A Different Perspective Official Podcast

• Overcoming Faith // By Faith, Part 10

  Just before He was crucified, Jesus told His somewhat frightened disciples that they should be of good cheer, because He’d overcome this world. Then the Romans nailed Him to a cross. Doesn’t sound very cheery to me. Doesn’t sound too much about “overcoming” to me. Well, over these last couple of weeks we've been chatting about faith, the sort of faith that the Bible talks about, the sort of faith that overcomes the trials and the temptations that this world seems to throw at us. Faith is an amazing thing as Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1 tells us: It’s the assurance of things hoped for and the evidence of things we can't see. If there was no God this life would be completely and utterly meaningless, you and I would just be an advanced life form on this planet, none of our laws really at the end of the day would mean anything. No human life really would be worth anything and since our lives here on this earth are, in the scheme of things, but a fleeting instant in history eternity wouldn't mean anything and yet God creates us and He allocates the borders and the territories and He puts us here on this earth so that we might seek Him and find Him and know Him and love Him and be loved by Him. The person who has faith has all things, the one who knows beyond any shadow of a doubt in their hearts that Jesus, the Son of God, came into this world to die to pay for their sins and to rise again to give them a new eternal life has all things though they may be poor by the world's standards. The weak become strong; the poor become rich because the one who has Jesus has all in all. And we lay hold of Jesus, we embrace Him, we know Him by faith. Indeed without faith it's completely impossible to please God. So what use is faith to you and me in practical terms? Well, often times we hope that our faith in God will help us overcome difficult circumstances. Often we hope that if someone is against us our faith will mean that we'll end up winning and they'll end up losing. Do we see something of that in the Bible? Of course we do, we often see Gods people in the Old Testament turn to God in times of distress and God goes out and fights the battle for them and gives them victory over their enemies. Sometimes that's what the Lord does in our lives, when we just feel to get out there amongst it and the forces of hell are unleashed against us, there is absolutely nothing wrong with praying in faith for victory so that the Lords will can prevail. There's been many a time in my life when I've been up against it, when it seemed that people came against this ministry of Christianityworks and our mission to share the good news of Jesus with many, many people around the world. When our finances have been so difficult that we couldn't really see how we could possibly go on. When people that we'd relied on failed us and left us in a difficult spot. Please don't ever think that just because here I am on the radio proclaiming the good news of Jesus that none of those things happen to us, they do and the more we preach Christ the more the enemy unleashes his armies against us. That's par for the course. So when we're in a tough place should we turn to God as our first resort instead of our last? Should we rely on God’s faithfulness to overcome the obstacles and opposition that we face? Absolutely we should, He's our God and yet that's not always what He has in mind. Sometimes His victories are so different to what we're expecting. There's something that Jesus said to His disciples in those final days before His crucifixion that must have seemed outrageous and plainly wrong to them as they heard it and as they lived through the next few days after He said it. Here it is, have a listen, John chapter 16, verses 32 and 33: Jesus said to his disciples, 'The hour is coming indeed it has come when you'll be scattered each one to his home and you'll leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because of the Father. I have said this to you so that in me you may have peace for in this world you will face persecution but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world’. The very first verse speaks of the coming fear and trials that the disciples were going to face. You'll be scattered, you'll flee to your homes, you'll leave me alone. (Man if Jesus was saying that to me I would not have been impressed.) You will face persecution. Well, zippity do da, thank you for that Jesus. And yet, in the very next breathe He's saying, but I'm telling you all these things so that in me you might have peace, have courage because I have overcome, I have conquered the world. Well you know, words are cheap. Not so long after that they see Him arrested, tried, beaten to within an inch of His life, bloodied, the flesh hanging in strips off His back where He had been whipped, lugging a cross up to Golgotha where He's nailed to it and He dies. And yet this miracle man Jesus had said to them, "Take good courage, be of good cheer for I have overcome the world, I've conquered it." Let me ask you this, when He was hanging there on that Cross did He look much like a conqueror to you? Much of an overcomer in the eyes of His frightened disillusioned disciples who'd fled and left Him alone in His darkest hour just as He'd predicted? Not likely and yet just a few days later to their absolute disbelief, even though He'd been telling them that this would happen, the one who'd they had seen dead and lifeless was alive again. He truly had conquered the grave, He'd conquered death, he had overcome the very worst outcome that there is – dying. Do you see how the immediate circumstances of His trial and crucifixion shrouded the ultimate victory from His disciples gaze? And so my friend it often is with us. So often we're focused on a short term victory in this or that, a victory that all too often involves saving our own skins lets be honest, when all along our Father in heaven is working out His ultimate victory in our lives and in order to realise that ultimate victory for a time we may have to suffer and our faith has a huge role to play in realising that ultimate victory. Listen to what the Apostle John wrote, 1 John chapter 5, verse 4: For whatever is born of God conquers the world and this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Ultimately it's the one who believes in Jesus who He says will conquer this world because in Jesus Christ you and I have victory over death, victory over the grave, victory over this world. As we're travelling through the short term pain of this lifetime that's what keeps us pressing on to the end, the truth that in Christ Jesus we have eternal life. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 6: In this you rejoice even if now for a little while you've had to suffer various trials so that the genuineness of your faith be more precious than gold though perishable, is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus is revealed. To that you and I cry Hallelujah. Through Him we have victory over the grave. There are going to be times in this life when you and I feel like losers but in those moments God is faithful, His love is faithful, His promises are true and we have all that we need to make it through. For me to be able to serve you with the truth today is such a privilege. Take this truth, hold it close to your heart because through your faith in Jesus Christ, as weak and as tenuous as it may feel on some days, you have overcome this world. I have said these things to you so that in Him you may have peace.

