In a church structure, there should be a number of leaders, or elders. The leadership of the church is a group of people, although there is a leader amongst that group. We need to be sensitive to what God wants to do. He is building His church, and we need to build a structure that allows Him to do what He wants to do among the congregation. We are ambassadors for Christ and we should share His good news with others who don’t know Him. There is a hurting world out there. We should share our faith and proclaim the Gospel. That is always paramount with what we do in the church because that is what Jesus wants us to do.
1 Peter 5:1-3
That is a description of what an elder is, or the leader of a church. They have a responsibility to feed the flock. What is an elder’s function? What are the qualifications for being an elder? They are the servant of all. God appoints whom He will, so He inspires who we appoint as elders.
The word ‘feed’ can be translated as to shepherd the flock of God. All the words used in the Bible to describe leaders in the church – overseer, pastor, bishop – are essentially describing one job. It isn’t that there are separate jobs in the functioning of a church. There have to be people who are in leadership over individual churches.
Titus 1:5
Acts 14:21-23
Appointing elders was not something random – it was very serious. It was the church of God, and it wasn’t done lightly. There are many other scriptures that show that the early church appointed elders.
Acts 6:3-4
God is directing his church, so those leading the church must be able to minister the word.
1 Timothy 5:17
There is no point having someone in leadership who does not know the Word of God and who is not clear on doctrine.
1 Timothy 3:4-5
Hebrews 13:17
The leaders of the church need to watch for the church’s souls. They are accountable for people’s souls and they have to look out for them. They should be aware of the circumstances in a person’s life that God might be working them through for the benefit of their souls.
Hebrews 13:7
It matters how the leader lives his life.
Acts 20:28
It is God’s church. It is not the leader’s church.
Ephesians 4:11-12
Elders are leaders which have the capacity to teach the Bible correctly.
1 Timothy 3:2
At the end of Jesus’ life He spoke to Peter and told him three times: ‘Feed my sheep’.
Jashua 5:13-15
Titus 1:9
There is a protection, where you have the leadership of the church who know about sound doctrine. Part of caring to the flock of God is protecting them from false teachings.
There is also a certain amount of discipline involved in being an elder or a teacher.
Matthew 18:15-17
If someone will not put something right, the leadership will be involved with it.
1 Peter 5:2-3
Someone in leadership does not have the church as his private workforce.
1 Timothy 3:1-13
The qualifications in leadership are very clear from that passage.
Titus 1:6-9
The job description for someone in leadership is clear. It should be that with a leader, what you see is the truth. There is no double life. They should be faithful, and fully aware of their responsibility before God to outwork what He wants from them, as God builds his church in his way and his time.
1 Peter 5:1-6
It is God who exalts you. All of us should be faithful, reliable and trustworthy. God will help us progress in our lives because all that we are and do is as unto God.
Matthew 23:11-12
Jesus, as our example, made Himself of no reputation. He took upon Himself the form of a man, so that He could go through life and end His life on the cross as the servant of all.
Leaders should be beyond reproach both inside and outside the church, and should be the servant of all.
John 10:9-11
Cast all your care upon him, because He cares for you.
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Friday, 1 May 2009
Sunday, 19 April 2009
God's Guidance to Go Right
There are two spirits in life, two ways we can go. Before we are Christians, we have no option but to follow our own wills. But when God comes inside, He makes it possible for us to go the right way, to live in accordance with His will. And in case there is any doubt about what is the right way, He will make it abundantly clear.
When we are examining our situation in life, we are either following God’s will or the opposite – our own will. You could say there is no neutral position. It’s either God’s will or the enemy’s.
Peter is very specific about the fact that at one time the people were like this; now they were following a completely different pathway, because they had now a totally different source. It’s clear cut.
The epistle was being written to Christian people who were under growing persecution. It would mean a lot to make a stand as a Christian. It would mean a lot for someone to put up their hand and admit to being a follower of Jesus Christ and determined to do His will. Peter wanted the people to realise that no matter what mocking or strife might come, they needed to make a stand.
1 Peter 4:1-2
There’s an alternative at the end of v2. Previously you lived in the flesh, now according to the will of God.
1 Peter 2:21-24
There’s a big difference in living a life as unto God, doing His will, determining that your choices – about career, university, partner – will be based on what He wants. 1 Pet 4:1 says that if people are being persecuted, it’s because they have become a Christian. The power of sin has been broken. They are not governed by sin.
I want to point out what the difference is between living in the flesh (non-Christian) and living in the spirit (Christian).
Romans 6:6-10
I am crucified with Christ. He took the penalty of my sins and broke the power of sin in my life, and it’s as though I were crucified with Him on the cross. I have the potential for sin, because I don’t have a glorified body yet, but I am no longer under the power of sin. The power has been broken. I now have the freedom to choose not to sin. Prior to that, you have no option, and sin leads to death. There has been a severance of the power of sin.
Romans 6:7-11
Reckon – take stock of what has happened. Don’t let sin reign in your body. It doesn’t have power over you. As a Christian we have the freedom to go God’s way. Before I am a Christian, I am under the power of sin. There is no option, and I fail God’s law. Now, Peter was saying, these people were Christians and had been set free from the power of sin. True they didn’t yet have a glorified body. Each day I am recognising the fact that God has set me free from sin. I’m dead to it. It doesn’t have power over me. I can give in to sin and temptation, but I have the power not to.
Romans 6:12-14
I can yield to sin, but I don’t want to do that. I’m free to go God’s way, and I want to do so, and I will do so. It’s His righteousness inside me. I’m identifying with Christ all that way through.
Romans 6:17-18
Inside you as a person, when you became a Christian you obeyed God’s calling inside you, which let you know the state you were in and the solution He provided. Your state was that you were fed up with sinning. There were habits which dominated. I’m not standing in judgment. But before you’re a Christian you have no option. Sin dominates, and sin leads to death eternally. Obeying from the heart means you identify with the fact that God pointed out your need of a Saviour to save you from the power of sin and the fact that you have sinned. God’s law is there. We can’t keep God’s law in our natural life. We are born in sin. A time is coming when God will judge the world. He has provided a way where you can live clean and free form the power of sin. It happened by the Word of God through the Holy Spirit, and it happens when you obey from your heart the truth.
The truth is that the cross we have here on the wall is an emblem of the fact that you can live clean. He took into Himself what you did wrong, the power of sin. He broke that power. Because of what He did on the cross, you no longer have to be dominated by sin. You have different desires and want to go God’s way.
Peter was saying there were two spirits in the world, one going God’s way and one very definitely not going that way. There is no middle ground. And these verses in Romans make it clear whether we are alive to God. You’re either a servant of sin unto death, or a servant of life unto righteousness.
1 Peter 4:1-3
That’s the way it is before you’re a Christian. It’s a dismal, lonely life. At times you think, “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could live right for longer than I do?” You try to fill up the emptiness, but you always come back to the point where you are sick of it.
If God has brought you to the position of being sick of what you are like on the inside, it is indeed the work of God, of His Spirit, because naturally we wouldn’t think the way.
1 Peter 4:4
Maybe you work in an office, and suddenly you no longer want the same things. And for some, this brings out sniping. But then one day someone will ask if they can have a chat with you because you are different. “In the past that was the way you and I walked,” says Peter. And some of the people who witnessed the change speak evil of you. But :-
1 Peter 4:5
There is a judgment coming.
Now we have been going through this letter sequentially, but the idea does recur that God is speaking to some of you here. You realise, as the choir sang, that you need to draw a line in the sand. The reason you’re able to do that is because God has brought you to that position. God has been faithful to you. He is working in your heart and drawing you to Himself. You’re in a position where God is faithfully pointing things out to you, so that in your heart, you’re saying, “Lord, I need you to sort me out, to break the power of sin in my life. I need you to come inside and change me.” He’s been faithful.
1 Peter 4:6
There are those who have passed on. They made a stand for Christ. And despite the fact that men were making judgments of them, they were living their lives unto God.
God seems to have a way of picking things up where He left them last time, when He speaks to you. It’s His love which knows where you were the last time ... and here we are again.
1 Peter 4:7
“Be of sound mind, therefore, and be calm and collected in spirit, with a view to giving yourselves to prayer.” There’s a peace inside an individual who is a Christian – the peace of God. You can’t replicate that in this world. There is peace, and the power of sin is broken. It’s a peace which this world cannot reproduce.
I’ve been talking with people who are facing decisions that they want to get right. I want to encourage you, with some verses which point out how careful God is that you do get things right :-
This is a principle as to how someone in tune with God will be guided :-
Isaiah 30:21
This is a person – a Christian – who is trying to go the right way. You aren’t static. The voice will speak when you turn the wrong way. If you’re trying to establish God’s will, try different avenues. He’ll make it clear if you take the wrong way. You don’t have to go wrong to go right. But it’s easier to be steered if you’re moving. Don’t be static if you want to know God’s will for your life.
Ephesians 2:10
There is a pathway for my life already prepared, and if I am open before God and ask His Holy Spirit to come inside and sort me out, there’s a way prepared for me. I want to fulfil your purposes as long as I am on this earth. He listens and answers. He doesn’t make things difficult for you. He’s prepared the things for you to walk into.
Philippians 2:13
When I am asking for guidance, I can have confidence that my thinking process will be affected by God wanting me to go the right way and do what pleases Him. I need to make sure that when I ask for guidance, I want His will, and am not trying to lay down restrictions. He’s faithful and will answer.
Hebrews 13:20-21
If you are open before God and want His will, He’ll make it apparent. We each have different personalities and God works in different ways with us. How will God guide you particularly? He will guide you so that you will know for sure what He wants you to do. And there will be peace inside, because it is the God of peace who will make us perfect in every good work. There will be a peace inside.
Can’t the enemy mimic peace? No – not in the way I’m talking about. Not in the way when an individual is completely open, and realises that because Jesus was crucified and rose, I am free to go the right way. God will make it clear. There’s nothing mystical about finding out what God wants for your life.
1 Peter 4:7
That’s for everyone in this room.
Now is the time for you to be obedient the faithful word that God has brought to you.
When we are examining our situation in life, we are either following God’s will or the opposite – our own will. You could say there is no neutral position. It’s either God’s will or the enemy’s.
Peter is very specific about the fact that at one time the people were like this; now they were following a completely different pathway, because they had now a totally different source. It’s clear cut.
The epistle was being written to Christian people who were under growing persecution. It would mean a lot to make a stand as a Christian. It would mean a lot for someone to put up their hand and admit to being a follower of Jesus Christ and determined to do His will. Peter wanted the people to realise that no matter what mocking or strife might come, they needed to make a stand.
1 Peter 4:1-2
There’s an alternative at the end of v2. Previously you lived in the flesh, now according to the will of God.
1 Peter 2:21-24
There’s a big difference in living a life as unto God, doing His will, determining that your choices – about career, university, partner – will be based on what He wants. 1 Pet 4:1 says that if people are being persecuted, it’s because they have become a Christian. The power of sin has been broken. They are not governed by sin.
