Overcoming the Hurdles // Following Jesus with Confidence, Part 4

Have you ever lost your way in life? Not in some major way. You’re just chugging along through life and then somehow you get the feeling that maybe, just maybe, you’re not where you’re meant to be. Things just don’t make sense the way they used to.

1. The Fog of War

If you’ve ever had that nagging suspicion that things aren’t quite right in your life, then you're not alone. It’s something that we all experience from time to time. We don’t think about it, but in a very real sense, for most of us, life follows a pretty familiar, well–worn trail.

We’re born, we go to school, we become adults, we marry, we have children, they go to school, they grow up … and eventually we die. I know that’s an over–simplification. And I know that a good many people don’t follow every step of that path … and I know there are many twists and turns and variations on that theme, but for most of us, that pretty much describes it.

And along the way we go through times of great joy, times of great sadness and long periods of the mundane same old, same old. Our emotions go up and down. Our fortunes go up and down. But we’re born, we bring children into the world, we die. That’s the basic template on which the human race relies.

So you’re following along that path and at some stage, perhaps, you encounter Jesus and you decide to walk the rest of the journey with Him – where He leads, according to His plans and purposes for your life.

Some people find that notion pretty depressing. I used to, to tell you the truth. But these days it is singularly the most liberating thing about my life. To be able to live out the plans and purposes for my life, that God Himself dreamed up before time began – I have to tell you, it’s just unreal.

But I, like the next person, sometimes get into those patches in life when I wonder – Am I in the right place? Am I doing what I was made to do? And is all the stuff going on around me making sense.

I wonder … where are you at right now? In an up … in a down … in one of those long periods of the boring mundaneness of life? Same day after day. Are you in a place of contentment, knowing you’re on the right path … or are you kind of wondering where it’s all headed?

In the army – I spent 10 years as a military officer – when we were training for war, they taught us about the concept, the idea of what’s called “the fog of war”. It’s this idea that when you’re fighting the battle, you’re enveloped in a kind of fog. Part of that fog is that you don’t have all the information you need about your enemy – how strong he is, how many troops and tanks he has, how well trained, what his morale is like, what his plans are, what his tactics are.

Part of it is that your enemy deliberately tries to feed you misinformation to deceive you. Part of it is that you’re tired, exhausted often, afraid, your morale is down. Your troops – their morale is up and down. And then when the bullets start flying and the artillery shells start exploding around you – it’s like you’re in a fog, a stupor and making really good, well informed, rational decisions is extremely difficult.

That’s what this idea – the fog of war – is all about.

In a very real sense, we sometimes operate in a bit of a fog too. Our emotions are playing havoc. People are having a go and we don’t understand their motives and intentions. We don’t know if we can trust them.

And God – what about Him? What exactly are His plans? Am I in the right place? Am I doing the things I was meant to be doing? Have I perhaps taken a wrong turn?

And it’s in this fog that we can start questioning His faithfulness. It’s in this fog that we start second guessing God and ourselves. We’d like to think we have it all together. We’d like to think we know where life’s headed, but all too often, we either haven’t got a clue, or we though we did, but … we’re really not that sure any more.

I was having coffee with a man who works for a large corporation – who thought he knew what his life was about, but his health was failing him and deep down he had a sneaking suspicion that God had a different plan – he just didn’t know what that plan was.

Do you relate to some of that? There seems to be a gap between your present circumstances and what you think the future might be about.

We’re in the middle of a series called “Following Jesus with Confidence” – and the reason we’re talking about this stuff today, is that when we’re enveloped in this fog – it’s hard to be confident. The thing about this fog is that it limits your field of vision – so it’s easy, really easy – to take a wrong step.

But I believe that God wants us to have confidence in Him, even when we’re in the middle of this fog of war as I’ve called it. In fact, especially then. When you think about it, it’s when things are unclear that we really need God, because His field of vision is never, ever limited by anything.

The first thing we need to know when we’re wandering through life in a bit of a fog, is that God is faithful. He’s not angry, He’s not disappointed with us – He’s like a loving father, keen to see His child learn, and keen to help His child through the fog. His love, in that fog, His faithfulness in that fog, is rock solid. King David had more enemies than most of us. He went through many trials in his life, and so many of the Psalms he wrote, he’s pouring his heart out to God in the midst of the fog of war. Psalm 86:1–7

Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God; be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all day long. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my cry of supplication. In the day of my trouble I call on you, for you will answer me

And towards the end of that Psalm, based on his past experiences, David concludes this – Psalm 86:14–17:

O God, the insolent rise up against me; a band of ruffians seeks my life, and they do not set you before them. But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant; show me a sign of your favour, so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame, because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

I know there are people today going through one of those times in your life when it’s hard to follow Jesus with any confidence. And I know there are people today for whom such a time is just around the corner.

Your God is merciful and gracious, He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. That’s just who He is – so if you know that you’ve turned your back on Him, turn back now, tell Him you’re sorry, ask Him to forgive you in Jesus’ name – and it’s a done deal. You’re forgiven. You stand before Him as clean and as pure as Jesus Himself.

