The ACTS Files – Repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out – Acts 3:17-26

The ACTS Files – Repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out – Acts 3:17-26 – 05/09/2016

Acts 3:17 (ESV) “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ 24 And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ 26 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

Thank you for clicking on this recent installment of “The Acts Files” and this article looks at an account where Peter and John went to pray and God used them in a mighty way. My prayer is that I present these scriptures in a manner that is edifying and worthy of the God I wish to serve. Let’s look at these in a line by line and verse by verse format starting in chapter three verse seventeen…

V17 “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.

We come into this sermon midway through (beginning is at the following link) and Peter acknowledges that the order to kill Jesus by crucifixion was done without the knowledge of God’s eternal plan to redeem mankind. Peter explains this because although they are guilty of the blood of Jesus and they are guilty through their sin nature, God used that sin nature to achieve his will in this situation. The ignorance was taken into account but it still was sin.

V18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.

Despite their motives to get rid of Jesus it was all done that prophecy may be fulfilled and despite the best efforts of them as individuals they could not stop God and stop the will and plan of God. Christ, even in his sufferings fulfilled what was written of old about him.

V19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

Peter makes a call to repentance here and that is one of the things I love about many of the good pastors I listen to is that despite where the core verse in the bible they are teaching that they always come back to Jesus and repenting of your sins and the core tenants of the gospel message. Peter also does this and I think that is important because you may always get someone who has never heard the gospel listening to you for the first time and it is important that everything circles back to Jesus.

Peter repeats the call to repentance that he made in Acts 2:38 and calls them to take a u turn in their thinking and as Christians we all understand that because when I reflect on where I was, say 10 years ago then I fully understand about a Holy Spirit changed life. Repentance is not a bad thing because in Christ we have an assured hope that we did not have without Him. Peter is also asking that they be converted to follow Jesus to become that new creation and take advantage of God’s grace so their sins could be blotted out, erased and wiped off any record of our offense to God. What a glorious free gift this Salvation through Christ is!

Jesus will come back and rule the earth in the perfect form of monarchy and righteousness, if you are bummed about your choices for First Minister/President/Prime Minister (delete as appropriate) please be assured that a king is coming who is a glorious king who will have a 100% approval rating and will reign is grace honor and truth. That will be a time of refreshing and Peter goes as far as to say that if the nation repents then God would send Jesus Christ but until then Jesus will remain at the right hand of the Father until the restoration of all things. That Jesus would return and Eden’s curse would be lifted for evermore. This world will continue to get worse until that happens.

V22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’

Peter quotes Deuteronomy 18 which states the following…

Deuteronomy 18:15 (ESV) The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—16 just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.

And Peter was sure speaking their language because they delighted in their knowledge of the scriptures and loved to boast in the facts they knew of God, that danger is still there today as we become more “fact aware” about the bible and not allow it to permeate our heart. Peter ties in “the prophet” as being the Messiah Jesus Christ that they should indeed listen to and follow. Peter also advises verse 19 was unfolding before their very eyes and was a stark warning to the people at that time. It is true that those who reject Jesus whether they be Jew or Gentile would suffer the same fate.

V24 And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’

The message was consistent through all of the prophets that there would be a Messiah and as sons of the prophets they should have known better as descendants of their spiritual father Abraham that was promised in the book of Genesis and this alone was a real faith tester because Abraham wasn’t much change off of 100 years old and had no kids at that point. His wife was also well advanced in age and if that happened today it would be worldwide news.

If we look at the genealogies in the gospels you will see that the messiah came from the line of ABRAHAM! He was there to bless ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE WORLD. Yes us Gentiles too! First the Jews but also the adopted or grafted in branches to that natural root and that is why I have biblical reasons to doubt a replacement theology position because if we were the replacement to the natural root then the plant itself would not stand as there would be no foundation.

V26 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.

And Peter confirms what I just said that Jesus was sent to the Jews first, to the ones who should have known better but the ones who reject the messiah will open the door by extension to the Gentile nations. Christ is a blessing and is an extension of God’s desire to bless his creation but he also desires first and foremost an intimacy with his creation and we have to be reconciled to God and trusting in Jesus to save you from your sins, the same is true for you dear reader today. I desire to see you as a dear brother or sister in heaven today and if you have not made that commitment then I desire that you do so because “now is the accepted time, today is God’s day of Salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Lord willing, in our next article in Acts we will look at Acts chapter four verses one through twelve when we see the reaction of the captain of the temple and the Sadducees to what was preached that day. I pray that you are able to join us as we go through the bible, line by line and precept by precept.

