Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Title: “Secret” to the well-being of a believer

Preamble: This write-up has been preached on 17/01/2015 at TradeHub21, at a divine healing fellowship meeting. 

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Today, I am going to talk about a “secret” or “gem” found in the Word from ancient of times, concerning the well-being of a person of God or a believer.  It is really NOT a secret, as it is there, seen in many places in Scripture, both in the Old Testament and New Testament.  Plainly speaking, it is simply the very important truth of God.

I encase it as a “secret”, merely to perspective it against today’s prevalent selling of secrets to successes in life from the Word of God, purporting there is the easy way to well-being and prosperity.  And so, we find there are the various shades of prosperity gospel being preached; the hyper-grace gospel or way of life, being taught exclusively, by some, and also such things as the “Secret of Obed Edom”.  All of such rather misinformed “secrets” tries to appeal to men’s wanting of easy-believism.  Sure, Jesus did propose, we, the weary ones and the heavy-laden ones, to take His yoke which He said is light.  The truth is that, there is only the simplicity in the words of God, but to live them out is NOT necessarily easy.

It takes sheer obedience, perseverance, trust and faith, hope and love to live out the simplicity of the words of God.  It takes much right growing and cultivation of our heart, our posture, our outlook of life, against the attempting proposals of the world.  It takes a lifetime to work on such things.

Easy?
Just look at Jesus or Paul. The words might have been simple, in the case of Jesus: “My Son, you be the Atonement”, but to live that out, was profound, and NOT easy for Jesus.  If you are a Christian of any good measure, you must know enough about the earthly life of Jesus; of what He had to go through and indeed went through, to fulfil the simple words of a mandate of God, the Father. 

Did Jesus NOT find it hard at times?  Did Scripture NOT tell us that Jesus had to pray very hard; so hard that sweat of blood came forth?!  Did Jesus NOT suffer unimaginable human pain and anguish in His final lap of earthly life, of being tortured and brought to death crucified?  Words of truth of God maybe simple, yet often they are profound and NOT easy to live out.

Let me just give us, a glimpse of Paul’s life in the light of what I am saying about “it is often NOT easy to live out our love for God”.  Paul had to do an about-turn, forsook his associations with the prestigious and powerful Pharisees and Sadducees, ran from the same, and then associated with the very people, the believers, whom he had previously most persecuted, even unto death.  He had to live a missionary life away from Jerusalem, the centre of the Jew’s religious faith.  From living under the umbrella of powerful men, from whom he could get authority to arrest and persecute people, Paul turned to be one who had to face possibility of great hardship; and great hardship he did undergo.  He was bitten up, thrown into prison, was shipwrecked, and bitten by poisonous snake on stranded shore; against, perhaps, well-meaning advice and prophesy, still insisted to live out the mandate of God for him to go back to Jerusalem, where, as prophesied, he was bounded up and thrown into prison.  Easy?  Not likely, if you want to live the Christian life.  And you are to live the Christian life.

No victory?
Before I reveal the “secret” that I said is to our well-being, I want to say, I know many of us, often thought of our lives as NOT victorious.  Maybe, you ever talked to yourselves, subconsciously, this, “I thought being a Christian, I would be victorious; how come I am NOT?”

This, perhaps, is the subject of another message/sermon; it suffices here, to say that for a believer, victories are no longer defined by him, but by his God.  Many live a miserable life because they do NOT get this, right; they still insisted to define victories, instead of accepting God’s definitions; a posture opposed to what God has, in mind.  God cannot be at the centre of your life if you are the one defining the outcome of things; God has to be the one, and so, He is one who defines what victory is and what is NOT!

What’s the Secret?
What is this “secret” to the well-being of a believer?

If I ask you, what is the most important thing to take away from the straight-forward Gospel message, what would it be?  Most important thing; one thing only; what is your answer?  [Ask for answers]

Ans: “Jesus died for me”; “God loves me.  John 3:16”.

