstances. But I am not presumptuous enough to assume that just because I asked that you have to. Just because I believed don’t mean you are forced to heal me. I believe you can and I hope you are willing. “Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared.” (Verse 13). The man came humbly and asked Jesus and didn’t try to talk him into it for whatever reason.
Our relationship with God should be that each day we can wake up and say, "If You never do anything else for me, You are still God. If you don’t answer another prayer, Jesus is still my Savior. If I don’t see you in the everyday circumstances of my life, that doesn’t change anything. My eternity is still secure! I can still worship you, because my faith is not based on the circumstances of life. And the great news is that I can bring everything to you. I can fall humbly on my face before You and say, God, I beg of you, I so badly need a job, I so badly need a friend, I so badly need relief from this ailment, or I so badly need to be free of my sin and my guilt. If you are willing, I have absolute perfect faith that you can do these things, IF you are willing.”
Sometimes God is willing at the moment, and sometimes God is willing later, and sometimes God is not willing at all because of something He knows that we don’t know. And, sometimes He is not willing for reasons we will never know. But, He is still God and we still aren’t! And we are still loved as His children. We are still His children not because He answered a prayer but because back in history, He sent His beloved Son to be our forever Savior. And this is always true whether he says He’s willing. Or He says wait. Or He says nothing and so nothing changes or sometimes things get worse.
This why sometimes we see people that have extraordinary faith and their circumstances are not great but they continue to believe in God. We say, “What’s up with this God? They have all this faith and, hey, they are doing so well!” But they continue to say everyday “if God is willing but so far He’s not willing but He is still God! Jesus is still my Savior, why wouldn’t I worship Him with both hands in the air? Why wouldn’t I sing at the top of my voice? Why wouldn’t I continue to follow Him and follow Him and follow Him? The scriptures say that many of the people who followed Him died without an answer to their prayers. They died before they saw the Promise. At least, we are living on “this side’ of Calvary and other the other side of His promise to send a Messiah. So why wouldn’t I trust Him? Because Biblical faith is not the ability to see God in the circumstances of life. Faith is confidence that He is who He says He is and He will do everything He promised. And if He says “No” to me, that’s His business, He’s God.”
But we want to shrink God down. We want to put Him in our pocket, back pack or purse and carry Him around with us. We want to have Him and pull Him out and say “meet my needs”, but whoa, back up God, I just want you part of the time. I don’t want you to take over until I get things the way I want them. Maybe not now but in a couple of more years I want you to take “control”. I know I need you but not right now!
This sounds all fine until we hit rock bottom and we do hit rock bottom. And then do you know what? We want a big old, created the universe, all powerful, God. One who is bigger than your circumstances! Not one who just has the world in His hands but has the world, like, on His fingernail! And do you know the good news – that is exactly who He is!!!! But He doesn’t do your bidding and He doesn’t do mine. Because He is God! But as big as He is, He knows my name, He says call me Father! And He says come to me with all your “stuff” because you believe I can do something about it. And that is all the faith I am looking for. We say, God, I believe you can if you are willing. And God says, “You know what, some days I am going to be so willing. Other days I am going to say I am not willing right now but will be willing later. And sometimes, I am not going to be willing at all.
But you can get up off your knees and love me and know that I love you because you are beyond circumstantial faith. You are trusting in the God that created the universe. The God that sent His Son to die for you and that loves you with all His heart. AND he has your best interest in mind, when you can see it and when you don’t. He has the ability to do anything He wants to, including the ability to say “no”.
As Christians we can come to God and ask for anything we want and we can believe He “can” answer our prayers and we can hope He will answer our prayers. He can do what you asked Him to do. But Faith is not a power or force. Faith is simply confidence that God is who He claims to be, as revealed in Scripture, and that He will do everything He’s promised to do. Faith is confidence that God loves us based on what Jesus did. Faith is that if God chooses to, He can say yes. Also, the confidence that if God says NO, He is still God!
Above lesson is based on a sermon by Andy Stanley.
For prayer requests, comments or to be included in our email ministry, email us at: whosoever@cottagehillbaptist.org. Also, Check out our “blog” at: http://thewhosoevers.blogspot.com/
So what is Biblical faith? Is it a force? Is it a power? Is it something we use to get God’s attention? According to Scripture, faith is none of those things. Faith is actually very simple.
What is faith? Is it different than hope? How do you even measure faith? If things are going well with you and God, does that mean you have a lot of faith? If things are not going well in your life, if your prayers are not being answered, does that mean you don't have enough faith? Unfortunately, messages about faith today are very me centered. Do I have enough faith? Am I praying or believing enough? In reality, the object of our faith is much more important than the amount of faith we have. The object of our faith should be Jesus and what He did!
