Saturday, February 18, 2017

Only reality to RELY on

The underpinnings the Protestant Reformation gave to the last 500 years of Western culture--dominating the culture of the planet for the last half of a millennium—are decimated. As Psalm 11:3 says, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” The answer is they go the way of the world just like everybody else.

“The reality is we have so much liberty, freedom—economically, socially, politically—that the world can be in chaos and we can just turn on (a TV sitcom)  and forget about it,” says Jordan. “Most of the people in the world can’t do that. I’ve been in many places in the world where when they go to bed at night, you know what momma’s worrying about? What she’s going to feed the kids for lunch tomorrow.

“The thing God is most concerned about for you is freedom. That’s what faith is all about. Faith is the ability for you to have the absolute complete freedom in your inner person to do exactly what you choose to do. Without that personal privacy, you can’t make a free choice and God loves freedom. He loved it so much He was willing to risk it—risk His whole plan in creation by giving you freedom.

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“You know what He wants out of you? All He wants is your trust. He wants you to trust Him. He wants you to believe Him. He wants you to rely on Him.

“When God put Adam and Eve in the Garden and said, ‘Don’t eat of that tree,’ He wanted them just to trust Him, saying, ‘He’s got our best interest at heart and if He says don’t do that, He’s got a good reason for it and we’re just going to trust Him.’

“The whole problem with Adam and Eve is they came to the place where they didn’t trust God. Genesis 3:22 says, ‘And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.’

“But they didn’t know good and evil because they were TRUSTING God to know it! They no longer trusted God’s Word about it. The problem was they weren’t trusting.

"God wants your trust, folks. He just wants you to rely on Him. That’s why Paul says, [28] Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

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“Romans 16:25 says, ‘Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.’

“Paul’s information is designed to make you grow up spiritually, and if you don’t get this verse you’re never going to grow up spiritually. You’re always going to be a little spiritual pygmy; a spiritual baby over here on milk. You’re never going to be an adult who eats meat, sits at the table and does work for God on an adult basis.

“He says the ‘preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery.’ It’s HE who has to be related to! You see the relationship is to Him, not just to a bunch of doctrines, creeds, rites and thinking patterns. I’ve got a relationship with HIM!

“Galatians 4:19 says, [19] My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. What’s Paul want to live in you?

“Roman 4:16 says, [16] Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

“The dependence is to be on who God has made you in Christ. That is your TOTAL dependence on Him—that’s what faith is all about!

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“Paul warns in Colossians 2:8, [8] Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

“Any system that takes you away from just resting in Christ, he says ‘beware,’ and we’re watching one of the great sea changes in global history. You need a foundation that’s built on truth and can I tell you, as the world whirls around there’s nobody else ever going to show up like Jesus Christ.

“The one thing you’ve got that’s different from everybody else is you’ve got the ONE PERSON who IS the truth. Truth in the Bible is not, ‘Well, I’m right and you’re wrong.’ Truth in the Bible is reality.

“What is the source of ultimate reality? What’s the real deal here? Paul says, ‘We look at thing not seen because things seen are temporal.’ They’re not what’s real. The things that are NOT seen are eternal. How do you get in touch with that? The only way is by faith. But you have to have faith in what ultimate reality is and that’s who Jesus Christ is.

“That’s why it’s not a thing and a theology and something you’re doing. It’s something outside of you—it’s in a PERSON. It’s in God HIMSELF. And when God stepped out of heaven and took upon Himself humanity in the person of Jesus Christ . . . when the eternal God become the God-man in the man Christ Jesus He gave you the ability to reach out and make God tangible and get a hold of Him and He’s the BRIDGE.

“The issue is preaching Christ, making Him the issue. That’s why Paul says, [5] For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

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Paul’s favorite subject was the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word in the Bible is called edification. It’s building up that doctrine in your understanding that really is the mind of Christ. If you want to know somebody, you really need to know their mind, don’t you?”

“You know, you can’t look at somebody and tell what they’re thinking. I know you think you can but you really can’t. Until a person speaks their mind, you don’t know their mind. You have the mind of Christ. If you’re going to know a person, that’s how you know him/her.

“I Corinthians 2:15-16 says, [15] But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
[16] For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

“How do you have the mind of Christ? It’s in His Word. Paul says it is ‘God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.’ How does He work in you to will and do His good pleasure? By having ‘Christ be formed in you.’ ”

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