A pastor friend of mine Cory Shumate shared a message from the book of John this week and there where some life changing thoughts that I was prompted to share with you.
In the message he shared, the point was made that the devil uses two extreme lies to keep us from God. If only we knew these for what they where, lies, then we could recognize the TRUTH of God’s plan in our lives.
The devil has been a deceiver from the beginning. He’s like that abuser that whispers in your ear to keep you from being all God meant you to be.
So what are these lies?
Lie #1: You Don’t Need God
Here is the first lie. The devil try’s to keep you away from God by simply deceiving you about your life.
Sin separates us from God and keeps us from His plan for our life.
How many times have you said “It’s not that bad” as you look to justify the sin in your life. I know I’ve struggled with this myself. It’s easy to think, “well my sin isn’t as bad as this OTHER PERSON, so won’t that mean I’m good enough for heaven on my own?”
It does not matter if your sin was a little white lie or if you murdered a child, sin is sin, and even though different sin may have different consequences on earth, all sin separates us from God.
Romans 3:23 says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
This means that sin separates us from God and all of us, no matter what, are in need of a savior.
Lie #2: You Are Too Bad To Be Saved
The devil’s second lie takes the entire conversation to the other extreme. This is a place of guilt and self-hate. It’s the place where the devil says “Why would anyone love you? Why would they forgive you? For what you’ve done???? You’re a bad person”
This is a dark and disempowering place where the devil wants to keep us. By keeping our mind in this place, he attempts to deceive us of the truth. In this place we miss the truth that is right in front of us because we don’t see it when we believe this lie.
The Truth
1) God always loved YOU
– Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you”
2) He sent his son to pay the penalty for YOUR sin
– John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he sent his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”
3) He has a plan and vision for YOUR life
– Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
The truth is that God loved you even before you where born, and he loved you so much, that he wanted to be with you, forever in heaven. You where separated from God because your sin, and God looked and that and gave his most precious gift, his only son, as payment for you to be with Him in heaven. He is now calling out to you, awakening you to the TRUTH of the offer of His love, it’s up to you to accept it.
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
If you have not already accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, then I pray that this message would be that moment for you. Pray this prayer from your heart and let God come in to transform your life:
Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. In Your Name.
Each year on Facebook, a group of men and women read a book to start the new year.
This year we are diving into Francis Chan’s book “Crazy Love”
Here is my thoughts from the first chapter:
Chapter 1 –
In the preface of the book Francis writes: The core problem isn’t the fact that we’re lukewarm, halfhearted, and stagnant Christians. The crux of it all is why we are this way, and it is because we have an inaccurate view of God.
This is so true in my life. He uses the analogy of our mind as a soda pop can and GOD as the size of the ocean, with us trying to fit God into our Soda pop can brain and defining him by the little bit of Him that could fit in the can.
For the first chapter of the book, the part that hit me the most, is just how darn selfish I am. Reading this with my wife Kayelani, I had to apologize for the way I live my life and the way I think about God. Thinking about God as what he would do “for us” or “bless us”. Praying to Him to bless people in my life.
God owes me nothing.
I am not special.
I am not better then anyone else
We are all sinners in front of a just God, and as the writer points out in his video “God won’t judge us on a curve”
The point of the book that grabbed my attention the most was the verse in Daniel 4:35 where it says “All the people of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “what have you done?”
God does not have to be accountable to anyone. “God just is”
My thought for today is to take a moment and just stop. Stop planning, Stop creating, Stop Doing, and just think about the magic of our world. Everything we see in creation is evidence, pointing us to God.
The real beauty in all of this is even though God owes me nothing, He gave his one-and-only Son(who He LOVED) to die in my place for the Sin I committed in my life.
That is the part that is remarkable.
Even though “God Owes Us Nothing” He gave us His everything, and calls us to Himself, and invites us to spend eternity with Him.
Ben: Ben Dixon here with JesusHasAlreadyWon.com, and I’m really excited to have my good friend Pastor Andy Doyle here with us today. Andy is actually the inspiration that caused a couple of friends of mine and the other contributors to put together the blog JesusHasAlreadyWon.com. I wanted to bring him on for just a short video today and let him share that story.
VIDEO:
So, it had to be a few weeks ago Andy that we were at a prayer service here at church, called Ignite, and you had talked about how there is no fear in life with the things that are happening in our world today because Jesus has already won. What does that mean?
Pastor Andy: Sure. I first heard the idea through Alpha, Nicky Gumbel, did an explanation of the time we’re currently living in, so it’s key to remember that just in our daily lives, and we were just about to take communion when I shared the illustration. It’s key to remember that Christ has already won, and so it’s a great celebration and a reverence as we take communion. And then always just that sacredness in our church environment where we feel close. We feel secure. We feel like we belong. But then when we leave the church environment and go into our daily lives, it can just feel very, very different. And its easy with all the environment around us in terms of news, information, just day-to-day dysfunction, to be overwhelmed by and just forget Christ has already won. So I really just wanted to talk about the importance of remembering that Christ has finished all.
