Can We Still Believe in Romans 8:28? Part 1

This lesson generated a great deal of discussion so this is what we covered in class.  Part 2 will be sent next week.

 

Can We Still Believe in Romans 8:28?

 “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. “

Do all things really work together for good? Consider the following.

·         A seemingly healthy 12-year-old girl develops severe migraine headaches. On Friday she is taken to the hospital; on Saturday she dies. Her father calls her “the sunshine of my life.”

·         A mother of 3 young children is working in front yard of a church and is killed by a by a man learning to drive.  This is what happened to our own Youth Pastor.

·         A policeman stops a man known to be a drug dealer. It happens on a busy down­town street and a crowd gathers to watch the unfolding drama. There is a struggle and somehow the drug deal­er grabs the officer’s gun and shoots him at point-blank range, in the face. The officer was in his early 20s.

Do all things work together for good? Do they? Can we still believe in Romans 8:28

 

Let us be honest and admit that we have at least two problems with these words by the apostle Paul.

1. They promise something we have trouble believing. Our text says, “we know that God causes everything to work together for the good”.  Paul, how can you be so sure about that? Most of us are not as sure as Paul was. We hope all things work together for good; we believe they do. But do we really know that to be true?

2. They include things that we think ought to be left out. When Paul says “that God causes everything to work together for the good,” that seems too definite for us. Everything? We might go far as to say that “some things” work together for good. We understand that out of dif­ficulty we learn great lessons of faith that cannot come any other way. Yes, some things clearly work together for good. But can we be sure it is really all things?

There are many who secretly doubt it. They hear this verse quoted, and instead of a soothing to the soul, it seems like a mocking, cruel joke.

They say, “What do you mean by good?”

- Sickness is not good.    
- Murder is not good.       
- A young mother’s untimely death is not good.
- The death of a child is not good.

This verse is sometimes misused by well-meaning Chris­tians who throw it in the face of those who are suffering as if it could answer every question of life. When it is misused that way, it produces an effect opposite to that intended by Paul.

But like it or not, it’s in the Bible. And it won’t go away. Which brings us back to the basic question: Can we still believe in Romans 8:28?

We will never properly understand this verse unless we understand that God is at work. God is there at the beginning, he is there at the end, and he is there at every point in between. God is at work. Not luck, or chance, or blind fate. And that answers the great question, “Where is God when it hurts? Is he there at the beginning, or is he there only at the end?” The answer is He was there before it all happened, he is there when it happens, and he is still there after it is all over. That forever puts an end to the happy-ever-afterism that says, “No matter what happens, God will turn a tragedy into a blessing.” That’s fine for fairy tales, but not for real life.

What do you say when a little child dies? Or when a cop is killed by a drug dealer? Or when a man dies on the mission field? Or when a woman is cheated out of her inheritance? Or when a loved relative dies of from a sudden heart attack? It is hard to see how these things are good.

When we look at these situations, we must at all costs resist the cheap explanation. It’s too quick, too easy. Sometimes tragedies happen and well-meaning people say, “That’s not a tragedy. It only looks that way. Just have faith.” If you believe that tragedy is not really tragedy, you will probably lose your faith altogether.

The point is, we must see the active involvement of God. What happens to you and to me is not the mechanical turning of some impersonal wheel. It is not fate or kismet or karma or luck. God is actively at work in our life!

Is Paul saying, “Whatever happens is good"? No.
Is he saying that suffering and evil and tragedy are good? No.
Is he saying everything will work out if we just have enough faith? No.
Is he saying that we will understand why God allowed tragedy to come? No.

What, then, is he saying? He is erecting a sign over the unexplainable mysteries of life, a sign that reads, “Quiet. God at work.” How? We’re not always sure.

Little children will often be afraid at night. They are scared because they can’t see in the darkness. They cry out until at last Daddy comes. He sits on the bed and takes them in his arms and holds them and says, “Don’t be afraid. I’m right here with you." The fear goes away when Daddy comes. Even so, the darkness of life frightens us until we dis­cover that our heavenly Father is there. The darkness is still dark, but he is there, and that makes all the difference.

 
Lesson continues next week.

The Battle!!

Song by Chris August:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtzNecqxeSI

The theme of today’s lesson is “There's a battle between good and evil and it's raging inside of me
There's a struggle, it's God and the devil It's love against the enemy” even if we don’t realize it... and the only way that we can be victorious in this war is to be on the right side and that right side is Jesus Christ.

This is about a war between “Good” and “Evil”, a war between the “Powers of Darkness” and the powers of Heaven......a battle between “Light” and “Darkness”. This war is about the eternal destiny of every man, woman and child on the face of the earth, from Adam to the last child that will be born before time ceases to exist as we know it.

