Navigating through The Obstacles of Life - Part 3

Transcript

Hello everyone. Thanks for joining with me on another Helping You Become podcast.
I pray it's a blessing to you. Well thank you for your company today. I do thank
you for joining with me around God's Word and let's just pause for a moment and
invite the Holy Spirit to come and help us and guide us and lead us into some
truth. Father God we just so appreciate your goodness. Jesus Thank you for all that
you do for us every day, and Holy Spirit, thank you for leading us and guiding us
into the truth of your word, this study. Lord, please help us navigate through the
obstacles of life as we learn how you did it, and as we learn how other people,
right throughout Scripture, did it as well. And Lord, we ask these things in Jesus'
name. I've started a couple of weeks ago a series that I've entitled "Navigating
through the Obstacles of Life" and I saw so much human cost on the table of life
at the moment around the world with plagues and famines and wars and pandemics and
all sorts of things that have been going on for such a long time now and it's
been very concerning and obviously to all of us. I think the vast majority of
people have had a real heartfelt desire to see some genuine change for the better
happening on the earth. But yeah, we're still hanging out for that,
I think. So I started to look through how Jesus navigated through these major
problems. They were there in his day and age. They've been there Right throughout
scripture there's been, you know, empires coming and going and financial crises and
famines and droughts and food shortages, all sorts of things going on right
throughout scripture. But Jesus himself said a fascinating thing. He said, "If you
work with me, you come with me, in me you will have peace. In the world you will
have tribulation, but you be of good cheer, you be happy and you be solid in the
knowledge and in the peace that you have in me because I have overcome the world.
So Jesus has overcome the world. That being the case, my question was how did he
do it? So I think that's a very, very reasonable question and it's something that
I've been looking at lately and I'm very privileged of the Lord to be able to
bring this study.
things come along, we need to be able to discern and understand whether they are
scriptual or not, whether it's biblical or not, because there is a divine intention.
Jesus in the garden, He said, "Not my will, Father, but yours be done." If there's
any other way, let this cup pass from me. Surely if there's no other way, however,
"Not my will, but yours be done." So the divine intention that God has for the
earth at the time that He wants to happen, there's a divine intention for that
today that God is going to bring into the earth through you and I. God's divine
intention released into the earth through people. We need to be able to work this
through and understand it because one of the great outcomes from that is our ability
to come together with Jesus, clinging on to Him, clinging to His Word,
putting His Word first place so that we can navigate through, along with Him,
the obstacles that He overcame and all of the tribulation that He overcame when He
was living here in the in the world and in the earth. One of the ways that we're
going to successfully do this, and I think it's the most important way, it's the
primary method. It's found here, and I'm going to share with you today from the
second book of Chronicles, Chronicles 2, in the life of Solomon. In verse 7,
"In that night did God appear unto Solomon, and said unto him, ask what I shall
give you. And Solomon said unto God, you have shown great mercy unto David my
father, and have made me to reign in his stead. Now, O Lord God,
let thy promise unto David my father be established. For you have made me king over
a people like the dust of the earth in multitude. give me now wisdom and knowledge
that I may go out and come in before this people for who can judge this your
people that is so great and God said to Solomon because this was in your heart wow
isn't that a big sentence because this was in your heart What is it that is in
our heart when we're standing literally before a holy God? Or when you're in the
presence of Jesus when you're in the presence of the Lord you're there praying What
is actually in your heart? How do you and I stand? How do you and I find
ourselves positioned before a holy God based on what's in our heart.
Wow isn't that a big thing to think through? Because this was in your heart and
you've not asked for riches or wealth or honor nor the life of your enemies.