Do you know that, that is NOT the complete answer?  Or maybe, I should say, 2 most important things to take away from the Gospel message, what would be your answer?

Yes, the 1st thing is God loves me (that He gave His Son to die for me); what is the next thing? [At this point, give out this sermon notes, if it is to be given]

You accept His love?  Yes, that is what most preachers, say you do, BUT it is NOT complete - that He loves you, and you accept His love!

You have to ….  love Him back!

The Gospel is the greatest love story, and the story isn’t complete until and unless you love Him back.  You and I got to love Him back.

The “secret” to the well-being of a believer is?  Love God, love the Lord.

A condition? We got to love God?
Hyper-grace preachers or easy-believism or prosperity preachers would commonly project that the promises of God in the Word are unconditional.  Unbalanced understanding of the love of God as only unconditional (misinformed of the word, agape) also would lead some preachers to drum into believers that God does NOT put any conditions to His promises.  This perspective is immature; wrong, even.

I know it is so very common for us to briefly say of things, and so, common on our lips, are such catch phrases as “God’s love is agape, unconditional”, “We get by grace”, or “God gives, and by grace”.  The problem with lingo is that if we use it often enough, we may begin to unthinkably hold them as “gospel-truth”, so to speak.  I am NOT saying you cannot say these things, but use such “sweeping” lingo, in the proper context, and understand them in their proper context.

It is NOT my intent, today, to preach against hyper grace, but it suffices to say that we cannot simply explain every message of the Bible with grace.

Promises, (all) unconditional?
What are some of the most wonderful promises in the Bible? Promises are most important for us, believers, isn’t it NOT?! We are a people of promise, that’s who we are. Salvation is a faith (NOT a fact); Salvation is a hope (NOT a fact), that is why promises is so dear to us. I will give us 3 sets, and show us, there is the condition.

1.    In all things, God works it for the good of us.  You like that, right?  God working it, in all things, for our good.  Where do we find this promise?  Any answer?  Yes, Romans 8:28.  Is there no condition? No, there is.

Here is the full verse (Rom 8:28 [NIV]):

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Incidentally, this verse does NOT point to God souring things for you, but it is that when things turn sour, God makes lemon juice for those who love Him.  In short, love God always, and you will have no fear of being left to thirst to death, when things turn sour.  Be mature, don’t start loving God only when things have turned sour, love Him always, starting from now.

2.   Here is another very comprehensive set of promises - Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  God is our refuge and our fortress.  He will save us from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover us with His feathers and under His wings we will find refuge; His faithfulness will be our shield and rampart.  We will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at our side, ten thousand at our right hand, but it will not come near us. We will only observe with our eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If we say, “The Lord is our refuge,” and we make the Most High our dwelling, no harm will overtake us, no disaster will come near our tent. For He will command His angels concerning us to guard us in all our ways; they will lift us up in their hands, so that we will not strike our foot against a stone. We will tread on the lion and the cobra; we will trample the great lion and the serpent.

You like this set of promises, don’t you?  I like it, I want it. Is it not great and wonderful – “A thousand may fall at our side, ten thousand at our right hand, but it will not come near us”?  Where do we find this set of promises?  Any answer?  Yes, Ps 91. 

Is there a proviso or condition for this set of promises?  It started with “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty”.  How do you get to dwell there?  Did preachers who tell you to claim these promises, tell you how you get there – be dwelling in the shelter of the Most High?  At least a one-liner, of how? No?  Where is the shelter of the Most High? A physical place?  A church? 

What is the answer; is there a proviso or condition? The answer is Yes, there is a condition, and the condition is given in verse 14 of Ps 91.  God said, “Because he [the psalmist] loves me, I will …….

Here, I give us the full verses of Ps 91:14-16 (NIV):

14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

Ps 91 is fully loaded with wonderful promises, and it is commonly called the Protection Psalm; I have read of 2 Ebola victims, of the recent outbreak, survived, healed by meditating on this Psalm [The Ebola is deadly; 2 weeks, and one can be gone].  This is a powerful psalm.  It says to ….. love God.