What is faith NOT? Faith is not a power or force. We have a tendency to believe that God is over there and we are over here and if we make a lasso out of faith we can “rope Him”. And because of our great faith, get Him to do things He was never going to do. It is not if we believe, we will receive. Faith is not a formula and once you get it figured out then God will start doing things for you. Prayer, prayer, prayer, go to church, prayer! Nope, not the right combination. Okay. Prayer, go to church, go to church, prayer, fast. Nope that didn’t work! Faith is not a formula.
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. Hebrews 11:1-3 NLT.
We tend to resist the biblical definition of faith because it takes faith out of our hands and puts God back in control. Much too often, we don't want God - we want a genie. But the goal of faith is not to get God to do what we want him to do; the goal of faith is to get us to live in accordance with the character and promises of God. Ultimately, faith comes down to trusting that God knows what he is doing.
Faith is what we hope far, so there is a difference in hope and faith. Faith is the hope taken one step further. Hope is “I think this is going to work out” but faith is being absolutely sure that something is going to work out. The bridge between hope and faith is the Promise of God!
In Hebrews 11:2 we get an illustration. “Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.” This is how the faith of the Old Testament and the New Testament is defined. In verse 13, the writer of Hebrews wrote: “All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it.” Somehow something happened to these ‘saints” of the Old testament that allowed them to not only be hopeful but to have confidence – their hope became faith.
“It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going.” Hebrews 11:8. This is from a story in Genesis, where God told man named Abram (Abraham) to “start walking in that direction and I will tell you when to stop! Just leave your family, your land and go, go, go, until I tell you to stop! I am going to take you somewhere new but I’m not telling you where.” The Bible says BY FAITH, He obeyed God.
God told Noah that “It is going to rain”. Noah said “God, I believe you. Boys, get to building”! God said to Abraham, “Go” and Abraham said “Family pack up. We’re moving.” These are acts of faith.
Let’s look at a story of faith from Luke. “In one of the villages, Jesus met a man with an advanced case of leprosy. When the man saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground, begging to be healed. “Lord,” he said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.” Luke 5:12.
He came to Jesus saying with confidence saying “I don’t know if you are willing, but if you are willing, I know you can make a difference in my circumstances. But I am not presumptuous enough to assume that just because I asked that you have to. Just because I believed don’t mean you are forced to heal me. I believe you can and I hope you are willing. “Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared.” (Verse 13). The man came humbly and asked Jesus and didn’t try to talk him into it for whatever reason.
Our relationship with God should be that each day we can wake up and say, "If You never do anything else for me, You are still God. If you don’t answer another prayer, Jesus is still my Savior. If I don’t see you in the everyday circumstances of my life, that doesn’t change anything. My eternity is still secure! I can still worship you, because my faith is not based on the circumstances of life. And the great news is that I can bring everything to you. I can fall humbly on my face before You and say, God, I beg of you, I so badly need a job, I so badly need a friend, I so badly need relief from this ailment, or I so badly need to be free of my sin and my guilt. If you are willing, I have absolute perfect faith that you can do these things, IF you are willing.”
Sometimes God is willing at the moment, and sometimes God is willing later, and sometimes God is not willing at all because of something He knows that we don’t know. And, sometimes He is not willing for reasons we will never know. But, He is still God and we still aren’t! And we are still loved as His children. We are still His children not because He answered a prayer but because back in history, He sent His beloved Son to be our forever Savior. And this is always true whether he says He’s willing. Or He says wait. Or He says nothing and so nothing changes or sometimes things get worse.
This why sometimes we see people that have extraordinary faith and their circumstances are not great but they continue to believe in God. We say, “What’s up with this God? They have all this faith and, hey, they are doing so well!” But they continue to say everyday “if God is willing but so far He’s not willing but He is still God! Jesus is still my Savior, why wouldn’t I worship Him with both hands in the air? Why wouldn’t I sing at the top of my voice? Why wouldn’t I continue to follow Him and follow Him and follow Him? The scriptures say that many of the people who followed Him died without an answer to their prayers. They died before they saw the Promise. At least, we are living on “this side’ of Calvary and other the other side of His promise to send a Messiah. So why wouldn’t I trust Him? Because Biblical faith is not the ability to see God in the circumstances of life. Faith is confidence that He is who He says He is and He will do everything He promised. And if He says “No” to me, that’s His business, He’s God.”
But we want to shrink God down. We want to put Him in our pocket, back pack or purse and carry Him around with us. We want to have Him and pull Him out and say “meet my needs”, but whoa, back up God, I just want you part of the time. I don’t want you to take over until I get things the way I want them. Maybe not now but in a couple of more years I want you to take “control”. I know I need you but not right now!
