Yesterday I attended church at Central Baptist in Bryan, TX. It was my first time to attend services there. A friend of mine had invited me to go.
The church is a huge church. Services meet in a large auditorium with theater seats. The praise portion of the service was led by a full choir and band, with songs sung by the congregation and a few solos, including one done on a harp.
The message was taken from 2nd Timothy, 1:3 "I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day." The message was about how knowing if a trial is because of sin we committed or something God is allowing me to go through for another reason. An example of each type would be, am I going through something because I deserved it like Ananias and his wife because of sin, or because God is allowing me to go through it like Job.
Ananias and his wife’s story is recorded in Acts 5.
Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet. Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God." When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?" "Yes," she said, "that is the price." Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also." At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
This is certainly a strange story to us, but illustrates the point quite vividly that sin has consequences! It seems that Ananias may have been told by the Holy Spirit to give the money to the church, but decided with his wife to only give a portion. As a result of this, they both lost their lives.
Job’s story is recorded in the Old Testament book, Job. At the beginning of the story, God is telling the devil about how righteous Job is. The devil says that he can cause Job to curse God, so God allows the devil to tempt Job. All of Job’s possession are destroyed. His family is killed, and he is left alone. He sits in ash and sackcloth mourning, but does not accuse God of wrong doing. Job has three friends who come to visit him after these tragedies. Each friend takes a turn speaking to Job, trying to convince him that these tragedies had to occur because of something that he did. Job continues to say that he has lived how God has wanted him to live. At the end of the story, God speaks to Job and his friends, reminding them that He is God and they are not. He has sovereignty and rewards Job for his faithfulness by restoring his wealth two fold. Job’s friends are condemned and saved by the prayers and sacrifice of Job.
Both people went through trials, but both had different reasons for entering the trials.
The pastor started the message with a story of John the Baptist. John of course preached about Jesus, pointed him out when he was in the crowd as the lamb of God, called out the Pharisees, and baptized Christ. However, when he was in prison, he sent a message to Jesus asking if he was indeed the Christ. Christ responds to tell John what his followers have seen, and then continues to praise John before the crowd. The point was the show that when we go through trials, we need, and it is OK to ask, for assurance from God.
He said that the scripture verse showed 3 things we can look at to see what is the cause of our trial. Now at first glance, well, anytime I read the scripture until after the sermon, I didn't see these 3 points at all. But sure enough, they were there. Now 2nd Timothy is Paul's last letter. He is in prison in Rome for the 2nd time. As he writes in the letter, he is alone except for Luke. The pastor pointed out that Paul had a good relationship with the church in Rome, yet none of them seem to want, or are able, to come to him during his 2nd and final imprisonment. Shortly after the letter is sent, Paul is beheaded by the orders of Nero, emperor of Rome.
The first thing we can observe from the verse is from the portion that reads "I thank God whom I serve”. Paul uses the word charis for thanks, which means grace and that which affords joy. So Paul is saying he has grace in God, that he has joy in God, things are good between him and God. So the first thing we need to look at is our relationship with God. Is it OK? Are we having a good relationship with God? Are we spending time with Him? Is he a priority in our life?
2nd, "as did my ancestors." The pastor said we should ask if we are living a Christian life like those who have gone before us? Paul is saying that he is serving God the same way as Moses and Aaron, Abraham Isaac and Jacob, David and Solomon, served God. Now of course we are all unique and will serve in different ways, but will have similar characteristics. He mentioned as an example, when he was a young pastor, he looked at older pastors who had gone before and tried to model his walk after their walk. We can look to others that have gone before as an example of people who have successfully run the race. Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians 11:1 to “follow me as I follow the example of Christ.”
3rd, "with a clear conscience." Do we have a clear conscience? Is the Spirit telling us that there is something in our life that we need to change? The Holy Spirit is promised to all believers and serves to convict, teach, and encourage us. Often when we find ourselves in sin, even though we may try to rationalize it in our mind, the spirit will convict us.
If we can answer these things and say that our relationship with God is good, we are following in the footsteps of those who have gone before, and the Spirit is not convicting us of sin, then we can know that the trial is not caused by our sin. Job's friends told him that his trial was his fault. When he looked at his life, he knew he hadn't done anything to bring this upon himself and God responded that he hadn't and judgment was brought upon the friends for accusing Job of having brought the trial on his life.
And if we are right with God, we will overcome our trial. Either God will see us through the trial, or he will redeem us in the trial. Job was seen through his trial and his holdings were restored to twice as before. Stephen was redeemed through his trial. The pastor gave imagery of Stephen's death and Paul's death, saying they went from seeing the face of their oppressors in one instance, to the next seeing the face of Christ receiving them. Stephen was stoned because of his faith and testimony of God. In the audience, was a young man named Saul who gave his approval of the stoning. A man who would later see the risen Christ, who would later be known as Paul, and would himself be killed because of his faith and testimony of Christ.
Jesus promises that as we go through life, we will have trials because we follow him. We can know that these trials are not from our sin by looking at our life and listening to the Spirit. We can then take comfort in the knowledge that God will deliver.
No comments:
Post a Comment