Navigating through The Obstacles of Life - Part 2

Transcript

Hello everyone, thanks for joining with me on another Helping You Become podcast.
I pray it's a blessing to you. Please turn in your bibles to John chapter 16 and
as you do that I'm just going to pause for a moment and pray for us. Father God
we thank you for your word Lord, we thank you for your goodness, grace, mercy and
kindness. And Lord as we gather round your word today Holy Spirit we just ask that
you lead us and guide us into the truth of your word Lord and give us please
revelation knowledge give us please actionable intelligence something that we can take
and apply to our life put it into practice and Lord see the divine results flow
from it and Lord we ask these things and we thank you for these things in Jesus
name now last week I started in on a new series that I've entitled "Navigating
through the obstacles of life. And I shared about the what I call the grime of
life, the grime of life, those things that attack our intimacy with the Lord,
those things that just come into our mind, those bits of strife, the bits of
trouble and problems and things that just attack our lives and upset our intimacy
and our relationship with God. But then I also spoke about last week regarding what
I call the quagmire of life. Those things that are out there in the world and
remember out in the world on the table of life, I believe there's a huge amount of
human cost. The human cost that's going on is just enormous. And I think it's only
going to get greater over the next 20 years. That period of time we'll look back
on in history from 2020 to 2040, I think is going to be a critical time in the
history of mankind. But Jesus had some fascinating things to say, because remember in
his time, in his day, he had also seen, or the world had also seen wars and
famines and plagues and pandemics and all of the things that are going on that we
see today, they'd seen financial crises, they'd seen empires come and go. But Jesus
had some fascinating things to say because the disciples were just about to head
into an interesting era. Their hero, their mentor, their friend was just about to be
executed in a terrible way. And just before that happened, Jesus says to them,
in verse 32, "Behold, Behold, the hour has come, yea, is now come, that you should
be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone, and yet I am not
alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken to you,
that in me you might have peace. They were just about to enter a terrible period
of time. Jesus removed from them what happens now. Peter went back fishing, you
know, But he says, "In me you shall have peace. In the world you will have
tribulation. In me you'll have peace, but in the world you'll have tribulation." Hey,
which one are you going to pick? "In the world you shall have tribulation, but be
of good cheer. I have overcome the world." And I started to say in last week about
when Jesus came to the earth, he came and he addressed things, the grime of life,
his own problems and his own battles with the flesh. When the devil had been
fasting for 40 days and the devil took him to a separate place and said, "Hey, if
you're the Son of God, you turn these stones into bread." Jesus said, "No." Man
does not live by bread alone by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
So Jesus had his own battles in the flesh and we see he defeated Satan with the
Word of God and an incredible prayer life, he got up in Mark chapter 1,
and I think it's about verse 35, he got up a great while before the daybreak.
The King James version reads that way I believe if memory serves, he got up a
great while before daybreak. And I've always thought about that,
a great while before daybreak to go out and pray with the Father. And I thought
what a great investment for a great result. Praise God. So we have to have, and
Jesus demonstrated, He is the standard. He demonstrated the need for a powerful
prayer life. A prayer life that's separated. A prayer life that gets you away so
you can be close with the Holy Spirit, so you can be close with the Lord and
absolutely focused in on that relationship. I heard one person say that he made sure
that he got up early enough so that he never ever ever heard a human word before
he spoke to God. What a great way to start your day. Wow that's remarkable. Now we
see here Jesus said in the world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer,
"I have overcome the world." Wow, I mean, that's a staggering sentence. "I have
overcome the world." So he managed to navigate through what I call the quagmire of
life, all of the big things that are going on in the world. And I mentioned a few
of them last week. We have war in Europe. We have, you know, famine and these
sorts of things it looks like because of the grain shortage that's coming, that
there's going to be massive problems in places like Africa that are depending on
that grain and at the same time we see other nations shutting down their exports of
grain. So what's going to happen over the next, you know, 6, 12, 18 months?
We see rising inflation. We see stock market bubbles and asset bubbles and all of
these sorts of things, horrendous pricing for housing. Wow, man, you want to try and
buy a house nowadays. A million dollars takes you nowhere. You know, it's just
bizarre. All of the things that are going on in the planet, but we notice when
Jesus came to earth, he didn't take on the political systems. He didn't take on the
financial systems. In fact, he said, when he was questioned on that, he said, "You
render to Caesar that which is Caesar's, and you render to God that which is God's.
So Jesus, in actual fact, was very respectful to the political and financial arenas.
It's really interesting. He dealt with, on what I call the grime of life, those
bits and pieces that attack your flesh, but he also managed to somehow navigate
through, because in the world you're going to have all of these troubles, but you'd
be happy because I've overcome the world. So how's this all of this going to affect
you? Well, it's not going to affect you because you're going to navigate through it
all. Praise God, what a great outcome that's going to be. Now, I see something
quite remarkable here. I've been reading this for many years. I'm just turning over
here in my Bible to Luke 22 in verse 41.
