Does that describe the hearts of people during a season which I’ve come to call the season of discontent – are they satisfied with less?
Are you?
I call it a season of discontent because when asked, rather than an “I have everything I need”” people young and old readily state what they want for Christmas. In reality, discontent rather than contentment is a problem for many people and the materialism of the season feeds that felt need for more or better.
This isn’t a rant on that but it is meant to challenge you to consider your desires. You see, I believe that the desire which God has for your life is far greater and better than what you want for and from it. I Believe that most people are simply satisfied with less than what God in Christ wants for them.
Those outside of faith in Jesus Christ are perfectly content to be in the condition I just described and that fact makes clear to me that while some people are never truly content with the things they possess – more are simply content with less.
Jesus Christ promised abundant life (John 10:10) to those who trust in Him – abundant life now and forever more but so many people are satisfied with less than that.
So many are satisfied with less because they can’t imagine a better life, a fuller life or a happier life than the one they have – they are satisfied with less because they don’t know or believe that there is more or better than what they have now or that they can have it.
God sent His Son to usher in better things – whether you know it or not, more than anything else, you really have need of those better things – of grace, mercy, forgiveness, eternal life and an eternal relationship with the Lord.
In Christ, those better things have been provided and are yours for the asking.
Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 begin with a question from His disciples, “When shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3) With all the things that have happened in the last year, many people think that we are living in those last days which Jesus made mention of in this chapter of Matthew’s gospel. Tucked away in almost the middle of the Lord’s words on the subject is a statement which identifies the biggest issue of our day. I don’t believe that Covid, Antifa, or who will be the next president is the biggest problem facing people and especially Christians today; Jesus identifies it right here in (Matthew 24:12):
“Because lawlessness shall abound, the love of many will grow cold.”
We live in a day of woe. A day made mention of by the prophet Isaiah through whom God said, “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil...” (Isaiah 5:20). I have heard this verse many times and have seen times when people reversed the polarity between good and evil but in our day it has become commonplace. God’s will, word and way have been turned upside down by men who would throw off all authority be it God’s or mans. Thus, because of hate, because of wickedness in the streets, because of violence, because of evil in all its various forms and because everything has been turned upside down the love of many not only will grow cold but is doing so even now.
Are the words of Christ in (v.12) directed towards the hater, the wicked or the violent? Who’s love was Jesus referring to when He said that it would grow cold? He was referring to the love of the one professing faith in Jesus Christ and there are many people today professing to know Jesus who do not possess a relationship with Him. You see, I believe that the Christian man or woman will bear witness to their faith and that there will be evidence in their life that he or she is in fact a true believer, and of these evidences, love stands out. Jesus associated love for Him with obedience to His commands (John 14:15) and one of those commands is “Love one another. As I have loved you so you love one another.” (John 13:34) Jesus was not talking about sentimental, emotional or erotic love as the kinds of love which would grow cold in the days leading up to His return; He was speaking of something much less common – He was speaking of condition-less love. He was not speaking of the love expressed to someone who loves you or does good to you; He was not talking about the kind of love expressed to people who treat you right – He was talking about the kind of love that just loves. The reality is that we are known not so much by what we say as what we do; Jesus makes that clear in (John 13:35) where He says:
“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Is it possible for a Christians love to grow cold? What I can say is that with the increase in lawlessness in all its forms today, a great tension has grown up in me. I am constantly needing to yield to the push back of the Holy Spirit when in my flesh I want to lash out against the evil I see with my eyes. Circumstances beyond our control can, if we let them, turn us from loving like Jesus.
What can we do?
The answer comes in remembering Who is in control and turning our eyes back onto Him. Jesus said in (John 16:33): “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” To keep Christian love from growing cold we need to turn our eyes away from one thing and onto something else. Jesus did not say that the world around us MIGHT give us trouble – He said that it WOULD and in the same breath He said, “but I have overcome the world.” What was He telling us? Was He bragging? No, He was telling every believer to focus on Him in order to overcome the troubles around them. He was telling us how we can have peace in days like these – peace within our hearts rather than around our lives. The only way a Christians love will not grow cold is if the Christian’s heart is constantly focused on Jesus.
We focus on Him when we pray. We focus on Him when we study His word. We focus on Him when we see the needs of others before we see our own needs and when we focus on Him, we trust that because He is in control and we are His, come what may to our world or to us, everything is going to be alright.
