Let’s Just Listen to God for a Minute // Your Road to a Stunning Life, Part 4

Would you like to live the stunning life that God has planned for you? Well, it’s not going to happen by listening to what the world has to say and chasing after worldly baubles and trinkets. It’s only going to happen by listening to what God has to say.

FORGIVE AND FORGET

So, when was the last time someone hurt you? Come on, think back. For probably the majority of us, we don’t have to go back even twenty-four hours. A harsh word, being left out, being ignored, being passed over, being misunderstood.

It doesn’t take all that much to get hurt. And they’re just the small things. Then there are the big things like the unfaithfulness of a spouse, physical and emotional abuse, theft and violence. There are plenty of people listening to this message today who have some of those in their lives. In fact, there are more people listening to this message around the world today, who are living in poverty or without basic housing or clean water or sanitation and safety, than there are those listening in the comfortable affluent west.

So, back to you, back to the people who have hurt you in your life – can I ask you, how easy do you find it to forgive them? Is it something that comes naturally, or do you struggle to forgive? Well the answer for most of us is that forgiveness is one of the most unnatural acts of all.

Because when someone wrongs you, that innate sense of justice that you have built into you, because you’ve been created in the image of God – who is, after all, the God of justice, your God. Given that sense of justice, well, what it demands in you, is that things be put right, correct?

When you are wronged, things should be righted. When someone causes you to suffer a loss, then justice demands that they should recompense you. That’s why people sue each other.

But forgiveness is the exact opposite in a sense. Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you, when you’ve hurt me. Forgiveness is me giving up the recompense that justice demands that I should have. And for God, forgiveness is rather a big deal.

Jesus once said this, Mark 11:25:

Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.

So us forgiving others, as it turns out according to Jesus, is a precursor to God forgiving us. Have you ever wondered: how is it that this God of justice, is so focussed on forgiveness? How is it that justice and forgiveness can live side by side in the one person? Isn’t there a conflict between the two?

Well, the answer is yes, there is a conflict between these two, justice and forgiveness, they are opposed to one another.

Imagine if you will, the murderer who is found guilty by a court and it comes time for the judge to sentence him. Imagine if the judge said, "Look, young man, I know that you’re guilty of this terrible crime, but I have decided to forgive you today. You can go free."

It’s inconceivable, isn’t it? We as a community would be completely outraged if something like that transpired in a court of the land, because we demand that justice should be done; that the person should be punished for their crime.

But God’s call on our lives is to forgive one another. Ephesians 4:32:

… be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

The problem with unforgiveness, other than the fact that it offends God, is that it continues to hurt us. Let’s say that someone hurts you and you decide not to forgive them. What happens then, is that you keep living through the hurt over and over again. You keep planning on how to get revenge.

You see, when we fail to forgive, the hurt just keeps on hurting. It’s like giving that person who hurt us, rent-free space in our hearts and in our minds, so that they can keep causing us pain. And when you look at it that way, it just doesn’t make sense. Sure, our sense of justice always says, hang on, I deserve justice, justice has to be done.

But common sense, says, let it go. Forgive them, without any expectation that the person who hurt you will apologise, or mend their ways or ask for your forgiveness. Because when we let it go, we end up free from the hurt. When we forgive and choose to forget, the pain starts to dissipate.

You’ve seen this and you’ve probably even done it yourself – when you fail to forgive someone and you just keep on throwing it back in their face over and over again. Is that good for you? Is that good for them? Does it change them in any way? Is it good for your relationship with that person or with God?

Marlene Dietrich once said this: Once a woman has forgiven her man, she should not reheat his sins for breakfast. It’s not bad is it? And how true. And it’s just not about women forgiving men; it’s about men forgiving women and other men.

Listen, this conflict between justice and forgiveness is nothing new. God is the God of justice, absolute justice. Nothing sways Him; He is completely impartial. And yet He is also the God of love, in fact the Bible tells us that God is love.

So what does this God of justice do with His love? What does this God of justice do when He comes across you and me who’ve sinned against Him, who’ve offended Him, and we deserve punishment?

Come on, the Bible says we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It’s true about me, it’s true about you we just know it. We’ve all turned our backs on Him in thought, word and deed at some point in our lives and probably the last time is not that long ago.

We deserve His wrath and His punishment; and yet He loves us so much. How does He satisfy His absolute sense of justice and love when it comes to you and me? John 3:16, 17:

God so loved the world, God so loved you, that he gave his only begotten Son, so that when you believe in him you won’t perish but you’ll have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world or to condemn you or me, but in order that the world might be saved, in order that you would be saved.

Forgiveness is the supreme act of love. It always, always costs us something, but it’s always, always worth it in the end. Because it sets us free from the hurt, and free to get on with our lives.

TAKING GOD AT HIS WORD

I want to share a story with you today. It’s something that really opened my eyes to the power of God’s Word and how easy it is to dismiss that power that God means to give to you and to me.

