The Answer to Worry and Anxiety

When one takes the name of Christian, he ought to be careful how he lives. I have noticed in my own life that I have a propensity to worry and be anxious, yet clearly there is a Biblical command to not do so. The phrase “Do not worry” can be found twenty-three times in scripture and there are countless other teachings in which we are called to live without worry as the very opposite of faith is the idea of worry. Jesus specifically tells us not to worry and made this a salient point in His great sermon we call The Sermon on the Mount.

Yet, worry and anxiety seem to knock on our doors daily. And many of us, I know I do, keeping opening that door and letting worry in. As God’s children, this is unnecessary. He has promised to be with us through whatever we face. The problem is though, He never promises to remove all the things in life that we don’t want to face. He only promises us to be with us in the storms of life, not to always stop them. We remember Jesus stopping the storm in Matthew 8:23-27. So, we expect Him to do the same whenever the waves get a little high.

But the truth is, God allows storms into our lives. They are for our own good. Yet, we struggle not to be worried that we might drown. The fact is, this is a lack of faith on our part.

There are many beautiful verses in the Scriptures that offer us comfort in our times of fear and uncertainty. But there is one verse, that if we will commit to memory and to believing, that is the foundation of our faith. I share this verse often. Listen to what God says in Romans 8:28 which says,

 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Do you believe that verse? Do you believe that God causes all things to work together for good? Do you believe that it is all things? All of them? Cancer, death, accidents, and every other event that happens in your life?

You see, for those who have received Christ, been born again to new life, God is working out everything for good. Everything. Not just the things that we enjoy and like, but every bad thing we can barely stomach, is going to have a good result when God has finished working in it. That, my friends, is a fact. It is not arguable. You cannot interpret this passage any other way.

So, do you believe this? If you do not believe it, then you have a problem. To deny this truth as found in Romans 8:28, is to call God a liar.

I believe this verse. Yet, I still struggle with anxiety and worry. The problem lies in my faith. It just hasn’t yet reached its full potential. But I need to keep moving forward in growing my faith. How do I do that?

Romans 10:17
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.

We must be in His Word. Not just by going to church on Sunday, though we are to do that. But everyday we must be intentional about reading, studying, and memorizing His Word. This is how we build our faith. We must have fellowship with other believers, who will remind us and encourage us in the promises of Jesus.

Whatever you face today, if you are in Christ, you need not worry or be anxious. Instead you can trust God in the situation. It’s okay to pray about it. It’s okay to ask God to remove it or change it. But at the end of your prayer, let it go to Him. If after praying and praying and seeking His intervention, He still allows it to happen, you can trust that He is causing it to work out for good. We know this. Commit to memory this verse and then rest in faith the God who is with you always. Rest in Jesus. Believe Him. Let Him be God. We know God is working it all out for good. We know this. Why? How? Because He told us.

Romans 8:28
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

The Importance of Conviction

I came across a scripture reading this morning in which, during the course of explaining the proper use of the Spiritual Gift of tongues, the Apostle Paul contradicts the modern concept of soft preaching and witnessing to the lost which has become prevalent today. It’s timely for me as I was recently asked by a brother in Christ to listen to a sermon recently given at his church. It doesn’t matter which church or who gave this sermon, I can assure you that far too many churches are propagating this very untruth. The devil has misled many well-being preachers, teachers, and members of Christ’s church into the notion that in order to win people to Christ, we need not preach to them about their sin. It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict they say.

I don’t disagree. The Bible is clear that one of the works of the Holy Spirit is to convict the world of its sin. But God has built up His Church, the true Church, to be the vehicle by which the truth of the Bible is to be taken to the lost. We were given the Great Commission by Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit and endowed with special, spiritual gifts, to take the Gospel out to the world and then to make disciples.

Read this passage.

1 Corinthians 14:24-25
 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all,  the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.

The object of the Gospel is to bring people to a saving knowledge of Jesus, so that through the work of sanctification, all who believe in His name will make Him Lord of their life and do as Jesus did, His will.

