God’s Goodness:
When I sit down to
hear someone preach the Word I desire to be challenged, not just given warm
fuzzies!
Today, it is my hope
that what I share will challenge you, disturb you even and stretch you out of your
comfort zone. Hopefully, having done that it is my prayer that something of
what I share or the understanding or insight you gain from it will place in
your heart a stronger desire to know the Lord more deeply; to know his Word
more intimately, and to desire to be more obedient to Him and to have a more
eternal perspective on your life today.
Along the way I hope
you will learn more about how truly good our God is!
Before I
begin I would like you all to list the five greatest blessings that god has given
you. List them in any order and don’t look at anyone else’s for inspiration!
Now
underline which is the greatest of these.
Finally for now list the
three greatest disasters or curses in your life, again in any order. Please
don’t discuss with anyone for now and don’t put your name on it – this is
between you and God.
[Give 5
mins to complete] – now fold away for later.
Let me summarise the
lives of three men of God:
The first – lost great
wealth; his servants were killed; his sheep burned; his camels taken; his sons
& daughters killed; his body tortured with painful boils, etc; his spirit
broken; lost his friends and his relatives deserted him; he was despised by his
own; and his wife found his breath offensive!
The second –
imprisoned at least twice; threatened with abuse & stoning; stoned and left
for dead; beaten many times; shipwrecked; bitten by a deadly creature; and
finally beheaded!
The third – imprisoned
many times and for the first 4 years of his first child’s life; in prison for
half of his married life; beaten many times to the point of being crippled;
very sick with terminal illness; starved; and severely electrocuted!
Was God good to Job,
Paul & Brother Yun? From a non-Christian perspective we would surely say
NO! But from an eternal perspective God has and will continue to greatly bless
and reward these men!
What about Isaiah? A
stately gentleman with a good education who was married with 2 sons and knew
Christ intimately – the ‘Paul’ of the OT yet after 60 years of ministry he was
sawn in two!
God is good – surely
that would seem self evident and yet it isn’t a popular world view – the god of
Islam, Allah is not a good god – they may say ‘god is good’ but the Sura/Koran
says that God lies – surely that is not good. The Koran also says “that God has
no son.” Obviously, if true, this denies that
Jesus is the son of God. This would mean he died in vain and we believe
in vain and as Paul says “are to be most pitied.”
Most non-Christians
and perhaps many Christians also believe God is a kill-joy! For example God
gives us the wonderful pleasure of sex and then tells us not to have it outside
of marriage and also within marriage commands us to have sex even when one
partner may not want to!
Is that good?
God gave us the ten commandments
and many think these moral laws restrict our freedom and pleasure – and yet
these laws are like the physical laws such as gravity. Whether we like it or
not we can’t escape the effects of gravity, we must factor gravity’s effects
into our lives – similarly, if we want our life to run more smoothly we must
accept God’s moral laws and work with them not against them.
The problem is that we
often have such a short-sighted view that God’s laws that God’s way seems to be
dull, boring, lacking in fun, etc.
What do I mean by
sort-sighted – our view is a worldly view which only considers the here and now
not the eternal.
To quote C. S. Lewis: "If
there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and
earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this
notion is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing
promises of rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds
our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures,
fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us,
like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he
cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far
too easily pleased."
God’s goodness – what
about SEX?
Many both young & old
will say something like "But we really love each other" as an
excuse for sex outside marriage. But this has no bearing on the ethics
of sexual intimacy. Sex does not become permissible through subjective
feelings, but only through the objective, lifelong commitment of marriage.
Those are God's rules. There's nothing we can do to change them. The rules are
always enforced. When we break them they always break us.
A smart traveler doesn't
curse guardrails. He doesn't whine, "That guardrail dented my
fender!" He looks over the cliff, sees demolished autos, and thanks God
for guardrails.
God's guardrails are his
moral laws. They are there not to punish or deprive us but to protect us. God
doesn't forbid us fleeting pleasures out of malice. Rather, he calls us to
higher and lasting pleasures out of love. His warnings stand between us and
destruction.
Temptations always look
good—otherwise they wouldn't be temptations. We must believe God that what
Satan says will be good, will in fact turn out bad. Always.
