TV 1750 | The 'How' of It All Part One

I praise the Lord for His goodness. I'm trusting the Lord as usual this morning because I feel my own weakness, but interestingly enough, that very much plays into what I have in my heart. I've had many thoughts. I guess one of the thoughts I started with was Paul's admonition to Timothy to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. The reality is we live in a world where, as Jesus said, we have trouble. And thankfully, He also said, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. The reality is that we live in a world where there's trouble under the best of circumstances because we all are cursed with coming into this world with human nature. And human nature wants things that it finds pleasing. And this world doesn't supply that very often. Sometimes there's something, there's a conflict. And the Lord has to, in saving us, I'm going to say a lot of things we've heard many times, but I want to get to something. Obviously the Lord has to show us the real reason why we struggle. And it's because of the corruption of human nature that drives us away from God, it separates us from Him. And every one of us needs to be forgiven and cleansed of everything that has happened in our lives. But we need more than that, don't we? We need a new life. But under the best of circumstances, life is going to be a challenge because God's purpose is not simply to say, all right, your sins are forgiven, come on to heaven. He's got a reason why we live here. And obviously it involves things that are difficult. And so, a lot of times I think we focus, and rightly so because it is part of the picture, we focus on what we're supposed to do. This is what I want you to do, and the Scripture is full of admonitions.

Do this, do the other. And the reality is, if we understand, if we really are honest, the Christian life is impossible. The Christian life is impossible for any one of us to live because it goes to the root of the problem. The problem is we couldn't live for God in the first place. So the idea that all He does is wipe out our sins and hand us a ticket to heaven and say, okay, here are my rules, that doesn't work at all. And all we wind up doing is feeling frustrated and empty. Because you know the reality is, we can even know the truth and still live as if we didn't. Because the reason we're here is to learn, not just to receive a new life, but to learn to live it out. And a lot of the things, we think about hardness as, well, I'm having a, you know, I've got a disease or I've got a very bad situation, I'm in pain, I'm in prison, as was certainly the case many times in the New Testament, and it does include that. But I would guarantee that there are many of the simple admonitions that we know, instructions, I'll put them that way, that we just don't do very well. You think the Lord maybe cares about all of that or does He just put in words because, well, it sounds good, it's what we're supposed to do? How many of you, for example, are thankful in all things? Doesn't the Lord say that? Doesn't He tell us to do that? Be thankful in everything, be in everything, seriously? In everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Praise God. And of course, we all find it very easy to just, the Lord says, forgive and you'll be forgiven. Oh, sure. No matter what anybody's ever done to me, I forgive them all, I just feel so free about doing that. No, we kind of find that difficult.

I mean, to the point of not doing it, of saying, yeah, that's what it says, but then not actually being able to do it. I had a whole list of things and I didn't write any of them down, which is probably a good thing. But being thankful, I think I said that, being thankful and loving, how about loving one another? I mean, not just this human fondness that we think about. I'm talking about this self-sacrificial, I care more about your welfare than I do my own. That's kind of impossible, isn't it, for human nature? produce. Yeah, it just ain't happening. And you know, I was thinking about a whole lot of these things, but one of them that struck me as harder than we think, and it really, it reveals human nature. How about when we really mess up and we're conscious of it? We've done something, we know it's wrong, we fell under a temptation. And we know what we're supposed to do, you know, confess it and we'll be forgiven, but how many of you just struggle with that? I mean, what's the human reaction if I've messed up? Well, hide is certainly one of them. Pretend. But even if I want to try to do something and I say, oh, you know, I've got to do something about this. Well, what is it that human nature drives us to want to do? Try harder. Okay, I'll admit it. I'll, you know, admitting is not repenting, by the way, but I'll admit it and then I'll try harder. Or, I can't go to Him now. I'm all dirty. You think about all the things that God has called upon us to do and He's instructed us what to do in His Word. And if we're going to be honest, this book is full of things that we just can't do. Rejoice evermore! You know, all these things are choices, by the way, aren't they? But they're not choices that we easily make. There are choices that in every instance, they're going against human nature. Do you think maybe God has something in mind in why He has us here? Does He want us to sit here and feel frustrated and distant from Him? Or is it, as we've said many times, is it not? Well, let me put it this way. We know that it's not a religion of rules. It's not religion to

