13 Jul Will You Finish Well?
Deacon Hui Zhen - 27 November 2014
A Blessed Spirit, A Surpassing Heart
God's love to us has never decreased, and it will never change. However, our spirits are often incompatible with God's loving heart to us because we often gauge how blessed we are according to our actions, serving, attitude in life and external conditions. Through the Sermon on the Mount, Lord Jesus emphasised that it is not what man has on the outside nor their actions that win their election and blessings in Christ, rather, it's God's deliberate revelation to His chosen ones who possess the 8 beatitudes that make them the blessed people on earth, because they are called children of God - greatly loved, greatly blessed and greatly used by God. In all things, God is most pleased with our hearts of seeking Him, loving Him and submitting to Him in our existing conditions and existing level of faith. The heart of needing-God is what that drives Holy Spirit to continuously convict God's children in all areas of lives, enabling them not only fulfilling the laws and decrees but surpassing them.
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Are we doing well?
1) Am I closer to God than half a year ago?
2) Have I allowed any weakness or sin to fester without dealing with it?
3) How have I stretched my faith this year?
4) How about my relationships with others?
Obstacles to finishing well:
- <Heb 12:1> “…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”
1) Sin.
- “Fruitfulness” ≠ Holiness
- Holiness > Outcomes
- Battle sin
- Don’t hide
2) “Everything that hinders”.
- May not be outright sin
- Complacency
- Indifference
- Laziness
How can we finish well then?
1) The grace of God above all else.
- <1 Co 15:10> But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
2) Daily “uncompromised” time with God.
- Usually fall not suddenly but bit by bit.
- Daily doses of God’s word and intimate prayers.
3) Offer ourselves as daily living sacrifices to God.
- The power to do so comes from remembering God’s mercy on us.
4) The support of the body of Christ.
- <2 Ti 2:22> “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
5) Always carry an eternal perspective.
- Learn to number our days <Ps 90:12>, so that we can live wisely.
Two Sauls:
King Saul- Started well, ended bad
Saul/Paul-Bad start, finished well
“It is more important to finish well than to start well.”
“No one finishes well by accident, it comes with prayerful, deliberate efforts.”
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