I want to point out what the difference is between living in the flesh (non-Christian) and living in the spirit (Christian).
Romans 6:6-10
I am crucified with Christ. He took the penalty of my sins and broke the power of sin in my life, and it’s as though I were crucified with Him on the cross. I have the potential for sin, because I don’t have a glorified body yet, but I am no longer under the power of sin. The power has been broken. I now have the freedom to choose not to sin. Prior to that, you have no option, and sin leads to death. There has been a severance of the power of sin.
Romans 6:7-11
Reckon – take stock of what has happened. Don’t let sin reign in your body. It doesn’t have power over you. As a Christian we have the freedom to go God’s way. Before I am a Christian, I am under the power of sin. There is no option, and I fail God’s law. Now, Peter was saying, these people were Christians and had been set free from the power of sin. True they didn’t yet have a glorified body. Each day I am recognising the fact that God has set me free from sin. I’m dead to it. It doesn’t have power over me. I can give in to sin and temptation, but I have the power not to.
Romans 6:12-14
I can yield to sin, but I don’t want to do that. I’m free to go God’s way, and I want to do so, and I will do so. It’s His righteousness inside me. I’m identifying with Christ all that way through.
Romans 6:17-18
Inside you as a person, when you became a Christian you obeyed God’s calling inside you, which let you know the state you were in and the solution He provided. Your state was that you were fed up with sinning. There were habits which dominated. I’m not standing in judgment. But before you’re a Christian you have no option. Sin dominates, and sin leads to death eternally. Obeying from the heart means you identify with the fact that God pointed out your need of a Saviour to save you from the power of sin and the fact that you have sinned. God’s law is there. We can’t keep God’s law in our natural life. We are born in sin. A time is coming when God will judge the world. He has provided a way where you can live clean and free form the power of sin. It happened by the Word of God through the Holy Spirit, and it happens when you obey from your heart the truth.
The truth is that the cross we have here on the wall is an emblem of the fact that you can live clean. He took into Himself what you did wrong, the power of sin. He broke that power. Because of what He did on the cross, you no longer have to be dominated by sin. You have different desires and want to go God’s way.
Peter was saying there were two spirits in the world, one going God’s way and one very definitely not going that way. There is no middle ground. And these verses in Romans make it clear whether we are alive to God. You’re either a servant of sin unto death, or a servant of life unto righteousness.
1 Peter 4:1-3
That’s the way it is before you’re a Christian. It’s a dismal, lonely life. At times you think, “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could live right for longer than I do?” You try to fill up the emptiness, but you always come back to the point where you are sick of it.
If God has brought you to the position of being sick of what you are like on the inside, it is indeed the work of God, of His Spirit, because naturally we wouldn’t think the way.
1 Peter 4:4
Maybe you work in an office, and suddenly you no longer want the same things. And for some, this brings out sniping. But then one day someone will ask if they can have a chat with you because you are different. “In the past that was the way you and I walked,” says Peter. And some of the people who witnessed the change speak evil of you. But :-
1 Peter 4:5
There is a judgment coming.
Now we have been going through this letter sequentially, but the idea does recur that God is speaking to some of you here. You realise, as the choir sang, that you need to draw a line in the sand. The reason you’re able to do that is because God has brought you to that position. God has been faithful to you. He is working in your heart and drawing you to Himself. You’re in a position where God is faithfully pointing things out to you, so that in your heart, you’re saying, “Lord, I need you to sort me out, to break the power of sin in my life. I need you to come inside and change me.” He’s been faithful.
1 Peter 4:6
There are those who have passed on. They made a stand for Christ. And despite the fact that men were making judgments of them, they were living their lives unto God.
God seems to have a way of picking things up where He left them last time, when He speaks to you. It’s His love which knows where you were the last time ... and here we are again.
1 Peter 4:7
“Be of sound mind, therefore, and be calm and collected in spirit, with a view to giving yourselves to prayer.” There’s a peace inside an individual who is a Christian – the peace of God. You can’t replicate that in this world. There is peace, and the power of sin is broken. It’s a peace which this world cannot reproduce.
I’ve been talking with people who are facing decisions that they want to get right. I want to encourage you, with some verses which point out how careful God is that you do get things right :-
This is a principle as to how someone in tune with God will be guided :-
Isaiah 30:21
This is a person – a Christian – who is trying to go the right way. You aren’t static. The voice will speak when you turn the wrong way. If you’re trying to establish God’s will, try different avenues. He’ll make it clear if you take the wrong way. You don’t have to go wrong to go right. But it’s easier to be steered if you’re moving. Don’t be static if you want to know God’s will for your life.
Ephesians 2:10
There is a pathway for my life already prepared, and if I am open before God and ask His Holy Spirit to come inside and sort me out, there’s a way prepared for me. I want to fulfil your purposes as long as I am on this earth. He listens and answers. He doesn’t make things difficult for you. He’s prepared the things for you to walk into.
Philippians 2:13
When I am asking for guidance, I can have confidence that my thinking process will be affected by God wanting me to go the right way and do what pleases Him. I need to make sure that when I ask for guidance, I want His will, and am not trying to lay down restrictions. He’s faithful and will answer.
Hebrews 13:20-21
If you are open before God and want His will, He’ll make it apparent. We each have different personalities and God works in different ways with us. How will God guide you particularly? He will guide you so that you will know for sure what He wants you to do. And there will be peace inside, because it is the God of peace who will make us perfect in every good work. There will be a peace inside.
Can’t the enemy mimic peace? No – not in the way I’m talking about. Not in the way when an individual is completely open, and realises that because Jesus was crucified and rose, I am free to go the right way. God will make it clear. There’s nothing mystical about finding out what God wants for your life.
1 Peter 4:7
That’s for everyone in this room.
Now is the time for you to be obedient the faithful word that God has brought to you.
Sunday, 22 February 2009
Jesus the Word of God
Jesus came to show us the face of God. For all of us, God wants us to come to the place where we see Him face to face. But to do that, we need to put aside everything else – and in particular the baggage which so many of us have acquired along the way.
John 1:1-5
What does it mean when we call Jesus the Word? The word is something inside you and you want to express it to someone else. But when we call Jesus the Word, it goes way beyond the expression of a truth or idea. He is the expression of God – God Himself.
In these opening verses, John is shouting to us the fact that this Word is God. He is at pains to point out that the Word is God almighty. This is the word logos. The word had been around for hundreds of years. When the philosophers talked about the Word, they meant an impersonal force, the governing force of the cosmos. The Holy Spirit inspired John to say that the logos they philosophised about was God.
The philosophers could have retorted, “Call that impersonal force, God. That’s ok. But He’s still out there and we can’t get in touch with Him.” But in John 1:14, John drops in something earth-shattering – this God who you say can’t be known, took flesh and lived amongst us. This was God Himself, the God who created everything. In Him all things were created. Without Him, nothing was made.
John 1:14
Some people say the Word was a God. But the whole of these verses shout out the fact that this Word was God. When it says He was with God, it means He was face to face with God through all eternity. He was with God. All things were made by Him, because He was God. This is in striking similarly to Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Jehovah the Son was very evident in the creation of the heavens and the earth. The Word was truly God. Now John shouts again:
John 1:14
He was truly man as well.
Why did He have to become flesh? Why could God not reveal Himself without becoming flesh?
1 Timothy 6:15-16
That’s why we can’t come to God – He dwells in a glory we can’t approach to. We can’t live in that light. Only Jesus has seen the Father.
Philippians 2:5-7
“Made Himself of no reputation” – the word means He emptied Himself, of His glory, of His equality with God, His place in heaven. That was the only way that God could reveal Himself to us.
And when it says the Word became flesh, it doesn’t mean He stopped being what He was before. I could become something else and stop being what I was. Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt, and was no longer his wife. On the other hand, Lot became a father, and yet remained Lot. And this latter is the sense of the Word becoming flesh. He did not stop being God.
So we have a man who is truly God. He didn’t stop being God, but was also a man – one person, two natures.
John 17:4-5
He emptied Himself of that glory. It’s one of the most wonderful things in the Gospel. In the hymn by Charles Wesley, ‘And can it be’ there are wonderful truths about God’s love for us, how Jesus died to set us free:
At the beginning of the hymn, Charles Wesley has caught some of the awesomeness of what God has done. God took on Himself the form of a servant, and died: “And can it be, that I should gain, an interest in the Saviour’s blood…” It’s amazing that we can be touched by the blood of the Saviour who died for us! Christ died “for me who Him to death pursued. Amazing love, how can it be!” Charles Wesley got so excited and he realised what God had done.
In Him was life and the life was the light of men, and the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. This is a litotes – it’s an understatement. There are several in the Scriptures. When Paul says he’s not ashamed of the Gospel, he’s saying he’s proud of it, it’s the most fantastic thing.
John says the darkness hated the light, killed Him, sent Him to the cross. The Bible says we were enemies of God.
How can the immortal die? Because the immortal took on immortality and came to earth to show the Father. Who can explore the plan of God. We can never understand it. The chief of all the angels cannot understand it. God didn’t die for them, but for you and me. They’ll never know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of this fantastic love. This wonderful God emptied Himself and it found you and me.
Jesus is the light that lights every man who comes into the world. They all reject Him – but to as many who received Him, He gave power to become sons of God. There are some that light touches.
Don’t forget what God has done for us. Some Christians think God dealt with everything at Calvary, and that was it. But what about when I go wrong now and mess up? The blood of Jesus is still effective today in cleansing us from all sin.
Just as the Word was face to face with God through all eternity, so He wants to bring us into that same relationship, which the Son has enjoyed through all eternity. We can come into that relationship when we are cleansed in the blood.
God the Son is Jehovah – truly God as well as truly man. From the beginning of Creation, He has always been there to reveal the Father to us.
Isaiah 6:1-3
Isaiah had hoped for so much. Israel had been in the spiritual doldrums. The Word of God was not being preached or lived. They were at a low ebb. Then King Uzziah came to the throne, and Isaiah hoped for so much, but the King went astray, and he died a leper. And then we have these words in chapter 6. “I saw the Lord – He was high, sitting on a throne, and his train filled the temple, and the seraphim cried “Holy, holy”. Isaiah had a wonderful vision of Jehovah.
Here John quotes from Isaiah:
John 12:39-41
Who did Isaiah see? He was high and lifted up, it was Jesus. It says, “Isaiah saw Him.” So many times in the Old Testament, Jehovah the Son was evident.
We see John preparing the way of the Lord – Jesus. And it echoes Isaiah in the Old Testament – “Prepare ye the way of Jehovah.”
We all need to come to the realisation that it is God Himself we are dealing with – not mere man.
I wonder how the disciples felt, as bit by bit they began to realise this was more than just a mere man. Peter said, “You’re the Christ, the Son of the living God.” They knew He was divine. And you might think they’d got it, but a few verses later, Peter starts to rebuke Him about going to Jerusalem. How can you do that to God?
At the moment we are talking about recognising God for who He is. In all our dealings, we need to know God is at work.
