Category Archives: Impossible, The

God’s High Regard For His Name

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-He’s The God Of The Impossible!

There’s a great story, in 2 Chronicles 14, about a “good” king named Asa. That’s significant because Israel & Judah had a lot of “bad” kings.—“…Asa did what was good and right in the sight of the LORD his God…” v.2 says.  But, as God often does, in the lives of His saints, He uses “trouble” to grow our faith. In v.8, we read that “…Asa had an army of 300,000 from Judah bearing large shields and spears, and 280,000 from Benjamin…”; and, then “trouble” shows up— “…Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of one million men and 300 chariots…” Do the math! Judah was in a mis-match, a humanly impossible situation! And, what was King Asa’s response? “Asa cried out to the LORD his God, and said, “LORD, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O LORD our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!” v.11.

-Why Don’t We Pray First?

Why do we tend to make prayer our last resort? Isn’t it our predisposition to try & work things out in our own wisdom 1st? We have a penchant for gritting our teeth; and, trying to work things out in our own strength! Only after we’ve exhausted all human resources do we finally pray about it! Why? Are we afraid we’re bothering Him? Waking Him up? Scripture says, “…He never sleeps, He never slumbers…” I want to challenge you to go back to v.11 and reread Asa’s prayer—this is a model prayer for getting God’s attention!

-Circumstances? Or, God’s Glory?

While his prayer was about his “circumstances,” it wasn’t really about his “circumstances”! It was a prayer about GOD! It was a prayer expressing concern for God’s GLORY! “This battle isn’t about me God,” to paraphrase Asa’s prayer, “It’s about YOU! There’s no one besides YOU! YOU help those without strength! We depend on YOU! Your NAME is at stake here! Don’t let a mere mortal hinder YOU!” God DOES NOT help those you help themselves! That’s a human LIE! He helps those who are weak & depend upon HIM! Asa understood that God’s ultimate goal in all He does is to magnify HIS GLORY!

-God’s Glory: Our Greatest Concern!

How do you define God’s “Glory”? It’s kind of like His “BEAUTY”—God’s “BEAUTY” is in His perfection; in His character; in His moral excellence! “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone” James 1:13. God’s highest goal is to preserve & display His infinite, awesome greatness & worth. That’s His GLORY! There is NOTHING of higher value! If God should have greater affection for anything He created, He would be unjust—He’d be an idolater!  So, here’s the principle—King Asa prayed right because his greatest concern was for God’s GLORY; not, for victory in this battle!  Our prayers should always be a request for God to bring GLORY to Himself through His answer! His GLORY, through the answer, is more important than our need!

 

 

You Can’t Do Anything Without Jesus!

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-Strength And Courage Won’t Do!

The beauty of Christ’s Commission, to us, is in it’s simplicity—“Go…make disciples of all the nations.” It’s hard to imagine how that could be misunderstood. As a teenage convert, to Jesus, the hard part was not the understanding; but, the doing! I understood the command perfectly well; but, carrying it out terrified me! I’d nearly go into a cold sweat every time I thought about sharing my faith with my high school friends. How could I ratchet up the strength and courage to do it? How would I know the right things to say?

-Arm Wrestling Doesn’t Work!

It wasn’t until many years later when someone finally shared with me, from Scripture, that I didn’t have to depend on my ingenuity to convince people they needed Jesus! I couldn’t arm-wrestle anyone into the Kingdom if I tried! In John 15, Jesus tells us that plan will never work! No one has ever come to Christ because of a big beautiful church building; or, a “professional” Worship Band; or, a multi-media experience!

-Regeneration Is God’s Work!

The work, of regeneration, is God’s work ALONE! It’s impossible for us to do the work of God in our own strength—“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” John 15:5.  This is at the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry; and, He’s preparing His disciples for His departure. “I will build My Church,” He told them, “And, I’m going to use YOU.” But, they had to get one thing straight—“You can’t do it without ME! I am the Vine, you’re just the branches,” He taught them.  All the LIFE & all the POWER & all the RESOURCES to fulfill His Great Commission came from Him!

-Being A Fruitful Branch

And, the key to being a branch that produces fruit,  Jesus said, was to be connected to Him, the Vine! If we’re not abiding in Him we’ll shrivel up and die, Jesus says in v.6. We can’t make disciples in our own strength—by reading books about making disciples; or, witnessing to 5 people a week; or, memorizing Scripture; or, making ourselves accountable to someone else. That’s NOT where we find the POWER to do Jesus’ work! He alone is the source! This is one of the most devastating mistakes any Church ministry can make—doing God’s work “in the flesh.” Man’s effort won’t get it done!

-God Is Glorified When We Ask Him To Do It!

The work of God gets done; and, He is glorified, when we ASK Him to do it! Back to John 15, vs. 7-8 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified,” Jesus says, “that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” Jesus does the work, of God, for us & through us! Making disciples is HIS WORK! Every spiritual work is a supernatural work & only Jesus can do the super-natural! We’re just a branch; but, when we’re tapped into Jesus Christ, the Vine, He does great things through us! God is glorified!

 

 

God Of The Impossible!

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Is Anything Too Hard For God?

Luke 18:27 records that Jesus said: “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”  That’s another one of those Scripture verses that we just love to take out of context, isn’t it? We can’t help ourselves! Am I saying the impossible is NOT possible with God? No, not at all! I’m not even saying we should never use this Scripture to teach the omnipotence of God!

Unpack The Scriptures With Integrity

But, this is another one of those verses that reminds us to unpack the Scriptures with integrity. We need to interpret it correctly—in “context”—and then make our applications. Determine what God is actually saying first! Resist the temptation to start with the application! So, open your Bibles; and, read this verse in the context of the verses surrounding it. What is Jesus saying? He’s addressing His disciples as they try to picture a camel squeezing through the eye of a needle, right? He’s saying that it’s easier for that to happen than for a rich man to go to heaven. But, He says, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” It might be humanly impossible to fit a camel through the eye of a needle; or, for a rich man to quit trusting in his riches and trust Christ’s work on the cross—but neither one frustrates God!

Not Even The Rich Are Beyond God

He is committed to making all things new! He is actively at work in our broken world among broken people; even, the rich. We need to accept that many things are impossible for us—including the saving of souls! No one, however, is beyond the reach of the “God of the impossible.” The Power that resurrected Jesus Christ is able to save that loved one you fear is beyond hope! Are you praying for the impossible?

Make Disciples

The most common interpretation of Jesus’ Great Commission—in Matthew 28:16-20—is that we’ve been commanded to “evangelize” the world! But look again! We’ve actually been commissioned to “make disciples”— “Since discipleship is the primary thrust of the commission we have been given, we must stop tacking it on to our existing ministry structure as an afterthought. Discipleship must function as the heart of our ministries, and of our lives personally, if we expect our people to be involved with it.” —taken from an article by Pastor Eric Sipe, titled: Evangelism As A Way Of Life