Resisting temptation is a
gutsy, courageous, stubborn refusal to violate God's law. It's repeatedly
calling upon Christ for the strength to say "no" to the world, the
flesh, and the devil—to say "yes" to God instead. We do this in
pursuit of the ultimate joy that can only be found in knowing God.
Our desires, without an
eternal perspective often draw us to sinful pursuits.
But if you act
supernaturally, drawing on the power of the in-dwelling Christ, you'll enjoy
great personal benefits, now and later.
Sooner or later, sexual sin will be exposed.
"You may be sure that
your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23).
Solomon said, "The man of integrity walks securely,
but the man who takes crooked paths will be found out" (Proverbs 10:9).
Here's a thought that should
give everyone pause - There's no such thing as a private moment.
Jesus warned His disciples: "There is nothing concealed that
will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have
said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in
the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs" (Luke
12:1-3).
One of Satan's oldest tactics
is to weave a phony web of secrecy, casting an illusion of privacy over our
sinful choices. He tells us, "No one is watching. No one will know."
But he's lying. Someone is
watching-the Audience of One. Someone already knows. And in time, many
will know.
We never get away with anything.
A sexual image lures my mind
toward lust. The world, the flesh and the devil barrage me with messages: I
will feel like a man or a woman; it will relieve my pain, disappointment,
stress. I'll be happier if I surrender.
God's Word shows the lie for
what it is. It tells me that real happiness can only be found in Christ.
I'm left with the choice—trust
Satan or trust God.
I must choose between sexual fantasies and
intimacy with God. I cannot have both. When I see that God offers me joys and
pleasures that sexual fantasies don't, this is a breakthrough. But that
breakthrough will come only when I pursue God, making Him the object of my
quest-and when I realize that fantasies are only a cheap God-substitute.
Running to them is running from God.
When my thirst for
joy is satisfied by Christ, sin becomes unattractive. I say no to the passing pleasures of
immorality, not because I do not want pleasure, but because I want true
pleasure, a greater and lasting pleasure that can only be found in Christ.
Those
who drink of immorality are never satisfied (John 4:13).
Those
who drink of Jesus are fully satisfied (John 6:35).
I can either have my thirst
quenched in Jesus, or I can plunge deeper into sin in search of what's not there.
The rest of your life will be
greatly determined by how you answer this question:
Who will you believe? Satan or God
If you will believe God and
therefore desire to protect your purity you need to set mental boundaries.
On a scale of one to ten, adultery
or pornography addiction might be a ten, at the top of a ladder. But the
question is, what were the bottom rungs of that ladder-the ones, twos, and
threes? When we identify those, disaster prevention can take place.
Of course, prevention's not always
easy-but it's a lot easier than the alternative: misery.
Often we say we want purity, but then we make choices which sabotage
purity. Choices have consequences.
If we want different consequences we must make
different choices.
Job says,
"I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl" (Job
31:1).
Job made a commitment to guard
his heart by guarding his eyes. The verses that follow spell out the terrible
consequences should he not live by this covenant of purity (Job 31:2-12).
A covenant is an agreement
between God and man. Are you prepared to make a sacred commitment to God-and to
your family and comrades. This agreement would be to not look at - and to
immediately turn away from - whatever pulls us toward lust.
Have you already made a
contract with your eyes, to not look where they shouldn't?
Are you practicing this purity
covenant when you walk down the street? When you work out? When you drive? When
you select television shows? Even when you're at church?!
Have you announced your
covenant to others? Have you asked them to pray for you and hold you
accountable to it? Have you restated your covenant before God?
If not, why not consider it
now?
Let
me share the Parable of the Doughnuts:
Imagine someone whose weakness
is eating doughnuts. His doctor says, "No more doughnuts." He vows to
God, "No more doughnuts." He promises his family "No more
doughnuts." He calls the church and gets on the prayer chain. He even goes
to a doughnut deliverance ministry to have the demon of doughnut desire cast
out of him.
Here's a guy who means
business, right?
But then what does he do?
Well, if he's like a lot of us, he goes right on reading about doughnuts,
listening to doughnut music, and watching television programs about making
doughnuts. He spends his time with other doughnut lovers talking about
doughnuts, joking about doughnuts at the office, where he often glances at the
doughnut calendars on the wall. He looks through the newspaper for doughnut coupons
and subscribes to Doughnut Desires, with its glossy, colour photos.