  --------  

  9:38
• Unwavering Faith // By Faith, Part 9

  When God calls us into something that’s really hard, scary, tough, radical … He does that sometimes, have you noticed – what we need is unwavering faith. Yeah, right!  Where do you get that, pray tell?! You know what I think is absolutely the most difficult thing about faith, it's that sometimes when I believe God for something He doesn't give me the answer I was believing for. Sometimes when I trust God to do something, something that's really good, something that's really powerful, something that would glorify His name, either He doesn't do it or He delays in doing it or He does it in a completely different way. See when it comes to faith I want it to be simple, I decide what needs doing, I ask God to do it, I believe in Him to do it and He does it. You see, that's simple enough so how come God doesn't get it sometimes? How come He heads off on some tangent when I can see as plain as day what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and how it needs to be done? Have you ever had that sort of a reaction to God when you've believed in Him for something and He hasn't done it? Yeah, me too and sure our point of view is simple enough but could you imagine what an incredible mess this world would be in if God spent His time dancing to your tune and to mine? So over these last few weeks we've been chatting about having world-conquering faith. Great, that's in the Bible, we should talk about it but if we're going to talk about faith then we need to talk about what happens when our faith is apparently misplaced, do you think? We've been working our way through Hebrews chapter 11 over these past few weeks which is all about faith and what we've focused on so far are the parts of that chapter that sees faith getting the sorts of results that we really want. Faith that pleases God, faith that puts our lives into context, radical faith that gets radical results, faith that overcomes our natural aversion to discomfort and inconvenience in following God, the faith that helps us to make the sacrifice that put God in His rightful place as Lord of our lives, faith that conquers the world. And each of the examples so far that we've spoken about have focused on this successful outcomes of having faith in God, yippee, but the Bible is nothing if it's not realistic and Hebrews chapter 11 talks about those times when God doesn't seem to deliver on our prayers that we've prayed in faith. Have a listen. This first passage follows on from the Abraham story. God had promised Abraham many descendants when he and his wife Sarah were old and way beyond child-bearing age and He promised Abraham a land of his own, the Promised Land in which his descendants would be more numerous than the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the beach. Question: How much of that promise did Abraham actually get to see? Only two small parts! Firstly God gave him a son, Isaac, miraculously to be sure but only one, not this multitude that God had told him about and secondly, God fleetingly let him pass through the Promised Land but only as an alien. So what does the Bible have to say about this unfulfilled promise? Here it is. Hebrews chapter11 beginning at verse 11: By faith he received the power of procreation even though he was too old and Sarah herself was barren because he considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one person and this one as good as dead descendants were born as many as the stars in heaven and as innumerable as the grains of the sand by the sea shore. All of these died in faith without having received the promises but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on this earth, people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind they would have had the opportunity to return but as it is they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, indeed he has prepared a city for them. So Abraham didn't see the full outcome of his faith. All bar two of the Israelites that left slavery in Egypt perished in the wilderness and they never saw the Promised Land, only their children and their grand children did and yet God commends them for their faith. God’s plan, God’s promises span centuries right down to the birth of Jesus. Gods promise of many descendants is what gave Jesus to us and you and I today are blessed because Abraham trusted in God because Israel trusted in God albeit imperfectly, you and I are blessed in Jesus who came through God’s promise to Abraham. God’s plan spanned millennia, way beyond Abraham’s life. Abraham’s life was only just one small piece in the over all jigsaw puzzle and God commends him for his faith. That's the big picture, that's the truth. You and I, our lives are but one small part in the over all scheme of things, in God’s whole plan for the human race and sometimes from our narrow perspective we can't see the whole picture. In fact I suggest that our perspective is inheritantly way too narrow, ever fully to comprehend Gods total big picture and so often God makes promises and we step out in faith into those promises and things don't quite work the way we planned and yet those apparent failures can be critical in the over all plan of God. Again listen to what Hebrews has to say further on this very thing. Having regaled us with all the successes of faith of the various leaders and kings, the writer of Hebrews under the hand of God turns his attention now to the apparent failures of faith. Hebrews chapter 11 beginning at verse 35: Some women received their dead by resurrection but others were tortured, refusing to accept release in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword, they went about in skins of sheep and goat, destitute, persecuted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and in holes in the ground yet all these though they were commended for their faith did not receive what was promised since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect. You read that and it seems to me that having faith in God is more important to God than the outcome of the faith. Stepping into the firing line with the distinct possibility of getting shot, trusting God is more important to God than whether or not we get shot. That's what the Scripture is telling us and it's true. What we're interested in is a narrow form of success, success in our little bit but sometimes our apparent failure or what the world would call failure is a critical part of the jigsaw in God’s overall plan. The prime example of that is the cross. The cross was a worldly defeat. The disciples were devastated, the miracle man Jesus was dead. They didn't get it at the time that He was dying to save us from our sin. The cross was the greatest victory in human history because it was followed by the empty tomb, the risen Jesus, to give you and me a new life, a resurrection life where we can be born again. What if Jesus had been saved from the cross? Where would we be now? But I tell you something, I bet you the disciples were praying to God in those final hours that He would be saved, that He would be spared and I bet you had we been one of those disciples that's exactly what we'd have been praying too. It's not always about winning each battle, sometimes God has a bigger picture and what pleases Him, what He commends us for is a faith that stands, unfailing faith despite the outcomes. By faith.