Let me circle back to something I said a little while ago; I said that the are many professing Christians who are not possessing Christians. There are may people who sentimentally and emotionally refer to themselves as Christians but who do not know Jesus, worse still, Jesus does not know them either. You cannot love like Jesus if you do not know the love of Jesus towards you. Jesus said that a day is coming when such people (those who base eternity on the wrong things), people who falsely call Him Lord will say, “We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’” To which He will respond, “I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’” (Luke 13:26-27) Did Jesus mean that He was not aware of these people? No. He knows everything and is aware of everyone; when He tells those who falsely call Him their Lord that He does not know them He is saying that He has nothing to do with them and that He has no relationship with them.
The fact is that there is a day coming when all wrongs will be made right and when hate, evil, lawlessness and violence will be done away with, of that day, the Bible says:
“…that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9–11)
Are you ready for that day?
God so loved the world that He sent His son (John 3:16) and Jesus so loved His Father and us that He gave His life willingly (John 10:18) – He was killed in our place for our sin, our crimes, our iniquity and our lawless deeds so that we may believe in Him and through Him gain eternal life. Do you believe? In that day which is to come, will you bow from love and loyalty to the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world or will you bow by force?
“Believe on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13)
“God gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16) and
His Son having been “made a little lower than the angels”
(Hebrews 2:9), “dwelt among us” (John 1:14), “died in our
place” (John 1:29; 1 John 2:2) and three days later rose again (1
Corinthians. 15:4) “stands at the door (of your heart) and
knocks” (Revelation 3:20). The followers of Christ have done out
declaring the good news (Matt. 28:19-20): a way has been made (John 14:6) and the
Way said, “Come unto me all you who labor (who try to save
yourselves) and are heavy laden (burdened by guilt and shame) and
I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) He said, “I am the
resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall
live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” (John
11:25-26) and then He asked:
“Do you believe
this?”
There is one acceptable covering, one way, one hope of redemption – Jesus Christ! Only by faith in Jesus will anyone enter into the kingdom of Heaven – only by the blood of Jesus, the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8) will anyone be welcome there. God “made Him who knew no sin (Jesus) to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21) “Many are called but few are chosen…” everyone is invited but it will only be by faith that anyone will be “accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6), selected and approved by God for a place in the Kingdom of Heaven.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved…”(Acts 16:31)
I need to say one more thing before I wrap this up. The invitation to come is a limited one – you cannot make the choice to accept Jesus’ invitation to come after you pass from this life. You cannot accept the robe of righteousness He provides, from the grave. We have been give one life on this earth; James the half-brother of Jesus said of this life: “It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” (James 4:14). The choice to believe in, follow and live for Jesus must be made during your limited time on this earth. “(I) We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says:“In an acceptable time I have heard you,And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:1-2)
If you feel the pull to believe in Him now – God is calling you!
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44)
Invite Him who is inviting you into your heart and life, believe in that Jesus died for you and in your place on the cross and you will be saved, covered, filled with the Spirit of God (see Romans 8:9) and thereby made ready for the kingdom of Heaven.
He has called you – will you receive from God the only way to enter in?
Most people know what hearsay is – it is the repeating of something someone else heard another person say to someone else. It’s a lot like gossip and it is inadmissible in a court of law.
A. W. Tozer once wrote: “There are many in the churches of our day who talk some of the Christian language but who know God only by hearsay.” Continuing he wrote, “Most of them have read something about God but their own personal knowledge of God is very slight.” They are satisfied in hearing with out doing and letting someone else seek, find and then tell them about it.
May I ask, does that describe you, the reader today? It’s important even in this season when we focus on the incarnation of Christ to ask ourselves the hard questions. Do you know the Lord? Is your faith built on your experience or someone elses?
In the gospel of John (chapter 4) we read of a woman, an outcast in her community really who encountered Jesus one day beside a well. Without ever having met her before He told her (v29) “all things that (she) ever did.” She was so excited that she went back to her community and invited them to “come and see Him.”
At first, the Bible says, “many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of” what she had told them (v. 39). Later, after an extended visit with the Lord Jesus they said to the woman, (v. 42) “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him, and we KNOW that He is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world!“
Listen, no ones faith but your own can save you; not your wife’s, husband’s, parent’s or pastors faith can save you – hearsay faith is as inadmissible (even more so these days) in the court of the Lord as it is the court of man!