Because that’s why Jesus died for you. That’s why Jesus did what He did – to give you a fresh start with the slate wiped clean. And now as you draw close to Him, you can take each step with Him being completely sure that when you need to turn to the left or to the right, He’ll let you know. When you need to stop and wait a while or move a bit more quickly – He’ll let you know. That’s the deal. That’s His promise.

I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father (John 15:15)

My friend wherever you find yourself along your journey right now, the answer … the answer is Jesus.

2. A Slave Mentality

The greatest tragedy I see in people’s lives is that they’ve become slaves to their circumstances, their passions, the ways of this world – slaves to a whole bunch of things that promised so much, and yet have left their lives empty and hollow – bereft of meaning and purpose.

You and I go through many trials in life. Things tear at our flesh and our emotions. But when you stop and think about it, we were made to be at peace. We were made to experience perfect peace and satisfaction and contentment.

How do I know that? Because when I look back to see how God created us from the beginning, that’s exactly what I see. Adam and Eve were in that beautiful garden, living the perfect life – until they turned their backs on God. Genesis Chapter 2 gives us the most beautiful picture of the perfect life that God has planned for us.

But of course humanity – you and me included – turned our backs on God, and so sickness and trial and temptation and the consequences of rebelling against God all entered this world.

That’s why we have to suffer, as Shakespeare called it, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes. That’s why things happen to us that we would never choose for ourselves. That’s why we end up doing things to other people, that really, we wish we hadn’t. And that’s why we’re so powerless to save ourselves from continuing in a life that falls so far short of that beautiful, perfect ideal that God has planned for us.

So people – you and me included – carry all this baggage around through life, baggage that gets heavier and heavier as the years pass, and whether we realise it or not, we become slaves to that sin. We may not call it that, but all that weight on our shoulders becomes the norm. It drains the life out of us.

And so we live as though it is the norm. We live as though slavery to sin and all its consequences is a normal state – well I’m here to tell you today to wake up – because it’s not normal. It’s anything but normal. It may be common, but it’s not normal. Yet all too many are slaves without even realising it. Have a listen to this discussion that Jesus had with some Jews – God’s chosen people as they were – John 8:31–36:

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?""

Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Do you see – they didn’t realise they were salves. They saw themselves as God’s chosen people – not as slaves. Slaves were those people they had at home – gentiles for the most part – who served them. They were free.

But Jesus – as He has a habit of doing – goes straight to the heart of the reality. Whoever commits sin, is a slave to sin.

And here’s the thing – if we’re living in some sin that we’re holding out on in our relationship with God – that slavery has terrible consequences. You can never have a deep, wonderful, intimate relationship with God. You can’t live your life in confidence in Jesus – because every moment of every day the guilt that your conscience is so sensitive to, robs you of that ability.

Think about it – a man is cheating on his wife. Can he truly have a deep, wonderful, intimate, perfect relationship with his wife – while he’s cheating on her behind her back? He can pretend. He can deceive his wife – although eventually, she’ll realise – but deep in his heart, he cannot know the bliss of an intimate exclusive relationship with his wife, because his conscience condemns him. God gave us a conscience for good reason. He gave us a sense of touch so that when we touch something hot, it’ll hurt and we’ll pull away before we really injure ourselves badly. Your conscience and mine serve exactly the same purpose.

When we stubbornly refuse to yield one particular area of our lives to Him – our conscience robs us of the peace and the joy we’re meant to be living in. And the purpose of that is to get us to turn away from that thing before it seriously hurts us.

I have met people who’ve been seeking the sort of relationship with Jesus that we’ve been talking about in this series. The sort where no matter what comes their way, gives them that quiet confidence in Him, confidence in Jesus.

And yet they continue on as slaves to sin – living with a slave mentality that will always, in 100% of cases, rob them of the very thing they are looking for. Let me ask you kindly but plainly today – are you one of those people?

Because if you are, if you’re yearning for that confidence and peace and joy in Christ Jesus, but your sin has been robbing you of it, then I have the answer for you today. It comes directly from God’s Word – Romans 6:1–14 and this Word from Him is the power to set you free; to utterly transform your life.

What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

My friend, Jesus came to set you free. If you’ve put your trust in Him, then two things have happened. Firstly you have died to your sin – it no longer has power over you because Jesus quashed it on that Cross. That’s a historical, judicial fact.

And secondly, because He rose again from the dead, He has brought you the power to be free from sin. Do you believe in Jesus? Then you have the power to overcome your sin – a power that none of us has in and of ourselves – it’s a gift from God this power. It’s His power. It’s the only power that there is, that will set you free.

You are free. And so now … now you can choose not to let sin have dominion over your body. It’ll be a battle by battle struggle, but it’s a war that you’ve already won.

And my friend as you yield yourself completely to Jesus you will – I guarantee this –you will be filled with peace, with joy and with confidence in Him. How do I know? Because that’s just how it works. If you don’t believe me, give it a spin. Really.