One nice story in John’s Gospel, is about when Jesus had to go through Samaria, because there was a Samaritan woman there, and the Almighty wanted to meet her. She had no idea she was about to come face to face with God. She knew what she was like. Her life was all wrong, and she knew it. We might be tempted to look at this story and think, if God could do it for her, He can do it for us – we’re not as bad as that. But we are – we’re just as bad!
More wonderful still, Jesus got there ahead of her and waited for her. We’re like ants on the face of the earth, and God knows each one of you intimately. God waited for the woman. Doesn’t it speak to you of His love for each one of us? He goes out of His way for each of us, waits until the time is right, and then speaks to us.
This woman had no idea who she was talking to. And as Christians we are often like that. You have no idea that it’s God who is doing something in your life. How do I know that you’ve lost sight of God sometimes? Because if you hadn’t, you wouldn’t behave the way you do. If we really knew it was God we were dealing with, we wouldn’t behave the way we do. He’s the omnipotent God, and He’s the one who deals with us every day. But we all get side-tracked.
When we go through trials, God does answer – even if it takes longer than we’d like. He’s not going to let you down. When He speaks into our situation, we know, because everything changes – all our bad attitudes, doubts and scepticism melt away. The things which once seemed so important become pale.
I want to look at the story of Job. He went through things that probably we’ll never go through. He was an upright man, and bad things happened, just as sometimes they happen to you. Almost the whole story of Job is taken up with the arguments between him and his friends. The arguments are boring – they just go round and round!
Job is not a story about the devil. Nor do I think it’s about the integrity of Job. He was a man of integrity, but I don’t think that’s the main thrust.
Recall what had happened. He had boils, he was full of sores, he’d lost his family, his wealth, everything. But he never lost his commitment to God. And I hope that’s true of us. Even in my stupidity, I knew God hadn’t left me. I knew he had an answer somewhere. I just couldn’t find it. Job was a man who knew that whatever was happening, God was not against him.
Job 19:25-26
Face to face with God. That is God’s agenda for us. But Job didn’t know what was about to happen. He gets a bit silly, saying he wants to sit down with God and sort things out.
Job 23:3
He was an upright man, but he’d got distracted. He was looking in the wrong place, just as we do sometimes, and he’d said, “God, you seem a long way away.”
Job 31:40
Don’t get into that position when you declare, “That’s it God – I have nothing else to say to you.”
After all that verse, chapters 38-41 are God speaking. And this is wonderful.
Job 38:1-41:34
“OK,” says God, “Job – you think you know best.”
God goes on to ask Job about all the wonders of creation, and where Job was when God made it all. But He didn’t answer any of Job’s questions. He wasn’t interested. Some people who are not Christians would say He was a cruel God. But our ways and thoughts aren’t His. When we go through trials, we come out shining like burnished gold. God wasn’t interested in Job’s questions, just as He isn’t in ours.
Now we get a weak and humiliated Job – “I said things I should never have said.”
Job 42:1-5
Job didn’t necessarily see God face to face. But we’re talking about seeing God in all His glory and wisdom. Job was sorry for being so stupid. He got misled. But when God comes on the scene, everything changes.
In terms of today’s Christians, Job would be one of us. He knew God. But he still had to come to the place at the end of it, and admit he’d said things he shouldn’t have said and thought things he shouldn’t have thought.
I can say this to you because I’ve been through it myself. It may be that some of us have to come to God and admit that we thought our arguments were right, but He wasn’t interested.
Seeing God face to face: is that what you want? I know it is.
John 1:1-5
What does it mean when we call Jesus the Word? The word is something inside you and you want to express it to someone else. But when we call Jesus the Word, it goes way beyond the expression of a truth or idea. He is the expression of God – God Himself.
In these opening verses, John is shouting to us the fact that this Word is God. He is at pains to point out that the Word is God almighty. This is the word logos. The word had been around for hundreds of years. When the philosophers talked about the Word, they meant an impersonal force, the governing force of the cosmos. The Holy Spirit inspired John to say that the logos they philosophised about was God.
The philosophers could have retorted, “Call that impersonal force, God. That’s ok. But He’s still out there and we can’t get in touch with Him.” But in John 1:14, John drops in something earth-shattering – this God who you say can’t be known, took flesh and lived amongst us. This was God Himself, the God who created everything. In Him all things were created. Without Him, nothing was made.
John 1:14
Some people say the Word was a God. But the whole of these verses shout out the fact that this Word was God. When it says He was with God, it means He was face to face with God through all eternity. He was with God. All things were made by Him, because He was God. This is in striking similarly to Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Jehovah the Son was very evident in the creation of the heavens and the earth. The Word was truly God. Now John shouts again:
John 1:14
He was truly man as well.
Why did He have to become flesh? Why could God not reveal Himself without becoming flesh?
1 Timothy 6:15-16
That’s why we can’t come to God – He dwells in a glory we can’t approach to. We can’t live in that light. Only Jesus has seen the Father.
Philippians 2:5-7
“Made Himself of no reputation” – the word means He emptied Himself, of His glory, of His equality with God, His place in heaven. That was the only way that God could reveal Himself to us.
And when it says the Word became flesh, it doesn’t mean He stopped being what He was before. I could become something else and stop being what I was. Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt, and was no longer his wife. On the other hand, Lot became a father, and yet remained Lot. And this latter is the sense of the Word becoming flesh. He did not stop being God.
So we have a man who is truly God. He didn’t stop being God, but was also a man – one person, two natures.
John 17:4-5
He emptied Himself of that glory. It’s one of the most wonderful things in the Gospel. In the hymn by Charles Wesley, ‘And can it be’ there are wonderful truths about God’s love for us, how Jesus died to set us free:
At the beginning of the hymn, Charles Wesley has caught some of the awesomeness of what God has done. God took on Himself the form of a servant, and died: “And can it be, that I should gain, an interest in the Saviour’s blood…” It’s amazing that we can be touched by the blood of the Saviour who died for us! Christ died “for me who Him to death pursued. Amazing love, how can it be!” Charles Wesley got so excited and he realised what God had done.
In Him was life and the life was the light of men, and the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. This is a litotes – it’s an understatement. There are several in the Scriptures. When Paul says he’s not ashamed of the Gospel, he’s saying he’s proud of it, it’s the most fantastic thing.
John says the darkness hated the light, killed Him, sent Him to the cross. The Bible says we were enemies of God.
How can the immortal die? Because the immortal took on immortality and came to earth to show the Father. Who can explore the plan of God. We can never understand it. The chief of all the angels cannot understand it. God didn’t die for them, but for you and me. They’ll never know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of this fantastic love. This wonderful God emptied Himself and it found you and me.
Jesus is the light that lights every man who comes into the world. They all reject Him – but to as many who received Him, He gave power to become sons of God. There are some that light touches.
Don’t forget what God has done for us. Some Christians think God dealt with everything at Calvary, and that was it. But what about when I go wrong now and mess up? The blood of Jesus is still effective today in cleansing us from all sin.
Just as the Word was face to face with God through all eternity, so He wants to bring us into that same relationship, which the Son has enjoyed through all eternity. We can come into that relationship when we are cleansed in the blood.
God the Son is Jehovah – truly God as well as truly man. From the beginning of Creation, He has always been there to reveal the Father to us.
Isaiah 6:1-3
Isaiah had hoped for so much. Israel had been in the spiritual doldrums. The Word of God was not being preached or lived. They were at a low ebb. Then King Uzziah came to the throne, and Isaiah hoped for so much, but the King went astray, and he died a leper. And then we have these words in chapter 6. “I saw the Lord – He was high, sitting on a throne, and his train filled the temple, and the seraphim cried “Holy, holy”. Isaiah had a wonderful vision of Jehovah.
Here John quotes from Isaiah:
John 12:39-41
Who did Isaiah see? He was high and lifted up, it was Jesus. It says, “Isaiah saw Him.” So many times in the Old Testament, Jehovah the Son was evident.
We see John preparing the way of the Lord – Jesus. And it echoes Isaiah in the Old Testament – “Prepare ye the way of Jehovah.”
We all need to come to the realisation that it is God Himself we are dealing with – not mere man.
I wonder how the disciples felt, as bit by bit they began to realise this was more than just a mere man. Peter said, “You’re the Christ, the Son of the living God.” They knew He was divine. And you might think they’d got it, but a few verses later, Peter starts to rebuke Him about going to Jerusalem. How can you do that to God?
At the moment we are talking about recognising God for who He is. In all our dealings, we need to know God is at work.
One nice story in John’s Gospel, is about when Jesus had to go through Samaria, because there was a Samaritan woman there, and the Almighty wanted to meet her. She had no idea she was about to come face to face with God. She knew what she was like. Her life was all wrong, and she knew it. We might be tempted to look at this story and think, if God could do it for her, He can do it for us – we’re not as bad as that. But we are – we’re just as bad!
More wonderful still, Jesus got there ahead of her and waited for her. We’re like ants on the face of the earth, and God knows each one of you intimately. God waited for the woman. Doesn’t it speak to you of His love for each one of us? He goes out of His way for each of us, waits until the time is right, and then speaks to us.
This woman had no idea who she was talking to. And as Christians we are often like that. You have no idea that it’s God who is doing something in your life. How do I know that you’ve lost sight of God sometimes? Because if you hadn’t, you wouldn’t behave the way you do. If we really knew it was God we were dealing with, we wouldn’t behave the way we do. He’s the omnipotent God, and He’s the one who deals with us every day. But we all get side-tracked.
When we go through trials, God does answer – even if it takes longer than we’d like. He’s not going to let you down. When He speaks into our situation, we know, because everything changes – all our bad attitudes, doubts and scepticism melt away. The things which once seemed so important become pale.
I want to look at the story of Job. He went through things that probably we’ll never go through. He was an upright man, and bad things happened, just as sometimes they happen to you. Almost the whole story of Job is taken up with the arguments between him and his friends. The arguments are boring – they just go round and round!
Job is not a story about the devil. Nor do I think it’s about the integrity of Job. He was a man of integrity, but I don’t think that’s the main thrust.
Recall what had happened. He had boils, he was full of sores, he’d lost his family, his wealth, everything. But he never lost his commitment to God. And I hope that’s true of us. Even in my stupidity, I knew God hadn’t left me. I knew he had an answer somewhere. I just couldn’t find it. Job was a man who knew that whatever was happening, God was not against him.
Job 19:25-26
Face to face with God. That is God’s agenda for us. But Job didn’t know what was about to happen. He gets a bit silly, saying he wants to sit down with God and sort things out.
Job 23:3
He was an upright man, but he’d got distracted. He was looking in the wrong place, just as we do sometimes, and he’d said, “God, you seem a long way away.”
Job 31:40
Don’t get into that position when you declare, “That’s it God – I have nothing else to say to you.”
After all that verse, chapters 38-41 are God speaking. And this is wonderful.
Job 38:1-41:34
“OK,” says God, “Job – you think you know best.”