Neither have you asked for long life but you have asked for wisdom and knowledge
for yourself that you may judge my people over whom I have made You King,
now it's fascinating. When you think that through, when Solomon is going to be
judging the people. Well, what's he going to be doing? He's actually going to be
judging what the people have done. Their decisions, their outcomes,
their life choices. They're the things that Solomon's gonna be judging. He's not just
gonna judge you. Why, you're short, you're tall, you're a bit overweight, you run
fast, you know, or you run slow, but you might jump high. But you know, he's not
judging that. He's going to be judging the outcomes of the life choices that they
have made. And that's a really important thing, because what life choices have we
made? And what are those outcomes? If you've got seven maxed out credit cards,
you've made some life choices here and you need to understand the outcomes with all
you're getting get the understanding in Proverbs chapter 4 with all you're getting
get understanding now understanding is the why of your now you have a now why is
it the way it is very important so Solomon he called out to God and his request
you can read it a little bit more in first Kings let's just turn over to first
Kings as well and look at that. And in verse 7, "And now, O Lord my God,
you've made your servant king instead of David my father. I'm but a little child. I
know not how to come out or go in or go out and come in. Your servant is in the
midst of the people which you have chosen. A great people cannot be numbered or
count of her multitude. Give therefore your servant," Solomon, "an understanding heart
to judge your people that I may discern between good and bad. For Who is able to
judge this, thy so greater people, your so greater people, and the speech pleased
the Lord, and that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, now this
is really interesting, God said unto him, because you've asked for this thing, you've
not asked for yourself long life, neither have you asked riches for yourself, nor
have you asked the life of your enemies, but you have asked for yourself
understanding to discern judgment. Behold, I have done according to your words, I
have given you a wise and understanding heart so that there was none like you
before you, neither shall any arise like unto you. I have also given you that which
you have not asked for, both riches and honour, so that there shall not be any
among the kings like unto you all your days. If you walk in my ways, keep my
statutes, as your Father David did walk, then I will also lengthen your days." So
what's God done here with Solomon? Well, firstly, his request was pleasing to God,
so he pleasure God in verse 10. There was in verse 12, he said, "There's going to
be no one like you before you, and neither will anyone be like you after you." So
there's remarkable uniqueness here. There's a divine uniqueness. Now you have that as
well in a post -cross situation. Yes, we remember we're fearfully and wonderfully
made, we're raised up as kings and priests. Peter talks about that. So there's this
divine uniqueness, there's nobody like you. And there's only one of you and God's
intention for your world is to be released through you.
And that's a powerful thought. That's a powerful thing to get your mind around. God
has an intention, a divine anticipated outcome, desires that he has for your world.
And he wants to release his divine outcomes into the earth through you and I.
That's such a big thought. So God saying to Solomon, you please,
pleasure me. This has been pleasing to me. I'll give you remarkable uniqueness.
Also give you riches and honor. Now in Solomon's case, he was also granted by God
a truly legendary position and status as an international head of state,
there'd be no other king like you. Now the other thing that God granted him was
long life. Now many of these things can be pulled up in Proverbs as well.
In Colossians chapter 2, now just backing up a moment, I said last week that the
way to access the method and the process, and to get the ability to navigate
through the...
time, moving around the same lot of icebergs, they navigated around them and they
were safe and they made it to their final destination. So how do we navigate around
these icebergs in life? That, you know, we don't want to just plow into them
because it could be fatal. Yeah? We don't need any more problems in our marriage.
It's difficult enough as it is staying married, it's difficult enough as it is
raising teenagers, and just on that too. One of the things that teenagers do,
and I've had four of them,
is that the more that we nag them, the less volume our voice has in their ear.
The more that we criticise Anybody, the volume of our voice goes down,
the importance of our opinion, the importance of our voice goes down in their mind,
goes down in their heart. It lessens. It gets smaller.
Why? It's a survival mechanism. You're not going to listen constantly to someone
who's going to criticise you, you're going to turn the volume of their voice down.
It's simply a survival mechanism. And it's very important that we understand these
sorts of things. Now, the wisdom and knowledge of God, Solomon asked for it,
God granted it to him so he was able to discern the problems of the people.
He could judge the people. When you're judging the people, you're judging what the
people have done, you're judging their decisions, you're judging their life choices,
you're judging their outcomes. And Solomon wanted to do that accurately, truthfully
and honestly, so that he could lead well. And that pleased God.
Now, the wisdom and the knowledge that he asked for. Now, in Colossians chapter two,
verses one to three, and you read through that and it talks about in verse 3, "In
Christ are hidden all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." In Christ are
hidden all of the treasures. Whoa! I mean, what kind of a sentence is that?