It's not long before he's
driving to work the long way that "just happens" to go by a doughnut
shop. He rolls down the window and inhales. Pretty soon he's buying the morning
paper from the rack right outside the doughnut shop. He's lingering just long
enough to check out doughnuts through the window.
Then he remembers he has to
make a phone call, and hey, what do you know, the doughnut shop has a pay
phone. And since he's there anyway, why not have a cup of coffee?
Now, remember, this man has no
intention of breaking his vow and eating doughnuts. But the totally predictable
and inevitable result is—what?
That he will give in and eat
doughnuts!
And can't you just hear his sad lament? "What went wrong? I prayed!
I asked others to pray. I asked God for deliverance. Why try? I give up. You do
your best and look what happens!"
If we learn nothing else from
the parable of the doughnuts, we should learn that sincere intentions, and even
prayers, are not enough. To have victory over temptation we must have clear
goals and sound strategies, and we must diligently carry them out.
What's our first line of defense against
impurity?
Romans 13:14
instruct us to "make no provision for the flesh."
It's really stupid to
deliberately put ourselves in a position where we'll likely commit sin. Whether it's the lingerie department, the swimming pool, the workout
room at an athletic club, if it trips you up, stay away from it.
Proverbs describes the loose
woman meeting up with the foolish man after dark (Proverbs 7:8-9).
We must stay away from people,
places and contexts that make sin more likely.
If it's certain bookstores or
hangouts, STAY AWAY FROM THEM. If cable or network TV, or old friends from high
school, the Internet, or computers are your problem, GET RID OF THEM.
Just
say NO to whatever is pulling you away from Jesus.
Remember, if you
want a different outcome you must make different choices.
So have you made this covenant
with God? If not, will you do it now?
[Break
here – Think of at least one area where you put yourself into tempting
situations. Decide to stop and share this decision with someone now!
Is there someone
here today prepared to lead us in
prayer for our covenants before God?]
God asks us to be
obedient to Him – is that good? Is that an example of God’s goodness.
Yes indeed, He offers us
incomparable riches, but He also has laid down the law which tells us that ‘the
wages of sin is death’. We are all sinners – to enter into the indescribable
riches of the Coming Age we must first accept Jesus as Lord.
What does this mean –
clearly we must believe that He died to save us but also to accept Him as Lord
means to give Him mastery over as lives as much as is humanely possible – that
means we must be obedient to Him – to be obedient we need to know what He
instructs as to do – the only sure way of knowing this is to study and continue
to study His Word.
In being obedient to Him,
we will, in our actions serve Him and His kingdom. The more we do for the Lord
the more we will gain rewards that will last an eternity in the Kingdom of Heaven. God gave us
desires for pleasure, power, possessions … - He offers the greatest fulfillment
of these desires to us for eternity in the Coming Ageif we chose to obey..
God
is eternal. His Place is eternal. His Word is eternal. His people are eternal.
Centre your life around God, his place, his Word, his people, and those eternal
souls who desperately long for his person and his place. Do this, and no matter
what you do for a living, your days here will make a profound difference. An
honest activity-whether building a shed, driving a bus, pruning trees, changing
nappies, or caring for a patient-can be an investment in God's kingdom.
God calls us to obey Him
not simply because it’s right but because its smart.
Similarly, disobedience is
stupid.
Matthew 7 24 "Therefore
whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise
man who built his house on the rock: 25and the rain descended, the
floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall,
for it was founded on the rock.
26"But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not
do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:
A man who obeys is not
called a righteous man but a “wise man”. The point is not that he is virtuous
to follow God’s commandments but that he is smart to do so.
Similarly he who disobeys is
foolish because he has chosen the self-punishing consequences of foolishness.
Jesus in Mat 6 encourages
us to store up treasures in heaven from where, upon redemption, they will last for all time, not on
earth where they will be lost. He encourages up to be smart, not stupid!
Revelation
197Let us be glad and rejoice and give
Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself
ready." 8And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen,
clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the
saints.