God goes on to ask Job about all the wonders of creation, and where Job was when God made it all. But He didn’t answer any of Job’s questions. He wasn’t interested. Some people who are not Christians would say He was a cruel God. But our ways and thoughts aren’t His. When we go through trials, we come out shining like burnished gold. God wasn’t interested in Job’s questions, just as He isn’t in ours.
Now we get a weak and humiliated Job – “I said things I should never have said.”
Job 42:1-5
Job didn’t necessarily see God face to face. But we’re talking about seeing God in all His glory and wisdom. Job was sorry for being so stupid. He got misled. But when God comes on the scene, everything changes.
In terms of today’s Christians, Job would be one of us. He knew God. But he still had to come to the place at the end of it, and admit he’d said things he shouldn’t have said and thought things he shouldn’t have thought.
I can say this to you because I’ve been through it myself. It may be that some of us have to come to God and admit that we thought our arguments were right, but He wasn’t interested.
Seeing God face to face: is that what you want? I know it is.
Friday, 5 December 2008
This Day is this Scripture Fulfilled in Your Ears
Things can be very specific with God when he outworks his purposes. He seems to manage always to get things on time, in time, every time. And I know to some who are here, what we are going to look at in the scriptures will be God’s timing for you. I’m going to look at a section in the gospel of Luke where Jesus refers to what we will be looking at in 2 Kings 5.
God is very careful and specific with you. There is nothing but nothing that takes place in your life without his guiding hand upon it. And what I mean by that is, our God is a faithful God and he makes provision for his children. And our God is clear. And the clarity of his purpose was made clear to this gentlemen in 2 Kings.
2 Kings 5:1-7
It’s amazing what God allows to happen at particular times to work things out. He will fulfil his purposes.
2 Kings 5:8-9
He expected Elisha to come out and heal him.
2 Kings 5:10-12
Sometimes our reaction to the way God has provided an answer to our problem is hard to accept. We need to submit to his way of answering. This answer was not the one Naaman wanted. Don’t prejudge the solution God is bringing to you. Don’t prepackage the way it should come. Don’t have preconceived ideas of the way he will answer. We’re talking here about the God of love and who has the answer to all our problems; everything and anything.
2 Kings 5:13-19
Luke 4:16-21
When Jesus read those words from Isaiah, they were incredulous in the synagogue; they couldn’t believe the authority with which he spoke those words. He fulfilled that scripture. Two words: ‘this day’. There comes a time when God, like a shaft of light, causes things to be in certain order such that at that point, by his Holy Spirit he reaches inside, and his work is done. It might well be, that what you’re hearing right now, is sufficient for you to wonder, ‘Is this my day for what I want and need to happen?’ The fact that I’m speaking these words in this way in this time, is significant to you. There is no way God has brought you here for any other reason than for you to hear his words of truth and for that shaft of light to be real to you. His name is Jesus. It doesn’t matter what you already know about him; it doesn’t matter what your past experiences are; it doesn’t matter that you would have worked things out differently for the solution to come. He knows what he is doing and he loves you.
Luke 4:22-27
This is Jesus talking about the story we read earlier. Why did he mention Naaman? What was he trying to get at? He just read out the prophesy concerning himself and those five or six things were about to be fulfilled in front of them.
Luke 4:28-30
The specifics of God is involvement, constant involvement in your life, is to bring you to the point where your eyes are opened to who he is. And he is the answer to your prayer. He is the solution to your predicament. He is the miracle you need. He is.
“This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”
God is very careful and specific with you. There is nothing but nothing that takes place in your life without his guiding hand upon it. And what I mean by that is, our God is a faithful God and he makes provision for his children. And our God is clear. And the clarity of his purpose was made clear to this gentlemen in 2 Kings.
2 Kings 5:1-7
It’s amazing what God allows to happen at particular times to work things out. He will fulfil his purposes.
2 Kings 5:8-9
He expected Elisha to come out and heal him.
2 Kings 5:10-12
Sometimes our reaction to the way God has provided an answer to our problem is hard to accept. We need to submit to his way of answering. This answer was not the one Naaman wanted. Don’t prejudge the solution God is bringing to you. Don’t prepackage the way it should come. Don’t have preconceived ideas of the way he will answer. We’re talking here about the God of love and who has the answer to all our problems; everything and anything.
2 Kings 5:13-19
Luke 4:16-21
When Jesus read those words from Isaiah, they were incredulous in the synagogue; they couldn’t believe the authority with which he spoke those words. He fulfilled that scripture. Two words: ‘this day’. There comes a time when God, like a shaft of light, causes things to be in certain order such that at that point, by his Holy Spirit he reaches inside, and his work is done. It might well be, that what you’re hearing right now, is sufficient for you to wonder, ‘Is this my day for what I want and need to happen?’ The fact that I’m speaking these words in this way in this time, is significant to you. There is no way God has brought you here for any other reason than for you to hear his words of truth and for that shaft of light to be real to you. His name is Jesus. It doesn’t matter what you already know about him; it doesn’t matter what your past experiences are; it doesn’t matter that you would have worked things out differently for the solution to come. He knows what he is doing and he loves you.
Luke 4:22-27
This is Jesus talking about the story we read earlier. Why did he mention Naaman? What was he trying to get at? He just read out the prophesy concerning himself and those five or six things were about to be fulfilled in front of them.
Luke 4:28-30
The specifics of God is involvement, constant involvement in your life, is to bring you to the point where your eyes are opened to who he is. And he is the answer to your prayer. He is the solution to your predicament. He is the miracle you need. He is.
“This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”
Sunday, 16 November 2008
Choose You this Day Whom You will Serve
You may have a place which you visit annually, which marks the passage of another year. There’s something about different places which enable you to remember what you were thinking or praying at the time. This morning I want to look at Shechem, where Joshua ended up at the end of his life, at the age of 110. He wanted to communicate to the people to ensure they were clear in their stance before God.
Shechem had many memories for Joshua and the people of Israel.
Genesis 12:1-6
The first place they dwelt was Shechem. And ringing in Abraham’s ear was God’s word that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
Genesis 35:1-4
When Jacob was at Shechem, again they were clearing themselves out. They had things which were wrong, and they gave to Jacob all the strange gods and Jacob hid them.
Joshua 24:1
Everyone was involved. They all came to meet with Joshua at Shechem, and his words were for everyone, young and old, all the tribes. Presenting yourself before God as a living sacrifice or to be examined of God is not a bad thing to do.
Joshua 24:2-3
Everyone would have identified with this comment.
Joshua 24:4-7
At the end of his life, Joshua recounted how God had brought them thus far. And as he did so, he identified the specifics – “I brought you out from those gods and brought you into this land.”
Joshua 24:8-12
This refers to the time where God used hornets. He will use anything to get our attention and maintain our protection – because of His love for us.
Joshua 24:13
All the way through, God provided, day in, day out. All the way through, He guided, day in and day out. Up to this point in time, God has given you the air to breathe, the ability to live and discover His purposes outworked in your life. he’s brought you thus far. When Joshua called the people together, he knew the people realised God had brought them there, but still there were those who carried with them traces of Egypt, and he was worried things weren’t clear cut enough thus far. There was something which niggled Joshua. He knew there had to be clarity of purpose, and a clear recognition of God’s foundation in their lives.
Shechem focused their minds because of its significance.
Look back over your life – how God brought you here, intervened in your life at that point. He may not be as much part of your focus as He was, but you can look back and see how He has bee faithful to you.
Joshua 24:14
It’s not possible to go forward without being 100% clear who you serve. It’s not possible to compromise. It’s not possible to hold on to links with the past, habits which recur. No – a wrong habit shouldn’t recur.
Joshua 24:15
“I don’t want you to be in any doubt before I leave this earth. I may only have a day or two to live, but I’m setting the direction for my house. I’m serving the Lord.”
He said he knew there were gods from the past, that there were gods from the surrounding Amorites ... but choose you this day who you will serve. It really matters to God where we stand, whether we are clear cut. It matters that we have the life of Christ inside us, being lived out in what we think, say and do.
Joshua 24:16-18
They knew what to say, what would please Joshua, and the phrases were trotted out. But he still had a niggle.
Joshua 24:19-20
Joshua saw through their pat answers. Sometimes people know what they are meant to say, but their heart doesn’t back up what they say. There’s a discrepancy between outside and inside. This was the niggle for Joshua. There was a blurring. “But there are circumstances which you can’t treat as black and white.” But the things we are talking about here are black and white. If God called you before Himself today, what would you say to Him? I know what I should be doing, I know I can say the right things, but in my heart, it isn’t clear.
Joshua 24:21-24
He nailed it. The first off-pat answer, he didn’t allow. He went down a level and got to grips with them. And they said they really would put away the strange gods and incline their hearts to the Lord. “His voice, we will obey.” That word obey has been erased in some people’s minds – “No one is going to tell me what to do.” But that attitude is from the gods of the other lands, or from the gods of the Amorites.
“His voice we will obey.” His – God’s. This is all about my relationship with God, listening to His voice and knowing that I need to obey Him. So I really can’t say the right things here and be something different outside. Even as I say those phrases, I run a risk, but I’ll take that risk. What happens in here is matched by what happens out there.
Joshua 24:25-29
What God said to the church in Laodicea reveals how God cannot stand a compromise position, with one foot in the world and one in the church. It gets to Him because He is all truth. His love draws you and me to be 100% for Him. It’s His work of grace inside which cleans us out, breaks the power of sin. We haven’t deserved it.
Revelation 3:14-16
Revelation 3:20
It’s God’s love by His Holy Spirit which brings conviction. It’s God’s love which enables you to realise that to be neither cold nor hot, to compromise is wrong. I want to be clear cut.
What are the gods of this land? The god of fashion. The god of alcohol ...
Revelation 3:20
When Joshua brought all the children of Israel together – all tribes, old, young, male, female ... choose you this day who you will serve. I’ve solemnly and calmly made it. It’s fixed. It’s my decision. I’m open about it. I don’t care what others things. I’ve made my decision. It will outwork in my life and it will be for all of my life.
What a life Joshua had! 100% down the line. He’d gone in to spy out the land with Caleb. All the way through, straight as a die. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
You can’t go on saying, “No one is going to tell me what to do.” Because God has put His finger on your life even now, and is saying “Choose you. You can’t be down the middle, can’t be luke warm.” Forget anyone else. Choose you this day who you will serve.
We are coming to a time when we will have Bible studies, and I think God is speaking to you individually. I’ve spoken to quite a few people who want to get to know more what the Bible is about. He’s been speaking to people about how they should pray, what they should pray. So starting soon we will be looking at prayer. I think prayer will become the hub of what we are about, and the Bible will be treasured and studied.
Is that to make us into miserable people? You know as well as I do that that’s bond true. But we’re going to do what God wants us to do.
Choose you this day whom you will serve. Because you are serving something or you are serving God. There’s no middle path. We think we’re just enjoying the world, but the enemy of our souls isolates people in the assertion that we can do what we want to do, and just come occasionally to hear the word of God. Choose you. Don’t be isolated.
