Week 2 Sunday Sept.13th, 2015 Topic: The Labour that brings rest part 1. – Faith, hope and Love.

Week 2 Sunday Sept.13th, 2015

Topic: The Labour that brings rest part 1. – Faith, hope and Love.

1Cor.13:13 (The Amplified Bible)

“And so faith, hope, love abide [faith – conviction and belief respecting man’s relation to God and divine things; hope – joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love – true affection for God and man, growing out of God’s love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

From our text scripture here, whether or not we are laboring to enter into God’s rest shows in our lives in three qualities namely; our faith, our hope and our love life.

Faith and hope: Last month, we looked extensively at faith in relation to rest and refreshing. We saw what faith means and we also looked at some elements of faith and showed how faith can be a major player if we are going to enter into our rest and refreshing as intended by God. 

In Heb.11:1 we are told that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Also, in Gal.5:6, we are told that faith works by love. When we put these scriptures together with our text scripture today, it becomes clear that the labour required to enter the rest of God would happen as we walk in faith and demonstrate the hope of our eternal salvation and the love of God towards God and men. 

How does this work? First, we need to walk in faith; a lifestyle ordered by the word of God or Godly values. However, for faith to be truly the faith of God, it hinges on the hope of our eternal salvation as shown us in the text above. As long as we stay joyfully expectant of our eternal salvation, our faith would have a resting place. Then for our faith to truly work to the point of leaving behind us an eternal legacy, we must demonstrate the third quality of walking in love. 

Since we have seen the quality of faith for rest extensively last month, we shall just look at the connection between hope and faith and how to release faith today. 

Faith and hope as exemplified by Abraham

Heb.11:8, Rom.4:1, 17-24 - From our texts here, God called Abraham to go to a place He would show him even though he did not know the place, he went ahead and trusted God to fulfill His promise. 

He hoped to get there and he demonstrated faith by taking steps to get there by actually obeying God to go. If he merely believed God without taking any action, his faith would have been questionable and there is no way he would have entered the Promised Land. 

Lessons:

When we first hear a promise of God, our hope is stirred up; we receive the word with joy like the person in the parable of the sower who could not bear fruit to perfection in Luke 8:13-14. This group of people hears the word and receives it in the hope of getting the goodies promised. However, they are not willing to pay the price of getting to the end of the journey of fulfilment. These kinds of people are easy prey to persecution and they become victims to the cares of this life and over time; they would lose the patience required to get to the end of the journey that would bring them the rest of fruitfulness which is the end of the promise. In 2Cor.4:13-14, Apostle Paul refers to those who would follow through to the end as people having another spirit; not the regular one like others. In verse 13, we see that apostle Paul and his company believed and therefore spoke in accordance with what they believed. The reason for this is seen in their hope of eternal salvation as shown in verse 14. 

For example, in Numbers 13-14, the popular opinion demonstrated by the evil report of ten spies and the unpopular opinion demonstrated by the “another spirit” of Joshua and Caleb. All of them hoped to get to the Promised Land from the beginning but only two of them paid the price of faith to get there. This takes us to the next way faith and hope works.

Faith speaks what is hoped for with full persuasion that what is believed must come to pass. In the case of Abraham in Romans 4:17-24, he kept giving glory to God by consistently saying what he hoped to see in the end and the result was that he entered his promised land of the father of many nations. This was his rest and he is still there until today.

Faith keeps moving on even when the hope of what is expected seem to be shaken by circumstances. No one ever enters rest who allows contrary circumstances to deter them from the direction of God. This is why Abraham believed in hope against hope. See Romans 4:18. Even when his body spoke against his hope of bearing a son with his old barren wife, he refused to stagger at the promise of God. He never allowed unbelief to rob him of the fulfilment of God’s promise. 

Even when hope seems taken away, faith will keep you going until the fulfilment of God’s promise. See Acts 27:20-25; in this account, all the people in the imminent shipwreck had lost hope until Paul received a word from the Lord that none of them would be lost in the shipwreck. This goes to tell you that faith keeps working even when all hope is lost. Therefore even though faith and hope work together, faith is stronger than hope because even when hope is taken away, faith can still help you take the journey to the end.  

Finally, whereas hope is the trigger for faith to start to grow, faith is what sustains hope even if hope is lost. The loss of hope would not necessarily result in the loss of the promised fulfilment as long as one maintains their faith in God’s word and act accordingly until the end. When you maintain your faith in God’s word, you are indeed operating in the rest of God because the means by which we enter our rest is mixing the word of God with faith or commensurate action based on the promise. See Heb.4:1-3, Rom.4:1-25.

MESSAGES FOR SEPTEMBER, 2015 Week 1 Sunday Sept.6th, 2015 Topic: What Rest is and why we need to enter rest

Theme: Understanding How to Labour To Enter Divine Rest – Matthew 11:28-30, Heb.4:9-11

Week 1 Sunday Sept.6th, 2015

Topic: What Rest is and why we need to enter rest

Text: Matthew 11:28-30, Heb.4:1-11.