John 17:1-4
 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,  since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.  And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

If we are to become like Jesus, then our goal must be to glorify God.

When an unbeliever walks into our church or into our lives, according to Paul, this is what should happen. “He is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed.” This is how the Holy Spirit works in conviction, by opening their hearts to the truth of the entire counsel of God, as is recorded in the Bible, and then using what they heard to bring conviction.

Romans 10:14-17
 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”  But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”  So, faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

The good news is that though we are sinners, God has sent Jesus to pay that price for our sin. People need to know what they are “saved” from. For when they hear God’s Word spoken, they are convicted by “all”, the secrets of their hearts are disclosed and then, they will fall on their face, worship God, and know God is present in that place.

This is the method God has chosen to use to bring people to a saving knowledge of Himself. This is why we have been each, given a spiritual gift. This is why the entire counsel of scripture must be preached in the church. Some of us are teachers, some pastors, and some lay people, but all of us are to be speaking the truth of the Word.

Hebrews 4:12
 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

We cannot continue to ignore the truth of scripture. I don’t know when Jesus is coming back, I sure hope soon, but until He does it is our work to preach His Word. Our culture is in serious moral decline. It’s no coincidence that the less we prophesy the truth and call out the sins in the world and be the salt and light of Christ, the worse it is getting.

1 Corinthians 14:24-25
 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all,  the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.

The Bible is clear. Do it in love, for much of 1 Corinthians tells us we must, but do it. It is not love to let someone live with a false hope that they can live in sin and still be Christ’s.

What is God's Will For My Life

One of the most often asked questions about life is this, “What is God’s will for my life?” As we grow and traverse through this life, as a follower of Christ, we want to make good and Godly decisions. Maybe it’s a choice of a college to attend, what career to pursue, where to live, and who to be in a relationship with. In some way or another, most of us have wondered what God’s will is for us personally.

It’s good to seek God’s will in all our life decisions. But the Bible, and by extension, God, has not written a personal, detailed list of steps we are to take as we live life. You cannot simply open your Bible and find a passage that says, “Go to the University of Kansas’, or “Marry Bob.”

Yet, God did not leave us to wander this earth without direction. No, He intentionally provided a book, a book written by men, yet inspired by His Holy Spirit, in which we can know His will. He has provided a way to make good, Godly decisions. He even sent His Holy Spirit to guide us unto all truth and to teach us what the scriptures mean. We can not only read His Word and understand it; we can learn how to apply it to every situation life presents.

The question, “What is God’s specific will for my life”, can only be truly answered by a different question first. That question is simple. “What is God’s will?” To rephrase, what is the general will of God for all of us? Why must that question be answered first? Because the answer to our personal questions as to what God wants us to do, is found in following the general will of God in our lives. There are Biblical principles that if we follow in their complete, yet simple callings, will guide us to be good decision makers.

Did you know that the Bible lists four specific “wills” of God? Certainly, there are treasures to be mined from all scripture. God’s general will can be seen in His commandments, but God has given us four foundational building blocks that if we start with, give us the foundation we need to stand firm as we build.

Here are the four wills God directly gives us all from His Word.

John 6:40
"For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Peter 2:13-15
 Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.  For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-6
 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;  that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,  not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;  and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.

I’m just going to leave this here. Here are four passages of scripture upon which we can build upon. There are four passages of scripture that no one who lays claim to being a Christians can deny are God’s will. There can be no argument amongst ourselves or with God, for He is explicit in these four passages.

No matter who we are or where we are, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us commit ourselves to these four wills of God. We must study these principles and we must apply them in our lives. Every decision we make must be in line with at least, these four wills. They are clear and if we desire to do God’s will and yet do not submit to these, we are fooling ourselves if we think we want to know and do His will.

I’ve got work to do. How about you?

For more info read your Bible, The 4 Wills of God by Dr. Emerson Eggrichs, and Found: God's Will by John MacArthur

The Elusiveness of Joy.