This sounds all fine until we hit rock bottom and we do hit rock bottom. And then do you know what? We want a big old, created the universe, all powerful, God. One who is bigger than your circumstances! Not one who just has the world in His hands but has the world, like, on His fingernail! And do you know the good news – that is exactly who He is!!!! But He doesn’t do your bidding and He doesn’t do mine. Because He is God! But as big as He is, He knows my name, He says call me Father! And He says come to me with all your “stuff” because you believe I can do something about it. And that is all the faith I am looking for. We say, God, I believe you can if you are willing. And God says, “You know what, some days I am going to be so willing. Other days I am going to say I am not willing right now but will be willing later. And sometimes, I am not going to be willing at all.
But you can get up off your knees and love me and know that I love you because you are beyond circumstantial faith. You are trusting in the God that created the universe. The God that sent His Son to die for you and that loves you with all His heart. AND he has your best interest in mind, when you can see it and when you don’t. He has the ability to do anything He wants to, including the ability to say “no”.
As Christians we can come to God and ask for anything we want and we can believe He “can” answer our prayers and we can hope He will answer our prayers. He can do what you asked Him to do. But Faith is not a power or force. Faith is simply confidence that God is who He claims to be, as revealed in Scripture, and that He will do everything He’s promised to do. Faith is confidence that God loves us based on what Jesus did. Faith is that if God chooses to, He can say yes. Also, the confidence that if God says NO, He is still God!
Above lesson is based on a sermon by Andy Stanley.
For prayer requests, comments or to be included in our email ministry, email us at: whosoever@cottagehillbaptist.org. Also, Check out our “blog” at: http://thewhosoevers.blogspot.com/
What Is Your Faith “Propped Up” On?
How does faith really work? If your prayers aren't answered, is it because you didn't have enough faith? What does it mean to lose faith? Does your faith waver depending on your circumstances? Or is your faith supposed to be in something beyond your control, so that it isn't swayed by the circumstances of your life? Your faith is resting against something. Is it something that changes day to day, or does it endure through time?
Do you believe that most everyone falls out of faith at some point and most people fall out of faith many times in their lives?
Faith often comes and goes as our circumstances change. Sometimes it only takes a bad turn of events to challenge our beliefs.
When someone says they have lost their faith or lost their ‘religion” it usually boils down to one of two things – lifestyle decision or unexplainable circumstances. These two things do more to erode and chip away at our faith foundation, which was probably had weak to begin with, more than anything else.
What do we mean by a lifestyle decision? Let’s say you were raised in a Christian home where you were taught that cheating and being dishonest was a bad thing. You might have cheated and were dishonest but you still believed it was bad thing. This was part of your belief system. This was fine but then you got out of school, went to the “big city”, got a job and became part of a company. At this company cheating and being dishonest was a business practice. It might not have been really overt but this is just how business was done. Now you get this feeling inside. You were raised to believe this was wrong but it didn’t seem to bother anybody else. Now you had a dilemma. You have three choices: work here and feel guilty all the time, I can quit but that’s not a good option, or maybe what I have always believed isn’t true. Maybe in an environment like this being a little bit dishonest and cheating a little is not all that bad! Maybe I am being too hard on myself. Maybe my conscience is to ‘strict”. And over time, and most have experienced this, because of a lifestyle decision we began to change what we believed. You decided to stay in this company and become a part or it. Suddenly your beliefs have shifted. This is a lifestyle decision.
Another example of a lifestyle decision is you always said you'd never live with someone to "try it out" before getting married. Then you move to “the big city”, meet someone awesome and she/he wants to "try it out". Well you obviously want to keep this person around because they are so awesome, so you change your belief system and move in together to "try it out". Again you have shifted your beliefs to suit your lifestyle.
Now let’s look at unexplainable circumstances. You were raised in a Christian environment and you were taught that “God would never...” but then it seemed “that God did anyway”! You were raised to believe that “God would always....” but then it seemed that ‘God didn’t”! You were raised to believe that if you did “A, B, and C”, then you could believe or trust God to do “D, E, and F”. So you have done A, B, and C consistently but God didn’t do D, E, or F. And all of a sudden there is a life circumstance that doesn’t line up with your thinking about God and your faith is shattered. This happens all the time.
These two things basically boil down to something we can call "Circumstantial Faith".
This means our faith in God often depends on God’s activity or inactivity in our everyday life experiences. When our prayers are answered our faith in Him soars but when it appears that God is silent, it becomes difficult to have faith in Him. Or our faith may depend on how well it fits in with our lifestyle.
Many of us have this “circumstantial faith”. This kind of faith attempts to see God in the circumstances of our everyday life. Not all bad, because it is not uncommon to have certain events launch a person’s faith but we must not allow these events to be the foundation of our faith.
When God is doing all sorts of cool things in our lives we say: Yea God! Then when things are not quite so good we say “where is God? And when things get really, really bad we think "is there a God"? Our faith kind of goes on our ability to see God in our everyday life circumstances. So the defining factor of our faith depends on God showing up or not showing up on our time table.