Immediately after Paul says
our salvation is “not by works” he adds” Ephesians
2
10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good
works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
God has a lifetime of good
works for each of us to do, including many works with our money and
possessions. He will reward us according to whether or not we do them.
Christ will say to some but
not all believers “Well done, good and faithful servant!” Matt 25:21. Not “Well
said” or “well believed” but “Well done”.
God is good – so
why is this world so full of evil?
Surely, you might argue, if
God were full of goodness He would create a place where “ … himself (personal)
will wipe away every tear." No evil. No fear. No abuse, rape, murder,
drugs, drunkenness, no bombs or guns. Where we can walk streets at night. No
miscommunication or fear of misunderstanding.
Yes, God is good and God
will provide all of this and more, but only in the Kiingdom of God.
The Kiingdom of God will be deeply
appreciated by the handicapped who will not be handicapped any longer. Think of
those who can’t walk and run and hear. Think of those blind from birth who will
see for the first time. The hymn writer Fanny Crosby said, "Do not pity
me for my blindness, for the first face I ever see will be the face of my Lord
Jesus."
There will be great joy in
the Kiingdom of God. "In thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand are
pleasures forever more. – Ps 16:11" Of course, the greatest joy of
the Coming Age will be being joined to Christ. If we truly love Christ we long to be
with him. As a bride is incomplete without her bridegroom, so are we
without him. We long for the wedding, we long to consummate the relationship.
Every other concern in life is secondary.
Perhaps the next greatest
joy will be being joined to our departed loved ones. The great reunion. That's
what 1
Thessalonians 4 is
saying--we will be together again.
1 Thess 4:16For
the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the
voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ
will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left
will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18Therefore encourage each
other with these words.
The certainty of ultimate
reunion is so sweet that it makes the parting bearable and almost exciting.
None of us like to be away from our families, but the one redeeming feature is
the anticipation of reunion. And the longer the separation the more glorious
the reunion. Some of you will meet parents you've not seen for fifty years,
some will meet for the first time your child or grandchild who died before
birth.
God’s goodness: Money
Christ's words were direct and profound when He
said "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew
6 : 21) What we do with our possessions is a sure indicator of what's in our
hearts. Jesus is saying, "Show me your checkbook, your credit card
statement, and your receipts for cash expenditures, and I'll show you where
your heart is." What we do with our money doesn't lie. It is a bold
statement to God of what we truly value.
But what we do with our money doesn't simply
indicate where our heart is. According to Jesus, it determines where our heart
goes. This is an amazing and exciting truth. If I want my heart to be in one
particular place and not in another , then I need to put my money in that place
and not in the other.
You may have heard people say "I want more
of a heart for missions. " Perhaps we should respond, "Jesus tells
you exactly how to get it. Put your money in missions, and
your heart will follow."
Do you wish you had a greater heart for the
poor and lost? Then give your money to help the poor and reach the lost. Do you
want your heart to be in your church? Put your money there. Your heart will
always be where your money is and not where your money isn't.
If most of your money is in mutual funds,
retirement, your house, or your hobby, that's where your heart's going to be.
Suppose you're giving to help African children
with AIDS, or you're sponsoring a child in PNG. When you see an article on the
subject, you're hooked. If you're sending money to plant churches in India and
an earthquake hits India, you watch the news and fervently pray. Why? Because
your heart is where your treasure is.
You may have heard people say "My heart
isn't in all the things of God." Is it because your treasure isn't in the
things of God? Put your resources, your assets, your money and possessions, your
time and talents and energies into the things of God. As surely as the compass
needle follows north, your heart will follow your treasure. Money leads;
hearts follow.
Our time on earth in this
mortal body is very short – it is a dot. Eternity in comparison goes on and on
like a line. Are you living for the dot or for the line?
Giving is living for the line.
We'll each part with our money. The only
question is when. We have no choice but to part with it later. But we do have
the choice of whether to part with it now. We can keep earthly treasure for the
moment, and we may get some temporary enjoyment from it. But if we give it
away, we'll enjoy eternal treasures that will never be taken from us.
Foolish people live for the dot. Wise people
live for the line.
It's all about perspective. The believer's view
of reality should be radically different than the nonbeliever's. We should live
differently because we see differently. We witness the same current events, but
interpret them differently.