We are a rebellious people on this earth. That rebellious nature extends into the life of the Christian. Yet, we are called out of rebellion and into slavery when we come to Christ. This is not a forced slavery, but it is instead, an exercise of our free will, motivated by our love for Jesus, that calls us to become bondservants. You see this is one of the great paradoxes of scripture, that Christ has set us free, but He set us free so that we would use our freedom to become slaves to Him. Why? You can find the explanation in what Jesus says in John 14:31, “But I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”

The way the world can see we love the Father and His Son, is through our response to His commands.

Jesus went on and said this in John 15:9-10, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”

Yesterday in the sermon I heard preached, the pastor made this statement, “Christians ought to be the most joyful people on earth.” Yet, many of us walk around as if the whole world is coming down upon us. Maybe it is. But joy, Christian joy, is not dependent upon circumstances.

Why aren’t we joy-filled? (I’ve read your Facebook posts people, don’t be in denial, joy isn’t characterizing us as it should.) Again, let Jesus explain.

John 15:9-11
 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.  These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Our joy will be full, when our obedience is towards His commandments. It’s that simple. Abide in His love. Let love, not this fake, phony love the world speaks of, but true Christian love, dominate your life. Abide in His love. Again, what did Jesus say? He said this, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.”

These aren’t my words; they are the words of Christ. Abide in them. Abide in Him. Now go, open your Bible and learn what this means.

 

Every Christian is a Saint - Called By God

This morning as I begin a journey into study of 1 Corinthians, I was reminded of a wonderful truth of what it means to be in Christ. Paul wrote to the people of the church at Corinth, this letter, and in it, Paul addresses the many ways this church and its people, were trying to live with one foot still in the world.

The city of Corinth was a city known for its immorality. Like some call Las Vegas, Corinth could be said to be “sin city”. Fornication, which the Greek word used here is porneia from which we get the word pornography, idolatry, adultery, effeminacy, homosexuality, stealing, covetousness, drunkenness, reviling, which is abuse through speech, and swindling, are the basic sins Paul will speak of in this letter. Sound familiar? Our society has moved past having one or two cities such as Vegas, where sin runs free. Paul’s list of sins can now be found in every place in America.

But Paul wrote, not to the city, but to the church, because the church had drifted into a place where it was somewhat hard to tell the difference between the world around them and the Christians within. This, my friends, is also the case today in the church right here where we live.

Yes, I am saying that the church today is still struggling just as the church of Corinth did. Many are trying to tone down the preaching against many of these sins. The very divisiveness we see in America today is being played out in the area of sexuality and gender. Pornography, drunkenness, and drug addiction are three issues that a great many are battling in our congregations. And yes, not all the people who sit in a pew on Sunday are really Christians, but that does not preclude the fact that even us Christians, have fallen into addictions and sinful lifestyles that cause us to look much like the world. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians to the Christians. That is clear by the salutation he wrote.

1 Corinthians 1:2
 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.

Honestly, this is good news, because we are all sinners and each of us are still wrestling with the old sin nature, even as we live out the Christian life. Paul didn’t write this letter to condemn the church; he wrote it to remind them of who they are, called ones from God, set apart and called saints. The word here for saint is hagios, which means holy one or set apart one. We have been set apart by God.

Paul also reminds us we have been sanctified in Christ Jesus. Though we typically use the word sanctification to speak of the ongoing work of us becoming like Christ in actual behavior, in the sense Paul uses it here, speaks of our position in Christ. When we are baptized into Christ, and in that I mean identified with Him through faith in Him, God imputes the very righteousness of Christ upon us. Thus, we are wearing His cloak of righteousness, we are declared by God as holy. We more often call this justification.

So, Paul wrote this letter to the church of Jesus, which includes us. And in this letter, we can find hope in Jesus for both joy here and in the eternal life, even if we are still struggling with our sins. The truth is, we are.