So for example let's say you have a friend, family member, etc., who comes down with an illness. The prognosis doesn't look good so you pray for this person’s health. Well lo and behold a few days / weeks / months later they are "miraculously" cured. This of course instills a strong faith in you and God’s power. You spend the next weeks / months / years continuing down this path until one day something happens which causes you to doubt God.
Another ‘circumstance’ occurs in our lives – we lose our job, another friend gets ill or someone has some other issue or problem. We again prayed but God didn’t answer the way we thought he should and “BOOM” our faith in Him plummeted. Because you based your faith on the first event and then had a negative experience with the second event, your faith is now "shaken". This is because our faith was ‘propped up” on our ability to only see God in the everyday circumstances of our life. Circumstantial faith is very “fragile” because sometimes you see Him and sometimes you don’t. You are always trying figure out why circumstances happened because I did this or Momma said ‘so and so” or I didn’t pray hard enough. This is very fragile because things do happen that don’t fit into the framework of our view of God
We are horrible, yes horrible, at interpretation of events and circumstances in our lives. God speaks in many ways to us and we, being the smart humans we are, love to interpret these "signs" or "feelings". The problem is we typically interpret them as a positive thing for us. But when those same "things" go negative either now or later on down the road it causes us to lose our faith. Again because we based our faith on something or some event.
Whenever you adapt a faith foundation to fit your life, it will always end in tragedy.
So what is the foundation of our faith? The foundation of FAITH is a person. It is not an answer to a prayer, not something that happened to us when we were six, the foundation of our faith is a person - Jesus Christ. God sent Him into this world. Jesus walked on this earth; he lived a perfect life, predicted his death and resurrection, was crucified, buried and rose from the dead. He was then seen by hundreds of people who said: “I saw this happen” and they gave their lives to him and told people what they saw. As Christians, if God never answered another prayer, if God never showed up in our circumstances, if God didn’t do anything for us lately or ever again, zilch was quiet from now on, we still should wake up everyday with extraordinary confidence in God because of what he did for us back in history, back at the Cross. Because Jesus came into this world to die for our sins, which is God’s way of saying throughout the ages that “I LOVE YOU”, YOU ARE IMPORTANT TO ME!!!! We can go through each day of our lives with our faith based on what he did for us back in history and not have our faith propped up on circumstantial faith.
So what is your faith built on?
This lesson is based on a sermon by Andy Stanley
For prayer requests, comments or to be included in our email ministry, email us at: whosoever@cottagehillbaptist.org. Also, Check out our “blog” at: http://thewhosoevers.blogspot.com/
Do you believe that most everyone falls out of faith at some point and most people fall out of faith many times in their lives?
Faith often comes and goes as our circumstances change. Sometimes it only takes a bad turn of events to challenge our beliefs.
When someone says they have lost their faith or lost their ‘religion” it usually boils down to one of two things – lifestyle decision or unexplainable circumstances. These two things do more to erode and chip away at our faith foundation, which was probably had weak to begin with, more than anything else.
What do we mean by a lifestyle decision? Let’s say you were raised in a Christian home where you were taught that cheating and being dishonest was a bad thing. You might have cheated and were dishonest but you still believed it was bad thing. This was part of your belief system. This was fine but then you got out of school, went to the “big city”, got a job and became part of a company. At this company cheating and being dishonest was a business practice. It might not have been really overt but this is just how business was done. Now you get this feeling inside. You were raised to believe this was wrong but it didn’t seem to bother anybody else. Now you had a dilemma. You have three choices: work here and feel guilty all the time, I can quit but that’s not a good option, or maybe what I have always believed isn’t true. Maybe in an environment like this being a little bit dishonest and cheating a little is not all that bad! Maybe I am being too hard on myself. Maybe my conscience is to ‘strict”. And over time, and most have experienced this, because of a lifestyle decision we began to change what we believed. You decided to stay in this company and become a part or it. Suddenly your beliefs have shifted. This is a lifestyle decision.
Another example of a lifestyle decision is you always said you'd never live with someone to "try it out" before getting married. Then you move to “the big city”, meet someone awesome and she/he wants to "try it out". Well you obviously want to keep this person around because they are so awesome, so you change your belief system and move in together to "try it out". Again you have shifted your beliefs to suit your lifestyle.
Now let’s look at unexplainable circumstances. You were raised in a Christian environment and you were taught that “God would never...” but then it seemed “that God did anyway”! You were raised to believe that “God would always....” but then it seemed that ‘God didn’t”! You were raised to believe that if you did “A, B, and C”, then you could believe or trust God to do “D, E, and F”. So you have done A, B, and C consistently but God didn’t do D, E, or F. And all of a sudden there is a life circumstance that doesn’t line up with your thinking about God and your faith is shattered. This happens all the time.