Don’t settle for it.
Don’t settle for a hearsay religion! Seek Him! Earnestly grope or grasp (Acts 17:26-27) for Him! He will be found, known and experienced by those who “seek Him with ALL of their hearts.” (Jeremiah 29:13)
“For He Himself is our peace…”He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” (Ephesians 2 14, 17-18)
No peace, no joy; know peace, know joy. I had to stop and think about whether joy came first and peace follows or the other way around. I decided that it only makes sense that peace comes first – peace with God.
For the world it is as the word of God declares in (Isaiah 48:22): “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked” for “the way of peace they have not known.” (Isaiah 59:8) Every one of us in our natural spiritual state is wicked before God – sinners at war with God. Jesus Christ, “the Prince of peace” (Isaiah 9:6) came to set us at peace with God, this He did through His death and resurrection.
By His Spirit He left us peace for life:
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27)
Our external circumstances can not be counted on for peace and joy; to know peace and thereby its by-product of joy each of us need only to welcome the Christ of Christmas: “the Christ of God” (Luke 9:20) and the Christ of the gospel into our hearts by faith.
“Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.”(2 Thessalonians 3:16)
Just a few thoughts on the subject of prayer today.
So, what do you say to the God who knows everything? Do you need to name every name, describe every illness and need and above all demand what it is you think needs to be done in every situation? What does God desire and expect of us when we pray?
As we unpack these questions let me make it clear that brevity is NOT my concern when it comes to the important privilege of talking to God. As much time as we need to speak to and more importantly hear from God is exactly how long we should take in prayer. One passage which has always been a sort of guideline for me concerning prayer is (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2):
“Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil. Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; therefore let your words be few.”
While the thrust of Solomon’s words are clearly aimed at the rash vows which men make before a God who will hold you to every word, a general principal is also identified which caries into our concern for prayer – “God is in heaven, you are on earth; therefore let your words be few.” In light of this, consider the words of the Lord Jesus Himself as found in (Matthew 6:7): “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.”
The reason that we should keep our part of prayer short should be obvious – we are to defer to Him who is greater in knowledge of yesterday, today and tomorrow and to Him who with the tiniest part of His own wisdom made Solomon wiser than any other man. We are to defer to Him who has all of this – everything we see and even everything we can’t see under control.
God has a plan.
In (Jeremiah 29:11) a very specific word is given to the Israelite captives in Babylon, the Lord says: “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.” Within this verse however is another general principal, namely that God knows the thoughts (machăshebeth – thought, intention, plan) that He has towards each of us. He knows His plans for the believer and the unbeliever, every man, woman and child – every one individually; this important truth comes into play in our prayers as we petition the Lord for individual needs. While we only see the illness, calamity, tragedy and suffering and ask for relief accordingly the Lord KNOWS what He is doing and as hard as it may be to hear, God has a plan for the pain He allows in our lives. This does not mean that we should not ask for relief – Job did but it does mean that like Job we must accept the adversity that sometimes comes asking instead of “why me Lord,” the question, “Lord, what are you trying to teach me” or “Lord, what is Your plan in all of this?”
So what does God desire and expect from us when we pray?
He expects faith. “Without faith,” the writer of Hebrews declares “it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Likewise James declared a principal in his instruction concerning a prayer for wisdom when he said: “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord…” Jesus also taught that faith was an important component to prayer (Mark 11:24): “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” It should be stressed that your faith should not be in your ability to believe but rather in our God who is faithful (Mark 11:22; Lamentations 3:22-23).
He expects submission. Jesus taught in (Matthew 6:9-13):
“In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Rather than , “Lord gimme what I want” we are to pray “Lord, whatever you want “- this is our expression of surrender to His superior plan. In the example of prayer from which we are to model our own prayers we also find that our dependency on the Lord is also an expected part. In reality, we won’t pray over anything we think we have covered by our own strengths and abilities. My advice is to check those along with any self-righteousness you or I may have at the door; our best is always nothing more than filthy rags (see Isaiah 64:6) – no one more so that God can sing “anything you can do – I can do better; I can do anything better than you.”