The opposite of this is a vibrancy, of Gods’ life inside you. And as we come together, that life is expressed corporately as well as individually. And as we lift up Jesus Christ, so He will draw others to Himself.
This morning it comes down to you and me before God. Choose you this day who you will serve.
Who is it going to be? Are you going to have a backbone? Are you going to respond to what the Holy Spirit has brought to your attention? Is it a case “I may or may not”? I know this word was fro this morning, and I know that in the stillness now, your decision in your heart will outwork something different in your life. Things will be different. “That your joy might be full.”
Shechem had many memories for Joshua and the people of Israel.
Genesis 12:1-6
The first place they dwelt was Shechem. And ringing in Abraham’s ear was God’s word that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
Genesis 35:1-4
When Jacob was at Shechem, again they were clearing themselves out. They had things which were wrong, and they gave to Jacob all the strange gods and Jacob hid them.
Joshua 24:1
Everyone was involved. They all came to meet with Joshua at Shechem, and his words were for everyone, young and old, all the tribes. Presenting yourself before God as a living sacrifice or to be examined of God is not a bad thing to do.
Joshua 24:2-3
Everyone would have identified with this comment.
Joshua 24:4-7
At the end of his life, Joshua recounted how God had brought them thus far. And as he did so, he identified the specifics – “I brought you out from those gods and brought you into this land.”
Joshua 24:8-12
This refers to the time where God used hornets. He will use anything to get our attention and maintain our protection – because of His love for us.
Joshua 24:13
All the way through, God provided, day in, day out. All the way through, He guided, day in and day out. Up to this point in time, God has given you the air to breathe, the ability to live and discover His purposes outworked in your life. he’s brought you thus far. When Joshua called the people together, he knew the people realised God had brought them there, but still there were those who carried with them traces of Egypt, and he was worried things weren’t clear cut enough thus far. There was something which niggled Joshua. He knew there had to be clarity of purpose, and a clear recognition of God’s foundation in their lives.
Shechem focused their minds because of its significance.
Look back over your life – how God brought you here, intervened in your life at that point. He may not be as much part of your focus as He was, but you can look back and see how He has bee faithful to you.
Joshua 24:14
It’s not possible to go forward without being 100% clear who you serve. It’s not possible to compromise. It’s not possible to hold on to links with the past, habits which recur. No – a wrong habit shouldn’t recur.
Joshua 24:15
“I don’t want you to be in any doubt before I leave this earth. I may only have a day or two to live, but I’m setting the direction for my house. I’m serving the Lord.”
He said he knew there were gods from the past, that there were gods from the surrounding Amorites ... but choose you this day who you will serve. It really matters to God where we stand, whether we are clear cut. It matters that we have the life of Christ inside us, being lived out in what we think, say and do.
Joshua 24:16-18
They knew what to say, what would please Joshua, and the phrases were trotted out. But he still had a niggle.
Joshua 24:19-20
Joshua saw through their pat answers. Sometimes people know what they are meant to say, but their heart doesn’t back up what they say. There’s a discrepancy between outside and inside. This was the niggle for Joshua. There was a blurring. “But there are circumstances which you can’t treat as black and white.” But the things we are talking about here are black and white. If God called you before Himself today, what would you say to Him? I know what I should be doing, I know I can say the right things, but in my heart, it isn’t clear.
Joshua 24:21-24
He nailed it. The first off-pat answer, he didn’t allow. He went down a level and got to grips with them. And they said they really would put away the strange gods and incline their hearts to the Lord. “His voice, we will obey.” That word obey has been erased in some people’s minds – “No one is going to tell me what to do.” But that attitude is from the gods of the other lands, or from the gods of the Amorites.
“His voice we will obey.” His – God’s. This is all about my relationship with God, listening to His voice and knowing that I need to obey Him. So I really can’t say the right things here and be something different outside. Even as I say those phrases, I run a risk, but I’ll take that risk. What happens in here is matched by what happens out there.
Joshua 24:25-29
What God said to the church in Laodicea reveals how God cannot stand a compromise position, with one foot in the world and one in the church. It gets to Him because He is all truth. His love draws you and me to be 100% for Him. It’s His work of grace inside which cleans us out, breaks the power of sin. We haven’t deserved it.
Revelation 3:14-16
Revelation 3:20
It’s God’s love by His Holy Spirit which brings conviction. It’s God’s love which enables you to realise that to be neither cold nor hot, to compromise is wrong. I want to be clear cut.
What are the gods of this land? The god of fashion. The god of alcohol ...
Revelation 3:20
When Joshua brought all the children of Israel together – all tribes, old, young, male, female ... choose you this day who you will serve. I’ve solemnly and calmly made it. It’s fixed. It’s my decision. I’m open about it. I don’t care what others things. I’ve made my decision. It will outwork in my life and it will be for all of my life.
What a life Joshua had! 100% down the line. He’d gone in to spy out the land with Caleb. All the way through, straight as a die. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
You can’t go on saying, “No one is going to tell me what to do.” Because God has put His finger on your life even now, and is saying “Choose you. You can’t be down the middle, can’t be luke warm.” Forget anyone else. Choose you this day who you will serve.
We are coming to a time when we will have Bible studies, and I think God is speaking to you individually. I’ve spoken to quite a few people who want to get to know more what the Bible is about. He’s been speaking to people about how they should pray, what they should pray. So starting soon we will be looking at prayer. I think prayer will become the hub of what we are about, and the Bible will be treasured and studied.
Is that to make us into miserable people? You know as well as I do that that’s bond true. But we’re going to do what God wants us to do.
Choose you this day whom you will serve. Because you are serving something or you are serving God. There’s no middle path. We think we’re just enjoying the world, but the enemy of our souls isolates people in the assertion that we can do what we want to do, and just come occasionally to hear the word of God. Choose you. Don’t be isolated.
The opposite of this is a vibrancy, of Gods’ life inside you. And as we come together, that life is expressed corporately as well as individually. And as we lift up Jesus Christ, so He will draw others to Himself.
This morning it comes down to you and me before God. Choose you this day who you will serve.
Who is it going to be? Are you going to have a backbone? Are you going to respond to what the Holy Spirit has brought to your attention? Is it a case “I may or may not”? I know this word was fro this morning, and I know that in the stillness now, your decision in your heart will outwork something different in your life. Things will be different. “That your joy might be full.”
Sunday, 2 November 2008
The Wisdom of the World and the Wisdom of God
The fact that God is alive – that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is alive today, is the reason you’re sitting here today. The breath you’re breathing, it’s because He is upholding your life. If you find it difficult to breathe, you realise the preciousness of life. Miracles occur today because God is alive.
There’s a great difference between life and death, between the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of God. The wisdom of this world results in death,. The wisdom of God results in life. On the one side you have the world, the flesh and the devil, and death. And on the other you have God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and life.
I want to look at scriptures which highlight the difference.
1 Corinthians 3:18-20
Galatians 5 talks about the world, the flesh and the devil.
Galatians 5:19-21
Quite a list! We’re coming up to Christmas, when it’s the works “do” and there’s no one from the church is with you. Our stance is the wisdom of God. It’s what God has done inside us.
We need to value what God has done in us, but more, we need to value who He is.
What’s it like for you at a works do? Do you cave in? You don’t want to appear different? The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
One night I was coming home late at night on the train. There was vomit all over the floor. Why is the world’s wisdom, the fleeting moment, the importance of getting paralytic so you can share your experience the next morning with someone else – if you can remember it?
Romans 1:28-33 outlines anyone without God.
Without God in this world, there’s an attempt, through the wisdom of this world, to fill the vacuum with something. But only God is the answer for the need within the depths of a person.
Paul said to the Corinthians that it doesn’t matter what goes on in the world ...
1 Corinthians 3:18-20
This world’s wisdom involves people who scheme, who pursue money, fame, position. It’s automatic because without God that’s the nature of man. I want to help each one of us realise that it is ok to be a fool for Christ. It does actually mean you have a backbone if you make a stand for Christ. I’d far rather be a fool for Christ, than be heralded in the fleeting wisdom of this world. What could be more foolish that Jesus Christ hanging on the Cross? In the eyes of the world, what was that about? He was dying. Yet there was something deeper going on.
1 Corinthians 3:19
Job 5:8-14
When you are a Christian, God protects you, in that no matter what man tries in order to do you down, no matter what people say against you because of your stand, God knows what is occurring.
1 Corinthians 3:20
Psalms 94:3-11
What is Paul referring to Job or Psalms for? He is saying that as a Christian, you are from a different life source. The source of your life is from heaven, from God. The world, the flesh and the devil ... the result of that is inevitably death. Paul is saying he doesn’t want the Corinthians to glory in anything other than what God had done and who He is.
The Corinthians were getting into factions as to who had heard whom preach. And Paul had to point out it was God they were involved with. Who’s your life involved with? It’s God.
“Do you mean you go to that church? Why?” “Because what God has done for me is eternal. He’s changed me on the inside. He did it in me. And that’s why I live my life going His way. In fact He lives inside me. It’s the life of Christ inside. He’s broken the power of sin in my life.”
Jeremiah 9:23-25
What do we want for our children? We want them to understand and know God, to know Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, as Lord of their lives. We educate in every way possible to maximise the potential of each child. But underlying it all, we want them to understand and know who God is and the life of Christ inside.
1 Corinthians 3:21-24
What does Paul mean? He could just have told people not to get involved in factionalism. He was saying that, but he went on to say is that the key thing is that the word of life came to you – not the person through whom it came.
What I want in all we do is to lift up His name.
“Anything in this world, people of Corinth, everything is worked out because God is in control, and you are Christ’s and Christ is in God.” Or in other words, all things work together for those who love God and are the called according to His purpose. God moves heaven and earth that you might know Him.
Once again, let me remind you if you’ve lost your job, or face uncertainty, that you have a loving heavenly Father and you have the life of Christ inside you, and all things are yours and He has heard your prayer and will provide for you. The world can throw anything it likes at you. The enemy can taunt you with the thought of death. But I am in Christ and Christ is in God. Everything is involved in my good because God loves me. He is the God of love.
Does that mean I live any old way? No – we’ve covered that. That’s the world’s wisdom. The agenda of the world is different. For a Christian, the agenda has only one item – to please Him, the one who has given me everything, life itself.
Titus 3:3-8
That’s not a vague hope – it’s the certain hope that one day you will meet Him face to face. In the interim, it’s like heaven on earth, because by His Holy Spirit it’s His life inside you. You can’t conceive of the good things He has prepared for you because of the love He has put in your heart for Him.
I want you to open your heart, listen to the words the choir sing, and let those words confirm to you the life of God inside you.
There’s a great difference between life and death, between the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of God. The wisdom of this world results in death,. The wisdom of God results in life. On the one side you have the world, the flesh and the devil, and death. And on the other you have God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and life.
I want to look at scriptures which highlight the difference.
1 Corinthians 3:18-20
Galatians 5 talks about the world, the flesh and the devil.