  --------  

  9:41
• Conquering Faith // By Faith, Part 8

  Faith is an awesome thing – it’s a gift from God and one of the reasons God gives us faith and then takes us through trials to grow our faith is so that we can conquer the things of this world. That’s what the Bible teaches us. Problem is that when we’re in the middle of the conquering bit – well, that can get a bit scary. There are times in our lives when we have to overcome obstacles. Not every obstacle is for overcoming let me say, sometimes we're meant to be there, at least for a while and sometimes we're meant to be there for a long while. I don't know if you recall the Apostle Paul’s prayer to God about the thorn in his flesh that was hindering him, but three times he asked God to take it away and God’s answer was "no", because that thorn in Paul's flesh was there to keep him humble. Even adversity sometimes, especially adversity, plays an important part in God’s plan for our lives but sometimes its God’s plan for us to overcome obstacles in our lives, to be conquerors of things out there that are holding us back. Sometimes we need to be more than conquerors over our circumstances in order to achieve the things that God has called us to achieve and when that's the case, when we have to conquer an obstacle that's way beyond our power and our wisdom and our strength then we need to have faith in the One who does have the power and the wisdom and the strength to make those things happen. We need that sort of power that conquers the world and that's the sort of power that we're going to chat about today on the program, world conquering faith. But before we get rolling I just want to explain that the reason I began with this word of caution, that not all obstacles are meant to be crashed through and torn down, is because more often than not it's not the obstacles out there that need conquering, it's the obstacles within us that need conquering. Take the idea of strongholds. We tend to think of a stronghold as being, I don't know, some dark spiritual force or place out there somewhere that we need to overcome but the only time that that word is used in the New Testament it's actually talking about the proud thoughts inside the hearts of believers. Have a listen, 2 Corinthians chapter 10 beginning at verse 3: Indeed we live as human beings but we do not wage war according to human standards for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God and we take every thought captive to obey Christ. I want to argue that often it's the strongholds in our hearts that are the hardest obstacles to overcome, seriously. A stronghold is something that, well we hold on to so strong that try as we might we can't let go of it and lay hold of the good things, the blessings that God has planned for us. So our strongholds set themselves up against our knowledge of God, that's why Paul calls us to take every thought captive to obey Christ. But whatever the obstacles there are times when we need the sort of faith that's going to conquer them. So let’s go back to Hebrews chapter 11 and see what God has to say today about world conquering faith. Hebrews 11 beginning at verse 29: By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had received the spies of Israel in peace. And what more can I say for time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, of Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Hey, isn't that the most amazing passage? I mean I get courage in my heart just reading that passage. So what's God saying to us today through His Word? When the nation of Israel fled from their centuries of slavery in Egypt and after they had wandered for forty years in the wilderness God finally led them into the land that He'd promised them through Abraham many centuries before. Now you'd think wouldn't you, if this was the land that God had chosen and the land that God had provided and the land that God had promised and ordained for them, wouldn't you think that they'd just, I don't know, kind of waltz inside and settle down and take it over? But that wasn't Gods plan. The land was occupied by many nations and kings and tribes and the Israelites had to take the Promised Land battle by battle by battle and that's often Gods way. That's why so often life as a Christian seems to be battle after battle. That's why sometimes we think to ourselves, "Why is following Jesus so hard? Why doesn't it all just fall into place? Come on, what about the promises of God?" Well the promises are there just like the Promised Land was there for Israel but they have to be taken battle by battle by battle. And those battles my friend require faith and faith pleases God. And so those battles are our opportunity to grow in our faith as we rely on God’s promises to take us through and when we do that that's pleasing to God. So Israel took Jericho by faith. And Rahab, the prostitute who'd harboured the Israeli spies before the battle, she was saved by faith. And then the writer goes on in this list of many situations and circumstances in the history of Israel, battle after battle after battle after battle that had been won as Israel and Gods people stepped into the breach and put their faith in God. My friend that's what the Christian life is meant to look like, that's what we're meant to do and after each battle, after each trial, after each beating, after each victory you know what happens? Our faith grows stronger. We don't just become mighty men and women of faith by sitting in our lounge rooms watching television, we become mighty men and women of faith by using our faith, by exercising our faith so that it grows stronger and stronger with each battle. And one day we wake up and we're able to face even bigger battles for Jesus because now we have the faith we need to do it. Let me finish off by sharing a letter with you I received a while back from Elsie, an elderly woman who used to support Christianityworks by sending in some stamps every few months. Listen to the world conquering faith of this frail old woman. Although I'm only a very aged pensioner (Those are her words) I have been kept by Gods grace through many years. In the last eighteen months I have had both flood waters and burning tree embers over my verandah but God has protected me through it all. Only last night the bush fires threatened my home again and I went to bed knowing that only our Creator could keep me safe. Berni I am sending you these stamps in the name of our miracle working God who fed thousands with five small loaves and two fish, burst open prison doors, calmed tempests, split rocks and provided water, conquered death and defeated satan and who is coming again to take us to His eternal home in glory. May these stamps help others to enter His peace. And so they did. We used them in our very next mailing to our supporters and in response to that I received a letter from another woman who lived just three kilometres from Elsie who had been at the point of committing suicide when she received our letter, yet God used that letter to save her life. She wrote thank you for saving my life. I believe with all my heart that that miracle was born out of Elsie's world conquering faith. I rang Elsie, told her all about it and she wept with joy. What an awesome God we serve that this self described aged pensioner can be filled with world conquering faith and as you receive God’s Word today may you be filled with a passion to travel through the battles, through the fires, through the floods of your walk with Jesus so that day after day you'll grow in you the sort of faith that conquers this world.