In Christ are hidden all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
If we want to access divine wisdom and knowledge and obviously the understanding
that'll flow out from that as it's applied, then we do it in Christ. We do it
using the Christ, the Word of God, Jesus, the four Gospels,
All of the Word of God in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And in verse 14 of
John chapter 1, "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,
and we beheld his glory, as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth." Yes, Jesus Christ, the Word of God. So, In Christ, in Scripture,
in your Bibles, are hidden all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and a key
word in that is hidden. If something is hidden, you have to go find it.
Yes, if it's hidden, that means we have to look for it. We have to search for it,
we have to make finding it a priority. That's really important.
Remember Paul wrote to the saints and the faithful in Christ Jesus.
So do you want to be just among the saints or do you want to be among the
faithful who search out, seek out, pursue the wisdom of God,
the Word of God, making God's Word final authority in your own life.
Remember Psalm 119, "Thy Word, O Lord, is settled forever in heaven." It's
unchanging, it's timeless, and it cuts across all aspects of life.
Very, very important. So Colossians chapter 2 verse 3, "In Christ are hidden all of
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Now, look in Proverbs chapter 2,
and I'm reading in the King James Bible from verse 1, "My son," and see,
my son, God, my, he takes this personally and he wants to involve his family in an
intimate way. If you talk about my son, my son, that's ownership,
that's responsibility. Yes, I want to be accountable for that person.
I'm responsible for that person. My son, if. I think there's about 331 times in
Scripture that the Bible talks about if or if you. So the choice is ours.
Remember the Holy Spirit, the little prompting on the inside. Read your Bible. Don't
say that. Say this. Why don't you do that for this person? Oh, there's a thought.
Yeah. See, all of these little promptings of the Holy Spirit. If you,
our Christian life is our decision as much as it is our discovery.
Yeah?
Our Christian life is just as much our decision as it is our discovery.
You say, "Oh, I don't want to do that." Well, hang on a minute. Yeah? If you've
discovered it in scripture, then there is a decision that needs to follow.
If you be willing and obedient, you eat the good of the land, praise God.
So, chapter 2, Proverbs, my son, if you will receive my words and hide my
commandments with you, if you're going to hide something, that then becomes secretive.
So, what does that mean? Don't declare your hand. Jesus said, "Don't cast your pearl
before swine, yes? If you receive my words and hide my commandments with you so
that you incline your ear unto wisdom and apply, apply,
A -D -P -L -Y, apply." Now that means doing this output involved.
If you apply your heart to understanding. So we've got to actually sit down,
think through, this is a life choice for me. I need to bring this to the forefront
of my thinking because this will have something to do with God's intention for my
world. God has a divine intention for my world. I need to remind myself of that.
Solomon was aware of that when he said, "Will you please give me wisdom and
understanding so that I can judge the people?" If God's going to give him wisdom
and understanding, it's obviously come from God, then Solomon is going to be judging
the people with God's perspective. So it's God's desired intention,
God's preferred outcomes Being released into the earth, very important,
so output is involved here, so that you incline your ear unto wisdom and apply your
heart to understanding. Yay, if you cry after knowledge and lift up your voice for
understanding. Whoa, if you cry after knowledge, lift up your voice for understanding
if you seek her as silver and search for her as hidden treasures then you shall
understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God and that word
knowledge in the Hebrew it refers to cunning strategies,
cunning clever strategies, and you'll find the strategies of God,
the clever strategies of God. Now verse 6, and this is what I wanted to get to,
"For the Lord gives wisdom, out of his mouth come knowledge and understanding." How
good is that? Out of God's mouth comes knowledge and understanding. Now if it's made
it out of his mouth, that means it's there for me to listen to. It's there. He's
put it out there. Man, I can have some of that. He's given us wisdom is a gift
from God. For the Lord giveth wisdom. Very important.
Remember, there is divine intention to flow into your environment to create divine
outcomes, outcomes that flow from decisions that the Holy Spirit led you into that
you love to remember. Praise God. Navigating through the obstacles of life.
Thank you for giving me access to your heart and mind today. I take that privilege
very, very seriously indeed. And I just pray this has been a blessing to you.
Please join me next week. Join with me next week on this station and we'll get
into part four of navigating through the obstacles of life.
God bless. Make sure you go to church this week and enjoy a wonderful week in the
Lord. Thanks for Joining with us on this podcast, we are dedicated to helping you
become all you can possibly be in Christ Jesus. Please do check out the resources
at LivingSuccess .org. That's LivingSuccess .org. God bless.