God bless and I pray this was a blessing and please feel free to like, share or comment on here or whatever social media platforms you use as the Lord leads you to, as always I love questions about this or any other article so please feel free to fill in the form below, all comments are moderated to avoid profanity.
TTE
TGBTG
SDG

Keep right on til the end of the road

Keep right on til the end of the road

2 Corinthians 4:16 (ESV) So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

I entitled this article “Keep right on til the end of the road” as I am reminded in this verse of the song by the legendary Scottish balladeer Sir Harry Lauder who sang this song and it became an anthem for many causes. One of the most famous is that it is the anthem of the supporters of “The Blues” a team in England’s second city Birmingham. The team is called Birmingham City and their fans use the song from anything to signing messages to each other “KRO” (Keep right on) to singing the song when the team are playing at home and away.

I find it mildly amusing that a team with such a history of almost making it to the pinnacle and then faltering, and then coming back and then faltering again would have the following words in their anthem…

…”When you are tired and weary, you’ll still journey on”

I get this as football (or association football or soccer depending on where you are reading this from) is like a religion, in my deepest throws of “worship” I have been in big cathedrals dedicated to the worship of the players and our “tribe” all wear similar colours and sing the same “hymns”. I have laughed, danced and cried based on the position of a size 5 spherical object that we call a football and where it is on the field. If it enters their goal I am euphoric, it is enters our goal it could ruin my weekend. Some may object to calling it worship, but it is what it is.

Do I still enjoy the game?

I do, but as I am 4000 miles away it has less of a pull on me than it did when I was younger. The last time I was in Scotland I did check the fixture lists to see how I could get a game in and I did. But I noticed a difference that it was still my team and regardless of whether I was there or not to cheer on my team (Dundee United) the gig went on, they didn’t postpone any games because i wasn’t here, they even managed to win the Scottish cup without me being there (2010) so i would say that it is a lot healthier than it used to be.

Getting back to Paul

What does this mean in the context of the verse? Well I am brought to thinking of the song as it is a song of endurance. A song to keep your spirits up during hard times, I once looked for the song on YouTube and the song that came up had many archive pieces of footage showing victory in wars.

Which is relevant for us, we are called to a battle, a heavenly war if you will. We will be “tired and weary” we will see injustice, we will in our flesh question God’s plan. For me, that is the most difficult part of my walk with Jesus, understanding God’s “big picture”. It is hard to do so when you are in the pit and your circumstances are real.

We are told in verse 17 that “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” so I encourage you, when you can’t pay your bills, when life deals you a raw deal, when I want “My will to be done” I have to buckle and say “Thy will be done”, whatever trial, whatever temptation, whatever it is you are facing God is big enough to take this. You are praying to the God who created the universe in one single spoken sentence. (We are still finding bits of that self-same universe)

We have to get beyond the temporary, when we are in the pit, it seems so hopeless. I must confess that I try to do God’s job for him at that point and find exit routes as I don’t like being tried and tested when I should just place it at his feet and say “LORD I don’t know how you are going to do this, but I need you LORD”.

Let’s look at the life of Joseph

Last night in our bible study, we took a very high level look at the suffering of Joseph, (Genesis 37-50) Joseph had a prophetic dream that his brothers would all bow down to him and he suffered by being betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery for 20 silver coins but through it all Joseph trusted God that it was all going to work out. He was sold into slavery, imprisoned even although he was innocent, (he resisted temptation in the form of his masters wife) this allowed him to meet Pharoah’s cup bearer and when Pharoah was troubled in his dreams, God allowed Joseph to interpret the dream, save the land of Egypt from famine and rise from being an imprisoned slave to number 2 in the country. All throughout this he gave God the glory. What a lesson!

Joseph subscribed to God’s plan, even when he was in prison, even in a situation where he would have got away with sinning against his master and God, he chose the righteous path even although it meant prison time. He knew that God was working behind the scenes and even if it was at his cost he was “all in” on God’s plan.

This is the encouragement, although we may not gain temporarily, we have a promise in Paul’s letter to the Roman church…

Romans 8:28 (ESV) And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Application

For me I guess it is about enduring the trials and trusting God, if there is anything you are holding back then give it to him. Lastly trusting that God has “got this” and what we are going through is temporary and there is much more eternal to consider.

I get it, it is tough! People have their faith rocked on a daily basis; personally I have questioned God when people are taken away from me most of all, especially kids and people in the prime of life. I have had doubts and I have never been in jail, never been sold as a slave, maybe I need a little persecution to make me man up at times.