Introduction: From our text scriptures above, we can easily glean what rest is from the mouth of the Lord and from the Letter to the Hebrew Church. Here we see the Lord making an open invitation to all who are weighed down and burdened to come to him to find rest and He also went on to provide the way they can find rest as learning of Him. However, our text in Hebrews makes us understand that much as we are invited to rest, not all who actually receive the invitation to rest get to the place of rest because of the major hindrance of unbelief. So while rest is assured by the Lord, there is a monster called unbelief that could stop those who allow it from entering into their rest. Last month, we took the time to look at faith and how it can help us get to our place of rest and refreshing. This month however, we shall be looking at how we can actually enter into rest in spite of our enemy – unbelief. First we must establish from scripture what the Lord means by rest and see some examples of people in the bible who entered into rest and check our lives to know in what areas we have also entered the rest of God.

First, Rest is preceded by a promise of God. The entire bible is a promise of God to people that if they would live in a certain way, He would commit to bring to pass all His intentions for them. See 2Tim.3:16-17, Ps.119:105, Joshua 1:8, Ps.1:1-3, Matthew 7:24-27.

Second, when we hear and receive the word of God, we prove our reception of the word by first doing what the word says. The first thing the word of God commands us to do is repent and become a part of the body of Christ. When we do this, we become saved and the journey into God’s promised land of all the good things of life and eventually an eternal abode with God commences. Acts2:26, 38-39; John 3:16-18.   

The good things of life are spiritual, soulish and physical. This is why in 3John 2, we are told that we are wished above all things prosperity and health even as our souls prosper. This sums up the good things of life. Man is spirit, soul and body; prosperity is required for all areas of life. See 1Thess.5:23. 

Thirdly, on the journey of life to our promised land of blessing with total wholeness; nothing broken and nothing missing, the first thing we must enjoy is spiritual prosperity. When we find rest here, rest in every other area of our lives is guaranteed. In John 17:3, we learn that we are actually experiencing eternal life when we know Jesus Christ and the father in our personal experience. It is impossible to know Him if you don’t hear His voice. Thus if you are really his sheep, you must pay the price to hear his voice through learning. Remember, He says “learn of me…” see Mt.11:29, John10:27, Rm.8:14, 16.

Fourthly, whatever you hear from God by His Holy Spirit and His written word is what you will be tested on to know if you qualify for the promised land of blessing or not. See Heb.4:1-3, Matthew 7:24-27. You qualify when you hold on to what God says till it comes to pass for you [Heb.10:23, 36-39]. Those who failed this test were those who did not mix the word with faith [Heb.4:1-3]. The way we mix the word with faith is by doing what the word says.  

Some examples of those who entered rest in the bible include Abraham and Sarah who were promised children and received the promise of a son after 25 years and then had to die not having received the promise of becoming parents to many nations. However, that promise is actualized today several hundreds of years later. This is because the promises of God are usually transgenerational. We must therefore raise our children to follow in our steps to continue to walk with God. Another example is Joseph who had to go through the process of slavery to obtain the promise and He did enter rest by first walking in the word of God and later rising from the prison to the palace overnight. 

When John the Baptist was born, it was said concerning him by prophecy that He would be the forerunner of the most high. The process to get there made a hermit of him and the day He baptized the Lord, he entered the Promised Land. See Luk.1:76-77, Matthew 3:11-17.

Why do we need rest?

Rest is like giving birth to a baby that is conceived. If a pregnant woman does not give birth to the baby for instance, she cannot be relieved of the weight and could even be killed from the abnormality. This is why many of the children of Israel died in the wilderness as they could not deliver their promise because of unbelief. The place of rest is the place of fulfilment, rewards, comfort and refreshing. When God finished making the world, He rested on the 7th day and was refreshed. See Ex.31:17.

You cannot keep fighting battles without victory. Therefore rest is the place of victory. As we learn of the Lord on a daily basis, everything will eventually culminate in victory for us. See Rev.2-3. 

Conclusion: What has God promised you? Whatever you are going through now is the process by which you will get there; so don’t give up, keep trusting in the Lord; it will come to pass. 

Message for Sunday the 30th August, 2015. Topic: Enemies of rest and refreshing

Introduction: God’s will is for us to actually enter into His rest and be refreshed at the same time. This is why we are told in Isa.28:9-12 among other things that this is what God would want us to have but that the people could not because of some of the enemies of rest we are going to be looking at today. Let us also understand that this list is not exhaustive. In our individual lives, the best thing we can do for ourselves is to identify specific causes of unrest within us which will of necessity rob us of our refreshing and deal with them with the help of the Holy Spirit and the word of God. The following are some obvious enemies that if we allow in our lives would rob us of our desired rest and refreshing. 