Finally, thanksgiving is expected and deserved every time we pray: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” Paul wrote in (Philippians 4:6). It is the will of God that we always be thankful (1 Thessalonians 5:18) – thankful when we have cancer (not for it), thankful when we’re broke (not because we are), thankful in abundance and in poverty, thankful for even the tiniest infusion of God’s grace in our lives. We are to be thankful to the God who chose to allow His Son to suffer for our sins, granting those who believe on the name of the Lord eternal life instead of what we deserve. The fact is, that believers in the worst of situations are still most blessed because of God’s great grace towards us.
It isn’t an exhaustive list but you get the gist of it – pray for people and situations, express your heart of concern and your hope but in the process defer to the will of God in faith, submitting to His will rather than demanding your own way and be grateful to our gracious God; these are a few of the things God desires and deserves from us when we pray.
Is it ever a bad idea to make sure that you know where you stand with the Lord? Yes and no. While on the one hand it IS good to be sure of your salvation it is never good to doubt it once you have appropriated the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem you to your life. Our salvation after all, though it is processed in our minds is NOT solely academic; we hear the word, receive the word and believe the word but believing is not merely intellectual assent, in other words, we are not saved simply because we agree with the word of God concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ – we are saved when we not only agree but apply the word to our own life specifically.
Jesus did not die for us in general – He died for you specifically (see John 3:16).
This is why the question He asked Martha in (John 11:25-26) is not only important for her to answer but for us as well. Consider it as we read it:
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?‘”
Do you believe that Jesus is enough?
The message series begun at church today was titled “GreaterThan” and today our youth pastor, Russel spoke to Jesus being greater “not equal to or less than” but greater than anything we have faced, are facing or ever will face; to that I would add that the works which He performed to make our redemption and eternal life possible are greater than any effort you could ever make on your own behalf. When we doubt our salvation or fear we have lost it, it is because we have forgotten that it was “not by works of righteousness which we have done,” (Titus 3:5) “but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”
Can you lose what you did not labor to gain? Can you lose what you could not obtain by your own effort? No and no but can you lose a gift? You can lose a gift but you cannot lose the gift the Jesus Christ gave you because – “eternal life IS eternal.” He said in (John 6:37) “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” His work of redemption on your behalf never becomes less than enough to save and KEEP YOU SAVED!
Still we struggle – we sin, we fail to live up to our high calling in Christ Jesus and in those moments when what is closer to us seems more apparent we forget the fact that we are saved (Hebrews 7:25) “to the utter most.”
In my years of Christian life, being one myself who more than a few times has failed to live up to my calling, I have found myself in terror as I gazed into the warnings we find in Hebrews to those who (Hebrews 10:29) “treated the blood of the covenant by which (we) are sanctified” (the covenant made between us and God through the blood of Jesus) “as a common thing” and in their backsliding put the Lord (Hebrews 6:6) “to an open shame.” I thought either I had lost my salvation or that I never had it because of my sinfulness. I lived in doubt, confusion and fear – is THAT what the Lord has called us to? Didn’t John write all that he wrote so that we could “KNOW that we” (1 John 5:13) “have eternal life“?!
Words like those found in the thirteenth chapter of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians where he wrote in (v.5): “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified;” had me in a constant state of self-examination to the point of self-condemnation. Word’s pulled out of context can do that…
Let me give you the gist of his rhetoric in that section – Paul was being harassed by some who called his calling and apostleship into question; his second letter addressed that issue in some detail and there was perhaps a concern that some of the weaker brethren might be overtaken by the false teachers pushing that narrative about him. As it happens to men of great passion and zeal, Paul’s exasperation and irritation may have found a vent with words like those found in (v.5) where he seems to turn the table on those who would question his relationship with the Lord saying – “take a look at your own life” or “are you hearing yourselves?” But whether it was a rebuke or a sincere call on Paul’s part for the Corinthians to see if there was either evidence of conversion or ongoing relationship with the Lord, the believers at Corinth were the PROOF – they were (2 Cor. 3:3) “an epistle of Christ, ministered by us” (by Paul and team)…”written by the Spirit of God“…”on tablets“…”of the heart.“
Paul was NOT calling their salvation into question – He was trying to get them to do likewise concerning him.
In a round-about way, my hope for this post is simply this: that each of us would come to fully know WHO we are in Christ, understanding that we are who we are based not on anything we have done but on everything which Jesus has done for us. Today you are either a non-believer who has yet to come to trust in Jesus for salvation or you are a believer who has trusted in the Lord’s finished work on your behalf but you can NEVER lose what the Lord has granted you eternally.
