Angelic Conflict 411: The CREATOR'S Will is No Secret

 

 

All twenty-one categories of doctrine begin with the letter C.  We’re learning about the character and nature of our CREATOR at the second of the twenty-one C’s.

 

We are rocking around the CREATOR CLOCK as our way of becoming familiar with the various parts of God’s essence.  Every tick of the CREATOR CLOCK gets us one step closer to a full knowledge of the One and only Sovereign God…whom we will all meet face-to-face one day…the One and only True God, our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

Let’s take a tour around the CREATOR CLOCK.  At every stop on the CREATOR CLOCK we have learned something phenomenal about our God.

 

 

At one o’clock on the CREATOR CLOCK, we learned that we have one God in essence, and His Oneness is called His glory. His life proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the plan of God works regardless of circumstances to produce contentment in the face of tremendous adversity, or exceeding prosperity, or impeding physical death.  John, Chapter 17, Verse 22 and 23 say…

 

JOH 17:22

“The glory which You (God the Father) have given Me (the Lord Jesus Christ) I have given to them (my apostles, my disciples and my believers), that they may be one, just as We are one…”

 

JOH 17:23

“…I in(dwell) them and You in(dwell) Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them (unconditionally), even as You have loved Me (unconditionally).”

 

 

At two o’clock on the CREATOR CLOCK, we learned that God is truth.  He is the SOURCE of all truth.  John, Chapter 18, Verse 37 says…

 

JOH 18:37

“I (the Lord Jesus Christ) have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

 

The Voice of God and the Voice of the Word of God is the Voice of Truth.

 

At three o’clock on the CREATOR CLOCK, we learned that God is Triune.

 

We have One God, who is also three separate and distinct persons.  The Triune Godhead features God the Father as the PROVIDER…who set the objectives and who provides a plan for divine history…the Triune Godhead features God the Son, as the PROVISION…God the Son, in His very Person, is the strategy and the strategist of God the Father’s plan…He is the provision of a distinctive advantage to all creatures…the Triune Godhead features God the Holy Spirit as the illuminator of the PATH provided by God the Father…God the Holy Spirit is the tactician who does the detail work of personalizing the plan of God specifically for your life.  The Lord Jesus Christ…the uniquely born One…PROTOTYPES the plan of God…He is 100% God and 100% true humanity in one person forever…

 

At four o’clock on the CREATOR CLOCK, we learned that God is fair…He is judicial in all of His decisions concerning you…He is never partial or arbitrary…he is a righteous judge…

 

ROM 2:11

For there is no partiality with God.

 

PSA 7:10-11

My shield is with God, Who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge…

 

At five o’clock on the CREATOR CLOCK, we learned that God is gracious.

We know in our souls what caused a man to pen the song…Amazing!  Grace!  Lamentations, Chapter 3, Verses 22 and 23 say…

 

LAM 3:22-23

The Lord’s loving kindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

 

LAM 3:24-25

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.”

 

Jeremiah proclaims here, as we can also proclaim, that whenever we sit in the ruins of our own bad decisions, that the Lord is faithful, and He never gives us what we deserve.  He gives us grace that is new every morning.

 

At six o’clock on the CREATOR CLOCK, we learned that there is a connection between the stops on the CREATOR CLOCK…that there is an interconnectedness between the parts of God’s essence.  At two o’clock we learned that God’s Word is the SOURCE of all truth…at six o’clock on the CREATOR CLOCK we learned that we are the intended recipients of the truth of God’s Word.  The Lord wants us to know His mind, and provided the perfect provisions for us to learn His mind.  John, Chapter 20, Verse 31 says…

 

JOH 20:31

…but these (biblical doctrines) have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah), the Son of God (God the Son) incarnate; and that (by) believing (in Him) you may have (the Zoe) life in His name.

 

John’s purpose in writing is always clear…and so is God’s.

 

Tick tock.  What time is it NOW on the CREATOR CLOCK?  It’s seven o’clock.