These two things basically boil down to something we can call "Circumstantial Faith".
This means our faith in God often depends on God’s activity or inactivity in our everyday life experiences. When our prayers are answered our faith in Him soars but when it appears that God is silent, it becomes difficult to have faith in Him. Or our faith may depend on how well it fits in with our lifestyle.
Many of us have this “circumstantial faith”. This kind of faith attempts to see God in the circumstances of our everyday life. Not all bad, because it is not uncommon to have certain events launch a person’s faith but we must not allow these events to be the foundation of our faith.
When God is doing all sorts of cool things in our lives we say: Yea God! Then when things are not quite so good we say “where is God? And when things get really, really bad we think "is there a God"? Our faith kind of goes on our ability to see God in our everyday life circumstances. So the defining factor of our faith depends on God showing up or not showing up on our time table.
So for example let's say you have a friend, family member, etc., who comes down with an illness. The prognosis doesn't look good so you pray for this person’s health. Well lo and behold a few days / weeks / months later they are "miraculously" cured. This of course instills a strong faith in you and God’s power. You spend the next weeks / months / years continuing down this path until one day something happens which causes you to doubt God.
Another ‘circumstance’ occurs in our lives – we lose our job, another friend gets ill or someone has some other issue or problem. We again prayed but God didn’t answer the way we thought he should and “BOOM” our faith in Him plummeted. Because you based your faith on the first event and then had a negative experience with the second event, your faith is now "shaken". This is because our faith was ‘propped up” on our ability to only see God in the everyday circumstances of our life. Circumstantial faith is very “fragile” because sometimes you see Him and sometimes you don’t. You are always trying figure out why circumstances happened because I did this or Momma said ‘so and so” or I didn’t pray hard enough. This is very fragile because things do happen that don’t fit into the framework of our view of God
We are horrible, yes horrible, at interpretation of events and circumstances in our lives. God speaks in many ways to us and we, being the smart humans we are, love to interpret these "signs" or "feelings". The problem is we typically interpret them as a positive thing for us. But when those same "things" go negative either now or later on down the road it causes us to lose our faith. Again because we based our faith on something or some event.
Whenever you adapt a faith foundation to fit your life, it will always end in tragedy.
So what is the foundation of our faith? The foundation of FAITH is a person. It is not an answer to a prayer, not something that happened to us when we were six, the foundation of our faith is a person - Jesus Christ. God sent Him into this world. Jesus walked on this earth; he lived a perfect life, predicted his death and resurrection, was crucified, buried and rose from the dead. He was then seen by hundreds of people who said: “I saw this happen” and they gave their lives to him and told people what they saw. As Christians, if God never answered another prayer, if God never showed up in our circumstances, if God didn’t do anything for us lately or ever again, zilch was quiet from now on, we still should wake up everyday with extraordinary confidence in God because of what he did for us back in history, back at the Cross. Because Jesus came into this world to die for our sins, which is God’s way of saying throughout the ages that “I LOVE YOU”, YOU ARE IMPORTANT TO ME!!!! We can go through each day of our lives with our faith based on what he did for us back in history and not have our faith propped up on circumstantial faith.
So what is your faith built on?
This lesson is based on a sermon by Andy Stanley
For prayer requests, comments or to be included in our email ministry, email us at: whosoever@cottagehillbaptist.org. Also, Check out our “blog” at: http://thewhosoevers.blogspot.com/
Monday, April 19, 2010
“Help! I Can’t Forgive Myself”
“Help! I Can’t Forgive Myself”
John 21:9-19
Today we are going to be looking at a person who Jesus had called to be a fisherman of people. He got off track lots of times--he was always blurting out things without thinking, He was always taking some hasty action he regretted later, but the worst thing was when he denied Christ. He said he never would. But he did. He blew it big time. He thought he was disqualified from ever doing the Lord’s work again.
This event is after Jesus’ resurrection. At the beginning of this chapter Peter says, “I’m going fishing.” He was really saying, “What is there left for me but to go back to my old job. I’ve got to do something. I have totally failed the Lord. I feel guilty about it, but I can’t forgive myself.” He goes off with the weight of guilt hanging heavy on his shoulders, back to his old job. He struggles with where do I go from here? What do I do now? I blame myself over and over for what I did. I can’t do anything about it. He probably replayed the tape over and over from the time he denied Christ, but it didn’t do any good. He could not forgive himself and maybe he wasn’t sure if the Lord could even forgive him. It seemed just too difficult.
Does this sound familiar to you when trying to forgive yourself for something? At times there are certain things you look back on in your life that you punish yourself over and over for just like Peter did. It seems impossible to overcome. What can this scripture say to us today that will help us to get past the things that are keeping us chained to the past?
