Confident Trust---Living Life

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shalom-dodi
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Confident Trust---Living Life

Post by shalom-dodi » Mon Nov 13, 2017 2:15 pm

Prayer: Father God, thank you for this time. Thank your for this place. Thank you for brothers and sisters in Christ. But even more thank you for Jesus and his gift of eternal life. Please be with us as we delve into your Word together. In Jesus name amen.

We have been in a series called, Confident Trust. Last week we looked at John 14:1-14. Today we will pick up in John 14.
But first:
How was your week? Were you able to pause and turn to God in the midst of whatever was going on in your life. Is your ability to trust God “no matter what” growing?

Maybe you can not see growth, but what if you compare today to say a year or so ago?

We ALL have areas of need.
We have besetting sins and thought patterns.

Places where we tend to turn to other than God to fill our needs.
I am reading a great book by Max Lucado called, “Be Anxious For Nothing”. I am enjoying it a lot.
He says, “Anxiety and fear are cousins but not twins. Fear sees a threat. Anxiety imagines one.
Fear screams, Get out!
Anxiety ponders, What if?

Fear results in fight or flight. Anxiety creates doom and gloom.

Fear is the pulse that pounds when you see a coiled rattlesnake in your front yard. Anxiety is the voice that tells you, Never, ever, for the rest of your life, walk barefooted through the grass. There might be a snake . . . somewhere.

Don’t you love the way he explains that? Our direction and our call from God is found in Philippians 4. Picking up at verse 4-9 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Meditate on These Things
8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

That is the cure for anxiety isn’t it? And in a sense the cure for besetting sin choices (to numb our fear/pain) as well as “those” thought patterns?
In verse 4 he says REJOICE always. Does it say rejoice FOR those difficult things we all have in our lives?
It does NOT. It does tell us to rejoice “in the LORD”. When we remember that God, our Abba Father is always with us and will continue to be with us no matter what, we can rejoice in THAT. Right?

Paul who wrote this from jail had already been beaten, rejected, imprisoned many times. He is not giving this command lightly. It truly is a large part of the cure.

The next verses elaborate that while rejoicing we are not denying the reality or validity of our situation. Because Paul invites us instead of fretting, to make our requests known to God.
Why?
He tells us.
The LORD is at hand. He can give us his peace which will GUARD our hearts and our minds.
And then of course one of my favorite verses and a way I try to live, verse 8. Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things… and in verse 9 the “why” we want to learn to live that way. Verse 9: The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

Do you see how this aside fits with having Confident Trust? We cannot trust God, unless we know what He is like. We are always learning that on Monday Night. I am always learning that in my own life as well.

But as we learn more and more about who God is, then we CAN choose to trust him. And as we choose moment by moment, need by need to do that, our trust becomes more and more confident.


Let’s go into John 14 and see one of those things we need to “know/remember” about God.

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.

25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.
30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.

Looking at the portions of this beautiful passage individually:
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Dodi Note: interestingly one of his commandments given via Paul is not to worry. Then there are those 10 original ones. The 10 Commandments. Plus many others.

Can we keep them perfectly? Can we even remember them all?

I know we can’t do it perfectly. I can’t you can’t. God knows that too which is why we need Jesus and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. Along with confession and repentance and study of the Word.

Can we know them?
Probably we can’t list all of them. Or maybe we can, want to try?

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet.

But we do know what God is asking each of us to work on, don’t we?

The next verses kind of tell us why we can live a live of obedience without literally remembering every single command. (By the way, God gives us these commands much like a fence gives us safe boundaries. Because he loves us and desires safety, health and wholeness)
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

Dodi Note. The Helper. The Holy Spirit. The Comforter. The Spirit of Truth.
He dwells with us and indwells us too and one of his tasks is to guide us into all truth. Sort of like Jimmy Crickets conscience but way better.
Questions or comments?

The next portion goes deeper with this.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

Dodi Note: This is one of my favorite promises. We are NOT orphans. If we are all alone we are not really alone for the Living Spirit of God, The Holy Spirit lives in us.
Because of this, according to Jesus, we are in Christ and can know fellowship with the Father, in a similar way that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have always been in communion with us.
Can I explain it perfectly? No. By faith we choose to trust and believe and remember.

Then we have this seemingly random reminder: 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Dodi Note: there is a standard isn’t there? A command? To show our love? To help us remember that “He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

If anyone tries to teach you that “cheap grace” doctrine. That “feel good” junk. Run.
But run to the true God who loves you.

I have heard the analogy this way. A child who loves his daddy will naturally imitate his father. We have all seen pictures of a little kid with shaving cream doing that. Children naturally tend to imitate those adults around them. In good ways and bad, right? A child with a parent who screams will likely scream.

The more time we spend with God, in the Word and worship, the more we will love Him. The more we will know him. The more we will quite naturally want to “be” like him. As in “obey” Him.
Then we will in turn manifest him more and more because we will live in awareness of Him and ourselves as His Beloved son or daughter.
We don’t love and obey to BE LOVED, we do so because we ARE already LOVED.

One of the disciples questions this…he was not quite understanding. 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me..

So again we see it repeated for us. “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word”.
And the promise attached: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Along with a reminder that Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me

Often people will wonder or ask. Would or why would a Christian do this or that? Ever wondered?

First of all we are ALL in process of being transformed/renewed to be more and more like God.
When we are first born again and especially before we develop “confident trust” in God we will stumble and fall.

We won’t seem that much different. But the longer we walk with God, spending time with Him, getting to really know Him the more “rough (or mean) edges” will be rubbed off. The more we will seek to obey, not from fear but because of love.

The other part is… everyone who says they are a Christian is not. If we are born again there will be fruit in keeping with that. The “fruit” is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."
A true follower may still sin. But it will bother them when they realize it.
Even down to their thought life if their outward actions have changed.
Our heritage is to live in love, in joy, in peace, in patience, in kindness, and goodness, faithfulness and gentleness and self-control.
We are able to do so because of what we have been discussing the Gift of the Holy Spirit who indwells each of us at new birth.
(note taught on Tuesday but posted here because it is part of a series)

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