Approaching God With Freedom And Confidence

January 21, 2018 Sermon - Approaching God with Freedom and Confidence

These are sermon notes, numbered and expanded upon during the message

INTRO ILLUSTRATION

001

Start by holding guitar; it’s out of tune. Play out of tune chord.

Do you ever feel like your life is out of tune? Maybe you’re out of tune with life. Out of tune with God.

It’s not a good sound. Not a good feeling.

002

When the guitar is out of tune, most likely it’s flat. Sounds nasty.

It’s flat because one or more of the strings are too loose.

A precise amount of tension is necessary on the strings in order for them to sound good.

003

If they’re all good, but one is out, it makes the whole guitar sound bad.

Reminds me of something Jesus said: A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.

004

Sometimes our lives go flat. They don’t sound good. They don’t feel right.

Sometimes something creeps in to our lives and puts everything out of whack. It’s a problem.

When we’re not in sync with or in tune with God, when we’re actively doing things we know He disapproves of, we don’t want much to do with him.

004A

When we’ve experienced something bad, when something hurts us...

We shut Him out. We go deeper into our addictions, if addictions are a problem for us.

We don’t feel we can go to God. We’re not free. We’re not confident to approach Him.

005

Tune guitar, play chord pattern. Put down guitar.

INTRO OF TODAY’S THEME: APPROACHING GOD WITH FREEDOM AND CONFIDENCE

006

Today I want to talk about approaching God with confidence and with freedom, because today’s scripture tells us that “in Jesus and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence..

Freedom: open, frank, with boldness, unreservedness in speech

Confidence: based on trust

It Starts with Knowing God

007

My dad (photos)

Dad was an artist who did: Political cartoons, Children’s books, newspaper/magazine ill.

Larger commissions of paintings and murals

Self-employed artist, worked 18 hours a day; had studio at our home for a while

008

I was the baby of the family I remember as a ten year old knowing how busy Dad was, knowing how focussed he could be on his work, sometimes excluding anything else from his thinking

But I also knew that when I had a reason to see him, to ask a question or get help on a project, he would always stop right away when I entered the studio. He’d give me his full attention for as long as I needed it.

I didn’t appreciate that until years later when I learned of how the stresses of his work led to a heart attack. We often don’t appreciate what we have.

08A

My point is that whereas others in the family who ‘knew better’ because they were older and understood better the pressures dad was under to do his job, make a living and support all of us, I was clueless and only knew that I needed my dad.

So I always knew I could bug him. I knew and because I knew I had the confidence to burst in to his studio, while he was creating worlds on his canvases.

I had confidence because I knew my dad. I knew that he loved me. I knew that he had time for me.

009

Approaching God with freedom and confidence starts with knowing God

010

We’ll look at what it means to know God,

Then we’ll explore understanding God’s nature and His attitude to you.

Then we’ll ask how we can approach God with freedom and confidence

011

It Starts with Knowing God; if we don’t know God through faith in Jesus, we don’t know God in His fullness. His fullness is found in Jesus.

For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, Col 2:9

011A

We talk a lot about Jesus here at church, if you meet with me or other mission staff members one-on-one. Every Sunday really we grow in our understanding of Jesus, if we’re paying attention.

We come into relationship with God as His redeemed children when we believe that Jesus died for our sins and we receive Him into our lives. We accept Him as our Lord and Saviour and then...

012

We carry on as we please; we do whatever we feel like doing; we stay exactly as we were

Is that right? No! We begin to change from the inside out

God gives us a desire for Him, a desire for holiness, a desire to learn and grow to be like Jesus; a desire to bless others; a desire to live for God.

These are the things that accompany salvation. That is part of what it means to know God