But we can rejoice in this; God has chosen us and declared us saints. He also chose the apostles to remind us who we are in Christ and how we should strive every day to live in the power of the Holy Spirit to grow more like Christ.

Paul also wrote this wonderful truth to us in Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Open your Bible today and let it, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, lead to you a life of obedience that will culminate one day in being like Jesus. I leave you with Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 1:3, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Two Gates

“This life’s hard, but it’s harder if you’re stupid.” Hang around Facebook long enough and you will probably see a meme with John Wayne being credited with saying this. The quote is from a book titled, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, written by George V. Higgins. John Wayne never said it, but truth is, it’s an accurate statement.

Jesus said something similar about life also, and though He never used the word stupid, the implication should lead us to the same thought. Living this life without Jesus, well, it’s a bad idea, maybe one could say it’s even stupid to do so. The quote is from the greatest sermon ever, the sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 7:13-14
 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Those two verses are jam-packed with information we need to understand. The first thing we must understand is that simply calling oneself a Christian, does not make one a Christian. Jesus makes it clear throughout scripture that the way to Him is a narrow one. He would tell the disciples that for a rich person to enter His Kingdom is tantamount to trying to get a camel through the eye of a needle. I have trouble getting thread through the eye of needle, much less a camel. This path to Jesus and salvation is a very, arduous thing.

Let’s pause here a moment and address something most of us don’t grasp. We live in a very prosperous time and in a very prosperous place. We are rich. Yes, I know there are poor people in America. I know where some of them live. But let’s be real here. If you are reading this it means you have some type of a computer, that most likely has more computing power than NASA had when we sent men to the moon in 1969. That phone in your hand is a symbol of the wealth you possess. When Jesus spoke those words some 2000 years ago, he was amongst a people who knew nothing of the easy life we live. We are abundantly wealthy in terms of our lifestyles.

Whether we have a big bank account or not, the majority of us live the easy life. We get cold, we dial up a thermostat. We get hot, we dial it down. We get hungry, we open a refrigerator that keeps our food readily available. Or we drive our car to a place that has a little box we speak into and then someone hands us warm food. We get a little pain; we take a pill. If it’s a serious problem, we go to a doctor who can put us in a hospital where even our clogged arteries, (clogged from going to that little box and getting food), can be cleaned out or even replaced. We live the easy life, for the most part.

It is this easy life that makes understanding the true Christian life, hard to grasp. so, we have made church into a place where we tone down the truth of God’s Word. We tell people Jesus loves them and if they will just say a little prayer, we can baptize them into Him, and all will be ok. Yes, there is some truth in all that, but the problem is that there is by omission, a lot of untruth.

Jesus said, “the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

One of the problems we have in this age is that we simply have it too easy. We live in the “instant gratification” age. Because we are so blessed, we have begun to expect that everything has to be easy. We expect everything can and should be fixed. This is contradictory of what the Bible tells us happened in the very beginnings of man’s existence. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden, that changed the world. That brought a curse upon us and upon the entire creation. If you have never really studied the “fall”, then you need to get yourself under some good teaching of the Book of Genesis. Because of the sinful, rebellion of Adam and Eve, there is a curse upon the earth that will not be lifted until the return of Jesus as spoken of in Revelation 21:1-8. Until that time, we are living on an earth where decay and death are everywhere. Life will be a struggle, and there will be pain, sorrow, and suffering.

Yet, man tries to defeat God and the curse He placed upon us. The greatest example is lawn care. In 2015 Americans spent 29.1 billion dollars on lawn care. 29.1 billion dollars to eliminate weeds. Yet the battle to eliminate weeds, never ends. Weeds pop up everywhere. They find cracks in concrete and push through. They grow on top of the weed barriers we place in our rock gardens. They even grow on roofs sometimes. No one plants them there. Well, technically God does. The Bible is clear in Genesis 3:17-18, “Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.  "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you.” This is a picture of life.