Galatians 5:19-21
Quite a list! We’re coming up to Christmas, when it’s the works “do” and there’s no one from the church is with you. Our stance is the wisdom of God. It’s what God has done inside us.
We need to value what God has done in us, but more, we need to value who He is.
What’s it like for you at a works do? Do you cave in? You don’t want to appear different? The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
One night I was coming home late at night on the train. There was vomit all over the floor. Why is the world’s wisdom, the fleeting moment, the importance of getting paralytic so you can share your experience the next morning with someone else – if you can remember it?
Romans 1:28-33 outlines anyone without God.
Without God in this world, there’s an attempt, through the wisdom of this world, to fill the vacuum with something. But only God is the answer for the need within the depths of a person.
Paul said to the Corinthians that it doesn’t matter what goes on in the world ...
1 Corinthians 3:18-20
This world’s wisdom involves people who scheme, who pursue money, fame, position. It’s automatic because without God that’s the nature of man. I want to help each one of us realise that it is ok to be a fool for Christ. It does actually mean you have a backbone if you make a stand for Christ. I’d far rather be a fool for Christ, than be heralded in the fleeting wisdom of this world. What could be more foolish that Jesus Christ hanging on the Cross? In the eyes of the world, what was that about? He was dying. Yet there was something deeper going on.
1 Corinthians 3:19
Job 5:8-14
When you are a Christian, God protects you, in that no matter what man tries in order to do you down, no matter what people say against you because of your stand, God knows what is occurring.
1 Corinthians 3:20
Psalms 94:3-11
What is Paul referring to Job or Psalms for? He is saying that as a Christian, you are from a different life source. The source of your life is from heaven, from God. The world, the flesh and the devil ... the result of that is inevitably death. Paul is saying he doesn’t want the Corinthians to glory in anything other than what God had done and who He is.
The Corinthians were getting into factions as to who had heard whom preach. And Paul had to point out it was God they were involved with. Who’s your life involved with? It’s God.
“Do you mean you go to that church? Why?” “Because what God has done for me is eternal. He’s changed me on the inside. He did it in me. And that’s why I live my life going His way. In fact He lives inside me. It’s the life of Christ inside. He’s broken the power of sin in my life.”
Jeremiah 9:23-25
What do we want for our children? We want them to understand and know God, to know Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, as Lord of their lives. We educate in every way possible to maximise the potential of each child. But underlying it all, we want them to understand and know who God is and the life of Christ inside.
1 Corinthians 3:21-24
What does Paul mean? He could just have told people not to get involved in factionalism. He was saying that, but he went on to say is that the key thing is that the word of life came to you – not the person through whom it came.
What I want in all we do is to lift up His name.
“Anything in this world, people of Corinth, everything is worked out because God is in control, and you are Christ’s and Christ is in God.” Or in other words, all things work together for those who love God and are the called according to His purpose. God moves heaven and earth that you might know Him.
Once again, let me remind you if you’ve lost your job, or face uncertainty, that you have a loving heavenly Father and you have the life of Christ inside you, and all things are yours and He has heard your prayer and will provide for you. The world can throw anything it likes at you. The enemy can taunt you with the thought of death. But I am in Christ and Christ is in God. Everything is involved in my good because God loves me. He is the God of love.
Does that mean I live any old way? No – we’ve covered that. That’s the world’s wisdom. The agenda of the world is different. For a Christian, the agenda has only one item – to please Him, the one who has given me everything, life itself.
Titus 3:3-8
That’s not a vague hope – it’s the certain hope that one day you will meet Him face to face. In the interim, it’s like heaven on earth, because by His Holy Spirit it’s His life inside you. You can’t conceive of the good things He has prepared for you because of the love He has put in your heart for Him.
I want you to open your heart, listen to the words the choir sing, and let those words confirm to you the life of God inside you.
Sunday, 26 October 2008
God Has Not Forgotten You
I want to encourage you: what God does through pressure is to make us realise who we are trusting – is it Him or not? Do we trust a man or the church, rather than Him? “My God has supplied, is supplying and will supply all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
We read the background to Elijah’s appearance in Israel in 1 Kings 16:29-33. It was bad news. Ahab, the king at the time, had rejected the true God and taken Baal, a foreign god. Things were looking bleak.
1 Kings 16:29-33
The pressure in your life has caused you to see things bleakly if you’ve let your heart get to a point where you cannot see a way forward. I have a word for you this morning: God is sending the solution for you, and it’s on its way. There is no way He’s forgotten you or has somehow slipped up and not been on time to provide the solution. Who do we trust? In what is our faith?
Ahab had chosen how he wanted to rule but then Elijah, a true servant of God, turned up. God provided for Elijah in a miraculous way. God’s ways of provision do not go along the same lines of thinking as ours. He delights in surprising us with how He makes provision. You’ve been trying to figure things out so much that your faith is more in what you’re trying to work out, than in Him.
1 Kings 17:1
It was a word from God that there will be famine and drought, and it will continue for several years. When Elijah said that, he didn’t know how God would provide for him during the drought. But the priority of his life was to deliver what God had for him to say to Ahab. If you’ve been trying to get priorities right in your own life and it’s been as though the enemy has been saying, “It’s a waste of time. Look at what’s happened,” we’re going to turn that round.
Matthew 6:24-29
There’s a principle here. I need to have the priorities right and put God first: I genuinely want to do and say what pleases Him, I want to outwork what He wants for my life. I’m not paying an insurance policy to guarantee that God blesses me.
1 Kings 17:2-5
When Elijah delivered the words to Ahab, and walked out of Ahab’s presence, he was facing the same famine and drought. He had no idea how God would provide for him. Note the verb in what God said, “I have commanded the ravens ...” God tells him to stay by a brook where there would be water, and says he has commanded the ravens to feed him.
When I look at the bird table in our garden, I know we feed the birds. Here it was the complete opposite. Elijah was to be in the middle of nowhere, and God had commanded the ravens to feed him. When God brings His solution for your need, it will be the opposite of normal thinking.
God is saying, “Trust me. Take no thought for your life. Get your priorities in order – look unto me, communicate with me, read my word, hear as I speak through the preaching – and I will provide the solution.”
1 Kings 17:7
Elijah had been sent to the brook and it had provided water. The ravens had fed him, and now at the very place he was told to go to, the water ceased. What would be your reaction? What’s your reaction with what’s happened in your life? Has your heart turned to bitterness, where you can’t see how this can go on any longer?
Elijah now witnessed God speaking to him again, with the next solution. There is no way that what has happened in your life has caught God unawares. God is in control.
1 Kings 17:8-14
Elijah came across a woman who was preparing her final meal. She only had enough meal for her and her son one last time and Elijah asked her for food. It was God’s plan for providing for Elijah. Elijah told her to make a meal for all three of them, as God had told him to. Humanly speaking it was impossible.
God will bring people across your path to provide a solution you haven’t thought of.
1 Kings 17:13-15
The widow was going to collect the sticks for the last meal and then they would die. Elijah turns up at exactly the right time. And he tells her to make two meals, and then the word came to say that the food would be maintained until the rain came. There is nothing finite about God. His provision is limitless. He doesn’t have to reset or change debt programmes. He is the provider, the one who loves you and is communicating to you this morning that the barrel of meal will not fail. He is your loving heavenly Father.
1 Kings 17:17-18
She didn’t anticipate this. It was a further pressure even in the miraculous provision of the meal. Her son died.
1 Kings 17:19-24
God provided the answer again. She knew the word God spoke was truth. God wants to convey to you the truth, Jesus – “I am the way, the truth, the life.”
James 5:16-18
When you pray, God hears you. Three and a half years Elijah was with the ravens and the widow. He was just an ordinary fellow, so James says, but look what happened when he prayed. Pray. Be open before your loving heavenly Father. “I’ve prayed,” you say. Right. When did you pray, and what about? The answer is in Him, and that answer is coming.
Matthew 6:30-34
If you don’t have a job at the moment, keep knocking on the doors and the job will come because God has already provided the answer. He will provide it. If you get made redundant, you were made redundant because God has something better. God is our provider and he is our loving heavenly father.
Friday, 17 October 2008
What it Means to be a Christian (Part 1 of 3) - God The Father, Adam and Eve
What it means to be a Christian (Part 1 of 3)
God is three persons in one – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. He created the world.
Genesis 1:1
John 1:1
When God made the world he made it good. There were no blemishes but something changed when he made the first two human beings, Adam and Eve. God clearly gave them an instruction. They could eat of any tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they ate of that tree they would die.
Genesis 2:15
Adam and Eve were given a choice: to obey what God said, or not. They lived in a perfect world but they chose to disobey God and to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As soon as they had eaten the forbidden fruit they knew that they had done something wrong. Their eyes were opened and they felt guilty. All the problems in this world stem back to this act of disobedience.
Genesis 3:6
We are all now born with a nature that can’t help but disobey God. It is a sin nature. You don’t have to teach a child to go wrong, they automatically do it. But ever since Adam and Eve first disobeyed God, God had been organising a solution to the problem of our sin nature. Unless we are set free from sin we can’t escape it. We always feel guilty for what we do wrong.
God is omnipotent – all powerful, and he is omnipresent – everywhere. He even named and numbered the stars. Even though he created and controls the whole world he is still very concerned about every single person.
Acts 17:24
Psalm 139:7
Psalm 147:4
1 Timothy 1:17
God is holy and nothing imperfect can be in his prescence. That is why there needs to be a solution to our sin. If God does not change our sin nature when we die we will go to hell and be separated from Him forever. Sin makes us unclean on the inside. Sin blocks our relationship with God. We try to amend our ways; we try and get it right but inside our sin nature takes our thoughts the wrong way.
God intended that that power of sin would be removed. God’s solution was for his Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross taking into himself your sin and my sin. When his life was broken, the power of sin in us was broken. He took it out of you into himself. This gives us new life. Life can be like it was way back in the Garden of Eden where you think clean and where you can live a life that is pleasing to God. That power that was taking you the wrong way no longer has a hold on you and you have the opportunity day by day to live right. It’s a totally different existence from when you were born.
Continued on 18/10/08
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Our Situation and God’s Solution
Just as Moses raised up the serpent in the wilderness, and those who looked upon it were healed, so there is a solution today for man’s sin condition. That solution lies in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
For quite a few of you, it’s true that you are thankful for the change in your life. Others would like it to be so, but it’s been some time since you’ve had the opportunity to respond what God has to say to you. Today, God is going to speak to you by His Holy Spirit.
I was recently talking about the global problems we find ourselves in, something which has been forced on all of us – the financial problems of the whole world, the inter-relationship of money. The whole world is looking on. How can we solve this problem? On Friday we looked at the global problem in Noah’s time, and how God provided the Ark for the continuation of mankind. In Romans 5:12 we see the global problem again:
Romans 5:12–14
From Adam, the global problem has been sin. And the reason you can’t align yourself in your heart and be thankful for the change in your life is because there is sin. God isn’t condemning you for that; He’s saying He has the solution for that. And in the same way that toxic debt can be moved out of the world and everyone is happy, there’s a wide issue of toxicity in the world – sin. And in Adam, sin entered into the world, and with sin, death.