All I can do is do what God has called me to do and trust God to do the rest.

I pray this article was a blessing and please feel free to share, comment or like below
TGBTG
TTE

What is your stench?

What is your stench?

2 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV) 14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

This verse has been on my heart for the last week (verse 15) but in order for the verses to be understood appropriately then I added verses 14-17 to get Paul’s full thought as he wrote to the church in Corinth. As you may or may not be aware the Corinthian church was a very carnal church, it was very worldly and much of both of the letters written by Paul to the Corinthian believers were correction in practices that should not have been in the church in the first place. This is as relevant today as it was to the first generation of Christians.

When I think about these verses it brings me back to the early nineties and the bracelets that were popular back then such as W.W.J.D? (Which stood for What Would Jesus Do?) and was usually worn as an item of clothing such as a T-shirt or a bracelet, I liked seeing this as the wearer was reminded that his/her actions may or may not have been worthy of what they were called to as a Christian.

Mr. Short Fuse

I admit it, I am Mr. Short Fuse, I pray on a daily basis that I don’t lose it, if I am Mr. Calm to you that is due to the grace of God and a work of God in my life. Prior to becoming a Christian I was always in conflict, silly things ticked me off and often times had it not been for good friends I may have been involved in brawling situations that may have done me damage. I am fiercely loyal and if you came to hurt my friends or family, I would come out swinging. I might not always win but I would get my point across.

A time I remember was when my dad and I went to a charity football (soccer for the Americans) game between two Glasgow teams called Celtic and Rangers at the stadium that was the home stadium of Rangers. (Called Ibrox) It would take to long to do the background behind this but traditionally Rangers are known as the “Protestant club” and wear blue, Celtic are known as “the Catholic club” and wear green and white. Dad (a Rangers fan) wore a jacket that was predominantly green heading for the Rangers home end.

As we were crossing the road at a traffic light a snowball flew between me and my dad, due to the highly charged nature of the fixture, even although it was an over 35’s game or retired professionals, there were still 50,000 people in Ibrox for this fixture. Tickets were only 5 pounds and it was meant to be a family atmosphere, however traditional rivalry and tribalism took over and the thrower mistook my dad as a Celtic fan in the wrong end of the ground. I snapped and wanted to take the guy on, the red mist enveloped and I was at Defcon 1 (Highest alert status prior to a strike) in one fell swoop. Dad pulled me back and calmed me down but I was still annoyed going into the game.

What is the point of this? I wasn’t a Christian at that point of my life so I was acting based on what my flesh judged as the right thing to do. Something that is worth noting from a Christian point of view if we are talking to one who is living in sin, if they have not accepted Jesus as their saviour and being ministered to by the Holy Spirit, they will not have the same convictions as you.

However, if we are a Christian we should be looking to imitate Christ and that is really what I am trying to say. I want to act like him, I want to love like he did, I want to tell the world of his life changing power and lastly I want to stench like he does. We have to be sincere, want to immerse our whole lives in our Christian walk. This is the hard part, I have learned recently. A recent vote in my homeland did not go the way I wanted it to, but it made me realize that even although I was many thousand miles away, I was still spending too much time on things that were temporary and really had no eternal value. In heaven I doubt I will care if Scotland went independent or not.

Mr. Non-Perfect

I am also Mr. Non-Perfect, I am kind of glad that I am not, as I know me better than most folks and I would be the first to state that should I ever attain what I regard as perfection then I fear that piety and pride would sneak in. So i am quite happy to be “Mr. Non-Perfect” it keeps me humble. There are times in my life that I don’t handle things well, I don’t read situations the way one would expect and I am very prone to “brain farts”, lastly I know that I talk too much and quite often steamroller people in conversations, usually adding very little to the original points, I pray daily about things like this and we all have our inner wars.

What is a Christ like stench?

You have to have a heart transplant, you have to sort out your “kardia” (Greek word that is used in New Testament for “heart”) I was blessed to be given the opportunity to share and teach at an elderly home a week last Sunday and I shared from Romans 10 and shared about the heart of a Christian. We will not grow the way God wants us to if we are “tick the box Christians” and go through the motions in order to get things done and checked in order to get a “holy gold star”.

That is not real and genuine Christianity, real Christianity is hard, it is for me at least. It is a daily prayer life to make me more like Jesus, to love people both when it is easy and when they tick me off. To love people when I get hurt, to prefer others before myself, I am selfish and self-focused in nature and this stuff does not come easily.