Our pursuit of health is another example. Everywhere we look, we see people afflicted with cancers of all types. Billions are spent each year on cancer care and cancer research. There are campaigns to eradicate cancer. I get it. Yes, we all hate cancer, but truth be known it is all part of the curse. God was clear in His warning. Genesis 2:16-17 tell us “The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;  but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." Yet, we spend billions and take all kind of pills in the hope we might defeat sickness, extend our lives, and even try and defeat death.

I have bad news; we won’t. I am not saying it is inherently wrong to seek to alleviate suffering. But scripture is clear, our hope is not in ourselves it is in Jesus. This is why Jesus said we must enter in by the narrow gate. Our only true hope is in Him. He did not stutter, He said that “the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

The Christian life is a hard one. It requires sacrifice. It will involve suffering. There will be pain. But to the one who lives by faith, who dies to self, who refuses to allow his own self-will to control his desires to decide what is right and what is wrong, to Him comes peace in Christ. It is a peace that transcends understanding.

I could on and on with scriptural words that explain what this Christian life demands of us. Each of us must do the work and open our Bibles daily to see who God is and what He desires we do. I simply feel called to remind each and everyone of us that the gate is narrow. The way is hard that leads to life. The answer to how to live it is through complete surrender of self.

We must take the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction.

The Bible has this amazing way of appearing almost contradictory. The same Jesus who just told us the way is hard that leads to life also said this in Matthew 11:29-30, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” There is no contradiction here. Jesus is simply saying the Christian life is a hard one, but when you let go of self, and cling to him, the hard way is easy to walk through.

Amazing. Turn to Jesus and He will shepherd you through the narrow gate. He will lead you to life, life eternal. But we must avoid the wide gate for it will lead us to destruction.

Is Jesus My Lord?

The most important question one could ever ask is, what must I do to be saved? We call the answer to this, The Gospel. Reading in Romans, chapter 10, this morning, the answer to that question is given in a very clear and concise form.

Romans 10:7-9
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);  because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

That is written with complete clarity and needs no interpretation.

Confess with your mouth. Believe in your heart.

But what are we to confess?

Jesus is Lord.

What are we to believe?

God raised Him from the dead.

Last week, churches filled up for one of the two busiest days of the year, Easter Sunday, or as some insist, we call it, Resurrection Sunday. Most of you who attended a church probably heard a sermon about Jesus and His death on the cross which resulted in the opportunity for all of us to be saved and thus spend eternity with God. You must believe that Jesus was resurrected to be saved, as we just read. While that seems crazy to some, it doesn’t require any action other than to believe that the Bible is true when it states Jesus rose from the dead.

But the second part of the answer of how it is we are saved, does involve us in a more active, physical role. It says we must confess Him as Lord.

Do we?  Is He Lord of your life? Do we really understand what Lord means? The Greek word used is Kurios. It speaks of sovereign power and authority. The Strong’s Dictionary defines it as the one who has complete control and mastery over one. It means your lord owns you and is in complete control over you. A lord is the one who is sovereign. That means you do everything He says.

Based on that definition is Jesus really our Lord? Is that the confession we have made with our mouth? Because if it is not, then we are not saved.

I’m not trying to judge anyone’s salvation, that is between you and God. But we ought to read our Bibles and we ought to take seriously, the commitment we are saying we have made by truly seeking to give all control over our lives and how we live to Jesus, if we expect to be saved.

This simply is not preached to us enough. Listen to these Biblical facts.

In the Book of Acts, only two times is Jesus referred to as Savior, but He is called by the title Lord, ninety-two times. Let me say it again. Jesus is referred to as Lord 92 times.

In the entire New Testament, He is called Savior, about ten (10) times. But guess how many times Jesus is referred to as Lord? Around seven-hundred times. 700 times Jesus is spoken of as Lord. 700. Let that sink in.

What must I do to be saved?

Romans 10:7-9
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);  because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Jesus is Lord. That is without question. Is He your Lord? If He is, then think about what that means in terms of how you live, what you think, and how that changes everything.