Ezekiel 18:19–20
In sin terms, we are on our own. Each of us individually needs to be involved and come to terms with the fact that sin is inside us and we need that sin to be dealt with. That’s why you try and you can’t succeed. You keep trying and it doesn’t work. Why? Because sin has not been dealt with in your heart. The power of it has not been broken. You try, and things go wrong again and you try again. I’m not saying don’t try – but there’s a reason why it isn’t working. It doesn’t matter what anyone else has done – you are what you are.
Ezekiel 18:21
But if the people then were born in sin, they were sinners, so how could they keep His statutes? Well, they knew that there were procedures laid down, a lamb could be sacrificed, and its blood would save them.
Ezekiel 18:22-23
Numbers 21:4–5
God had just brought them out of the land of Egypt, and their complaint was that things were not what they wanted, and they spoke against Moses.
Numbers 21:6–7
Circumstances were such that they ended up admitting that they had sinned. “We’re ungrateful. We’ve forgotten what has happened. We’ve been complaining about everything”. Over recent months, you’ve got to the point where you don’t know who you can trust, or whether you believe in church any more. And the enemy of your soul has emboldened you in your thinking, and you’ve wondered what the point is.
I want to convey to you, via your intelligence, that the problem is inside, and the reason you ask what the point is, is that deep down you know there is something which needs to be sorted. You know it. We can all put on a brave face with one another, but you know it.
Numbers 21:8–9
There was a solution
There was a solution. Don’t say God brought the serpents so He had to bring a solution. No – the soul that sinneth shall die. He hadn’t misled them. It is the same now. The soul that sinneth shall die. That is where we are at. You had to get into a situation where you saw the serpent on the pole.
What if my only child was bitten by one of these serpents. I know that as a result of that bite, they will die. Others have been dying. What I have to do is to get my child to see the serpent on the pole. I tell him he has to look at me because he has to see the pole. Don’t close your eyes. You have to see it. I take him and tell him to open his eyes and look. He does so, and sees, and he is all right; he lives.
There came a point in time when Jesus came to this earth.
John 1:10
John 1:29
That is the comment you need on the strap line in the financial world. Not a new fund for toxic debt: “Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world”.
John 3:1–13
We are talking about Jesus Christ, who was physically speaking to Nicodemus. He was talking to someone who had come to earth for a reason – for Nicodemus and for you. Why do we have to keep talking about Jesus? Why did it kick off in Bethlehem? Well, Jesus Christ came to this world to save sinners. John the Baptist acknowledged Him – “Behold the Lamb of God”.
John 3:13–15
When Moses was told to create the serpent and anyone who sees it would live, Jesus was involved with that. And now He recounts these same things to Nicodemus – “Even so must the son of man be lifted up”.
What was the mechanism in Moses’s time for them to live? They just had to look. The moment they saw the serpent, they would live. “Nicodemus – the son of man must be lifted up in the same way”. And we have here the emblem of the Cross.
And now we have the global solution again...
John 3:16–17
Does that mean the whole world will be saved? We have just read “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him...” Now we come down to it. If there was a pole here at the front, and if I could get you to look at that pole, you would change and live; that would be the way we would do it.
At this point, we’re looking back to the time when Jesus was lifted up on the Cross. He broke the power of sin in your life when He was lifted up like that. He was buried, rose from the grave, and conqurered death. The soul that sins, it shall die. Life in Jesus Christ is eternal, it is a life where the power of sin is broken. Your intellect is not ignored, but the message is quite simple – “Come as a little child”. If the son of man is lifted up, just believe. “Will that deal with the doubts in my heart?” Of course! Sin may grip you, but this will deal with it.
John 3:18–21
“He that doeth truth”. Are you going to be true to yourself today? Are you going to face the facts that you know are true? Are you going to admit that inside yourself you can’t do it, and that inside you have a sinful nature which needs to change. You know what you need to say to appear to be right, but inside you know it’s not true. You are the one God is speaking to you this morning. I know it, because He loves you. “Nicodemus, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...Me”.
John 9:5
He’s still in the world by His Spirit.
John 12:28-30
What you are hearing is for you.
John 12:31
Jesus knew why He came to the earth, and He knew that the global sin problem which affects every individual problem had to be dealt with. There had to be a solution because God loved the world.
What did Jesus mean? That as a result of Him being on the Cross, of giving His life to take into Himself the power of sin, He rose from dead and conquered it, and the prince of the earth was cast out, and could not cause death any more.
That’s why in your thought life at times, one thing leads to another, to another, and it’s as though you can’t help it. But Jesus says, “Now is the prince of this world cast out”.
John 12:32
Whoever believes on Him… As a result of what happened on the Cross as He was lifted, now the work has been done and the judgment has been dealt with. What about the judgment on you? Where are we this morning with the judgment on you? Deep down you have been longing to get yourself cleaned out. God has been drawing you by His Spirit.
Jesus told Nicodemus he needed to be born from above. He’d started off in the wrong way and “You need to believe what I could be doing for you”.
In our situation we believe by God’s Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ came to break the power of sin in my life, and cause me to go right, not wrong. And in the simple matter of belief, it is as if you start again. Not kidding yourself. But it is His life on the inside. “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me”.
In Numbers, they just had to look. And here you look, and by God’s Holy Spirit you know that He has every right just to let you die, through what you’ve been thinking and doing, and you’re ashamed of it. He’s not here to expose you, but because He loves you He has provided a solution. Jesus spoke about Himself and the fact that He submitted Himself and gave His life for you.
What is your future to be? Where are we at? Is your future going to be hoping it will be all right because you know the right things to say and do, but you’re not sure? Or will it be a realisation that the power of sin needs to be broken, and it’s a case of you determining that you need to get this sorted out? Now is the time! “I was thinking about this yesterday. I knew I would come to this point in time. What do I do?” What I need to do is to encourage you now, not to think about anyone else. I want you to think about you. And if just one person responds, that’s brilliant. The global problem, the toxic debt, the problem of sin actually comes down to the individual. God loved the world, person by person by person, that He gave His only Son that whosever believed on Him should not perish.
It is not an insurance policy; it’s a different life, a life where you can be yourself and not play-act, where you can rejoice in what God has done for you – He’s broken the power of sin in your life and given you His life. That’s what He’s saying to you this morning.
I am going to ask a question of you on behalf of God. I want you to be honest, and I want you to realise we are not messing around. We are talking about why Jesus Christ came to this earth, and He is here for you. By His Holy Spirit, there are people for who today is the day and you know it is. I don’t know who it is, but I know what I was meant to say.
Are you going to believe in Jesus Christ and all He has done for you? Are you going to ask Him to change you on the inside? What does that change mean? It means the breaking of the power of sin in your life. It means you taking life and walking away from sin and death.
Friday, 19 September 2008
God is in Control
God is in the area of having created the heavens and the earth. To him, momentous events have occurred already in what he has done through that creation, and through what he has done in sending his son to this earth to provide the solution for mankind. He’s into thinking globally.
I want to look at a time when God revealed his purposes in global terms, but it was very specific to one man and his family.
Genesis 6:1-7
Why did God allow that to happen? I don’t have many answers, but I want you to see the sequence where God had his purpose.
Genesis 6:8
If ever there was a time when we need to have that as the strapline across our forehead, as it were, it’s now: “We’re walking with God.” It’s when men’s hearts fail them for fear. Noah walked with God and found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Genesis 5:24
Noah walked with God in an evil and wicked generation, and he found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Genesis 6:10-22
Whatever God said, that’s what Noah did. He was mocked, laughed at, but he was looking beyond. Because he was doing what God told him to do, he knew it was right, accurate and true. In your life, your faith is in the one who began that faith inside you. He’s the author and finisher of your faith.
People’s faith is tested. Things happen outside of anyone’s control, but God is in control. Noah was getting on with what God commanded him to do, in the midst of a crooked and wicked generation.
Genesis 7:1-3
Even in the midst of violence and evil across the world, God’s plan was secure. This wasn’t a hastily revised plan. His plan was secure to keep seed alive across all the face of the earth.
Genesis 7:16
There wasn’t a rope by which Noah pulled the door up, after they got in. This was God’s solution, and the Lord shut him in. There are people who have proved that God has shut them in to himself. They don’t fear what man can do to them because the Lord is in control.
The rain and floods had come, and the water had been on the earth for about five months.
Genesis 8:15-22
It doesn’t matter what occurs.
God is in control, and after all this had happened, and it was just Noah, his family and the animals, God’s covenant was that while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. This made me realise how significant it is that God has put faith in your heart. The faith that he has put in your heart, even though it might be as a grain of mustard seed, the smallest seed will grow into a massive tree.
Hebrews 11:5-7
Noah found grace in the eyes of God and did all that God commanded him to. We need faith inside us, in what God has done in our hearts. God is in control. And of your life and your viewing of circumstances, you are in the palm of his hand. Your times are in his hand.
I can say that’s what I believe, because of what God has done in my heart. It doesn’t matter what things are going on.
When Noah was on this earth, what he did was what God commanded him to do. There is a thread of faith on the earth.
Everything revolves around Jesus Christ, and when he came to this earth, he made it possible for you to be a partaker of his life. As far as you’re concerned, you want to live your life believing in Him.
We need to share faith with our neighbour. We have the answer, and his name is Jesus. God has dealt with global issues, and he knows every individual. He is the solution for everything
I want to look at a time when God revealed his purposes in global terms, but it was very specific to one man and his family.
Genesis 6:1-7
Why did God allow that to happen? I don’t have many answers, but I want you to see the sequence where God had his purpose.
Genesis 6:8
If ever there was a time when we need to have that as the strapline across our forehead, as it were, it’s now: “We’re walking with God.” It’s when men’s hearts fail them for fear. Noah walked with God and found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Genesis 5:24
Noah walked with God in an evil and wicked generation, and he found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Genesis 6:10-22
Whatever God said, that’s what Noah did. He was mocked, laughed at, but he was looking beyond. Because he was doing what God told him to do, he knew it was right, accurate and true. In your life, your faith is in the one who began that faith inside you. He’s the author and finisher of your faith.
People’s faith is tested. Things happen outside of anyone’s control, but God is in control. Noah was getting on with what God commanded him to do, in the midst of a crooked and wicked generation.
Genesis 7:1-3
Even in the midst of violence and evil across the world, God’s plan was secure. This wasn’t a hastily revised plan. His plan was secure to keep seed alive across all the face of the earth.
Genesis 7:16
There wasn’t a rope by which Noah pulled the door up, after they got in. This was God’s solution, and the Lord shut him in. There are people who have proved that God has shut them in to himself. They don’t fear what man can do to them because the Lord is in control.
The rain and floods had come, and the water had been on the earth for about five months.
Genesis 8:15-22
It doesn’t matter what occurs.