  --------  

  9:39
• Inconvenient Faith // By Faith, Part 7

  You and I would be entirely happy in following after Jesus, if it was always convenient. You know – it suits our agenda. Fits in with our plans. Doesn’t ever get uncomfortable. Yeah right! So when God calls us to do something that’s … inconvenient, well, that takes some faith. One of the things I dislike intensely in life is being inconvenienced. I guess it's my western upbringing combined with my outcome orientated personality type. But when I have a plan I have a plan and I find it so annoying when someone gets in my road and delays me from getting out there and doing it or even upsets my apple cart and what they do ends up ruining my planning and I have to go and do something completely different. I'm driving along in my car, there's a traffic light ahead, it's green but I know it's about to turn amber and then red and the car in front of me is travelling just far enough under the speed limit for no good reason so that he gets through the light but I'm caught by the red light. I just don't get that you know. How could he slow me down like that? How could he waste my time like that? You see that's me, I don't get it. I know it's a trivial example but sometimes that inconvenience factor is much bigger. A break down on the freeway so I miss an international flight, a change in the global economy so this asset you were thinking of selling is now worth a fraction of what it was worth when you started thinking of selling it and the list goes on. The number of things in this world that can conspire together to inconvenience us, well, man the list is endless but what if it's God? What if God is in the business of inconveniencing you with His ideas and His plans, His take on how things should turn out, then what do we do? I don't think I've heard a message or a sermon on what to do when God inconveniences us, have you? Well it happens so that's what we're going to be talking about today on the program. In fact, you'll find it in the Bible actually so because it's there we're going to take a look at it and not just because it's there, fantastic though that is but also because if you're someone whose plan is to follow after Jesus then one of the things you're going to discover is that Gods plan is not always going to be convenient and even though we're all different none of us are too pleased about being inconvenienced even by God. Over the past couple of weeks we've been spending some time in Hebrews chapter 11, interesting chapter that, it's all about faith, it starts out with a very simple, very clear definition of what faith is in verse 1: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. It then tells us that faith is absolutely vital in pleasing God, verse 2: Indeed by faith our ancestors received approval. Verse 6: And without faith it's impossible to please God. For whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. And then it sets out giving us a whole bunch of examples of different situations and circumstances in which we need faith and that's what we've been looking at on the program day after day, if you've missed any of those I'll tell you a little bit later how you can listen to them again online. And one of those circumstance in which we need faith is when God is apparently in the business of inconveniencing us. Well, maybe that's a little unfair, let's put it another way. When doing the right thing, when following after what we know is right is just going to become downright inconvenient and so the choice becomes between going for the lesser thing, the lower option which is convenient from our perspective or going for the greater thing, the higher option, the God thing even though it's intensely inconvenient. So here's what Hebrews chapter 11 has to say about this faith choice, Hebrews 11 beginning at verse 24: By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called