There I was, I’d just become a member of a new church and after a few months, we joined one of the small home groups of the church. Each week, on a Wednesday night, we’d head over to the leader’s place, about eight or ten of us, and we’d have a time of fellowship, a time of studying God’s Word, and a time of talking about what we’d learned.

It was a great way to get connected with people, and to learn a bit more about what God had to say to us.

It’s week two or perhaps week three of attending this small home group and we’re studying Philippians chapter 4, in particular this verse, verses 4 to 6, Paul writes:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone for the Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

Now, we read this passage and then a discussion ensues about worry. We all have some worry in our lives, and what God is saying here through the Apostle Paul is that we should never worry about anything.

Well, the discussion went back and forth and to and fro. People shared some of their worries in their lives and some stories of what was going on. All good, all understandable. And then, in summing up the discussion as we came to the end of it, the home group leader said something along these lines:

Well, yes, that was a good discussion. But I guess we all have worries in our lives and we just need to learn to live with them.

He was about to move on, and at this point, I just couldn’t help myself. Out of my mouth came a rather loud, a rather emphatic and insistent:

NO!!

Well at that point, I’m pretty sure my wife Jacqui was hoping the floor would open up and swallow us both up. She was embarrassed. There was dead silence in the room and everyone was starting at me, waiting, I guess, for an explanation of my outburst. So this is what I said, something along these lines:

Guys, what this passage actually says to us is quite simply this: we’re not meant to worry about anything! Nothing!! And in fact, if instead of worrying, we take the time that we would have spent worrying and we spend that time instead in praying, with thankfulness in our hearts and letting God know what’s going on – then what God is promising us here (if we’ll actually do that) is that instead of worry in our hearts, it’ll be replaced with a peace that is completely beyond our understanding, as God actually guards our hearts and our minds through Christ. Do you believe that’s true for you or not? Do you believe that that is going to work if you do it or not? Do you believe through this scripture that God is speaking to you or not?

See here were these Bible-believing, Jesus-loving, faithful, kind, gentle Christian people, reading God’s Word – what God is saying to us today, and yet, they couldn’t accept this truth into their hearts for them. They weren’t prepared to take God at His Word. They weren’t even prepared to give it a go, vaguely kind of expecting it to work.

Now, that might seem a little bit harsh. Maybe it was more that no one had ever taught them to take God at His Word. Maybe no one had ever taught them to expect God to make a powerful difference in their lives through what He says in His Word.

And you see this isn’t unique, this is not an isolated case. The Kingdom of God is full of people who don’t take God at His Word, because they’re not expecting God to do mighty things in their lives.

Now, of course, it’s easy to take a Scripture out of context and make a doctrine out of it. That’s why there are so many people preaching the God-will-make-you-rich-and-comfortable kind of Gospel. That’s not, I hope you realise, what I am talking about because it’s a distortion of the truth.

But what I am talking about is taking the powerful, often counter–intuitive things that God says in His Word and believing them with our lives. And by that I mean, acting on them. Stepping out, prepared to fall flat on your face if God isn’t true to His Word, but stepping out anyway, expecting God to honour what He says.

I mean, I’m talking about this in real practical areas of need and in living out your faith through your life. Have you ever worried about your finances, let’s say? Well, listen to what Jesus says on that front. Matthew 6:25-33; He says:

Look, I’m telling you, do not worry about your life or what you’re going to eat or what you’re going to drink, or about your body or what you are going to wear. Isn’t your life more than food, and your body more than clothing? … For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows all the things that you need. So strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will be given to you as well, or added to you.

Living out your faith means stepping out on the basis that God means what He says, and He’ll do what He says, and that He’ll show up when He says He’ll show up.

Living out your faith means being prepared to abandon the so-called wisdom of this world, and instead trust in God’s wisdom, in God’s truth, in God’s promises even when, especially when, there is no concrete evidence to support making that decision … other than the Word of God.

So many Christians want to live a safe and cautious life. But that’s never the life that Jesus called us to live. He called us to live a dangerous life; a risky life; a life where we take Him at His Word as being the God who is faithful beyond measure and beyond anything that we can possibly comprehend.

The only time we really experience the faithfulness of God in a powerful way, is when we’re between a rock and a hard place, and instead of playing things safe, or instead of going the world’s way, we decide to take God at His Word. We decide to step out and experience for ourselves the incredible faithfulness of God.

DON’T EXPECT THE WORLD

I don’t know about you, but I’m one of these people that loves to live life to the full. I want each and every day to be something special; and most mornings when I wake up, I have this sense of opportunity and anticipation of what the day is going to bring.

Not every morning of course. Some mornings I’m tired, especially if I’ve been travelling, and speaking til late in the evening and then I have to stump up the next day and do it all again. Some mornings it’s hard to face the next day, isn’t it?

But by and large, to me, each new day is a new opportunity. That’s exactly what the Bible teaches us. Psalm 118:24 says this:

This is the day the Lord has made, let’s rejoice in it and be glad in it.

