Hit Me With Your Best Shot Series

Exp: Something unbelievable happens to a person when they place their trust and hope in Jesus. God imparts to them “righteousness.” Now what in the world does that mean? It means that GOD makes us “right” w/Him. It means it’s not dependent upon ME to make myself right w/God. Now that’s a relief to me b/c I’ve tried to do it before and the only thing that ever happens is I keep failing at trying to live for God under my own power and then I feel defeated.

A.So what does that mean? It means if we don’t allow Jesus to put us together, then Jesus won’t come near us b/c He’s not going to barge His way into our lives. He allows us to make the choice whether or not we’re going to follow Him. But if we decide to follow Him, guess what He does? He makes us righteous. He puts us together.

1. I don’t know @ you but that takes a lot of pressure off me. It enables me to relax and enjoy life instead of constantly worrying @ it. God does that w/us when He provides us w/a righteousness in our lives that we can’t attain on our own.

ILLUS: Deep in the Arabian desert is a small fortress. It stands on the edge of the desert. It was at this place that Thomas Lawrence, also known as “Lawrence of Arabia”, used to seek shelter. Though it wasn’t a beautiful place, it was a great place to b/c of its security. It was loaded w/food supplies and had plenty of water.

-When under attack, often by superior forces, Lawrence would retreat to the fort and be able to defend himself and rely upon the supplies of the fort. His enemies would run out of supplies and the elements would start taking their toll and the enemy would have to retreat.

-What happened at that fort is the strength of the fort became the strength of those who occupied it. But for that fort to be able to provide protection for Lawrence, what did he have to do? He had to go inside the fort.

a. And the same thing is true for us. God has plenty of provisions for us to be able to thrive and make a difference in our homes and in our workplaces and in our schools. But for us to take advantage of those provisions, we must allow ourselves to be placed in His care; we must allow Christ to carry us into the fort.

Conclusion: Today we’ve seen some reasons we don’t have to be fearful. The 1st reason is b/c our faith has power. The 2nd reason is b/c our faith brings salvation. And finally, b/c our faith imparts righteousness.

-Are you fearful? Are you scared of what the world can throw at you—death, loss of a job, loss of friendship, moving? You don’t have to be fearful. The only audience we’re performing for in this life is Jesus. You’re not performing for me. You’re not performing for your friends. You’re not performing for your dad. You’re performing for Jesus.

-And all He’s asking you to do is trust Him. And as you do that, He’ll remove your fear and enable you to live w/confidence. Some of you have never entrusted your life to the care of Christ. Right now you’re doing all you can to have control, but the longer you live the more you realize you don’t have control.