Signs of this great battle for the souls of men are everywhere. All we have to do is look around and we can see many who have the scars of the battle. Many are wounded emotionally........... some are not able to cope with everyday life and its pressures. Some carry around scars of guilt and shame. Some carry a wounded spirit or a broken heart that sends them over the edge and makes them feel like life just isn’t worth living.

The weapons in this war are not bullets, knives, but words, prayer, sin and faith. (See Ephesians 6:10-17) Satan’s arsenal is filled with temptation, loaded fiery darts of passion and he lays traps, or minefields, where we walk every day. He’s an enemy that’s out to kill, steal and destroy everything that he can, including our very soul.

God’s weapons of this warfare are love, faith, prayer, a sound mind and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Blood of the Lamb and the Cross of Christ. God’s weapons are more powerful than the devil’s, BUT none of them can be used without faith and trust in God to make them work.

The problem is that most people won’t use God’s weapons because they don’t want to surrender their will to God’s will.

When an addict is fighting for their life, doing everything in their power to overcome whatever has them bound, it’s a fight with eternal consequences. To many try to fight this battle alone, believing “will power” can be strong enough to break that bondage.

“Will power” just won’t work most of the time. If you don’t think that’s so, ask yourself how long an addict can go without a fix from the needle or the pill, just relying on will power? How long can the person who needs a cigarette stand the jitters of needing that next puff...there may be a few cases where people claim to overcome these addictions through will power, most fail, and then this adds to their hopelessness and frustration.

The reason that people can’t overcome these things on their own is that these are not just physical battles with a physical addition. They are spiritual battles that can only be fought, and won, in the realms of the supernatural. Listen what the Word of God says about it.

Look at the Apostle Paul..... Paul was an addict before he was an apostle. He didn’t take drugs, he wasn’t hooked on tobacco and he wasn’t a man given to drink. Paul was a Pharisee, a man who dedicated his whole life to obeying the commandments of the Law. But he was an addict. He was addicted to ambition and to recognition.

Paul was first called Saul. As Saul, he was a defender of the faith of the Jews and he loved the idea of persecuting Christians. He was constantly going before the High Priest to obtain letters of authority to kill, maim and imprison every Christian he could find. Saul was fighting the battle against God. He was trying to win a battle that he couldn’t win. He could do nothing to overcome his desire for recognition and power. In fact, he saw nothing wrong with the way he was living and the things he was doing.

It’s a sad thing to see most of the world living for the devil, and fighting in his army, and not even realizing what they are doing.... No one would admit that they are fighting against God. Every man is right in his own eyes because he is blinded to the truth. The truth is that unless we are living for God and serving Him, and working for Him, then we are fighting for the devil.

Saul was soon going to come face to face with the war that was raging around him. He was fighting on the side of Satan, thinking he was doing God a favor, but he was going to meet the Lord on the Road to Damascus. It was there, in the middle of the day, that he was knocked off of his horse into the dust by the True Light from Heaven. Jesus knew that Saul was a sincere man, sincerely wrong even though he thought he was right; and Jesus also knew that Saul’s sincerity needed some direction.

Saul didn’t know who he was fighting for. He thought that he was doing the right thing the whole time. But he soon found out that he had been in the devil’s army, fighting against the very God that he thought he was serving. It took the power of God to break through his blindness and to shatter Saul’s addiction, and it still takes the power of God to truly break any addiction today. We can’t do it on our own, but with God’s help, according to Jesus, in Mark 9:23, “… Anything is possible if a person believes." When Saul gave his heart to Jesus on that road to Damascus, God changed him completely, making him a new creation in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

Saul’s addiction to power and ambition to the chief among the Pharisees came to an end, broke down forever by the power of God. From that day on, God gave him a brand new name, Paul...... and a new purpose, to preach the gospel; and a new life. All that he had been in the past was forgotten by God and forgiven. The blood of Jesus had washed away every sin and Paul was filled with the Holy Ghost and power.

He kept fighting the same war between the worlds of good and evil, but now he was on the right side for a change.

In Acts 16:16-31, Paul and Silas are battling the forces of darkness as they walked the streets of the city. They were going about doing good, praying and ministering, but Satan never stops trying to win the war, so even in the simple things of living for the Lord, they are still in midst of the war.

Let that be a lesson to us all. Don’t ever think that the war isn’t raging just because life seems to be good right now. Our next battle with the devil is just ahead, so be ready for it.