We eat the same food, exchange the same
currency, but live according to two different purposes. These purposes are
based squarely on two different perspectives--0ne that looks at life in the
short run and the other that looks at life in the long run.
When our eyes are set on eternity, the news
that someone has come to know the Saviour means a great deal more than the news
of a salary raise or the prospect of getting the latest high-tech gadget. Of
course, the salary raise, and perhaps the gadget, can be used for the kingdom
of God. But the point is that neither one in itself is ultimately important,
whereas new birth, which affects the eternal destiny of a precious human being,
is vitally important.
The Christian, who accumulates land and houses
and bank accounts, but doesn't invest in eternity, isn't depicted by Jesus in
his sermon as unrighteous, greedy, or selfish -though he might be any or all of
these.
Rather, he's depicted as shortsighted. Blind.
Unwise is too weak a word-this person is stupid, stupid on the grandest scale,
as stupid as the rich fool of Luke 12. As stupid as the man who found the
treasure in the field would have been to hold on to his paltry possessions
instead of trading them in for what was of far greater value.
The one with good eyes, the one with an eternal
perspective, is accurate in his or her appraisal of what is important.
Like the poor widow in Mark 12, this person is
eternally wise. With vision corrected by biblical "laser surgery,"
this person sees life through the eyes of eternity. Unlike the average person,
the believer stares through the haze and peers beyond the horizons of this
world to another.
Suppose I offer you $1,000 to spend today however
you want. Not a bad deal. But suppose I give you a choice-you can either have
that $1, 000 today, or you can have ten million dollars if you'll wait one year
- then ten million more every year thereafter.
Only a fool would take the $1,000 today. Yet
that's what we do whenever we grab onto what will last for only a moment,
forgoing something far more valuable we could enjoy later for much longer. A
year may seem a long time to wait. But after it's done - as when our lives here
are done - it will seem like it passed quickly.
The money God entrusts to us is eternal
investment capital. Every day is an opportunity to buy up more shares in his
kingdom.
You can't take it with you, but you can send it
on ahead.
What you do with your resources in this life is
your autobiography. The book you've written with the pen of faith and the ink
of works will go into eternity unedited, to be seen and read as is by the
angels, the redeemed, and God himself.
When we view today in light of the long
tomorrow, the little choices become tremendously important. Whether I read my
Bible today, pray, go to church, share my faith, and give my money - graciously
empowered not by my flesh but by his Spirit - is of eternal consequence, not
only for other souls, but mine.
At death we put the signature to our life's
portrait.
The paint dries. The portrait's done. Those
who've dabbled in photography understand the "fixer." In developing a
photograph, the negatives are immersed in different solutions. The developing
solution parallels this life. As long as the photograph is in the developer
it's subject to change. But once it's dropped into the fixer or "stop
bath," it's permanently fixed. The photograph is done. What you see is
what you get. So it will be when we die and enter eternity-the lives we lived
on earth will be fixed as is, never to be altered or revised.
This life is our opportunity. Scripture
does not teach what most of us seem to assume--that heaven will transform each
of us into equal beings with equal possessions and equal responsibilities and
equal capacities. It does not say our previous lives will be of no eternal
significance. It says exactly the opposite.
Can’t we also claim great wealth now,
based on Jesus’ statement in Mark 10:29?
Mark 1029"I tell you the truth," Jesus
replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or
father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30will fail to
receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters,
mothers, children and fields--and with them, persecutions) and in the age to
come, eternal life. What did Jesus mean here?
First, Christ was speaking here to the apostles – they
were not wealthy in this life.
Many of the prosperity preachers who misuse this
scripture have not for a start meet the conditions of this passage –
unlike the disciples, they haven’t given up their material goods or left their
families to follow Christ.
Third, the phrase “in this present age” does indeed refer to this world, but in what sense does it mean we are to receive “many times” or “a hundred times” as much in terms of homes, brothers, sisters, parents, children and fields? The only words of a material nature are fields and possibly homes. Yet even the word for home (oikia) may mean not the house itself but the household or inhabitants of the house – that is, the family.
Even if Christ was
referring to a physical house, is he promising that all believers who give up
the roof over their head will literally own many other houses in this life?
