Control
Sunday Sermon / Getting Ahead Sermon Series
April 29th, 2007
Intro: Brief recap: Getting Ahead in life. What does it take, what issues are most important to reaching your goals? What is important in setting your goals? Will you be satisfied once you have reached your goals?
We started in:
Isaiah 55:1-3 "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
Here’s the bottom line issue: Without drawing your deepest level satisfaction from God, you will never be truly satisfied with anything in life.
This takes us to the next question at hand, “How do I know if I’m on the right track?”
• How do you discern what is right or wrong?
• Is something God’s will or not?
• You may say, “I have these goals and ideas about getting ahead in life but how do I know what to do?”
It is impossible for me to tell you the exact directions on how to get ahead. Other than to teach you how to listen to and follow God. He is the only One who really knows His plan for you.
To start answering these questions let’s turn to Isaiah 55
Text: Isaiah 55:6-9
"Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
I. Take every opportunity to approach God
"Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
a. Seek and Call upon God
i. While he is near / speaking of the Levites coming near to God.
ii. Look at how God is speaking about how He is drawing near to us. The intersection of God and man. What a concept. What a glorious privilege we have in Jesus.
Remember, God desires to give us all good things.
He will not give us something that will harm us.
This is what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit,
Luke 11:9-13 “"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 11"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
b. Seek Compassion, Pardon and Wisdom.
i. Compassion: Not condemned but loved. God’s agape love for you. His unconditional love. To know and experience this love is the most freeing experience you can ever have.
ii. Pardon: Forgiveness, not sentencing. (Assumes confession)
This is certainly true at our New Birth. But this is also true continually in our walk with God. We continue to need compassion, to have our heart reaffirmed of His forgiveness and wisdom to return to path of righteousness.
• We are not: reborn again. But we do need washed. Jesus went to His disciples to wash there feet. Peter objected. Jesus explained that His body was clean, but he was in need of having his feet washed.
• This shows us the nature of our relationship with God, our salvation and our continual need to have our feet washed.
iii. Wisdom: Desire to know right from wrong and walk in that Light.
II. Our Ways and Thoughts
7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
a. It all counts
i. “Ways of the wicked” are the obvious list of sins,
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
ii. Thoughts are much deeper.
Mark 7:20-23 (Amplified Bible) “20And He said, What comes out of a man is what makes a man unclean and renders [him] unhallowed. 21For from within, [that is] out of the hearts of men, come base and wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, stealing, murder, adultery, 22Coveting (a greedy desire to have more wealth), dangerous and destructive wickedness, deceit; unrestrained (indecent) conduct; an evil eye (envy), slander (evil speaking, malicious misrepresentation, abusiveness), pride ([the sin of an uplifted heart against God and man), foolishness (folly, lack of sense, recklessness, thoughtlessness). 23All these evil [purposes and desires] come from within, and they make the man unclean and render him unhallowed.
People, including Christians, don’t give much attention to thoughts, let alone show any restraint.
People think their thoughts don’t count, that they don’t have consequences. But in reality they do.
• Every action is preceded by a thought.
• Every emotion is preceded by a thought
• Every opinion is preceded by a thought
• Every judgment against another person is preceded by a thought.
Jesus broadened the commandments, by showing that even if we hate our brother, we are guilty of murder. That is very strong. Our thoughts, emotions and feelings are important to God.
In a book called “The Calvary Road” author Roy Hession makes a list of the subtle thoughts that turn to sin,
Self-pity, self-defensiveness, oversensitivity, criticalness, resentfulness, worry, grumbling, bossiness, self-seeking, self-indulgence…”
iii. We do not have to obey or even believe every thought, emotion or desire.
God wouldn’t have broadened the law like this without also giving us the power to fulfill the law. Remember, Jesus said that he didn’t come to discard the law but to fulfill it.
God also promises us the will to and power to do His will.
iv. Becoming aware of what is happening in our hearts and minds is important.
How many of you have ever had your back out of adjustment? Something just isn’t right. You are uncomfortable and something is out of alignment. This also happens to our spirit.
Do you have a sense of when your spirit is out of alignment with God’s?
b. Live a filtered life
i. Asking your self, “What is motivating me here?”; “What is the source of my thoughts, feelings, desires and insecurities?”
ii. I’m not talking about hyper-analyzing, this is simply learning to differentiate between our selfish desires and God’s desires.
We are born with a desire to know God but without the capacity to know Him. That is a creative miracle at our New Birth. Our spirit comes alive and His spirit bares witness with our spirit that we are His children.
iii. This level of communication is crucial for us to hewn. Listing to God’s voice.
iv. Am I being driven by lust, pride, fear, unforgiveness, envy, judgmentalism, etc.
Put it through the filter of Love:
Put it through the filter of Wisdom: “How have trained themselves to know right from wrong.”
Hebrews 5:7-14 “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. 11About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
As long as you’re trying to get away with something, you’re still immature.
Most people have an ‘as long as I don’t get caught’ attitude about much of life.
Isaiah 29:13 (ESV) And the Lord said: "Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
The Christian is called to live at a much higher level, as much higher as the Heavens are from the earth.
III. Place all your trust in God.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
a. God has the Vantage Point
i. We may at first think that God is being too intrusive.
ii. Some people wrongfully assume that God will simply ruin their lives if they ever give their lives over to Him. Their ideas are not based on truth.
Jeremiah 15:19 “Therefore thus says the Lord [to Jeremiah]: If you return [and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair], then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and safety, and you will be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile [cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God’s faithfulness], you shall be My mouthpiece.”
iii. God sees things that we don’t
Example: Google Maps / Not only can you see the roadmaps but you can also see aerial photos of the land. You can see the lay-of-the-land, buildings etc. It gives you a much more accurate view of the area you desire to travel to. Plus it’s a lot of fun to play with.
• God knows every detour and road hazard out there.
b. God really does know best
i. He knows best how to get us home, meet our needs, satisfy our souls and keep us safe.
Sarah Groves sings a Hymn called, Come Thou Fount
Bridge: Prone to wander, Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Prone to hear you and not heed it
Prone to scorn you in your love
Prone to wander
Let your goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to thee
Jesus sought me while a stranger
Wandering from the heart of God
And He to rescue me from danger
Used his own precious blood
ii. Our thoughts are not naturally His thoughts
Conclusion: Surrendering control of our lives to God leads us to the only freedom we can truly experience.