There was a girl that followed Paul and some other disciples. She was “…. a demon-possessed slave girl. She was a fortune-teller who earned a lot of money for her masters. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.” (Acts 16:16-17) BUT, she wasn’t there to be a part of their evangelistic team. She was fighting in the devil’s army against them and she was doing everything she could to play on the ego and the former addiction that Paul had for recognition and power. What she was saying sounded good, but it soon became evident that her intentions were nothing but bad..

Sometimes we can become involved with people, on a job, or in a relationship that seems so right in the beginning. We can’t see anything wrong. But before long, something just doesn’t feel right anymore. That’s called the power of discernment, where the Holy Spirit living in us, begins to warn us that everything is not like it looks....

Finally Paul became so “exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And instantly it left her.” (Acts 16:18)  Uh oh!  Now the disciples were messing around with the girl’s “masters” pocket books. They were making a lot of cash from her fortune telling skills. By the way, where do you think these skills came from?  

Now the girl’s masters had the disciples beaten, tortured and then cast into prison and put in chains; locked away to be forgotten.

Satan plays for keeps. He meant to destroy the disciples completely. His methods are subtle most of the time, but he can be as confrontational as he wants to be when the battle gets harder. He was perfectly happy to allow the little girl to do his dirty work for him, but now it was time for the “big guns” to go into action.

Sometimes living for the Lord is tough. Sometimes God allows things to happen to us that we just don’t understand. Paul and Silas may have thought, “Lord, we were doing our best, so why are we in jail?” It’s okay to ask questions, but then we need to accept the answer and leave it in God’s hands. Nothing can happen to us that God don’t know about.

Like Paul and Silas in that jail, God will make a way for us to escape the traps that the devil will lay for us. We may face some strong temptations to fall into our old life but we can’t quit, we must keep fighting. All of us face temptation, but that don’t mean that we have to give in to it.

And even if we fail, and all of us fail from time to time, God don’t give up on us. He says in Hebrews 4:16, "So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”

"My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.”  (1 John 2:1-2)

Jesus paid the debt for our sin. His blood washes away all sin, that from the past, from the present and for the future. We can’t do anything that the Blood of Jesus can’t wash away. All we have to do is repent of the sin, ask for forgiveness and then get up and walk on in our service to the Lord.

We’re in a spiritual battle, A War of the Worlds of Good and Evil. Whose side are we on? If we aren’t on the Lord’s side, then there’s only one master that we can be fighting for, the devil. There is no neutral ground. There is no fence. It’s either all for Jesus, or all for the devil.

The Hardest Test We Will Ever Take

There are two different types of tests we will be called upon to pass as we move through this world. One of those tests is to measure the content of our knowledge; that is a head test. The other kind of test measures the content of our character; it is a test of the heart. Sometimes the tests we must face will have to do with knowledge and information, and other times they will have more to do with our character and our moral convictions. To put it another way, some exams are designed to find out what we know, but just as important are those exams that are designed to find out who we are.

All of us probably understand what temptation is. There is a story told about a little boy in a grocery store that I think illustrates the nature of temptation. The boy was standing near an open box of peanut butter cookies. “Now then, young man,” said the grocer as he approached the young man. “What are you up to?” “Nothing,” replied the boy: “Nothing.” “Well it looks to me like you were trying to take a cookie.” “You’re wrong, mister, I’m trying not to!” That’s temptation!!

We understand that temptation leads to trouble. There was a story in Reader’s Digest. This man said he was shopping in the mall with his wife when a shapely young woman in a short, form fitting dress walked by. He said as she walked by his eyes followed her. Without looking up from the item she was examining his wife asked, “Was it worth the trouble that you are in?  That’s the trouble with temptation.

How many of us have shrugged and said, “The Devil made me do it!” and used that as an excuse when caught doing something we weren’t supposed to? It’s a convenient defense. But there’s one problem: the Devil can’t make us do anything. He may be clever, but he’s not all powerful. It may feel that way, however, when we’re dangling on temptation’s hook, because Satan has a tried-and-true strategy for luring us into his net.

First, he lays out the bait. Satan knows people like a skilled fisherman know fish. He notes our habits. He observes our hangouts. Then he prepares a custom-made lure and drops it right in front of our noses.
Second, comes the appeal. He can’t make us bite, but he does know what happens inside us when we catch a glimpse of that tantalizing bait. Our worldly nature draws us to it. We linger over it. We toy with it. We roll it over in our minds until it consumes our imagination.

Third, the struggle begins. Immediately, our conscience (Can we say Holy Spirit?) jabs us in the ribs, warning us of the danger. We know it’s wrong to take a bite. We may even see the barbed consequences poking through the bait. But Satan’s invitation looks so delicious. What do we do?