Straight from the heart

It is not enough to just have the appearance of holy and to not let it escape your mouth, the greatest teacher of all time, Jesus Christ tells us in the gospel of Matthew 15:10-20 (ESV version)

“10 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” 12 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

If we have a “potty heart” as I wrote earlier then eventually that will corrupt our whole walk with Jesus. We need to have daily “kardia” work. We have to be as Christ said “salt and light”. We are operating a guerrilla warfare in which we are the spiritual terrorists, (this world is no longer our home) and we have to infiltrate and show the love of Christ. We have to be different in order to show a living example of Christ. Some of the strongest and most powerful sermons that are preached are not from a pulpit.

This is a challenge as much for me as it is for you dear reader, let us go out and be the stench of Jesus.

God bless and I hope this was a challenge, please feel free to share, comment or like below
TGBTG
TTE 

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation

2 Cor 6:1 (ESV) We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For He says: ​​“In an acceptable time I have heard you, ​​And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We give no offense in anything, that our ministry may not be blamed. 4 But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, 5 in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; 6 by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, 7 by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, 8 by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

Paul gives a very prominent and poignant lesson here; he displays to the Corinthian church the urgency of the gospel. (Isaiah 49:8) The Corinthian church gets a bad rap from the modern day Bible study teachers as being a very carnal culture and that it was infecting the believers in that area with behaviors creeping into the fellowship.

Here is the deal; today we are looking at a “Corinthian culture” that makes that “Corinthian culture” look like a Sunday school picnic. These words were written 2000 years ago to a worldly culture but are more relevant and more now than today’s newspaper.

You don’t get more urgent than the title of this article huh? It reminds me of our frailty of our mortality. We only have a finite time on this earth to make a decision about our eternity. As Christians we have a great responsibility under the “Great Commission” to take the word our and make disciples. (This blog is part of what I try to do to get the word of God out there)

Paul talks about the grace of God and receiving it in vain. This is very important in our time as we tend to be very grace focused in that our heart wants us to “cut corners” and create “grey areas” because if it is sin God will forgive us regardless. We cannot be looking to sin to get forgiveness and must be looking to go through a day by day journey for holiness. Grace will come to you from God regardless of whether you deserve it or not, but I would rather do my best for God.

After our justification we need to begin our process of sanctification. This journey is a marathon rather than a sprint. I am a knucklehead and need to learn many lessons many times over before it sets in my memory. If you ask my wife about my memory, she will tell you that there are times that she is surprised at the way my brain functions at times and the frequency on how I forget how to do simple everyday things. I am no different in my spiritual life, I have grown but sometimes it is not at the rate you would have expected.

It is about time that we realized our own comfort should not be center stage. When we are chasing the bigger salary, the bigger house, the nicer car, the hot tub, the pool, the large ministry, the big bank balance, fame, notoriety, good fortune, land, the nicest electronic gadgets whatever the desire of your heart is instead of Gods plan in your life, it always leads the same way.

1) Temporary gratification
2) Unfulfillment

I listen to “the Dave Ramsey show” on financial advice and he signs off every hour with the slogan “The only true way to financial peace is through the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ” and that principle can be allied to so many areas of our lives. When we allow other things to come into our lives and feed our selfishness gene (we all have one, even the most humble of us) then the work of the LORD is inhibited. God knows this and makes provision for you, but I wish (for me at least) that I was less selfish.

I am not suggesting giving up your iPhone/iPad/Xbox whatever you do for fun, however it is all about balance, if it is impacting your effectiveness for Christ and overtaking your life then it may be a problem. If you are married it is a cause for arguments in your relationship?

Here is the deal! These other things whilst it makes you comfortable, it has no eternal value, it will all burn in the end! We should chase after the things of God.

God bless and I hope this was a blessing and remember that “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation”
TTE

Careful of your motivation…

Philippians 1:14 (ESV) And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. 15. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 16. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, 19. for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20. as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Be Bold

…14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear…

You will observe here that I will start and finish on the same point, “Your best sermons are quite often not spoken” Let me give you a scenario that was in a sermon I listened to.

A family sits down to dinner, the father gives a beautiful prayer, thanking the LORD for another day to serve him, for his beautiful wife, for his awesome kids, for the raise he just received and for the continuing provisions to provide such a wonderful meal, he thanks Jesus and says Amen.

He then asks his five year old to pass the ranch dressing, the five year old is like any other five year old and is super clumsy and knocks over his glass of water, the father proceeds to flip out at him as he the water crashes all over the table as he finishes passing the dressing to him.

Which sermon will those kids remember?

