26 Jan No Illusion About Comfort In This Life
Pastor Vincent - 10 October 2013
Follow The Lord's Instruction Closely In Spiritual Battle
It is human nature to worry about tomorrow. What if I can't do this, what if things don't work well tomorrow.. what if we often let what has yet to happen to rob away our present happiness in Lord. Before Jericho, the Lord said to Joshua, " See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.." God is always there, He is always present in your sadness, your current helplessness, your current family problem, relationship problems and even your insufficiency. But we often forget, we are often being frightened by what have yet to comeÉ the what if's in your mind - Satan is always instilling the fear, the deceptions and confuse our spirits so that we cannot look at the truth of God and draw strength from it. Behind the problem we are seeing everyday is actually the deeper spiritual battles that we need to fight against Satan - who is attacking us in every possible way just to divert us away from God's truth so that we feel the gospel irrelevant. But God has a precise instruction to our problems now, so that we can stand against the devil's scheme. Be in sync with God, hear what the Lord says and follow it carefully. As we wait upon the Lord and see what He is doing right now in our lives, we will then not be distracted by Satan into following our own desires and emotions. The Lord is not slow in fulfilling His promise and He has time for everything, therefore, go into prayer and ask God to reveal the very next thing we can do while waiting for His timetable. As we develop the instinct to hear Him through prayers, our faithful God will not hide from you and when the perfect time comes, your Jericho will be conquered, as you become more intimate with God.
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It is a false illusion to have comfort as the goal of our life.
<Acts 1:8> But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
<Luke 12:16-21> 16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
How did the rich fool violate God?
Forget God’s Grace in all his successful endeavors
Live with the sole intention for comfort
<Luke 12:48>: From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
Violate the sanctity of his existence
<Acts 17:26-27>: From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
The need to labor in this life
To enjoy rest and be equipped for greater works as we labor
The mystery of “laboring” in Christ
<Ecclesiastes 2:22-23> What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.
<Genesis 2:15> The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
<1 Corinthians 15:10> You see, he works harder not because he was hoping for a better life after that. But he works harder because of the grace of God that is in him.
<Colossians 3:23-24> Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Some things to labor through:
(1) Spend set apart time in the Word of God.
(2) Attend a cell group and be involved.
(3) Be deliberate and grasp opportunity for evangelism.
Reflection
1. How has our mentality about “laboring to stop laboring” been challenged through what is preached?
Has that been our mentality?
2. How did the Parable of the Rich Fool speak to you?
3. What is the most laborious thing for you in your life? Why do you think God is bringing you through such labor？
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