When he was in the garden on the Mount of Olives, the disciples followed with him.
And when he was at the place, he said to them, "Pray that you enter not into
temptation, and he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and he kneeled down
and prayed, saying, "Father, if you be willing, remove this cup from me.
Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done." Now that's in Luke 22 verses 41 to
43, and we see in verse 43, in there appeared an angel unto him from heaven
Strengthening him father of this if you be willing remove this cup from me
nevertheless not my will but yours be done Now I see in that the integration of
his Christian life and his Christian calling that being integrated into his natural
environment So he's reaching out to the Spirit, the Father's will,
the divine intervention for the planet that God had intended to occur through the
life of this man Jesus Christ. Now, think on that sentence. There is a divine
intervention for the planet that God wants to occur, divine intent that God wants to
happen through you. That's really important. There is a divine intention that God
wants to happen. He wants it to happen through me, yes? When I realised that,
I thought, "Wow, man, you've got too much responsibility for this, kid, but be of
good cheer." Jesus has overcome the world, so there's got to be a way to navigate
through all of this. So remember though, the divine intention that which God has
intended for the earth to come into the earth through you and through me it has to
be managed from God's perspective because Jesus says remove this cut from me no no
no no no that's not gonna happen nevertheless not my will but yours be done.
So this divine intervention that's coming into the earth through people has to be
managed and implemented and approached from God's perspective.
And that's really important. That's so, so important. There is a way that seems
right unto a man, but the end thereof is death. That's recorded a few times and
proverbs, not just ones. So these things have to be implemented.
God's divine intention for your sphere of influence needs to be integrated into your
sphere of influence from his perspective. And that's why we need to spend so much
time learning his word, because as we learn His word, we see a Jesus response.
We don't react to things, we respond to them. It's a big difference.
And we see a Jesus response. We see a Holy Spirit -led response. Remember, the Holy
Spirit wants to lead us into decisions we love to remember. Glory to God,
that is so powerful that exploded in my spirit. And I realised that, that I don't
have to stay stupid, the Holy Spirit can lead me into great decisions that I love
to remember. So powerful, so important, there are lots and lots of extremely
unbiblical traps in the quagmire of life. The quagmire of life,
those things that bog us down. They just do your head in. They're just big things
out there. They might look okay. They might sound okay, but they're not actually
scriptural. Let me just show you a really interesting one that I've looked at a lot
and I've always wondered about this, and it's in chapter 19 of the book of John,
the Gospel of John chapter 19. Reading from verse 1, "Then Pilate "Therefore,
took Jesus, and scourged him, had him beaten, and the soldiers plattered a crown of
thorns, put it on his head that put him in a purple robe, and they said, 'How
king of the Jews?' And they smote him with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth
again, saying to them, saying to all the Jews, all these people, 'Jesus is on show
here, behold, I bring him forth to you, that you may know that I find no fault in
him and this pilot pilot is standing up he is the Roman governor or he's the
prefect if you like of Judea so he's a political figure and he's standing up and
he's saying I find no fault in this man now verse 6 when the chief priests
therefore and the officers saw him Jesus, they cried out saying,
"Crucify him, crucify him !" Pilate said unto them,
"You take him, and you crucify him, for I find no fault in him." Now this is the
chief priests, this is the head religious people of the time. Pilate's saying,
"I don't find any fault in this man." They're saying, "No, no, no. You have to
kill him. We want him killed. He must be crucified." Paul is saying, "No, hang on
a minute. I don't find anything wrong here." And then in verse 7, they say a
fascinating thing. These chief priests and the Jews, they say the Jews answered him.
Verse 7, "We have a law and by our law he ought to die because he made himself
the Son of God. Hang on a minute, these chief priests and these people,
they have a law. They have a law. Whatever happened to God's law?
It's called the Ten Commandments. Yes, Exodus. This is fascinating because in Exodus
chapter 20, it's about verse 13, "Thou shalt not kill." "Thou shalt not kill." So
whatever happened to God's law, they have a law, but whatever happened to God's law?