1. Jesus Walked Into Peter’s Life: Jesus wasn’t far from Peter although he thought he was. In fact that day on the beach Jesus invited Peter and the other disciples to breakfast. He said, bring some of the fish you’ve just caught and have some breakfast with me.
Jesus took the initiative to invite Peter to breakfast. Most of the time we do not pick up on the invitation. We don’t hear Jesus say to us, “Come to me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 NLT) because we are so busy struggling and beating ourselves up over the past. We are still stuck in our guilt. Jesus is saying, “Come to breakfast.” Bring some of the fish you’ve caught. You are included.” We all want to be included but we have a hard time breaking through our own barriers. Jesus says, “Come on. Don’t just sit there. Let’s enjoy the morning.” We say, “but Lord, I’m not deserving. I can’t forget what I have done in the past. I can’t get over it.” Jesus is saying, “You’re invited. Come on.”
Should Peter risk it? What if Jesus didn’t REALLY mean it. What if I BLOW IT again? What if I MESS UP and say the wrong things? Peter might have been a little apprehensive about accepting the invitation. He thinks he has been disqualified.
When we are faced with the invitation to come to Jesus we often are afraid to accept it. The biggest obstacle to self-forgiveness may be the tendency to wallow in our own guilt. It’s not that we feel bad because we know we’ve done wrong but we draw those feelings up around us like a blanket and cover our heads. We refuse to push the stop button on our wailing. According to one psychologist when we refuse to forgive ourselves it’s a “crazy form of penance.” Many people decide to punish themselves for the rest of their lives by feeling miserable day after day. The decision to feel miserable for the rest of your life can have tragic consequences because it affects everyone around you.
Peter could have refused the invitation to breakfast. He could have said, “I’m going to stay right here. I’m not going to risk it.” But he didn’t. I think we need to be more like Peter--a risk taker. See what happens. After all Jesus said, “Come on over for breakfast. It was His idea.”
The disciples took the bread and the fish that Jesus gave to them. It was what they all needed that day--not just Peter alone. Jesus offers to us exactly what we need in our current situation just as he did to them that morning, but he had a greater purpose in it for Peter. He had a special job for Peter to do and Peter wasn’t doing it. Peter had to move on. To get unstuck from all of the barriers that were hindering him. We need to deal with our past and experience not only the forgiveness that Jesus brought to us on the cross but to understand that his grace is enough to cover forgiving ourselves as well. It is a part of the package.
2. More Than Breakfast: After breakfast Jesus singled Peter out and asked him a question. “Simon, do you truly love me more than these?” He could have been referring to Peter’s fishing boats, his job as a fisherman, or he could have been referring to the others in the group. Jesus is trying to find out what the depth of His love for was for Him. Was it just a shallow, superficial love or was it rock solid like his name Jesus gave him in John 1:42. Peter in Greek means “rock”.
Peter answers, “Yes, Lord you know that I love you” Jesus presses Peter more in the next question and the next. After each of Peter’s responses, Jesus gave him an assignment. After the first he said. Feed my lambs (vs 15) --the young Christian believers.
Jesus is looking for a total renewal of his loyalty and a reaffirmation of his responsibilities.
Follow me and keep on following me. Jesus knew that if he could get Peter to move away from his guilt over the past and to get him to not only follow him but to keep following him that Peter would become a productive person again. He would find his own healing as he reached out to others. Jesus is telling him “I’ve got work for you to do. If you really love me you are going to feed my lambs. You’re going to help these new Christians. You are going to get the focus off of yourself. You are going to be involved in helping other people.
Peter says, “OK, I’ll do that.”
Jesus asks the second time, “Peter do you truly love me?”
Peter says, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
“Then take care of my sheep”, Jesus said. (vs 16) -- be a shepherd to my sheep. Look after my more mature followers. Keep them safe from harm.
The third time Jesus asks him, “Simon do you love me?” Peter was getting agitated by this same question. He says, “Lord you know all things. You know that I love you.”
Then Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” (vs 17) Take the sheep to pasture where they are fed.
What good did these questions serve? Jesus wanted Peter to really look at his feelings. He wanted him to get over the past and now it was time to experience total forgiveness, to be able to get on with his life and the responsibilities Jesus had called him to. He couldn’t be an effective shepherd to the young Christians or to the established Christians as long as he remained in a state of not forgiving himself for denying Jesus. Jesus parallels Peter’s denial with three questions of restoration. Do you love me--then do this assignment. Do you love me--then feed my lambs, take care of my sheep, feed my sheep. The breakfast had fulfilled its intended purpose for Peter. A restoration and a re-commission.
3. It’s time to push the Stop Button: For Peter this breakfast was the turning point. It was time to push the stop button on the guilt. Self forgiveness is a tool with which we face what we’ve done in the past, acknowledge our mistakes and move on.
