Overcoming Opposition When Following Jesus

God, Life, Message / By /

Whenever anyone makes a decision to follow Jesus and God’s plan for their life, there will be opposition. A lot of people are surprised and dismayed when following God turns out not to be the easy road they thought it was going to be. In fact, the Bible promises that when you follow Jesus, there is going to be opposition.

2 Timothy 3:12 (NIV) In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

Notice that persecution or opposition happens to those who strive to live a godly life in Christ Jesus. Opposition is not the consequences of wrong things that you have done. If you run a red light and get a ticket, that is not persecution, it is simply reaping what you have sown. Most of the negative circumstances in believers lives in America are caused simply by failing to follow biblical principles. However, even if you are living a godly life, there will be opposition.

Who is behind the opposition? The being behind the opposition to believers carrying out God’s plan for their lives is Satan. Now, I realize that many people do not believe that Satan is a real being, but simply a symbol of evil. Nevertheless, the Bible clearly teaches that Satan is alive and well and out to destroy you and your family. Those who ignore or don’t believe in Satan’s reality or power are the ones who are most easily overtaken by him.

1 Peter 5:8 (NIV) Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

So, if you’re a believer, you’ve got a prowling enemy looking to destroy you and your family. In fact, Satan is looking to destroy everyone, not just believers.  However, believers are his special target, since not only are you not going to join him in hell, but as a believer you are committed to rescuing others from his clutches.

So, how to overcome Satan’s opposition in your life? Be self-controlled. To be self-controlled is to basically keep your life under God’s control. One essential part of self-control is seeking God’s protection in prayer. Secondly, you need to be alert to what Satan is trying to do to destroy you and your family. Don’t compromise in any area of your life. Stay away from bad influences, whether people or various media. Pour yourself in living 100% for Jesus Christ, not just on Sunday, but everyday of your life.

Listen to my June 28, 2009 message “Overcoming Opposition” based on Nehemiah 4, to learn principles on overcoming Satan’s attacks in your own life (message notes).

God’s Plan for Fathers

Family / By /

Fathers are an incredibly important part of God’s plan. God has created fathers to be leaders and protectors in multiple spheres of responsibility. In the book of Nehemiah, the fathers helped to build the wall around Jerusalem. The wall provided protection and security. Today’s father must build three walls in order to be successful in God’s purpose for their lives.

1. Build your personal wall

The personal wall of a father involves your character. Your character is the kind of person you are when no one is looking. In order to build your personal wall of integrity, you must build your relationship with the Father, God Himself.

1 John 2:13a (NIV) I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.

Knowing God, your heavenly Father, is essential to becoming the father God created you to be. Your model of a father is God Himself. To grow in integrity, you must grow in prayer and understanding God’s Word. Your personal walls must be strong to withstand temptation in today’s world. Last week’s revelation of the extra-marital affair of Senator John Ensign of Nevada  and today’s revelation of an affair by Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina show what can happen when your personal walls are in rubble. You’ll make no progress in the other areas of your life unless you are building your life on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ.

2. Build your family wall

A strong personal wall lays the groundwork to build a strong wall of protection around your family. The essence of a biblical family is the marriage relationship between one man and one woman. So, a father’s first task in a family is to build his relationship with his wife.

1 Peter 3:7 (NIV) Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

This surprising verse reveals that if a husband has a poor relationship with his wife, his relationship with God and his prayers will be hindered. Also notice that for a strong family wall, both husband and wife must be believers and committed to the Lord.

The second aspect of building the family wall is to train his children in God’s way.

Ephesians 6:4 (NIV) Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

The father has the chief responsibility in the family to train and instruct his children walking with God. Children must come to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and then grow in that relationship by learning from their father’s example. All too many fathers fall short in this, either through not having strong personal walls or pushing off the training responsibility to their wives and church only.

3. Build your church wall

The final wall of protection that a father needs to build for his family and others is the church wall. Contrary to popular belief that you can go to any or no church at your own pleasure, God has one church in your area that He has chosen you to be a part of. When you as a father faithfully participate in that church family, God will protect and bless your family greatly.