a son of Pharaohs daughter choosing rather to share the ill treatment of the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered it abuse suffered for Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt for he was looking ahead to the reward. By faith he left Egypt unafraid of the king’s anger for he persevered as though he saw him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood so that the destroyer of the first born would not touch the first born of Israel. Now, I love this passage because you know what it tells me, it tells me that the faith that Moses had in his heart completely trumped the inconvenience factor. Let me say it again, the faith that Moses had in his heart completely trumped the inconvenience factor. How often have you struggled with the inconvenience of getting about Gods business? Going and helping that difficult friend again who just can't seem to get their act together. Honouring a marriage partner, a husband or a wife, that given the way they're acting up right now simply don't deserve your honour. Supporting an arrogant or incompetent boss in your work place even though it's not fair that he's taking the credit for all your work. Walking away from the lunch table at work to the sneers of your colleagues when they start telling dirty jokes. Going the extra mile, turning the other cheek, laying down your life for other people. You see my friend, those are inconvenient things to do. Moses could have chosen the comfort of Pharaohs palace, instead by striking down an Egyptian who was abusing one of his fellow Hebrews he found himself out beyond the wilderness tending his father in law's sheep and then having to confront Pharaoh when he was eighty years old, lead God’s people out of their slavery through the Red Sea and then contend with and lead this grumbling Israelite nation for forty years on their journey through the wilderness. Look again what it says about Moses. By faith Moses refused to stay in the comfort of Pharaohs house, by faith he considered suffering to be greater than comfort looking forward to his reward, by faith he left Egypt unafraid of the kings anger and by faith he participated in Gods miracle by keeping the Passover. How did Moses overcome the inconvenience factor? Well, simple ... by faith. It seems to me that faith is our pro active tool for overcoming the lethargy we feel towards doing inconvenient things. Faith is like the thing that changes our hearts, to get out there and be about Gods business inconvenient though that may be. And as we're going to see on another program down the track faith isn't something that we conjure up, it's not a feeling that you and I whip up through emotionalism, the Bible tells us that faith is a gift from God. Can I tell you the number of times I haven't had what it takes to get out there and do what God was calling me to do? Hey even Moses had that problem, you can read about his argument with God in Exodus chapter 3. So where do we go to get that faith? How do we get the courage to step out into those incredibly inconvenient places? I only know one way. In my study with the door closed and the Bible open and completely alone when everyone else is still asleep, I go and ask God to give me the faith, I go and pray: Dear Holy Spirit, I sense that this is where you're calling me but I'm not sure I have the faith to make it happen yet, I'm not even sure I have the faith I need to take the first step. And this is what happens, He's never failed me. He gives me just enough faith to get started, to take the first step, a mustard seed size of faith, the tiniest amount it seems, nowhere near enough to get the job done it seems but then the last time I checked Jesus said all I needed was a mustard seed of faith to move mountains, with a mustard seed of faith nothing will be impossible for you, nothing, by faith.