Fourth, the temptation ends with the response. Either we resist or yield; swim away or swallow the bait whole. Anyone who has resisted knows the feeling of freedom that this decision brings. On the other hand, anyone who has yielded knows the feeling of emptiness that follows and the pain of the hook in their cheek.

In this lesson we are going to see Jesus meet and master temptation. In this story we will see three general kinds of temptation that our adversary is still using against us. By way of introduction I want you to see with me when the testing of Jesus came about. “Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry. (Luke 4:1-2)

First, Matthew 4 records that this temptation of Jesus came directly after He was baptized. It was here that God the Father spoke and said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” (Matthew 3:17) What a spiritual high. You will discover that testing will often come on the heels of a spiritual high point in your life. Secondly, it came at time of physical weakness; Jesus had not eaten in 40 days. Temptations often come when we are a weakened state physically or emotionally, when we are exhausted and emotionally spent.

Third, this temptation came to Jesus when he was alone. We are the most susceptible to temptation when we are alone.

We need to understand that these temptations were very much real. No man knows how bad he is until he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is that good people do not know what temptation means. That is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is....Christ, because He was the only Man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only Man who knows to the full what temptation means. The temptations of Jesus had to be real for Hebrew 4:15 to be true: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” To sympathize with us, Christ had to have fully experienced the Devil’s temptations!

THE TEMPTATION TO DO IT OURSELF

“And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” (Luke 14:3)
The first temptation would be no temptation at all if Jesus were not indeed the Son of God. The devil is well aware that God exists and he doesn’t spend a great deal of effort trying to dissuade us from a belief in God. His basic strategy is to make us believe that God can’t be trusted. In the Garden of Eden when Eve told Satan that God said that they would die if they ate the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. He told her “You won’t die!” (Genesis 3:4)

The temptation sounds innocent enough, doesn’t it? You could almost sense the innocence in the devil’s presentation of this temptation – “just make these stones into bread” – what’s the big deal? You the Son of God – just do it! There is no law against turning stones into bread. It won’t hurt anything. Jesus had been without food for six weeks! Because he was the Son of God he could invoke his supernatural powers, the temptation was very real. Jesus could have done it in an instant and his hunger was screaming, “Do it.” Satan is suggesting to Jesus that there must be something wrong with the Father’s love since “His beloved son” was hungry. Satan was tempting Jesus to disobey the Father’s will by using his divine power for his own purposes.

But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, People do not live by bread alone.” (Luke 4:4)
We often brag that we are “people of the Word.” But are we really? The question is not how much Bible do we know but how much of the Bible that you know are you applying in our lives. Jesus lived by the Word. The key phrase in each of his answers is, “The Scriptures say.” He did not allow the situation or the circumstances or even the enemy to dictate the truth. Jesus in his answer was saying, “ I will not complain. Neither will I take matters into my own hands. I will trust my Father and his word.”

Our temptation is not to turn stones into bread. The devil’s ploy for us is to make us believe that if we want something done we need to do it ourselves – not trust in God. We regularly are tempted to go outside the confines of God’s will to satisfy our personal needs or desires. We often go ahead and do it ourselves because we are sure that God will not do it. We scheme and we plan for our well-being, because we assume that God does not care or maybe does not know about our needs.

THE TEMPTATION TO TAKE THE EASY WAY

“Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.” (Luke 14:5-7)
The devil was not lying when he promises Jesus “this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish” (v.6). The devil was offering Jesus a kingdom without the cross. Why go to all the trouble and pain to win the world when it can be handed to you on a silver platter. No suffering, No Struggling, No Sacrifice. But a crown without the cross would mean that there would be no forgiveness for our sins.

“And Jesus answered and said to him, The Scriptures say, You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.”  (Luke 14:8)  We do not have to look for to see the application for today. Our world teaches us to avoid pain, to take the easy way, the path of least resistance. Avoid sacrifice. Why give all that money to the church when you can spend it on a new fishing boat. Why spend the rest of your life with the same mate? Go out and find yourself someone new – after all you only live once. You deserve to be happy. What is the result? We are living in a country with children whose lives are being destroyed because of their parent’s selfishness.

THE TEMPTATION TO NOT BELIEVE IT UNTIL YOU SEE IT

Having seen Jesus defeat him two times by quoting Scripture, Satan now quotes it himself, for his own purposes.  “Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect and guard you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.” Luke 14:9-11)

Satan misquotes the promise of God, it was right as far as it went, but he did not quote it all. For Jesus to have supernaturally survived a fall from the pinnacle of the temple in the full view of the people would have immediately identified Him as the Messiah. But it would have insisted that God “show” that you love me and is a test of God. This would be the equivalent of saying to God –“I won’t believe in you until I see you SHOW it to me by MY terms.”

“Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.” (Luke 14:12)
Jesus understood to start His ministry by dramatically jumping from the Temple would be completely contrary to the will of God. To do so would be to test God. Jesus refused to take this shortcut.

There are many subtle ways that we can put God to the test. We may not jump from the top of the church – but we do it in other ways. We do it when we do not put the worship of God and attendance at church as a priority – and yet we expect God to keep our children on the right path – that is putting God to the test. We do it when we dive into a path of our own choosing and then cry out to God to bail us out. We do it when we test the boundaries of known sin. God says, “Here is the line,” and see how close we can get to that line. Then we are surprised when we fall. Then we blame God. But it happened because we tested God.

The one thing common to all three temptations is that they attempted to distract Jesus from his mission or destroy his relationship with His heavenly Father.

Don’t miss the truth given in Luke 14:13 “When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.” This battle was over but he had not given up. Margaret Thatcher, the first woman prime minister of England stated, “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” This verse reveals that the Devil will always be lurking in the shadows, watching, waiting for the next vulnerable moment.

When you are weak – expect a major assault
When you resist – be ready for a different approach
When he leaves – count on another attack.

 

There are two lies Satan wants us to believe:
1. Just once won’t hurt.
2. Now that you have ruined your life, you are beyond God’s use, and might as well enjoy sinning.

But these are not true. When Martin Luther was asked how he overcame the devil, he replied, “Well, when he comes knocking at the door of my heart, and asks ‘Who lives here?’ the dear Lord Jesus goes to the door and says, “Martin Luther used to live here, but he has moved out. Now I live here.” When Christ fills our lives Satan has no entrance.

 

 

 

 

 

Not Guility

Not Guilty

Song & video at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc6-roDSpBo

I stand accused
There’s a list a mile long of all my sins
Of everything that I’ve done wrong
I’m so ashamed
There’s nowhere left for me to hide
This is the day I must answer for my life
My fate is in the judge’s hands
But then he turns to me and says
I know you I love you
I gave My life to save you
Love paid the price for mercy
My verdict: Not Guilty!
How can it be?
I can’t begin to comprehend
What kind of grace would take the place for all my sin?
I stand in awe now that I’ve been set free
And the tears well up
As I look at that cross
‘Cause it should’ve been me
My fate was in the nail scarred hands
He stretched them out for me and said
I know you I love you
I gave My life to save you
Love paid the price for mercy
My verdict: Not Guilty!
I’m falling on my knees to thank You
With everything I am I’ll praise You
So grateful for the words I heard You say
I know you. I love you. I gave My life
I know you, I love you
I gave My life to save you
Love paid the price for mercy
My verdict: Not guilty Not guilty Not guilty Song by Mandisa

This week let’s look at being declared “Not Guilty”.

God’s Word says, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” (Romans 3:23). All of us sin and we sin on a daily basis. Although we do sin, God still loves us and when we repent of our sins, he forgives us of our sins. “Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.” (Romans 3:24).

I like how The Message translates this verse: “He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.”

This means that we are declared “not guilty” for our sins. That does not mean that we have a license to continue sinning. Human-beings will make wrong choices leading to sin, but God does not want us to live apart from him, so that is why Jesus shed his blood for us. God’s Word says, “For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23). God did not want us to spend eternity separated from him so he gave us the gift of eternal life in his Son. The gift is ready for us to accept and it is free because Jesus already paid the price.

He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. (Romans 8:3b-4)

Paul writes in his letter to the Romans “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.” (Romans 8:1, 2).

God has given us the gift of freedom. He has declared us “not guilty”. We are not living under the Law, but we are living under the grace of God through the shed blood of Jesus and under the power of the Holy Spirit. No one could keep the all the Law therefore no one could be saved By the Law.

Paul goes on to say, “Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.” (Romans 8:5).

In other words, there are people today who are living the ways of the world. These people believe they are in control of their lives and they are entitled to anything they want. They are focused on the material possessions of this earthly life. They are not concerned about their sinful nature because they are living for themselves. These people will do whatever it takes to reach whatever worldly goal they have in mind. The sins of greed, anger, hatred, jealously, etc, are not in their vocabulary. They live for today.

We cannot have our cake and eat it too. Listen to the words of Jesus to the church at Laodicea: ““I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!” (Revelation 3:15-16).

We cannot take a stand for Jesus in one breath and then change our minds the next. We cannot take the middle of the road. We cannot vacillate between good and bad. We cannot live worldly and project a Christian image. There is no middle-of-the-road when it comes to Jesus. Either we have the Spirit of Christ in us or we do not.

But the Good News is that when we repent of our sins and accept Jesus as our own personal Lord and Savior, our sins are forgiven and we are guaranteed that we will spend eternity with Him in Heaven. We are living under the grace of the One who took our place on Calvary. “God did not sent His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17).