Remember these guys, these fellows, these people, they were big on, "Oh yes,
but Moses and the law," says, They're very good at that. They were very happy to
remind Jesus of that. "Ah, yes, but Moses in the law says the law says she needs
to be stoned." Well, whose law was it? Because God's law says, "Thou shalt not
kill." Yes? So it's very, very interesting. Now,
we know, in a post -cross dispensation, why they wrote that law. I mean, fairly
obviously, there was a Messiah was coming, and they also knew that there was going
to be a Messiah was coming who would call himself the Son of God. Well, why write
a law that was going to kill the person that they were waiting for? I mean,
see, it just doesn't stack up. And these are the very important points that we need
to think through because they're happening in that day, in Jesus' time,
they're also happening in our time. They could have just said okay well let's take
all the crazies aside you know all the people that says oh there's another guy says
he's a messiah oh there's another one there's another one okay let's take them all
aside and let's see who can deliver the goods because remember we know what Osiah
says the spirit of the Lord is upon me is in order me to preach the gospel
healing you know the recovery of sight to the blind healing all of these sorts of
things in Luke 4 18 so if he can't deliver the goods on all of that well we know
he's not the Messiah. So there were plenty of checks and balances that they could
have had in place except a law that says we must kill him. Now this is really
interesting because there are these sorts of things going on today. I can give you
a modern day example. See that example there the chief priests say we've got a Lord
has to kill him. That was a violation of God's law that says thou shalt not kill.
Now I've been trying to think through something and I think it's fascinating and
this is my current position, which means it might change later, but I'll just share
this with you because I think this is really interesting. Modern day example of that
there. Think about this, we've heard a lot lately about extra tax and a wealth tax,
especially a wealth tax on the very, very rich, which will obviously eventually make
its way down at some point because we know that governments, when the government
puts a tax on, most of them don't like taking it away. So with regard to a wealth
tax, well, the first thing that I'm interested in when I hear that bandied around
is, well, okay, what's the threshold going to be? Does it mean so,
you know, at some point that if you, you know, you pass an asset test of say a
million dollars in Australia, you know, suddenly you owe the government 200 ,000?
You know, I'm just, I'm just wondering about all of this sort of thing. Well, a
million dollars isn't very hard with the housing prices the way they are. So Number
one, what's the threshold of that going to be? How does that work? And yet,
the other thing that I'm wondering about too, with regard to that, as I said, just
a modern day example, but how would that work against something like Matthew 25,
where the Lord came and took His three servants, and He gave one five talents,
another two, and another one, he gave to them severally according to their ability.
And he that had five talents in Matthew 25 verse 20, he that received the five
talents came and bought another five talents, saying, "Lord, you delivered me unto me
five talents. Behold, I have gained beside them five talents more." The Lord said to
him, "Well done, you good and faithful servant, you've been faithful over a few
things. I will make you ruler over many things. You enter into the joy of the
Lord." So thinking about back to a kind of a wealth tax,
Jesus actually positioned this good and faithful servant. He congratulated him.
He praised him on increasing and doubling that which he had been given and then he
set him in a place where he could actually make and increase further wealth.
That's a fascinating parable that that's a fascinating example. So with regard to
something like a wealth tax, the concept of take it off someone who earned it,
simply to give it to someone who wants it. Let me say that again.
To take it off someone who earned it, simply to give it to someone who wants it.
I'd really question as to whether that is a biblical model. Now we need to identify
these things as they come along. As I said, you know, look the debate is all out
about that, but I'm just wondering how things like that stack up scriptually. How do
we identify them as we go because we've got to be able to navigate through all of
the obstacles and the quagmires of life as they come along to avoid some of the
tragic human cost that is caused through bad decisions at government level or
certainly the various forms of government and control and regulation that are above
the level of ordinary people. The only way, the only method,
I believe, to navigate through you and I as individuals to navigate through the
quagmire of life, to navigate through the obstacles on life, to avoid human cost.
I'm 60 years old now, I have very little appetite for risk, especially financial
risk. Yeah? I think the only way that we can navigate these things through is to
learn, to pursue, to grow in the wisdom and the knowledge of God.
To grow in the wisdom and the knowledge of God needs to be our priority,
needs to be our focus, needs to be the thing that we have foremost in our mind
when we wake up in the morning and the last thing on our mind and on our lips
when we go to bed at night. Not my will but thine be done. So we're implementing
God's intention, His desired result from His perspective into our sphere of influence,
into our environment using His word, His wisdom, so that we can understand and
identify and spot all of those obstacles in life, we can identify the things that
are coming along that are not biblical. There is a way that seems right to a man,
but the end thereof is death. We can identify all of these things. Then we know
when we need to, you know, divert around the obstacle or whether we can just go
straight across the top of it because it's of no consequence. And these things are
very, very, very important as we head into the next 20 years. Thank you for your
company today. I'm so looking forward to starting to bring this subject more out
into the open next week. We've had a couple of weeks just discussing the
foundational kind of aspect, but I want to talk next week about growing and
developing the wisdom and the knowledge of God in such a way that we have
actionable intelligence. God bless you. Have a wonderful week.
Make sure you go to church this week and always remember the incredible words of
the apostle Paul. And he said, "You be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, as God, for Christ's This sake has forgiven you. God bless.