This is exactly what Peter had to do when Jesus was questioning him. If he truly loved Jesus he had to realize that the guilt and self punishment had to go. The grace of God covers a multitude of sins. True forgiveness is found in allowing Jesus to do his work in our lives.
Hit the stop button. Replaying over and over again in your head is not going to help you any. Listen to yourself. Every time you catch yourself rehashing your sins, stop and refocus on what Jesus did on the cross for you. His forgiveness covers it all. Let go of it and decide to move on to more productive things. If you need to go back and apologize to someone you’ve hurt, do it.
Begin to repair the damage you may have done in the past by giving out good to others around you. Some things you can’t change. You can’t always make it up to someone in the past, but you can do some helpful things to people now. Peter could not go back and undo a lot of those foot-in-the mouth statements he made or those impulsive actions. But he was facing a new day with new opportunities to help people in the future--the lambs (the new believers--the sheep (the more established believers). There were abundant opportunities before him. Jesus was saying, “Peter, you have been re-commissioned. Don’t spend your time repenting and repenting over and over again. Get with the program. You’ve got lots of work to do.
Don’t beat yourself up over the past. Jesus says to us, “I have forgiven you totally. His forgiveness is all inclusive. That forgiveness includes forgiving yourself.”
Jesus is telling us that although the temptation to stay at the cross is strong, we must move on. Jesus is resurrected. He is alive today. He has re-commissioned each of us to be his disciples. To move toward doing his work of healing in others. As we move away from our past, we also find in it the healing for ourselves. You CAN forgive yourself. Decide to do it today.
For prayer requests, comments or to be included in our email ministry, email us at: whosoever@cottagehillbaptist.org. Also, Check out our “blog” at: http://thewhosoevers.blogspot.com/
John 21:9-19
Today we are going to be looking at a person who Jesus had called to be a fisherman of people. He got off track lots of times--he was always blurting out things without thinking, He was always taking some hasty action he regretted later, but the worst thing was when he denied Christ. He said he never would. But he did. He blew it big time. He thought he was disqualified from ever doing the Lord’s work again.
This event is after Jesus’ resurrection. At the beginning of this chapter Peter says, “I’m going fishing.” He was really saying, “What is there left for me but to go back to my old job. I’ve got to do something. I have totally failed the Lord. I feel guilty about it, but I can’t forgive myself.” He goes off with the weight of guilt hanging heavy on his shoulders, back to his old job. He struggles with where do I go from here? What do I do now? I blame myself over and over for what I did. I can’t do anything about it. He probably replayed the tape over and over from the time he denied Christ, but it didn’t do any good. He could not forgive himself and maybe he wasn’t sure if the Lord could even forgive him. It seemed just too difficult.
Does this sound familiar to you when trying to forgive yourself for something? At times there are certain things you look back on in your life that you punish yourself over and over for just like Peter did. It seems impossible to overcome. What can this scripture say to us today that will help us to get past the things that are keeping us chained to the past?
1. Jesus Walked Into Peter’s Life: Jesus wasn’t far from Peter although he thought he was. In fact that day on the beach Jesus invited Peter and the other disciples to breakfast. He said, bring some of the fish you’ve just caught and have some breakfast with me.
Jesus took the initiative to invite Peter to breakfast. Most of the time we do not pick up on the invitation. We don’t hear Jesus say to us, “Come to me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 NLT) because we are so busy struggling and beating ourselves up over the past. We are still stuck in our guilt. Jesus is saying, “Come to breakfast.” Bring some of the fish you’ve caught. You are included.” We all want to be included but we have a hard time breaking through our own barriers. Jesus says, “Come on. Don’t just sit there. Let’s enjoy the morning.” We say, “but Lord, I’m not deserving. I can’t forget what I have done in the past. I can’t get over it.” Jesus is saying, “You’re invited. Come on.”
Should Peter risk it? What if Jesus didn’t REALLY mean it. What if I BLOW IT again? What if I MESS UP and say the wrong things? Peter might have been a little apprehensive about accepting the invitation. He thinks he has been disqualified.
When we are faced with the invitation to come to Jesus we often are afraid to accept it. The biggest obstacle to self-forgiveness may be the tendency to wallow in our own guilt. It’s not that we feel bad because we know we’ve done wrong but we draw those feelings up around us like a blanket and cover our heads. We refuse to push the stop button on our wailing. According to one psychologist when we refuse to forgive ourselves it’s a “crazy form of penance.” Many people decide to punish themselves for the rest of their lives by feeling miserable day after day. The decision to feel miserable for the rest of your life can have tragic consequences because it affects everyone around you.