He went to the Cross for us. When Jesus was nailed to the Cross, his words were: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).

When one the thieves said to him, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:1 NKJV

He has stamped us: “Not Guilty!”


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Are You an Overcomer? God says you are!

Are You an Overcomer? God says you are!

Click to listen to song we heard in SS class

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z29olPjFbqg



"Overcomer" by Mandisa
Staring at a stop sign
Watching people drive by
T Mac on the radio
Got so much on your mind
Nothing's really going right
Looking for a ray of hope

Whatever it is you may be going through
I know He's not gonna let it get the best of you

You're an overcomer
Stay in the fight ‘til the final round
You're not going under
‘Cause God is holding you right now
You might be down for a moment
Feeling like it's hopeless
That's when He reminds You
That you're an overcomer
You're an overcomer

Everybody's been down
Hit the bottom, hit the ground
Oh, you're not alone
Just take a breath, don't forget
Hang on to His promises
He wants You to know

The same Man, the Great I am
The one who overcame death
Is living inside of You
So just hold tight, fix your eyes
On the one who holds your life
There's nothing He can't do
He's telling You

Who do you think you are? You are an overcomer. With Christ, we are all overcomers. Not maybe, not you will be; but you ARE. When you know who you are, you'll know what to do, and in Christ, you are more than conquerors. “……we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:.37

The Apostle Paul likes to use questions – “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
If God is on our side, what can really knock us down? And then Paul tells us that “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all - how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? …….. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:32-35) And he went on to list down 7 different obstacles that all of us faces – at one time or another, in one form or another. And then more questions, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” (Romans 8:35)

Although this was asked 2000 years ago, nothing has changed much, right? We are very disturbed by difficult situations – trouble, hardship, persecution, famine - and we question God’s love.
When we are going through a famine – financially, materially, or emotionally, or when we are deprived of what we feel we need or what we want, we question His love for us. When we don’t see it, don’t sense it, don’t feel it, we conclude that we have been separated from His love. For some unknown reasons.

But Paul’s answer is NO WAY. No experience of any kind can ever change the truth of God’s love for us. He answers the question in the first word in verse 37 emphatically – “NO”, in all these things… He did not say God will REMOVE all of these, or IMMUNE us of any hardships in life. He said instead: “No, in all these things, we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS…”

Who do you think you are? Do you know WHO you are?
Because when you know who you are, you'll know what to do. Who are you in Christ? We are more than conquerors. We are OVERCOMERS... through Him who loved us!

Again the emphasis of this LOVE He has for us. You have a Lover! All of you have a passionate Lover, who is willing to die for you! If He is willing to die for us, He has no problem helping us with yur problems.

With Him around, we are MORE THAN conquerors. In Greek, “exceedingly more than” – exceedingly more than a conqueror! We do not just ‘barely make it”, it’s a landslide. We don’t just survive, we thrive! We are going to demolish the opposition.

Jesus: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

Look closely, for us to be an overcomer, there needs to be something to overcome. Jesus says, “In this world you will have TROUBLE, but take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) (what’s in the world, trouble!). Through CHRIST. Only through the power of Christ can we overcome our troubles!

So the question is not, “Why? Why am I facing so many problems, so much trouble?”
That’s the wrong question to ask. The right question is, “Why? Why am I not overcoming them? Why am I so weak?” There is no such thing as an ordinary Christian? The fact that we are a Christian means we are extraordinary. The Holy Spirit dwells in us (remember the lesson last week?); we have the right and the privilege of a child of God; given the authority of the Name of Christ in prayer. We are exceedingly more than a conqueror in Christ! We are overcomers! That’s we you are!

So we should act like one. Believe and act like one. David acted like one. He was just a shepherd boy but he dared to challenge a seasoned warrior Goliath. He fought lions or bears when they attacked his sheep, and he won. “God delivered them into my hands!” he said. He was an overcomer.

Do we really believe this today? This isn’t what we are going to become. “Wait till the situation is better or once I get my life together…” No!! This is who God says we are! There is a ‘giant’ that no one else thinks we can beat (often not even us), but we can – with the power of Christ. We need to believe who God says we are.

We need to be encouraged you to fight in two ways:

(1) Fight with a Conquering Attitude
Don’t live with a defeatist’s attitude. Even before the fight, we’ve already declared you lost.
If we face situations with a faithless, wishy-washy mindset, we lose the battle in our minds before we ever lift our will to fight. We must believe in what God thinks about us. We must know who we are.. Faith-filled attitudes lead to faith-filled actions. The battle starts in the mind.