Clearly not, because everything we know about the apostles to whom he was
speaking, from biblical and extra-biblical sources, suggests none of them were
wealthy. Indeed, if the hundred fold blessing was a literal promise of houses,
those receiving it would have to own a hundred houses and a hundred fields, not
just merely a half a dozen or so!
If Jesus literally meant to
say that the faithful believer would own large numbers of houses and fields,
did he also mean to say that the disciples would have a hundred children and
that hundreds of older folks would become their literal parents? Obviously not!
Christ was saying that
those who would follow him, in leaving behind what was theirs would become part
of a larger family of faith, where relationships are deep and possessions are
freely shared. Everywhere the apostles went they would find “homes” that were
theirs for as long as they wished to stay, meals prepared from the harvest of
“fields” freely shared with them. They would have “brothers” and “sisters” to
fellowship with, “parents” to give them wisdom and guidance and love and
“children” who would learn at their feet and whom they would guide into
Christ-likeness.
The same rich reservoir of
relationships and possessions is available today to all who would follow the
Lord.
Note that its also striking
that prosperity preachers who quote Mark 10:30 almost never comment on the
phrase “and with them, persecutions.”
God does choose to prosper
his people in material ways. Luke 6:38. Give, and it
will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running
over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it
will be measured back to you."
God is a giver by nature,
he loves to give to his children and he rewards our generosity.
The question is “Why does
he prosper us?” When he blesses us financially what does he expect us to do
with the abundance?
John 13 35By this all will know that you are My
disciples, if you have love for one another."
In the context of financial
giving Paul says” God is able to make all grace abound to us, so that in all
things at all times, having all that you need (not want!), you will abound in
every good work”
2
Corinthians 9 8And
God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all
sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work)
That is God provides us
with abundance precisely so we can use it to do good works
2
Corinthians 9 11while
you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving
through us to God. God entrusts riches to us not so we can keep them, but so we
can generously give.
2
Corinthians 8 13For
I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened; 14but by
an equality, that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that
their abundance also may supply your lack--that there may be equality.
Giving away our excess does
something for us that keeping or spending it doesn’t. It makes us dependent on
God, and keeps us open to the possibility that at some point we may need to
depend on others, just as they are currently depending on us.
It’s all
really God’s anyway – broken pencil demonstration here?
When righteous Job lost
everything, including his own sons and daughters, he fell to the ground and
worshiped God saying:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there.
The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the
LORD." In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
Job 2 9Then his wife said to
him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!" 10But
he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we
indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all
this Job did not sin with his lips.
[Break here –
give a commitment to give of your first fruits to some new area of ministry –
name it if possible and share your vision – again prayer]
You’ll be in heaven anyway
if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord & Saviour so does it really matter
whether you do things now for God?
2
Corinthians 5 10For
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may
receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether
good or bad.
“whether good or bad” this
is a disturbing verse. This verse rubs against the grain. We say to ourselves
“But we can’t experience recompense or consequences for bad things we’ve done –
that contradicts grace and forgiveness!”
Equally disturbing is the
direct statement to Christians that not only will they receive reward from
Christ for their good works, but
Colossians 3 25But he who does wrong will be
repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.
Since Christ has paid the
price for our sins, if we have confessed and received forgiveness of our sins,
what can this mean?
Our sins are totally
forgiven when we come to Christ and we do stand justified in Him (Romans 5 1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, Romans 8 1
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but
according to the Spirit.)
Scripture is empathic on
this point. Nevertheless the Bible does speak about a coming judgment of our
works, not our sins. When we commit sins OR neglect doing righteous acts we
should have done, we are not doing what we could have done to lay up precious
stones/treasures on the foundation of Christ. Therefore this contributes our
“suffering loss”. Through this loss of reward, the believer is considered to be
receiving his “due: for his works, “whether good or bad” What we do as
believers whether good or bad will have eternal consequences.
God’s greatest gift:
‘The greatest gift of God is life … ‘I am the life, the way & the truth …’
His greatest example of
good – the grace by which we are saved through Jesus paying for our sins!
John 1:1, 14
"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was
God...The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his
glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and
truth"
Jesus is full of two
things: grace and truth.
