Rom 5:5 "Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us"
Love of God - Holy Spirit
We need to keep ourselves in the love of God by praying in the Holy Spirit. After all the Holy Spirit is the Love of God!
1. The love of God frees us from condemnation
Rom 8:1 "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit"
2. The love of God fills our mind with life and peace
Rom 8:6 "For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace"
3. The love of God gives life to our mortal bodies
Rom 8:11 "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you"
4. The love of God helps us to put to death the works of the flesh
Rom 8:13 "For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live"
5. The love of God leads us into a deep relationship with God, we can call God Father
Rom 8:14-15 "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out "Abba, Father"
6. The love of God promotes us as heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ
Rom 8:17 "and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ"
7. The love of God helps us to pray
Rom 8:26 "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered"
8. The love of God helps us to pray
Rom 8:26 "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered"
9. The love of God will always lead us to the will of God
Rom 8:27 "now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God"
10. The love of God works all things out for good for us
Rom 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose"
What is the rest of God?
How do we rest in God?
I have been fascinated with this topic since ministering it last year at Kemaman church.
God gave me further understanding of it this year during morning prayer.
What is the rest of God?
There are 3 ways for us to rest in God:
1. Rest in the Word of God
2. Rest in the Work of Jesus on the Cross
3. Resting while walking with God
1. Resting in the Word of God.
The Word of God leads us to rest in God but 4 things must be settled before we can enter into the rest of the Word of God:
1. We must believe that it is available for us. This is a believer's rest and cannot be available for non-believers:
Hebs 4:9 "There remains therefore a rest for the people of God"
If you are not God's people, you have to start believing before you can enter into the rest of the Word of God.
2. We must stop struggling in our own flesh to work things out.
Hebs 4:10 "For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His"
This will require us to voice our prayers to God by intentionally releasing our prayer needs to God.
3. We must start being diligent in God's Word.
Indeed how can we rest in God's Word if we do not even know what is written in the Word. Get yourself a Bible memory app that can help you commit verses to memory.
Hebs 4:11 "Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience"
How to be diligent in God's Word? Study it, read it and memorize it!
4. We must start obeying the Word of God.
Hebs 4:12 "For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart"
2. Rest in the finished work of Jesus
Jesus finished His work on earth and rested. What did He finished or accomplished through His death for us?
He finished His work on the Cross by giving us a way to God via saving us from our sins which no one else can do.
He finished His work on the Cross by giving us a chance to make peace with God.
He finished His work on the Cross by giving us a chance to receive our healing and restoration of divine health.
Isa 54:5 "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed"
3. Resting while walking with God
Walking with God is not the physical activity that we do as in jogging or exercise. It is actually in a relationship with God which is restful and full of comfort, peace and joy.
Gen 5:24 "And Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him"
Hebs 11:5 "by faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death "and was not found, because God had taken him" for before he was taken he had this testimony that he pleased God"
Quotations:
FB Meyer
"To all of us Christ offers rest, not in the next life only, but also in this life. Rest from the weight of sin, from care and worry, from the load of daily anxiety and foreboding. The rest that arrives from handing over all our worries to Christ and receiving from Christ all we need. Have you entered into that experience?"
Watchman Nee
"Our rest lies in looking to the Lord, not to ourselves"
Andrew Murray
"Do not strive in your own strength"
Charles Swindoll
"In place of our exhaustion and spiritual fatigues, God will give us rest. All He asks is that we come to Him...that we spend a while thinking about Him, meditating on Him, talking to Him, listening in silence, occupying ourselves with Him - totally and thoroughly lost in the hiding place of His presence"
Date: 18/11/17
Luke 16:19-27
"There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named, Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table...so it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torment in Hades, he lifted his eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. The he cried and said "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in torment in this flame.
But Abraham said, "Son, remember that in your lifetime, you received good things and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all these, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us"
Introduction - Jesus saw the lost quite differently from His disciples:
Characters
1. Samaritan woman -
Disciples regard her as living in sin & untouchable but Jesus regard her as someone who needed to know the truth.
2. Adulterous woman -
Disciples regard her as someone who has to be stoned?? Jesus regard her as someone who need to know forgiveness
3. Blind man -
Disciples regard him as someone who has sinned or his parents have sinned. Jesus regard him as someone chosen to reveal the works of God.
4. Tax collector - Zacchaeus
Disciples regard him as a corrupt person but Jesus regard him as someone ready to repent and make restitution.
5. Mary Magdalene
Disciples called her a sinner and a prostitute but Jesus regard her as someone in need of love and forgiveness.
Seeing the lost like Jesus in 4 areas:
1. Jesus saw the great Divide (great gulf fixed)
2. Jesus saw the Depravity of sin
3. Jesus saw their Destiny in hell
4. Jesus saw their Despair without a shepherd
Jesus saw the great Divide
The rich man may have been indulgent all his life and shut out his eyes and ears to the needs of Lazarus but that was not the main reason he was in hell. It could be that an indulgent lifestyle made a person selfish and hard but the main thing that separated him from God was his sin.
It is sin that separates us from God. We cannot hope to bridge the great gulf by our own good works, money, religion or by just being a good person. We need Jesus - the only way, the truth and the life. It is a gift of God not of our own works lest any man should boast.
Jesus saw the Depravity of sin
During the times of the Lord Jesus just as it is now, sin has its consequences.
Characters
1. Samaritan woman -
She lived in adultery, that was her depravity. She was looking for love in the wrong places (Luke 4:48)
2. Mary Magdalene -
She was a prostitute. She became possessed by 7 demons as a result of her sexual depravity (Luke 7:47)
3. Rich man -
He idolized money and self indulgent lifestyle as his god (Matt 6:26). His depravity was fleshly indulgence. He was not a seeker of God.
4. This generation -
Drugs, alcohol, partying, hedonistic, social media bullying, same sex relationships, broken marriages, adultery, rebellion, murder, violence, debauchery.....
Jesus saw their Destiny in hell
The rich man asked Abraham to send prophets to his home to tell them about hell (Luke 6:27 "Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they come to this place of torment"
Even people in hell are concerned about the lost. What more we who are alive and can tell others about Jesus. God wants us to do this while we have breath as death means the end of all evangelism!
Jesus saw their Despair without a shepherd
Matt 9:36 "But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd"
Despair means to be totally at lost, no more hope in life, tough to go on living and can lead to suicide.
Young and old, there are times when we are weary or scattered. There are times when work becomes ritualistic and without meaning or purpose. Life becomes and endless toil of working and struggling to put food on the table. However if we allow Jesus to guide us lovingly like a shepherd, we will find true meaning to life - to reach out to others and tell them the Good News!