We need to gain control over our mind and feed it with the truths of God’s Word, else damaging thought patterns can influence our lives and rob us from victory, peace and joy.
We are not a victim of the circumstances. We are a child of God, greatly loved by Him and “can do all things through Him who gives you strength” (Phil 4:13). What do we do? “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Cor 10:5) We force every thought in our minds to line up with God’s Word, and throw everything else out!

David wrote in Psalm 18:29 “With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.” Nothing can stop me!
(2) Fight with Supernatural Weapons
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” (2 Cor 10:3-4)

We have a strength that is not physical, not earthly, not of this world. We have DIVINE POWER to demolish strongholds. As a Christian, we need to know who we are and what we have.
We have the ‘power of God’ on our side. We fight with supernatural weapons.

Paul describes it this way in 2 Cor 4:7-9: We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.
We may have all kinds of hardships but there is this TREASURE in us. We have this treasure, CHRIST in us, to show that this all-surpassing POWER is from God, and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not… crushed. Perplexed, confused but… not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned. Struck down, but not destroyed. We can learn to overcome the fear of failure, criticism, incompetence, or the fear of what people think… WHY? Because we are OVERCOMERS. That’s what we are, by the power of Christ who dwells in us.

If there is something - an obstacle, an addiction, a relationship, a fear, something that is blocking you, is overwhelming you, you want to ask for God's help to be an overcomer. With His guidance, you can and you will. It doesn't mean you won't have trouble, it means you'll overcome the trouble. Tell the Lord right now.

Listen Up!! God still speaks! And wants to be our friend!

Listen Up!! God still speaks! And wants to be our friend!
Have you ever met a father who was no longer speaking to his son? Perhaps they were close while the son was growing up, but they had an argument, words were said, and they haven't spoken since. Maybe you know a woman who doesn't get along with her sister. Conversations between them are few and strained. Perhaps there is a couple in your social circle who, although they are married and still live together, don't communicate and don't enjoy each other's company.

Those individuals have a relationship, and they even have the legal documents - a birth certificate or a marriage license - to prove it. But do they have fellowship with each other? How can a relation-ship be significant if there isn't at least a sense of camaraderie or intimacy between the parties?

As Christians we have a relationship with God. He is our Father and we are his children. But just because we have a relationship doesn't mean that we necessarily have the kind of fellowship God planned for us.
The Importance of Fellowship
When we read the writings of some of the great Christian leaders from a hundred years ago or earlier, we see that there was a strong emphasis on two-way fellowship between the Lord and his people. They wrote about not just spending time praising and thanking God, or even petitioning him, but also about spending time just waiting in his presence and listening for his voice. Fellowship with God is more than just attending church on Sunday; it is about spending time alone with God.
We have no better model for this than Jesus, who "But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer." (Luke 5:16). Although the Son of God, Jesus found it necessary to spend time alone with God in prayer, to discern what God wanted him to do. How else would he know how long to stay in Capernaum or Jerusalem unless he heard it from God? Jesus certainly did not talk and petition God during all those hours he was away by himself. Instead, he listened to his Father for guid¬ance and for the very subject matter of his teaching: "…. my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me." (John 14:24).
It was while communing with the Father that Jesus was directed to pick twelve men to be his followers. "Afterward Jesus went up on a mountain and called out the ones he wanted to go with him. And they came to him. Then he appointed twelve of them and called them his apostles. They were to accompany him, and he would send them out to preach…." (Mark 3:13 - 15). It's interesting to note the first reason Mark gives for appointing the Twelve. “They were to accompany him” Some translations say “so they could be with him.” When Jesus called someone, fellowship came before ministry.
Unlike the apostles, however, we can't hang out with Jesus on the mountainside or get together to go fishing. For us, that fellowship can only happen through the person of the Holy Spirit.
In Ephesians, Paul says that through Jesus, "….all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit…." (Eph. 2:18). In other words, because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, we now have the Spirit who brings us into God's presence. The active work of the Holy Spirit makes fellowship with God a real and rich experience that that gives us strength in this world..

Our worst days in life don’t happen because we lose our relation¬ship with God, but because we have no time for fellowship - fellowship through the Word, fellowship in prayer, in waiting on God, in talk¬ing to God, in listening to God. When we run around so much, we're weakened; we have less faith, we have less grace, and we have more stress. There is something about being with Jesus, being in God's presence that helps us have more peace and joy.

When we spend time with God, we should want to do more than just present a list of requests - we need to listen for his voice. Some¬one once said, "What's more important? Us telling God our requests, that he already knows before we tell him, or us listening for his voice, to hear what is on his heart?"