start with. It's about relationship. That God wants to bring us into a living relationship with Him, and so we wind up living through, in our lives, with a whole lot of admonitions, a whole lot of instructions that God has given to us as His children, that if we're honest, we don't do very well. And the truth of the matter is, if I'm just trying to live it out myself and say, okay, I know what He says, I'm going to do it, my score is going to be zero. I might pretend to do this and pretend to do that, but I mean really, really doing and being that? It ain't happening. What a frustrating, miserable life it sounds like. God says, alright, I've forgiven your sins. Here are my instructions. Go for it. But that's about as far as a lot of people get. And, you know, I started with the thing about trouble, and the Lord's saying, in the world you will have trouble. You know, there's a so-called gospel out there that preaches that if only we have enough faith, life is going to be wonderful. We're going to have plenty of money in the bank. We're going to be successful. We'll never, ever have anything physically wrong with us. You know, whatever it is that human nature loves in this world, just come to Jesus, and if you really believe that's what He wants to have you, a perfect life here. I may be overstating it a little, but that is a false message. Jesus said, in the world you will have trouble. And we're going to have to reckon on that, and understand what in the world is that all about? Why in the world would it be that way? How about putting up with each other? Bear with each other. Be patient in tribulation. I mean, the admonitions go, the instructions go on and on and on with things that are absolutely impossible. And so I think where I was going with this was that so much of what we have talked about is absolutely part of it as to what we're supposed to do. But the how of it all, maybe that's a crazy title, but that's probably the best one I came up with anyway. How in the world does any of this happen? And here again, this is not something we haven't heard. I could put that question out there, and I think a lot of you could answer it, because you know what the book says. But knowing what the book says and living it out are kind of two different things, more than we

would like to admit. And so the Lord wants us to learn how to handle things. So what in the world do we do when we discover that, you know, I have, I feel a need? You know, Paul said in one place, he was talking about all the difficulties that he went through and he said, his fighting's without and fear's within. I mean, that was a description of his life, of what he was experiencing. That sounds miserable. Do you think God maybe has a reason, a way to handle that? And a reason for it being that way? I do. And I believe God wants us to understand how to handle the Christian life. Is it really what it comes down to? It's great to say, well, this is what He wants me to do, but how do I do that? That doesn't make any sense. Well, I think one of the things that we need to understand first is to understand the situation. Now, we all know the Scripture about how in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. Scriptures we've talked about many times. All things. That's why He says be thankful in all things, but all things includes the bad stuff. So God is deliberately allowing difficult things to come in our lives and there's got to be a reason because it says, it talks about His purpose. So if I have somebody, I mean, it's as simple as if I have somebody that comes and really mistreats me or offends me or just stirs up the wrong stuff in me, it wouldn't happen to any of you, I know. But if that were to happen, is that one of the things He's talking about? Who allowed that to happen? Do you suppose there might be a purpose in such a thing? Because God says in all things, God is at work and He's fulfilling a purpose. How am I going to ever learn how to, well, I guess I jumped ahead in a way because Paul's

solution to everything is that I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. But it's no longer I, it's Christ who lives in me. Do you see what God's solution is to my problem that I can't possibly be what He wants me to be, is not to give me rules to live by, it's to give me a new life that's capable of living that. Is Jesus capable of living the life that He wants? Yeah, He's kind of good at it. He's kind of perfect. He not only knows what to do, He's been down here and done it. And so that's the one, the Lord, that's what salvation is about. And I invite Him into my heart and my life as my Lord, as my Savior. My Savior means I need saving, I need help. It's not just like forgive my sins, I need to be a different person and the only way I can get there is to have somebody else in here because if I am drawing upon human nature to do what I do, to think what I think, it ain't going to be pretty. I got to learn how to live out a different life and I think everybody who knows anything and has been down the road at all knows that doesn't happen, that's not a push button experience. I don't care what experiences you may have in the Lord, nothing is going to replace a day by day in all things God is at work kind of thing. So what the Lord is doing when He brings somebody, puts somebody in your path who drives slow when you're following a turtle and you got to get some place, told that would never happen to you but it does happen to me sometimes. Is that one of the things He's talking about? Oh no, that's not spiritual at all, that's just normal, everyday. In all things, do you think the Lord wants to make us more conscious of Him and how He is at work in us on a day to day basis? Jesus and the ordinary stuff of life? Because if something provokes your human nature to respond in a way that is not what He says to do, do you just suppose maybe God wants us to be aware of that? And say, wait a minute, that's not what He said.

