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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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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.
Comments are welcome here. Alternatively, email them to me @: high.expressions@gmail.com Or just email me your email address so that I can put you on my blog (new entry) notification list.To go back to blog main page, click here.
PS: below is the 1 page sermon notes that you can give out if you are preaching this article.
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.
Comments are welcome here. Alternatively, email them to me @: high.expressions@gmail.com Or just email me your email address so that I can put you on my blog (new entry) notification list.
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?