 

 

God is WILLING.  We’re studying God’s Will.  Often believers wonder, “What is God’s will for my life?”  Their approach to finding out God’s will is almost pathetic, though.

 

 

If you don’t know God’s Word, it’s pretty tough to know God’s will

 

JOH 15:14

“You are (and you keep on being) My friends if (3) you do what I (the Lord Jesus Christ) command you (maybe you will, and maybe you won’t…you have a choice).”

 

So what most believers in Christ will do, is accept God’s gift, and then sit and wait for God to do everything.  Here’s the analogy…

 

One day you go to the door, and there is a beautiful, big flat screen TV sitting outside your door.  It’s the one you wanted.  On the box is a note…From God…Enjoy! You take the flat screen TV in the house.  It stays in the box.  You talk about it.  You’re excited about it.  But it sits in the box.  A few days later, the thoughts that have been brewing in your mind finally make it to your mouth.  “I wonder if God is going to send someone to install the TV.”  You finally decide He isn’t sending someone, and you put the TV on the wall yourself.  You sit on the couch and stare at the beautiful TV.  A few days later, the thoughts that have been brewing in your mind finally make it to your mouth.  “I wonder if God is going to send someone to turn on the TV.”  You finally decide He isn’t sending someone, and you turn on the TV yourself.  A few days later, the thoughts that have been brewing in your mind finally make it to your mouth.  “I wonder if God is going to get us a subscription to Direct TV.”  You finally decide He isn’t, so you get the Direct TV subscription yourself.

 

This may sound ridiculous to you.  There’s good reason for it.  It is ridiculous.  Yet this is exactly how many Christians “live” the Christian Way of Life.  They expect God to do everything for them, as if they don’t have will themselves.  Our will and God’s will coexist in divine history.  Look…God didn’t get you into the situations you are in.  You did.  Is God helping you?  YES!  Absolutely?  How?

 

1CO 10:13

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

 

No matter what the temptation offered by the dead Old Self, God provides a way out to those of you who are in union with Him…you believers in Christ?  But are you looking for the way out?

 

 

Last week we began looking at the way out.  The challenge believers in Christ face, and indeed the reason we engage in biblical study, is not only to learn knowledge, but also to not let our learning stop there…we learn most when we are effective at executing the things we are learning.  We do not come to biblical study to simply gather information.

 

God’s will for believers in Christ is that first, we learn…that we KNOW; second, that we endure trials…that we GROW; and finally, that we examine our own progress…we ask ourselves, “Does God’s presence in my life SHOW?”  We’ll learn more after a five-minute break.

 

BREAK

Be Glorified

When I Think About Home

Welcome back!

 

 

The Christian Lifestyle means to be in the KNOW, to endure trials to GROW, and then to ask yourself, “Does my light show?”  In other words…is my lifestyle a reflection of God’s wisdom?

 

Let’s take a look at “Be in the KNOW” first.

 

Does it make any difference in your life that you are a student of the Word of God?  When you come here, do you understand what you are learning?  I will tell you that you ask fewer questions than any group of students I have ever taught.  I know why.  You don’t want to appear stupid.  You want me to think well of you.  That’s EGO.  We would rather be misinformed or confused than to “look stupid,” whatever “looking stupid” means.  Look I know, when I talk to you, when the things you are learning are not registering inside of you.  And I know why!  I realize that I am opening myself up to hell, but why don’t you guys ask a question once in a while when you don’t understand something?

 

Well first of all, many of you have studied with Pastors who are inaccessible.  They didn’t want to talk to you, not because they don’t like you, but often because talking to a congregation can be discouraging for Pastors.  When you don’t understand something, we often think it is our fault.  And by the way, maybe it is.

 

Here is our charge…as believers in Christ…turn in your bibles to Ephesians, Chapter 4, Verse 22

 

EPH 4:22-24

…lay aside the (actions of the) old self (lifestyle), (an old self) which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit(ful desires),and…be renewed (by God) in the spirit of your mind, and (then) put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in (absolute) righteousness (+R) and (in the) holiness of the truth.