God is in control, and after all this had happened, and it was just Noah, his family and the animals, God’s covenant was that while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. This made me realise how significant it is that God has put faith in your heart. The faith that he has put in your heart, even though it might be as a grain of mustard seed, the smallest seed will grow into a massive tree.
Hebrews 11:5-7
Noah found grace in the eyes of God and did all that God commanded him to. We need faith inside us, in what God has done in our hearts. God is in control. And of your life and your viewing of circumstances, you are in the palm of his hand. Your times are in his hand.
I can say that’s what I believe, because of what God has done in my heart. It doesn’t matter what things are going on.
When Noah was on this earth, what he did was what God commanded him to do. There is a thread of faith on the earth.
Everything revolves around Jesus Christ, and when he came to this earth, he made it possible for you to be a partaker of his life. As far as you’re concerned, you want to live your life believing in Him.
We need to share faith with our neighbour. We have the answer, and his name is Jesus. God has dealt with global issues, and he knows every individual. He is the solution for everything
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Everything Revolves Around Him
God is not going to walk away from what He has started in your life. The initiator of the faith that you have is Jesus. The one who will take you right through your life until you see Jesus face to face, is Jesus. The whole world exists and goes forward because of Him. Everything but everything revolves around Him.
I want to look at some verses which are talking about the end of time and what will happen. These verses in Revelation 21 talk about New Jerusalem, or the Bride of Christ, or New Jerusalem as a bride adorned for her husband. I’m reading these verses in Revelation because I want to place in your mind where everything in time is moving towards and we will come down to the specifics in your life and my life towards that end.
Revelation 21:1,10,23,27
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Everything Revolves around Him is available on CD £4.00 +p&p
To place an order please call 01277 372996
It matters that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life because all of time is going forward towards New Jerusalem. It’s as if I have in my pocket a passport saying “Citizen of New Jerusalem, Citizen of Heaven.” I’m just passing through here.
Hebrews 11:1
On Friday we looked at how faith was fundamental to all the heroes of faith listed throughout this chapter.
Hebrews 11:33 – 38
It’s a tremendous catalogue of what people did, in faith, through faith, in God. This planet wasn’t worthy of such people.
Hebrews 11:39 – 40
In other words everything revolves around Jesus Christ. The Old Testament and New Testament are all one in God. The fulcrum, the centrality of time and eternity being Jesus Christ. Everything revolves around Him. The fact that you’re breathing, the fact that you see such wonders of creation; it all revolves around Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 12:1 – 2
I want to examine these two verses.
You’re in race, I’m in a race. That doesn’t mean we elbow each other out of the way. It’s not a competition. But there’s a race because there’s a definite goal. The aim is definite, we’re looking unto Jesus. Jesus lives inside me by His Holy Spirit and everything revolves around Him. My aim is Jesus.
I want to please Him. I want to live my life as He wants me to live it. The race is set before us. God has appointed that pathway, that lane that we’re running in, and His hand is upon your life. This means that you, by the love of God, have had faith put into your heart. And He will increase that faith. This race is not a sprint.
You might be thinking, hang on, I’ve already been saved from sin, I know about Calvary. But you know that it’s still possible to focus on things that are wrong. When you set off on a race in the Olympics you don’t start with a rucksack, you don’t stray into other lanes, you are focussed on your lane with nothing else restricting you.
2 Corinthians 7:1
So I don’t get involved with a friend who’s going the wrong way. Nothing’s going to pull me away.
1 John 3:2 – 3
So this passport in my pocket which says “Citizen of Heaven: Peter Linnecar” brings with it responsibilities before God. I’ve been set free so that I can make the right choices in life to go the right way. And He’s put the power in me that I can live the right way.
And in the race, you know that if you run with patience, that distance will be covered until such time as you see Him face to face.
Hebrews 12:1
That isn’t a cloud of people watching you, it’s a cloud of witnesses to the Power of God, people who have proved God, and have known God’s power through faith.
Hebrews 11:6
It isn’t that God dangles a carrot of faith in front of you and just as you’re about to take it He whips it away. God plants faith in a person. It may be for some that it’s a case of getting to an end of yourself. If this is the way it is for you, then it’s God that brought that about. Without faith you cannot please God.
Ephesians 1:9 – 10
Everything revolves around Jesus Christ
To repeat, everything revolves around Jesus Christ. Everything in your life which is of importance is what involves Him. This means that your focus, your outlook, revolves around Him. What does God want for me in my life? What job I do, who I marry, everything revolves around Him. So if I’m straying from my lane then I won’t progress in the race. Sometimes we meander from our lane and God has to bring you back to where you were before. God loves me.
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 1:1 – 4
That’s why I said on Friday, those heroes in Hebrews were all looking forward; they couldn’t look back to Jesus’ first coming as we can. We’re looking at it in a different way. We know what happened. Jesus came. We know that He died on the cross; we know that He was raised from the dead. So if you think He’s forgotten about you, He hasn’t.
There’s no planning or committee meeting going on in heaven. Christ sat down. It was finished. The work on the Cross was finished. There’s no mistaking or miscalculation. On 10th September the plug goes on at Cerne in Switzerland where these particles will collide as they try to discover the origin of matter. We know that the origin of matter is Him. And what we’re discovering is more and more and more how much He loves us.
Hebrews 12:3
We’re talking about a man who was here for all eternity. He could do anything, He was God, Son of God, and yet He was pinned like a butterfly in a tray.
Matthew 27:39 – 43
With one blink of a millisecond God could have wiped them out. He didn’t.
Mark 15:31 – 32
Luke 23:35 – 37
You know as well as I do that if you’re not a Christian your reaction to that would have been one of vengeance and anger. If you’d have had the power, if I’d have had the power, we’d have just flicked them out. But God’s love is greater than anything man can comprehend.
You know He put up with all that because He loved you. You were, in a sense, on His mind at that point. Because it says the joy that was set before Him. That joy is New Jerusalem and the Church. For the joy that was set before Him, He went through that for you and me. And when He was mocked He didn’t throw it back. But He committed Himself to God who is a righteous judge.
And in the next few verses He explains that God organises the circumstances of your life. Everything is organised so that as you go through life you discover more and more that you can trust God to provide for everything for you.
There came a time when He put faith in your heart and you know the way you’re going. If you’re trying to pull someone away from the pathway that they’re trying to live – don’t.
Hebrews 12:5 – 6
Don’t be surprised, if you stray from the path, that circumstances arise which force you to get back on track.
Hebrews 12:5 – 9
There is a way of life I’m going to live which is pleasing to Him. “No one’s going to tell me what to do” – fine, how about God?
Hebrews 12:10 – 13
I have a choice in my reaction to circumstances in life. I can meander and become bitter and allow that to affect others. Or I can run with patience the race realising that everything that has happened in life is for my good, and this will yield the fruit of righteousness in my life.
We should work together, helping each other, running this race patiently. Whether we’ve known each other for 30 years or three weeks we should always help each other. And woe betide this church if people come to visit and we don’t welcome them.
Whatever you need in your life God has the answer lined up, He’s heard your prayer. No prayer is just a vague hope, God hears, He knows. He’s there, He knows.
The focus of my life doesn’t depend on works but I can’t expect God to bless me if my intention in life is not to focus on Him in the way I run my race. God loves me and is a God of love. He had you in His heart before the world began. Time and eternity are no big deal for Him. Everything begins and ends with Him.
Hebrews 12:8 – 13
You’re here because of what God is speaking to you. I know He is. It’s a wonderful thing. And as we hear more of what’s going on elsewhere, God’s there. What will be your response? I think a good response would be, “Yes, this is me; this is where I’m at.” You may realise that you’ve been meandering; it’s time to get back in God’s way. He’s given you the faith to believe in your future in Him. He’s the author, originator, He’s started His work in you and He’ll complete it. His work is that when you see Him you’ll be like Him.
Now He’s conquered death and is seated at the right hand of God and He’s sent His Holy Spirit, and He’s here.
Friday, 15 August 2008
In Me You Have Peace
Pastor Linnecar looks at the events leading up to Jesus’ death where, in a humble act, He washed the feet of all the disciples as a servant, and revealed to them who was going to betray Him. Jesus shared with the disciples about the Comforter that would come, the Holy Spirit who is the instrument by which Jesus lives inside us today.
John 17:1
To set John 17 in context, we’re going to go back to chapter 13. This was a very important time for Jesus – just think about the process of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet: it is the role of a servant, a humble act.
John 13:12 - 30
After Jesus washed the disciples feet, including Judas, He was troubled in spirit, because he knew it was the time to reveal who was going to betray Him. The disciples were asking “Lord, who is it?” Then Satan entered into Judas and he went out.
All the words we have from John 13:31, up to and including John 17, Judas was not there and it was as if Jesus now opened things up.
John 13:3 - 35
It’s interesting that this is the first main emphasis of the intimate words that Jesus shares with His disciples. As a result of Judas’s actions, Jesus would be glorified. But now, Jesus is saying that they should love one another.
John 16:1 - 6
These were huge revelations to the disciples and Jesus was getting really specific about what was going to happen to Him. He says that even if you are killed, they will think they are doing God a service. Somehow in the minds of the disciples, Jesus was preparing them for the time that was going to come about. He was going to die and then be raised from the dead.
John 16:7 - 11
So the role of the Holy Spirit is incredibly specific. He reveals Jesus to you. And He is the instrument by which Jesus lives inside of you. Instead, now that He is with the Father, He has sent the Holy Spirit and He lives inside each one of us. And we can do His work because we have the Holy Spirit within us.
John 16:12 - 14
So the work of the Holy Spirit is very straight forward and marvellous. All He does is reveal more of Christ to you.
John 16:15 - 20
Whenever Jesus spoke, quite often He referred to the fact that even though you might see some things one way in the natural, it’s totally different to how God sees them. For the disciples here, this was a huge thing, because Jesus was going to be crucified in front of them.
It doesn’t matter what’s happening in your life, or how you see things, I want to confirm to you the way God sees things, and He is at peace with what is going on in your life.
John 16:21 - 22
And there’s something about the relationship you have with God, which no man but no man can severe. No one can become between you and your God. That hold on you is inviolate, and wonderful.
John 16:23 - 24
So this was a new concept. If the disciples wanted to check something out with Jesus, they would check it out with Him. Now He’s saying to them, “I’m not going to be here, but the Comforter will come and now I want you to ask and receive that your joy may be full”.
Another thing I want to confirm to you is that every prayer you have made and every time you have wondered whether He has heard you, He has heard you. I am constantly coming across people who say, “You know, it must be God. And I have seen an answer to my prayer”.
Sometimes we pray and then pray again about the same thing because you want to make sure.
John 16:24 - 33
Before Jesus left the disciples, He communicated to them a glorious, wonderful truth. “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace”. Because when, in the midst of everything, you have a perspective of how God is doing things, you have peace.
John 16:33
It’s not a problem. Everything is being outworked according to God’s purposes, through His love to you and to me. Later, in chapter 17 we will have a glimpse at His prayer and it includes you.
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