But now you get to, okay, how do I change that? Because I could pretend, okay, I love you so much. I forgive you, and it's just an external put on that doesn't reflect the heart. God's salvation is about giving me a new heart, because the one I was born with isn't going to help it. Isn't going to help me at all. So here He is bringing me into a circumstance where I realize that the thing He's saving me is what I'm doing right now that isn't Him. Salvation needs to happen right now in a moment-by-moment, day-to-day thing. And thankfully, it's not an overwhelming, oh God, I've got to get it all right now kind of thing. This is moment-by-moment, day-by-day. You think about a child growing up. You're not worried about teaching a three-year-old calculus, or most of the rest of us. But anyway, you get the point. We're supposed to deal with the thing that God puts in front of us in the moment. And thank God, isn't He an awesome Father who loves His children, knows how to help us, knows where we're at. He's not surprised when we mess up. That's why He sent His Savior to save us. Boy, I need that every single day, and I'm more and more conscious of it. But the reality is, we learn how to think and how to act and how to react to life in a very natural way. And God's got a lot of work to undo that. But I think what I was thinking of is more about the process. How do I ... if I'm reacting badly in a situation, do you think God wants me to be conscious of that? Do you think He wants me to be conscious so I will just feel hopeless and defeated? Or does He want me to begin to learn how to tap into the life that He has given me? That's His loving purpose.

Don't listen to the devil in all the ways he interprets things that happen to us. Thank God. We know ... boy, that's a positive statement on Paul's part, isn't it? We know that in all things, everything that happens in our lives that would tend to provoke a natural reaction, God is working. Don't forget, if there's something that happens to you and your old nature reacts, God's at work. How in the world could God be at work in something like that? Well, He knows what He's doing, doesn't He? God is at work for my good, for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. And we've pointed out many times, what is that purpose? What's the purpose? Why would He do that? For those God foreknew, He also predestined, oh, thank God. I'll tell you, you truly give yourself to Him, your destiny is sealed. What God wants us to do is understand the process and learn how to cooperate with it because we're not machines that He's manufacturing, we're not robots. He wants children who learn how to make choices, okay? Those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Well, how am I going to be conformed to the image of His Son if all I'm trying to do is change the behavior of old nature? The old nature, that ain't going to happen. So the purpose is I need to learn to live by the new nature. I need to learn how to say, wait a minute, this is how ... and I have the power within me to do that because God has placed it there. I need to learn how to live out that life instead of the other one. I've got a real choice. That's why I said these things are choices, aren't they? And a lot of what we do in our life is not a matter ... it's not even a choice, it's

a habit. We simply act and react without even thinking about it and just think, oh well, that's the way it is. Well, that's what God came to change. That's what Christ came to change. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son that He ... The son might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And of course, we've talked about many times how God's building a family, but he wants you and me to be sons and daughters who learn how to live out the life he describes in here. Now how is he going to do that if we're just living out human nature by habit? Tell me how that happens. We don't think about it. We don't just get mad or we get, we pout, whatever we do, we don't rejoice. The only way he can do that is to put something in our path that provokes human nature. Now, yes, it could be a circumstance. It could be the difficulties we're talking about. He could put you in prison and we're sitting there wondering about that. Or it could be a situation or it could be a person. It could be an affliction or it could be something that's just happening in our minds, the oppression of the enemy. God is the one who sent all of those things into our lives with a loving purpose. Not to defeat us, not to discourage us, but to enable us to look to learn how to look to him, to learn how to be his child and to take hold of the life that he's given us. Why has he not given us everything that we need to fulfill this purpose? How could he predestine this to happen if he hadn't provided the means? Because I don't have it. It's got to be him. Thank God for the loving heavenly father that we have who has, knows everything from the beginning.

You know, he tells us to put up with one another. He puts up with you, doesn't he? And all of the things where we're not exactly like him, like pretty much everything. And yet he loves us and Jesus came and shed his blood so that we would have a hope beyond this world. And then we have a loving heavenly father who knows how to take us from point A to point B and use everything that happens in our lives to work in us. This has been the Midnight Cry broadcast. If you would like a DVD or CD of today's message in its entirety, please request it by program number. While it is not required, a donation of $10 for DVDs and $5 for CDs is suggested to help with expenses. Also for those who request it, we will send you our quarterly publication, the Midnight Cry Messenger, free and postage paid. Send your requests to Midnight Cry Ministries, Post Office Box 685, Southern Pines, North Carolina, 28388. We invite you to join us again next week at the same time, and may God richly bless you until then.