 

Lay aside the actions of the dead Old Self…be renewed in the spirit of your mind, through biblical study, which is why you are here today…and then through the renewing of your mind, live the New Self Life.  Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verse 17 says…

 

2CO 5:17

Therefore if (1) anyone is in (union with) Christ (and all believers are), he is a new creature (a new spiritual species); the (sovereignty of the) old things passed away (died!); behold, new (spiritual species) things have come.

 

You are to live the new-self life.  But what does that look like?

 

When your spouse cheats on you, you don’t leave.  The Old Self tells you to leave but the New Self life is gracious toward your spouse.

 

When your health goes south, and the doctor tells you that you have six months to live, you remember that the time, the manner and the place of your death is God’s sovereign decision, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is the One shepherding you, and that He will give you a personal escort through your very own death shadowed valley.  The Old Self tells you to panic…to faint in your soul.

 

When your marriage sucks and your spouse isn’t interested in cooperating with you to turn it around, you wait on the Lord’s deliverance.  You can’t change your spouse, but you can change yourself, a much better proposition.

 

When you can’t get over the financial hump, you get help from someone who is an expert at managing finances, and you learn why money eludes you. The Old Self tells you to get mad at God for not giving you the money, then for not also keeping you from spending it foolishly.

 

When people take advantage of your generosity, and treat you poorly in the process, you remember why you helped them in the first place.  It was because you wanted to help.  You didn’t help because you expected something in return.  The Old Self tells you to be vengeful and to seek revenge and to show them how and why they were wrong.

 

When you’re “phoning life in,” get off your arse!  Don’t ask me what your spiritual gift is.  I’m just happy to know my spiritual gift.  But I know how I found out what my spiritual gift is.  I didn’t ask anyone.  If you want to know, God will reveal it to you.  And He won’t reveal it by flying a pigeon over your head and having the pigeon take a dump on your head with a spiritual gift note.  You will not learn your spiritual gift by doing nothing.  In 1999 I thought my spiritual gift was Pastor Teacher, so I started teaching God’s word out of my house.  People heard about it and just started coming, and nearly ten years later I was ordained.  But before I was ordained, I put myself in a lot of uncomfortable situations that made it clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was a Pastor-Teacher.  The Old Self encourages you to dump the responsibility of finding out what your spiritual gift is on others.

 

When you can’t get your child to get his head out of his butt, pick one thing you want to influence and get busy.  You don’t control kids or teens or their choices, and yes there are some kids and teens who are so dumb that there is no boundary for their self destruction.   They are intent on ruining their lives right now, and they will wonder why they have to dig themselves out of a two-decade hole for the stupid choices they make as a kid or as a teen.  That’s life.  The Old Self says to you that nothing you do will work.  The New Self and God’s word tell you that if you get truth into them it will not come back void.

 

When you lose your passion, get it back!  The New Self life is a passionate life.  The Old Self encourages you to give up.  But the New Self goes on a learning binge.

 

Here’s my question for you…

 

 

…does coming here to be renewed and to get biblical knowledge, to learn the Word of God, make any difference in your life at all?  Does it show up in your decisions?  Is your New Self Life reflecting to others in such a way that people see how obvious it is that you don’t think or operate like everyone else?

 

MAT 4:4

‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD (physical food) ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’

 

You can’t know God’s will…if you don’t know God’s word…and if you know God’s Word, it has to show up in your decisions!

 

God loves you, and his will for you is no secret.  Do you know it?

 

CLOSING SONG

When I Say I Love You

 

CLOSING VERSES

 

PRO 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.

 

DEU 31:8

The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed

 

ISA 30:18

Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.

 

CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

THANKS

INTERCESSION

PETITION

 

And we pray that you continue to shape the messages from this pulpit that are an accurate reflection of your person, your thinking, your work, your reputation and your essence...we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit, in Christ’s name, Amen.

 

Thanks for coming!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for listening!

 

www.barahministries.com