3.   The last set of promises we will look at, is this: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human mind has conceived, the [good] things God has prepared for us. 

Who knows where this promise is taken from?  Any answer?  Yes, 1 Cor 2:9, by the Apostle Paul; and Paul applied it from Isaiah 64:4. 

Some consider this to be a futuristic promise of things, i.e. for when we get to Heaven.  It can be that, but it can also be for our present life, if we look at Isaiah 64:4, the verse from which Paul extracted it.

Isaiah 64:4 (NIV) reads: Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

Whether you apply it in your present life or the Heaven’s life, is there no condition to it?  Is “wait for Him/God” the condition?  Yes, but that “wait for Him” pointed to something broader.

That something broader, Paul referred to it as “love for God”.  Is it NOT right – you will wait for him whom you love?!

Here is the full text of 1 Cor 2:9 (NIV) –

However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who love him

Are NOT the above 3 sets of promises, some of the most wonderful promises from the Word of God?  Yes. 

Don’t you want them all?  Yes. 

Are you thinking, “How come they don’t seem to apply in my life?” 

It is because there is one condition, and a very important condition to them all; and God also considers “other factors”.  We will NOT look at the “other factors”, here, today; but I have shown us, the condition that so many of us, so often, have allowed easy-believism messages to crowd it out of our lives, to love God.

I want to end, but I will add this: Can you agree that when the same thing is repeated, it can signify the thing is very important?  In culture of the Jews, it is a form of superlative, like good, better, best, where best is the superlative.  For example, “Holy” was often repeated 3 times, as in “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty”; and so, holiness is the most significant nature-attribute of God.

We know that the Apostle Peter denied or acknowledged NOT, Jesus, before Jesus was crucified; after resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples, and in John 21, when Jesus reinstated Peter, what did Jesus pose to Peter, 3 times?  Any answer?

Yes, “Do you love me?  Jesus repeated the same question 3 times. Was Jesus not signifying what is important in our return to God?  What was He signifying?  We got to …. love God.

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Lastly, is it NOT in the greatest commandment, from the ancient times, to love God with our all?  Yes.  So, know the very core of your faith – God loves you, and you are to love Him back.  Above all things, love God – that’s the secret to our well-being. Is it always, easy? Of course, NOT. How do we love God? That will be subject of separate sermons.


Anthony Chia, high.expressions - What can we pray for another? NOT prosperity for the sake of prosperity, but everything that is in keeping with the person to be loving God more and more.

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PS: below is the 1 page sermon notes that you can give out if you are preaching this article.

“Secret” to the well-being of a believer (Anthony Chia – 17/01/2015)

Really NOT a secret.  Simply the very important truth of God.

There is only the simplicity of the Word, NOT necessarily easy to live out.

It takes sheer obedience, perseverance, faith, hope and love to live out the simplicity.  It takes much right growing and cultivation of our heart, against the attempting proposals of the world.  It takes a lifetime.

Easy?
Just look at Jesus or Paul.

No victory?
For a believer, victories are no longer defined by him, but by God.  Many live a miserable life because they do NOT get this, right.

God cannot be at the centre of your life if you are the one defining the outcome of things; God has to be the one, and so, He is one who defines.

What’s the Secret?
You have to ….  love Him back!
The Gospel is the greatest love story, & the story isn’t complete until & unless you love Him back.  You & I got to love Him back.

The “secret” to the well-being of a believer is?  Love God.

A condition? We got to love God?
Looking at 3 sets of most wonderful promises that have the condition.

Rom 8:28 [NIV]): And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Ps 91.  V14-16 [NIV] - Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, …….. I will be with him in trouble ….

1 Cor 2:9 (NIV) – However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who love him

“How come doesn’t seem to apply to my life?” - This condition, & other factors.  Other factors NOT covered here.

Other support: Jesus’ reinstatement of Peter – “Do you love me?” 3X!
                      Greatest commandment – Love God with all of you.

For meditation: How do you love God?