Peter could have refused the invitation to breakfast. He could have said, “I’m going to stay right here. I’m not going to risk it.” But he didn’t. I think we need to be more like Peter--a risk taker. See what happens. After all Jesus said, “Come on over for breakfast. It was His idea.”
The disciples took the bread and the fish that Jesus gave to them. It was what they all needed that day--not just Peter alone. Jesus offers to us exactly what we need in our current situation just as he did to them that morning, but he had a greater purpose in it for Peter. He had a special job for Peter to do and Peter wasn’t doing it. Peter had to move on. To get unstuck from all of the barriers that were hindering him. We need to deal with our past and experience not only the forgiveness that Jesus brought to us on the cross but to understand that his grace is enough to cover forgiving ourselves as well. It is a part of the package.
2. More Than Breakfast: After breakfast Jesus singled Peter out and asked him a question. “Simon, do you truly love me more than these?” He could have been referring to Peter’s fishing boats, his job as a fisherman, or he could have been referring to the others in the group. Jesus is trying to find out what the depth of His love for was for Him. Was it just a shallow, superficial love or was it rock solid like his name Jesus gave him in John 1:42. Peter in Greek means “rock”.
Peter answers, “Yes, Lord you know that I love you” Jesus presses Peter more in the next question and the next. After each of Peter’s responses, Jesus gave him an assignment. After the first he said. Feed my lambs (vs 15) --the young Christian believers.
Jesus is looking for a total renewal of his loyalty and a reaffirmation of his responsibilities.
Follow me and keep on following me. Jesus knew that if he could get Peter to move away from his guilt over the past and to get him to not only follow him but to keep following him that Peter would become a productive person again. He would find his own healing as he reached out to others. Jesus is telling him “I’ve got work for you to do. If you really love me you are going to feed my lambs. You’re going to help these new Christians. You are going to get the focus off of yourself. You are going to be involved in helping other people.
Peter says, “OK, I’ll do that.”
Jesus asks the second time, “Peter do you truly love me?”
Peter says, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
“Then take care of my sheep”, Jesus said. (vs 16) -- be a shepherd to my sheep. Look after my more mature followers. Keep them safe from harm.
The third time Jesus asks him, “Simon do you love me?” Peter was getting agitated by this same question. He says, “Lord you know all things. You know that I love you.”
Then Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” (vs 17) Take the sheep to pasture where they are fed.
What good did these questions serve? Jesus wanted Peter to really look at his feelings. He wanted him to get over the past and now it was time to experience total forgiveness, to be able to get on with his life and the responsibilities Jesus had called him to. He couldn’t be an effective shepherd to the young Christians or to the established Christians as long as he remained in a state of not forgiving himself for denying Jesus. Jesus parallels Peter’s denial with three questions of restoration. Do you love me--then do this assignment. Do you love me--then feed my lambs, take care of my sheep, feed my sheep. The breakfast had fulfilled its intended purpose for Peter. A restoration and a re-commission.
3. It’s time to push the Stop Button: For Peter this breakfast was the turning point. It was time to push the stop button on the guilt. Self forgiveness is a tool with which we face what we’ve done in the past, acknowledge our mistakes and move on.
This is exactly what Peter had to do when Jesus was questioning him. If he truly loved Jesus he had to realize that the guilt and self punishment had to go. The grace of God covers a multitude of sins. True forgiveness is found in allowing Jesus to do his work in our lives.
Hit the stop button. Replaying over and over again in your head is not going to help you any. Listen to yourself. Every time you catch yourself rehashing your sins, stop and refocus on what Jesus did on the cross for you. His forgiveness covers it all. Let go of it and decide to move on to more productive things. If you need to go back and apologize to someone you’ve hurt, do it.
Begin to repair the damage you may have done in the past by giving out good to others around you. Some things you can’t change. You can’t always make it up to someone in the past, but you can do some helpful things to people now. Peter could not go back and undo a lot of those foot-in-the mouth statements he made or those impulsive actions. But he was facing a new day with new opportunities to help people in the future--the lambs (the new believers--the sheep (the more established believers). There were abundant opportunities before him. Jesus was saying, “Peter, you have been re-commissioned. Don’t spend your time repenting and repenting over and over again. Get with the program. You’ve got lots of work to do.
Don’t beat yourself up over the past. Jesus says to us, “I have forgiven you totally. His forgiveness is all inclusive. That forgiveness includes forgiving yourself.”
Jesus is telling us that although the temptation to stay at the cross is strong, we must move on. Jesus is resurrected. He is alive today. He has re-commissioned each of us to be his disciples. To move toward doing his work of healing in others. As we move away from our past, we also find in it the healing for ourselves. You CAN forgive yourself. Decide to do it today.
For prayer requests, comments or to be included in our email ministry, email us at: whosoever@cottagehillbaptist.org. Also, Check out our “blog” at: http://thewhosoevers.blogspot.com/
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