(Next week we will consider the danger of making the above truth a license to sin…)
“If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you(!)” (Matthew 17:20 [emphasis mine])
What was Jesus talking about? Is one of the marks of spiritual maturity the ability to move mountains like Kilimanjaro or Everest where ever we wish? In (Matt.21:21) where again we see words to this effect with the added “If you have faith and do not doubt you will say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and cast into the sea,’ it will be done;” both the Mount of Olives and the Temple mount would have been in view, even so mountain moving faith is not concerned merely with geographical formations of rock – He is directing our faith towards the impossible.
Again, we are forced to ask, “Is this graduate level faith?” I would say, yes and no; in one sense, it is faith born out of trust in God. Part of our problem when we pray is that we are focusing on our ability to believe instead of God’s willingness to answer the prayers of His people, His integrity to keep His promises and His power to do the impossible; as we learn to (1 Peter 5:7) “cast our cares upon Him” who cares for us we develop greater confidence in the Lord. But I would also say “no” in the sense that mountain moving faith does not depend on our level of faith. Mountain moving faith is not faith in faith; it is not an amount of faith which produces a desired result – it IS faith in God which produces a result.
Are there any mountains in your life which need moving?
I know some people in my own life that are facing IMPOSSIBLE situations right now. Some of them are in despair not knowing that there is hope in every hopeless situation. But hope is not tied to our ability to figure out the solution to our problems, rather it is tied to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ – it IS tied to prayer and a reliance on the Lord for whatever is best.
Read (Mark 9:14-27) for one account of a man who brought His son to the disciples of Jesus and then finally to the Lord Himself. He had enough faith in the Lord to seek Him for help yet lacked a confidence in Him to do the impossible, saying, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief (v.24)!” If you can pray nothing else in your impossible moment – pray like that…
Finally, of the most hopeless and impossible situations which may trouble us none is more hopeless and impossible than our spiritual condition. Every last one of us is a sinner upon whom God’s wrath abides (John 3:36); the wage for our sin is eternal separation from God and condemnation in hell (see Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Revelation 20:15). We cannot deliver ourselves from this condition or condemnation but Jesus can and has made eternal life available to all who will call on and trust in Him (Romans 10:12-13, John 3:16). Jesus heals us from the illness which no doctor can (see Isaiah 53:5) and may heal and deliver us from any and all impossible illnesses in this life but He may not heal us now and He may not deliver us now.
His promise, to those who believe in Him in this life assures us however that in the life to come we will be healed, set free and made whole while in this life we will have peace (Isaiah 26:3) whatever the circumstance because we have trusted in Him who moves mountains.
Since the beginning of our nation and of western civilization centuries earlier, freedom has been at the core of it all.
Freedom ~ that idea which is built on the back of both faith and reason; faith because freedom apart from faith lacks morality and is reduced to nothing more than hedonistic pursuits of “whatever I want,” and reason or rational thought because it considers more than one’s own self interests. The kind of freedom that Jesus Christ affirmed in His conversations with those He met which allowed people to choose to follow Him or not, or to act either properly or improperly as they chose.
Mankind however, has always pursued freedom, autonomy or self rule by casting off or ignoring every authority or voice of authority including the authority of God Himself. Humans have a rebellious spirit…in our fallen nature, we have a spirit of anarchy within us – we want freedom and we want it to the full measure. To achieve it, people are willing to throw off both the voice of reason and the voice of faith.
We WANT independence!!!
We WANT autonomy!!!
But we can’t HANDLE it, because apart from faith and reason we will take what we want FROM one another even up to each others very life. In the name of independence and autonomy we will only do what seems “right in our own eyes” and we’ve already seen where that leads (see Judges [21:25]).
The gender dispute of these days seeks to throw off the voice of reason and of faith. The issue of abortion seeks to throw off the voice of reason and of faith. Much of what we hear being argued for by junior leaders in Washington and the sophmorically wise in our universities is an effort to throw off the voice of reason and the voice of faith.
Listen, you can do that. You can ignore God, ignore reason, ignore faith; you can chase after whatever you want but ignoring the voice does not nullify the authority behind it nor the consequences that come for doing life your way (Proverbs 14:12, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Revelation 20:11-15).
It may be a dark saying but I encourage you to think about it…
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