1 Peter 2:5 (NIV) you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

To build your church wall, you must not only have a vertical relationship with Jesus, you must have a horizontal relationship with other believers in God’s family in the church. You help build your church wall through participating in ministry, not just being a spectator. When you take responsibility as a member of the church family, your wife and children will follow. The church wall is a source of great protection in today’s world and no believer should be without it.

Unfortunately, many fathers give building their job their highest priority which leads to great problems. However, when a father builds these three walls, personal, family and church walls, the rest of his life, including his job will prosper.

Listen to my June 21, 2009 message “Fathers – Builders of the Wall” (message notes).

How To Ensure Your Plans Succeed

Life, Message / By /

Planning is important. Those who do not plan, who put their emphasis in life on spontaneity, have problems. A wise person will take the time to make careful plans.

Proverbs 21:5 (NIV) The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.

It takes time to plan, but planning leads to success. Doing things quickly, leads to failure and poverty. However, not just any type of planning leads to success. Some plans are doomed to failure because of bad motives. Other plans fail because the planner did not take all the necessary factors into consideration. Since none of us knows the future, how can we possibly plan for it?

In order to ensure that your plans succeed, you must align your plans with God’s purpose for your life.

Proverbs 19:21 (NIV) Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.

God knows everything and He has determined a plan or course for your life. When you align your planning with God’s perfect plan, you will find success in life. Here’s the three-fold formula to ensuring your plan succeed.

  1. Read the Bible, pray and ask God to show you His plans for your life.
  2. Decide to overcome any fear and commit to following God’s plan.
  3. Take action with God’s help to put the plan into operation.

In the book of Nehemiah, we see how one man changed the course of history by putting God’s plan into action against incredible odds. Nehemiah accomplished this through total commitment to God and His Word, prayer and action.

In my message, “Planning with God” from June 14, 2009, I look at the principles of how Nehemiah was able to obtain resources from the world-ruling Persian empire to succeed with God’s plan. If you follow these principles, your plans and life will succeed as well. (Message notes).

The Misunderstanding of Church

Church, Message / By /

The number of people who never or rarely attend church continues to increase. A George Barna poll shows 38% of adult Americans are in the category of being unchurched. Of the people who regularly attend church, a staggering 45% are willing to try a new church. So we have a large group of people who see little or no value in church and another even larger group who are dissatisfied with their current church. I believe that behind these statistics lies a great misunderstanding of church.

Based on my understanding of the Bible, here’s my definition of a local church.

A church is a group of believers in Jesus Christ who committed themselves together to extend the kingdom of God in a particular locality.

Just as many people who claim to be Christians, are not believers in a biblical sense, so many groups that claim to be churches, are not churches in a biblical sense. So, we have people who have left or are thinking of leaving “churches” that are not truly churches. That’s actually a good thing, as long as they are searching for a true biblical church. Unfortunately, many lump all “churches” together and think they are all the same. On the other hand, we have people who claim to be believers leaving or thinking about leaving biblical churches because of some perceived imperfection. That is not a good thing.

Is it possible for a true believer to exist outside of a church family? The surprising answer is that no, it is not possible.

1 John 3:14 (NIV) We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.

Here the apostle John tells us that one of the proofs of being a believer is love for other brothers and sisters in the family of God. If someone claims to be a believer, but has no desire to be around other believers in a church family, it proves they are not a believer at all. So, for the true believer, a biblical church family is not optional, but a necessity and something to be cherished.

The importance of being part of the family of God is seen in the Old Testament. To be cut off from the people of God because of some sin, was considered a fate worse than death. In the New Testament, the concept of a believer who was not part of church family is almost unheard of. The only mention of it is when someone was put out of the church through church discipline because of sin. This process was called “being handed over to Satan” (1 Corinthians 5:5, 1 Timothy 1:20). The whole idea was that being outside of the protection of the church would drive the sinner to repentance and back into the church family. Today, we also see terrible things happen to people who have placed themselves outside of the protection of the church.

In my message, “Depending on God” from June 7, 2009, I look at the story of Nehemiah’s passion and prayer for the people of God in Nehemiah 1, as an example of what our attitude should be toward our church family today (message notes).