Some people don't believe we can still hear God's voice. "He has already said what he is going to say in the Bible." They would argue that hearing from God is religious fanaticism or a form of scary emotionalism. But the history of the Christian church totally negates that belief. How else would people like a former pastor at CHBC - who, while spending time with the Lord, felt God put a call on his heart to pack up his family and go to an area close to Russia? In fact, how would any missionary who has ever done some¬thing great for God have known to do it unless God had first com¬municated it to them? There is no verse in the Bible that says, "Go to Bangladesh!"

Although we all know that the Bible is complete and God does not speak to replace doctrine or communicate on the same level of Scripture, he does still speak. He might offer vital words of warning or convicting messages that have personal application. Sometimes it is a word of guidance - a direction we should move in. That kind of direction is heard only by a listening ear and a hearing heart.

Listen to these words from the great prophet, Isaiah. “The Sovereign LORD has given me his words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary. Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will. (Isaiah 50:4)

Isaiah was saying that it was the Lord who taught him what to say, especially words that would sustain the weary. But that only hap¬pened because in the morning his spiritual ears were awakened to listen. Although Isaiah describes his own experience, history has proven that housewives, school teachers, office works, anyone who belongs to the Lord, can enjoy the blessing of this kind of fellowship by simply having a listening ear.

The Old Testament is filled with people that “heard” from the Lord. Samuel, David, Solomon ---- to name just a few.

In the New Testament era a simple Believer named Ananias ¬received Christ's instructions to the recently converted Saul of Tarsus (Paul) and minister to him. He wasn’t a prophet, but he heard from God a message not of new “doctrine” but one of personal direction. So why wouldn't the Holy Spirit still want to guide a Believer today?

God speaks to those who listen.
As we spend time listening to God, we can be taught to say and be given words for a day. Sometimes we’re given a general feeling or section of Scripture that prepares out heart for the things that will soon confront us. At other times, God might give us a specific verse, a nugget of wisdom, or a word of encouragement that we can pass on to someone we meet during the day. But only comes from a right fellowship with the Lord. It comes while we are listening, not when we are talking.

We can come into His presence because God loves us and wants to spend time with his children.
In Romans 8, Paul says: “So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.” (Romans 8:15 -17) What an important passage that is! Paul tells us that we are God's children and he is our Father and we are His heirs with Christ. How cool is this? Through the work of the Holy Spirit, we can absolutely know that God loves us. We don't have to be afraid. He is not merely the omnipotent creator and ruler of the universe. He is also Abba, Father, a tender and most loving Dad that anyone could have as a parent
The Spirit assures us that God is our loving Father. He feels no anger toward us though we have sinned and failed him so many times. Our well-deserved punishment was completely borne by Jesus on the cross. There is not one blot of transgression against us in his sight. As a loving Father, he will discipline his children, but not in a judging way. When He works to get us on the right track, it is done in love for our good that we may become like Christ in every area of our lives.

During quiet times of fellowship, the Holy Spirit makes God's love real, not just in our heads, but also in our hearts. When God's Spirit is moving, we have rest and peace. We know we don't have to strive for a personal righteousness of our own to gain acceptance before God. We are secure in what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross, and we can approach God boldly.
There are times, though, when we get out of sync with God - when we don't have the kind of fellowship that he longs for and we need. During those moments, remember the church in Laodicea. Jesus told them, "Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends." (Rev. 3:20). When Jesus requested to share a meal with them, he was speaking of his desire for fellowship, with the Laodicean church, but for some reason he was found standing outside the door seeking entrance. Imagine the tragedy of Christ locked out and separate from the believers for whom he died on the cross. What was the remedy for them and for us? Christ directed them to repent of everything that raised a wall between them and him. That would enable them to freely hearts to enjoy great fellowship with their Savior.
That's what God's heart wants for all of us today to “share a meal together as friends”. WOW! This is real fellowship. Imagine sitting down to dinner with our Lord - what an inti¬mate and glorious evening that would be! I highly recommend reading the book “Dinner With a Perfect Stranger”. It is a fictional account of a person having dinner with Jesus. A minister once said, ''A calm hour with God is worth a whole lifetime with man." We don't have to imagine what that meal might be like. That kind of fellowship is available to us at any moment of any day through the Spirit. We only need to ask. And then listen.


Lesson from book “Spirit Rising” by Jim Cymbala

What Has God Promised Us?

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. 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 has 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 without 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 neither modeled nor 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 “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. BTW: Let me tell you about my recent knee surgery – just kidding!  For some seeing a person you hadn’t seen in a long time and you knew they weren’t bringing 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 Jesus had grown up seeing this happen. He knew what to expect.

He experienced the rejection and betrayal of His closest 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! And He cares! 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


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