  --------  

  9:39
• Sacrificial Faith // By Faith, Part 6

  Sometimes God calls us to make sacrifices – real sacrifices – on our journey in following Jesus. Sacrifices hurt. Sacrifices can be scary – and that’s why they take faith, and help grow our faith. Christians talk a lot about faith, our faith walk, faith this, faith that but faith isn't something we just talk about, faith is something you live and living it as anyone who's tried it will tell you, often times is a whole bunch more difficult than talking about it. Today, we're going to take a look at the faith that it takes to give up something that we really love, something that we really want. People want to call Jesus Lord, right? You hear them praying, dear Lord, thank you Lord. Lord is a term too that we bandy around but to call someone lord is an act of submission. Back in the days when the Bible was written someone called lord often had the power of life and death over you. "Lord" means that we accept that we have to do things his way and not ours and sometimes, not surprisingly, the priorities of our lord are quite different to our own. And when we really, really, really want the thing that we want which is the thing that Jesus is asking us, apparently to give up in order to be about doing His will and living out His priorities for our life, then you know something, that is going to take some faith. That's the sort of faith we're going to be looking at today on the program because for anyone who's heart is set on following Jesus this clash of priorities between what we want and what He wants for our lives is anything but a theory lesson. The more we set our hearts on following Jesus the more this clash of priorities is going to confront us and not just a clash between the bad things we want to do and the good things that Jesus wants us to do but in fact very often it can be a clash between the good things we want to do and the good things but different things that Jesus wants us to do. I want to tell you about a man today whom I know quite well. He is the head of a ministry organisation and whilst for many years he led that organisation and performed his work with great skill there came a time when it was obvious to everyone and sundry that God had taken His anointing off the man. God was ready to appoint a new leader and it was time for this faithful servant to move on. The world had moved on, he hadn't changed with the environment and so his ministry was no longer being effective. That's not a criticism; it's just the way it happens sometimes. Sometimes the Lord will have us in a place doing marvellous things for Him but it's only for a time and when that time is over, when God is ready to move us on for His plans and His purposes, you know it doesn't matter how much of a blessing that time has been, it doesn't matter how much fruit there was out of that person in that time, when God is finished with it He's finished with it. Now the man didn't move on, he clung to the leadership of that organisation and so this healthy, vibrant ministry, a very large ministry, a ministry that was having a huge impact around the world, went into decline. It found itself in massive debt and after many decades of being used powerfully of God because this man didn't move on it started to lose its relevance, its supporter base and its impact. That's what happens when we hang on to something beyond the time that God has set. So you see it's difficult to let go of even the good things we're doing for God because it's easy for them to become more important than God. We begin to do what the Bible says, we begin to worship the works of our own hands, we begin to put even the ministry of God and our role and position in it ahead of God and His will. Does that make sense? Here at the ministry of Christianityworks producing these radio programs and sharing the Good News of Jesus with millions of people each week around the world, can I tell