When Jesus stepped onto the
world’s stage, people could not only hear the demands of truth but see
Truth Himself. No longer fleeting glimmers of grace, but Grace Himself. "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world"
(John 1:29).
Grace is a delightful,
fragrant word. It intrigues. Attracts.
Compels. Dazzles.
Birds need two wings to fly. With only one wing, they’re grounded.
The gospel flies with the wings of grace and truth. Not one, but both.
The apparent conflict
between grace and truth isn’t because they’re incompatible, but because we lack
perspective to resolve their paradox. The two are interdependent. We
should never approach truth except in a spirit of grace, or grace except in a
spirit of truth. Jesus wasn’t 50% grace, 50% truth, but 100% grace, 100% truth.
Truth-oriented Christians
love studying Scripture and theology. But sometimes they’re quick to judge and
slow to forgive. They’re strong on truth, weak on grace.
Grace-oriented Christians
love forgiveness and freedom. But sometimes they neglect biblical study and see
moral standards as "legalism." They’re strong on grace, weak on
truth.
Countless mistakes in
marriage, parenting, ministry and other relationships are failures to balance
grace and truth. Sometimes we neglect both. Often we choose one over the other.
Our minds don’t seem big
enough to hold onto grace and truth at the same time. Like a dog chasing
two balls, we go after the grace ball — only to drop the truth ball to make
room for it. We need to stretch our undersized mouths/minds to hold them both
at once.
A paradox is an apparent
contradiction. Grace and truth aren’t really contradictory. Jesus didn’t switch
on truth, then turn it off so He could switch on grace. Both are permanently
switched on in Jesus. Both should be switched on in us.
Truth without grace breeds
a self-righteousness legalism that poisons the church and pushes the world from
Christ.
Grace without truth breeds
moral indifference and keeps people from seeing their need for Christ.
Attempts to
"soften" the gospel by minimizing truth keep people from Jesus.
Attempts to "toughen" the gospel by minimizing grace keep people from
Jesus.
It’s not enough for us to
offer grace or truth. We must offer both. That is a great challenge and another
need for prayer!
Perhaps you can recognize
in yourself a tendency toward a lack of truth or a lack of grace in your life?
Perhaps those who are in
the truth camp need more empathy, and hence more suffering??
Perhaps those in the grace
camp need more revelation, more of God’s Word and to see more clearly the
consequence of moral indifference in their lives and the world around them.
Let us pray!
God’s
goodness? Adversity & Curses?
Even our adversity and apparent curses can be
used for good by God.
Romans 8 28And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
We
make many bad choices but the fact that we are here today making a choice for God
shows that He can turn those bad choices into growth and learning experiences
that ultimately benefit us.
He
will not normally take away the consequences of those bad/sinful choices, just
like He doesn’t switch gravity off just to suit a foolish person who has jumped
off a building. But he will/can heal us if we seek his healing.
God
even blesses us against our will at times – because like a good father, he
knows best.
Close/Reflections:
Now unfold the paper you wrote your lists on at the beginning – are
they still the same on reflection? Can you see where one or more of the
curses/worst mistakes of your life have been used for good by God?
A
possible top 5 blessings:
1. Being
saved for eternal life in the Coming Age, the Kingdom of God,
2. Knowing
God now thru His Word – how precious is your Bible!, Christian writings and
your pastor,
3. Having
a relationship with your fellow believers – your brothers & sisters in
Christ who you will share eternity with,
4. Your
rewards to come after the return of Jesus for doing God’s work now,
5. God’s
presence in your life today:
a. In
the blessings He bestows to bring you joy now
b. In
the discipline He administers to help you become more obedient to Him and
maintain your faith in Him (eg the guardrails)
c. In
the suffering he has allowed which brings you into a deeper relationship with
Him and helps you understand and empathize with others to enable you to reach
them for Christ.
Reflection on sexual purity:
Is
there some area of you life where you put yourself under too much temptation
and which you see now you need to remove yourself from?
Reflection on giving:
Have
you been given a conviction to give more; to give of your first fruits
even/regardless of your debts?
Reflection on your knowledge of God:
Have
you come to know something of God in a fuller or deeper way?
Have
you been challenged in any way to go from here today and make different
choices?
Questions/comments?
May we close in prayer – Lord thank you!!!!!
END