Waiting on a Big God

God, Message / By /

Waiting on a big God is a very important part of growing spiritually. Although none of us likes to wait, God seems to have a particular liking for making people wait for Him to act. The Bible is full of people who had to wait on the Lord. Moses waited 40 years before he led the people of Israel out of Egypt. Abraham waited 24 years until the son promised to him by God was born. The Bible has many verses that command us to wait on the Lord.

Psalm 27:14 (NIV) Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

It’s a strong person who learns to wait on the Lord. The bigger your perception of God, the more patient you will be in waiting for Him. If I pull up to the drive-though lane for a fast food restaurant, five minutes is too long to wait. However, if I have an appointment to meet with the President of the United States, I will wait until he shows up. God is far more important than the President.

Waiting on a big God has a lot to do with trusting God’s promises.

Hebrews 6:12 (NIV) We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Impatience is a form of laziness. In order for God’s promises to be fulfilled in your life, you need both faith and patience. It’s takes patience to keep on believing God until the answer to your prayer comes.

Why does God make us wait? There are a lot of reasons. First of all, the world does not revolve around one person. God’s purposes in the world are enormous and involve many people and interrelated events. Oftentimes, things that we want to happen yesterday, need to be waited on for God’s perfect timing. Probably, one of the most important reasons that God makes us wait, is that waiting changes us for the better. Waiting on God builds your faith, your patience and your strength.

Isaiah 40:31 (NASB95) Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.

Waiting on the Lord, empowers you with God’s strength. Sometimes you have the strength to effortless wait on God like an eagle soaring in the sky. At other times, God gives you to strength to keep on running until you reach the end of the race. However, there are times when God will give you just enough strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other without becoming weary.

What are you waiting on God for today? What promise in God’s Word are you praying will be fulfilled in your life? When you wait on the Lord, you will be tempted to give up. You will be tempted to think that God is not big enough to come through. Resist those temptations. Be strong, take heart and continue waiting for the Lord until the answer comes.

Listen to my May 31, 2009 message “Waiting on a Big God.”

Bouncing Back From Failure

Life, Message / By /

Everybody fails in life from time to time. How can you bounce back from failure without it destroying your life? To answer that question, we need to look at what failure is all about. True failure is always caused by sin. The Greek word for sin is hamartia which means to miss the mark. The picture here is of an arrow missing the bull’s eye of the target. The Bible tells us in

Romans 3:23 (NIV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Here the picture of sin or failure is of falling short of what God created you to do, falling short of the glory God intended to receive from your life. So God is not happy when we fail to follow his plans for our lives, but He wants to help you escape from failure mode and get back on track with His purpose.

When people fail in life or face very adverse circumstances, they generally respond in one of two ways. Some people feel defeated, they lose hope, they feel paralyzed and depressed. Oftentimes, they look for someone else to blame for their problems, maybe even God Himself. They have a victim mentality and believe they are powerless to change their circumstances. People who lose hope  and are full of fear have great difficulty in bouncing back from failure.

On the other hand, when other people fail in life, they have a hope for life beyond their failure. They look to learn from their failure and see it as an opportunity to grow and do better in the future. Failure actually energizes these kind of people to work harder, to try something new and rise to the challenge.

How can you have hope and bounce back from failure like this second kind of person? Only through God’s help and presence. In Matthew 14, the disciples were in a life threatening circumstance. They were stuck in a ferocious storm in the middle of a lake in the middle of the night. In their time of great need, Jesus came to them walking on the water. He spoke to them and said:

Matthew 14:27 (NIV) But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

In the midst of your difficulty, whether your fault or not, you need to fix your eyes on Jesus. Notice that He commands the disciples to both take courage and not be afraid. The only reason these commands made any sense was because Jesus was there with them. So, whatever you’re facing today, give it over to God. Ask Him to fill your heart with hope and courage. Ask Him to take away your fear and worry.

When Jesus is with you, He is always ready to forgive and give you a fresh start in life. As long as you’re breathing, God has a plan for your life. He has a next step to take you out of your failure. Seek Him and He will help you bounce back from failure.

Listen to my May 24, 2009 message “Bouncing Back From Failure.”

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