Paul remarks that the Philippian believers see what is at stake with Paul’s suffering, and it is encouraging that rather than shying away from the very words that could spell their doom, they are becoming more bold. They are living out the great commission in Matthew 28.

That hurts from my point of view, I am not under pain of death and I struggle to do this on a daily basis. I should be as I have the testimony of Paul and see the genuine joy that Paul had in his trials, the faith that Paul had that regardless what happened God would take care of him, either by deliverance or death and lastly, that Paul was almost as effective in prison as he was when he was making tents. I wish I was more Philippian in this case.

Preach with good will & Don’t be selfish

…15. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 16. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel 17. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment…

This is as relevant today as it was when the ink was still dry on the paper. When we get involved in ministry it has the capability of being something that can harm us. We may place the ministry itself above what it is supposed to be and we can make it an idol and have this instead of investing in time with God.

It is hard as the human nature in us wants to see “tangible results” whether its people through the door, lives changed are we doing more than the place down the road, or whatever barometer we measure success by. By doing so we can not leave ourselves as ready to deal with the open doors that God is placing in our lives. We can get self important and prideful. We can see the place down the road as a rival and not a “co-laborer in Christ”.

It does make me wonder, if they are approaching it with a heart of rivalry, were they happy Paul was out of the picture? Did they see it as their time in the sun? Strikes me as a question that could be the case, the heart is a wicked thing and sometimes if we allow ourselves to be puffed up we start seeing it as our ministry rather than Gods. You have to look at the sincerity of the person’s heart when they serve?

Not all were like that though and some preached with “good will” let me be that guy, let me not feel entitled, cut me down if I get to big for my boots! It may seem ironic that I am typing this on the World Wide Web for others to see, but I will be honest with you, it is not about me bringing this to you. If you knew me you would understand. I am Mr. Foot in mouth guy! I am rarely understood when I speak to people, so this is a happy medium to get out what the LORD is putting on my heart. I am not much of a writer and my punctuation could be a million times better, but I am hoping that you see through that and take the points I am making.

Ambition is okay as long as it is pure hearted. We can’t be all about one eye on how we look as well as how we present the LORDS precious word. We cannot be selfish. I see this in today’s Christianity in the form of denominationalism; we have our wee camps that we will covertly have our wee digs (or criticisms) at. We can’t want our fellow brothers in Christ to lose or to “go down” We have to pray for those who have the same mission as us, even if we have minor theological disagreements. God doesn’t have a huge scoreboard and we are not a “good and faithful servant” based on results of souls saved or numbers through the door.

We should be more like Paul and not really care who brings souls into heaven, I don’t know this for certain but I doubt there will be a “Methodist only”, “Lutheran only”, “Catholic only”, “Presbyterian only” sections in heaven. We will be too busy giving God glory to worry about little things like that.

Word never returns void

…18. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,…

This is how I know that Paul was not into rivalry, he was on point always, to get the gospel out with a remarkable urgency. That was what he rejoiced in, it is what made him happy, he was truly devoted. He knew that God would judge the hearts of the ones in error. He rejoiced for two reasons:

1 – They were motivated to preach the gospel
2 – They were advancing the kingdom and Christ was being proclaimed

Which brings us to “the word never returns void” If I am digging my yard I can still use a tool with a slight imperfection. I will still get the job done! They were still presenting a true gospel, (because I believe Paul would have said so had they not!) In some cases, they just did not have their heart right.

How sold out are we?

…19. for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20. as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain…

Man, after reading and writing this I am pierced by my own personal failings, perhaps I am too hard on myself but I like to be brutally honest and say I don’t like trials, I don’t like to be tested. I certainly wouldn’t like jail and I do wonder what I would be like if I was in Paul’s shoes?

I would love to say that I would take it on the chin and not be a Jonah But I fear that I would be a big whiner! Perhaps what I need is a little persecution to rid me of some of the stuff that stops me from being as effective. (That is not an invite)

Paul is quite content not to be delivered from this deal, we see in Acts 16:11-40, Paul was delivered from a temporary jailing for preaching the word, he was thrown in jail and God used this jail time to bring the gospel face to face to the Philippian jailer and his family.

That’s how I would like to wrap this bible study up, we have to sometimes see the bigger picture. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18) Perhaps a temporary trial that we face maybe what saves someone from a life of sin and allows them to see a work of God in your life. let me reassure you that often times our strongest sermons aren’t spoken. They are the example that we show to that fallen person. We don’t always get it right. We have to allow God to work in our lives (sometimes without interference) and sometimes that is the hardest part of obedience.

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God bless and TGBTG
TTE