Ben: You know, that’s a really big point because I think about a lot of things going on in our world and I have friends who are Christians, good people, good people of faith, and something we talk about a lot is thinking about our world is how should we really live? And when you think about the idea that everything we’ve gone through in our life that Jesus has already won, and we’re just living in a period of time right now in our life until Jesus is going to come back again. What does that mean to us as Christians. How should we live with that knowledge in mind?
Pastor Andy: One, it can help us live with a certain form of confidence and security in that no matter what’s currently going on, that this isn’t it, the best is yet to come. With a sense of that, I think it creates an urgency of sharing who Jesus is to people. So just as it’s wonderful we meet Christ face to face as Christians, if we are not Christians, it’s going to be awful. I think it’s Ephesians 2:1-10 is a great description of the gospel, and in there we find out what our state is before Christ dies on our behalf, and it paints this picture of the first 3 verses that we are, by nature, children of wrath that are destined for destruction. Everyday, as we go about our daily lives, people are either destined for destruction, or later on, and I think it’s in verses 5-8 that in Christ we are seated in the heavenly realms, although, we’re not in the moment. It’s something definitive that will happen, so the present tense is used. So we’re walking around, but it’s either destined for destruction or we’re seated in the heavenly realm, so that creates an urgency to share the Good News of Jesus with people.
Pastor Andy: So for me, it’s almost like the imagery of what happens when Christ returns, it’s awful. As I look at the news, it creates a tension as you see, whether it’s ebola, or victims of violent crime, or accident, or disease. Whatever it is, there is always a sense of “Am I safe?”, and you get this sense that you are not in control.
And we kind of tell ourselves we’re going to be safe, because numbers-wise, it’s unlikely going to be me that’s making the news. The reality is, it’s almost a deeper reality that’s almost worse, at one point we will be facing God’s wrath. Thankfully there’s some wonderful news as well, which is Christ died on our behalf, so that we could be saved from objects of God’s wrath, and to be seated in the heavenly realms. And you want to share that good news with others.
Just as in James Cameron’s film in 1997, The Titanic, you see them all setting off from South Hampton (I think), and they were going to New York, and everyone is celebrating and just enjoying life. So too, as many people don’t know Christ. Live is happening and they’re enjoying it, and just as the people on the Titanic didn’t know what was going to come to them 4 days later and how tragic it was going to be. There are lots of people out there who don’t know that Christ has died on our behalf. He has already won the victory. It’s not down on them to save themselves by good works, but Christ has saved us for good works. It creates that urgency of wanting to share that with other people.
Ben: You know, that’s incredible. We talk about in Romans how it says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That’s what brings the urgency to the message of what Andy is sharing is that the truth is: yes, all of us has sinned, all of us aren’t worthy of going to heaven, but Jesus came and won the battle of good and evil, almost 2000 years ago on the cross, and because of that knowledge, because we know that, the battle of good and evil is already over. Its already been won. If we’re here to receive the gift of Christ in our own life, and accept Christ and find out what he has for us in our world, we can have his sacrifice be our payment for our sin to be able to go to heaven. That message is so powerful because life can feel hopeless when you get overwhelmed. It really can, and when I heard you share that he had already won, it’s a totally different way to think about it, and to think that the battle is still going on.
I want to thank you so much for coming here today. Could we pray for everyone watching this video real quick and send them on their way?
Pastor Andy: Lord Jesus, thank you that you have already won the battle. Thank you that you invite us to reign in life with you Father, safe in knowledge that we can be one with you in eternity Heavenly Father, in paradise. I pray here if there is anyone who yet put their faith and trust in you Lord, that has been relying on their own works rather than your infinite works across the world, that you draw them into that saving relationship with you Father God. So I pray that each person would say and repeat these words after me Lord, whether it’s in the quietness of their own heart or out loud: Father God, you are a Holy God. I am sorry I have sinned against you. Father God, I want and accept the full forgiveness you give us and all the sins in the world, even my own sins. Father God, it’s my intent to live for you now, so I pray through the power through your Holy Spirit, you help me to live through you Lord. For your finished works on the cross and show me the good works Lord that you have for me to do for you Lord, not because it save me, but it helps share the good news of You with others. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
Paster Dave Spooner can on for a Special Guest Interview
There are many contributors to the JesusHasAlreadyWon blog. Pastor Dave has come on as a special guest of Ben Dixon to share his thoughts on the world today and how we as Christians should live.