That doesn’t mean that everything is always going to be going swimmingly well in our lives. It just means that whatever is going on, whatever our circumstances are, there’s something to look forward to today, this very day, because it is the day that the Lord has made and He has a plan for your life today.

I can say that, in fact, I know that, because again, that’s what the Bible tells us and the Bible is, after all, God’s very Word, His living Word to you and me. The Bible is God speaking directly and unequivocally to you and me today.

This is what the Lord has to say about your day today. Psalm 139:16, 17:

In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them.

So, the Lord your God knows what your today holds. He planned it an eternity ago. And it’s a good plan. It’s a plan made by this God who loves you beyond measure. But the problem is that God’s plans and our expectations are often misaligned, they just don’t match up.

So, let me ask you, what are your expectations of today and tomorrow? What are you hoping that they’ll hold? What do you want them to bring to your life?

Well, often our expectations revolve around what we think is going to be good for us. In fact "often" is something of an understatement, isn’t it? We always expect and anticipate that things should be fantastic … for me, right?

You see, our expectation generally revolves around success. Success in relationships, success at work, success in our finances and in our health and in pretty much every sphere of our lives.

We want to be healthy, wealthy and wise. Just perfect! We’d like everybody to love us and to always agree with us. We’d like lots of money in the bank so that we don’t have any financial worries. We want our marriages and our families to be perfect.

And, oh, by the way, a nice, sunny, warm day would be just perfect to top it all off Lord. Yep, that’s what I’d like today to be. And tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day and pretty much, Lord, for the rest of my life. Can you make it like that?

And Lord, I’d like to live to a ripe old age as well. Forever would be good. Nice and comfortable and safe and happy and content without any stresses or strains or arguments or ill-health to ruin my day.

That’s pretty much it isn’t it? That’s what we, by and large, expect out of life. In fact, our hopes and expectations revolve around the things of this world. We’re expecting the world of God.

But have a listen to what Jesus says about you and me, in His final prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before He goes off and gets Himself crucified for you and for me. John 17:11, 15-17:

And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world (that’s us), they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as you and I are one … I am not asking that you should take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is the truth. As you have sent me into this world, so I have sent them into the world.

So according to Jesus, we don’t belong to the world and the world doesn’t belong to us. His prayer to His father for you and me, just before He gets crucified for us, is that God should protect us and keep us safe in the truth. Protect us from what?

Protect us from the enemy, protect us from the world, because when we believe in Jesus, believe you me, the world isn’t going to like that. It’ll try to seduce you, discredit you, and stomp on you, aided and abetted by Satan and his army of demons.

Is that what you’re expecting, today, tomorrow, the next day and for the rest of your life? Because that’s exactly what Jesus promises will happen. John 16:33:

I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will face tribulation. But take courage; be of good cheer; for I have overcome the world.

What we should be expecting, what we should be hoping for is that the Father will answer Jesus’ prayer for us in our lives. What we should be hoping for is that the victory that Jesus won for us will bring courage to our hearts. And what we should be hoping for, and looking forward to and expecting is the prize that comes at the end of all of this. Philippians 1:22, 23 Paul says:

For me, living is Christ but dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me; but I do not know which one I prefer. You see, I am really hard pressed between the two: my real desire is to depart and to be with Jesus, because that is much better; but to remain here in the flesh is probably more necessary for you.

Paul is torn! What are you hoping for? The world? Or are you hoping for Christ? Are you expecting the world of God, and all the baubles and trinkets that it offers but will one day perish? Or are you hoping in this certainty of life everlasting with Jesus, forever and ever and ever, amen?

Which one? God’s plans are God’s plans. He is not going to change them for you and for me. So we can either hope for the world and struggle for the rest of our lives against God, or hope in Him and live out His plans. The question is… which one is it going to be?

What is it that makes us expect life to give us this fairy-floss dream that we know is completely and utterly unrealistic and then we get all disappointed when it doesn’t work out that way. Which it never was to start with, right?

God’s promise is not that He’s going to take away all the pain and suffering. In fact, when you listen to Jesus, it’s exactly the opposite. His promise though is, that in the midst of the pain, in the midst of the suffering, in the midst of the loss and the tears, we will know His unspeakable joy; His peace which passes all understanding, the certain, rock solid hope of an eternity with Jesus.

His promise is that with our eyes firmly set on the Author and the Perfector of our faith, we will be transformed from glory to glory into His image. The power of sin being washed away and the freedom that only comes from Christ, becoming the most abundant reality in our lives.

Come on! Is that a stunning life or what? But we can’t grab hold of that stunning life, we can’t live that life, when we’re always chasing after the trinkets that that the world dangles under our noses.

Perception is reality, and for many a Christ-follower, their wrong expectations are what is robbing them of this absolutely stunning life that God wants them to live.

Stunning on the one hand and sacrifice and suffering on the other, don’t seem to go together do they? They seem to diametrically opposed. Until you look at the Cross of Christ … the most stunning life and sacrifice of all time. That’s the life that He has for you. A stunning life.

So, will you take up your Cross and follow Him? Will you?