June 15, 2014 – Pastor Tim – “Heads Up … with eyes open and everyone looking around”
John 6:66-68, From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”
68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
Once we truly know who Christ is, how do we forget or turn away?
When a hard thing comes before us, we have basically one of four choices in dealing with it:
- Flee it!
- Fight it!
- Forget it! or
- Face it!
The first 3 ways will end up bad (unless we are fleeing unrighteousness, fighting the good fight of faith, or forgetting those things behind us, all of which require the fourth first), only the fourth way can set us free (facing it). It is better to look our difficulty in the face and see it for it really is…not something that must be excused or defended, explained away (rationalized), but something that must be ousted (removed, kicked to the curb, adios’ed). The Truth has not always been kind to me, but I would rather have Truth and know where I stand, then to live a lie and be judged for it.
Proverbs 3:11-13,
My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor detest His correction;
12 For whom the Lord loves He corrects,
Just as a father the son in whom he delights.
13 Happy is the man who finds wisdom,
And the man who gains understanding;
Please don’t say you can’t or you’ll do it tomorrow.
Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Tomorrow never comes, today is the day to face down our challenge’s and move forward in Christ.
Galatians 5:1, Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
We are made in the inner structure of our being for creative achievement; and when we draw back from that creativity we frustrate ourselves. (No one dreams of being middle management.) It is easy to want our dream to come true, the fact is dream do come true. The hard part is disciplining ourselves to the work it takes to have them come true.
2 Timothy 1:7, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
There is a balance to this, we are not all going to be the President, or run a multi-million dollar corporation. Not that we can’t, we just might not be disciplined enough to make it happen. However, please hear me, you and I are not the least bit inferior. In fact, “I’m superior in many things” and it is the discovery of those things and their performance that brings me joy. Finding and living out the plan of God is the secret to success.
2 Corinthians 9:8, And 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.
We must learn to discipline our aspirations slightly passed what we are comfortable with and then let God help. We must also continue to grow and stretch ourselves.
But lying in bed or hiding in the back of the church thinking you can’t do anything is inexcusable. Jeremiah 29:11-13, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. (the promise, then what do we do to discover our future?)12 Then you will call Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Romans 12:3-8, For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
There is a plan, a place, a destiny for each of us in God, so let’s hear the voice of the Lord (find the plan) and then we work at it, for the rest of our lives.
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