Fear: This is the opposite of faith. Just as God requires faith to work in our lives, the devil requires fear to work in our lives. We are therefore the ones who would cast the vote as to who wins in our lives. If we embrace faith, then God can move in and give us victory. See 1John 5:4 and Heb.11:6; 1-2. Also, in several incidents when people came to Jesus for miracles, they were said to receive their miracles according to their faith. Two classical examples in the gospels are the stories of the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5 and the Centurion who came to intercede for his servant in Matthew 8. 

On the other hand, fear empowers the devil to abort the plan of God from materializing in a person’s life if that is what they choose to embrace. This truth was demonstrated by the failure of the Children of Israel to enter the Promised Land. In most of their journeys before they incurred the curse of God that stood them still for forty years, they complained in fear every time they faced any kind of adversity. Their chief fear was fear of death and the death of their children. You will find their account in the book of exodus 14. They kept asking Moses if there were no graves in Egypt that he brought them to die in the wilderness. After a while, God got fed up with them and allowed them to get what they feared because fear usually attracts to its victim what is feared. 

Doubt and unbelief: Doubting the word that God speaks to us is a very big problem because it is synonymous with calling God who cannot tell lies a liar [Titus1:2]. The word of God tells us that God’s word is truth [John 17:17]. This is what prompted Apostle Paul to say in Romans 3:4 that let God be true and every man a liar. The consequences of embracing doubt and unbelief as far as life generally is concerned are devastating. In the case of the children of Israel, they were robbed of their promise to enter the promised land. In the book of 2Kings.7:1-2 & 16-20, we see how a man was trampled to death for expressing doubt and unbelief when Elisha spoke a promise of God to the king of his time. In 1Cor.10:5-6, Paul admonishes us not to walk after the same example of unbelief that the children of Israel walked in and were cut off as a result. Also, in Hebrews 4:1-4, we are told that God’s promise does not profit those who do not mix it with faith. So fight doubt and unbelief with constantly tuning your heart to the word of God so you can stay in faith [Rm.10:17, Jn.6:63; 10:27]. 

Wrong speaking, murmuring and complaining: In Numbers 13-14, we see the Incidence where the children of Israel by a majority vote lost their place as the majority opinion does not necessarily equate what is right. In fact, in that story, God referred to the minority opinion of Joshua and Caleb as demonstrating another spirit. As a result of their heroic stance, they made it to the Promised Land and were also recognized in the New Testament in God’s hall of faith fame in Hebrews 11. Apostle Paul saw them as the best example of faith to follow when he said in 2Cor.4:13 that they also had the same spirit of faith that enables them to believe and declare. When you are in unbelief (usually caused by fear), the first place it manifests is your language and it is usually laced with murmuring and complaining. This can result in self-destruction [Num.21:4-6; 1Cor.10:9-10]. Every time we are faced with discouragement, the best thing we can do to help ourselves is to go back to the last thing we heard from God and all the other things He has promised us and also recall how some of them have come to pass and trust Him. Never give in to discouragement because if you do, you will say things that could tempt Christ and that would be very devastating. The story in Numbers 21 illustrates how we could tempt the Lord. 

Sin: Sin simply means disobedience to God’s word. This is by far the root of all our challenges in the faith. Sin brought about the fall of man in the first place and after we are restored to God, the old sin nature is always working against us to bring us back to captivity. If it does succeed, it will reflect in unbelief and doubt. Sin happens when we stop listening to God and start listening to the devil. See Gen.3 where Eve got distracted by the voice of the devil. It does not matter who the devil speaks through, you should always be able to tell the voice of God different from that of the devil and ensure you follow God’s voice. We are without excuse because Jesus said in John 10:27 that His sheep hear His voice and that they would not follow the voice of the stranger. So if you sin, it is because you made the choice. Every believer in Christ is truly free to choose. See Deu.30:19, Jos.24:15, Rom.10:6-11.

Wrong association: This is one of the worst enemies of rest and refreshing. In fact the bible reveals the secret of success to us through the Psalmist in Ps.1 where He points out that anyone who associates with the ungodly and people who scorn the word of God are doomed to fail. Prov.13:20 puts it more strongly when it discloses to us that a companion of fools shall be destroyed. This is why getting married to a fool is a big deal because it is a sure way to doom one’s self to destruction. A fool is one who denies God and His word. See Ps.14:1 and Matthew 7:24-27. Foolishness is mostly seen in the actions we take based on a wrong belief system; a system that kicks against God’s word.

Evil Reports: Every report you receive that conflict with God’s word is an evil report. An evil report only becomes evil in your life when you act on it because you believe it otherwise; it is merely an evil report. So an evil report need not become your report. For instance, if the Doctor tells you that you are going to die before your time because of a sickness; that is an evil report. The solution to this is to seek God for His good report and use it to change the death sentence to life. Remember, we can choose life. See Deu.30:19. The result of believing an evil report is that you will give it voice and when you do, God would be committed to bring what you say to pass [Num.14:28, Mk.11:23]. So seek what God says and give it your voice and that is what you will have.