you, I absolutely love doing what God has me doing? It's such a joy and such a delight to see the reach and the impact of the ministry grow, to read the letters and the emails from people whose lives have been touched and transformed as they've received the Word of God. There's absolutely nothing I'd rather be doing with my life right now but a prayer that I regularly pray is: Lord, when you're done with me, when my time in this place is over, please make it clear to me because at that time I want to move on and at that time I want to hand it over to the next person and go and do what you want me to do Lord. Even when that time comes, I have to tell you, having poured my heart and soul into this ministry, that's not going to be easy. When that time comes I know it's going to take faith to let it go, to lay it down and to move on to the next thing that the Lord has for me if that's the way He's thinking. So let’s now meet a different man, Abraham, who had exactly this problem. At age seventy five God called him out of his comfortable ancestral home with a promise of many descendants. Abraham and his wife Sarah were childless. And at this age, well you'd have to say that there was really no prospect of them ever having children and with the promise also of a new land, the Promised Land. So at aged seventy five Abraham and Sarah headed off on a journey which took them over hill and dale for over a quarter of a century but eventually, when they were just over a hundred years old, God fulfilled His promise and Sarah bore a son to Abraham and they named him Isaac. Can you imagine how they doted on this boy? Obviously too much because God called Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to Him on an alter. Man how could the Lord our God do that? And so Abraham went and did that, you can read the original version back in the Book of Genesis but here's how the New Testament author of the Book of Hebrews puts it a couple of thousand years later, Hebrews chapter 11 beginning at verse 17. By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. He who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son of whom he had been told 'it is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you'. He considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead and figuratively speaking he did receive him back. Now the chances are that you probably know this story. Abraham put Isaac on the altar, was about to kill him and at the last minute an angel of the Lord appeared and stopped the sacrifice. God didn't want the child dead, God wanted to deal with what had happened in Abraham's heart. The Lord wanted to make sure that Isaac hadn't supplanted Him as the Lord of Abrahams life. And here's the key phrase in the passage we just read, here's the crux of what I'm rabbiting on about today. By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. Isaac was Abraham's miracle child, born as the very promise of God when Abraham was already a hundred years old and yet even this good, wonderful, fulfilment of Gods promise, young Isaac, Abraham laid down by faith at Gods feet. And my friend that's the sort of faith God is looking for in us, the faith to make Him Lord of our lives, the faith to put Him ahead of everyone and everything else in our lives, even the good things, even the things God blesses our socks off with, everything. And so calling Jesus Lord, well, that's easy, living out the Lordship and the Kingship and the reign and the rule of God in our lives, placing Him above everything else, that's hard. It was hard for Abraham back then, it's still hard for you and me right now. That's why it takes faith to call Jesus Christ Lord, sacrificial faith to put Him first in our lives.

  --------  

  9:38

More Religion & Spirituality podcasts

Trending Religion & Spirituality podcasts

About A Different Perspective Official Podcast

A Different Perspective Official Podcast: Podcasts in Family