[Sermon Series: "That's What I Thought" - Part 1]
Choose Not To Lose
You need to choose not to lose.
Life will try to break you. People will fail you. Plans will fall apart. But you still have a choice. You can choose not to let the pain define you. You can choose not to let the past control you. You can choose to stand even when everything in you wants to collapse.
You need to choose not to lose. Because with God, you can’t.
You were never meant to fight this battle alone. He is with you in the silence. He is near in the heartbreak. He is working even when you cannot see it. Victory does not always look like winning in the eyes of the world. Sometimes victory is getting up again. Sometimes victory is praising through tears. Sometimes victory is simply not giving up.
Do not let the enemy tell you this is the end. It is not. This is a chapter. This is part of the refining. This is part of the testimony.
God is not finished. He is still writing. He is still building. He is still healing.
So breathe. Stand. Pray. Choose to believe that the pain has a purpose. Choose to trust that God’s promises are still true. Choose to remember who you are and who walks with you.
You need to choose not to lose. Because no matter what it looks like right now, the victory has already been won.
And it belongs to you.
- Ellie Mont
Jesus Wants You To Know...
"As you journey along your life-path with Me, refuse to let the past define you or your expectations of what lies ahead. You may feel as if the road you are on is tiresome or even a dead end. That is because you’re projecting the past into the future. The roadblock you are straining to see up ahead is really just an illusion. The future is in My hands, and I can do surprising things with it!"
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. - Ephesians 3:14-21 (NKJV)- "Jesus Lives" by Sarah Young
Blinded By The God Of This Age
But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe,
lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine on them.
whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe,
lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine on them.
- 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (NKJV)
The Good News is revealed to everyone, except to those who refuse to believe. Satan is "the god of this evil world." His work is to deceive, and he has blinded those who don't believe in Christ (2 Corinthians
When you are blinded, you cannot see things as they really are, even though others around you see them clearly. You cannot experience the full reality of all that is around you. You may feel you are experiencing all that there is to life, yet you may be unaware that you are missing what God desires for you. You may even be in danger because of your blindness and not know it.
Paul warned that the “god of this age” can blind you to the reality of Jesus Christ. Christ's presence can make a significant difference in your life. However, if Satan convinces you to doubt that Christ can do what He promised, he will have blinded you to the reality of what your life is really like and to what it could become. Others may see what your unbelief causes you to miss, but you will be unaware of it. Your life may be steadily moving toward disaster, but you will be oblivious to it.
Christ comes to you as light (John 1:4-5,9 ). He illuminates your sin so that you see its ugliness and destructiveness. He reveals Himself so that you can appreciate the glory of His person and the marvelous riches He brings. His presence lights your path so that you can see impending danger. Don't let the god of this age distort your spiritual vision. Don't be fooled into thinking that everything is as it should be when, in fact, you are missing out on so much that God wants to do in your life. Ask Christ to illuminate your life and let you clearly see your spiritual condition.
- Excerpt from “Experiencing God Day-By-Day” by Henry and Richard Blackaby
Hebrews 4:12-13
The Word of God is not simply a collection of words from God, a vehicle for communicating ideas; it is living, life-changing, and dynamic as it works in us. With the incisiveness of a surgeon's knife, God's Word reveals who we are and what we are not. It penetrates the core of our moral and spiritual life. It discerns what is within us, both good and evil. The demands of God's Word require decisions. We must not only listen to the Word; we must also let it shape our life.
The lesson he had just taught from the Old Testament Scriptures was not a mere historical tale. Instead, as had already been made clear by much he had said, it was powerfully relevant to his audience. For the Word of God is living (zōn ) and active (energēs ). Not only that, its penetrating power is greater than any double-edged sword and reaches the innermost being of a person so that it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. In doing this, it is able to discriminate successfully between what is spiritual in man and what is merely “soulish” or natural (it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit), and does so even when these often-contradictory inner elements are interwoven as closely as joints and marrow. The inner life of a Christian is often a strange mixture of motivations both genuinely spiritual and completely human. It takes a supernaturally discerning agent such as the Word of God to sort these out and to expose what is of the flesh. The readers might think that they were contemplating certain steps out of purely spiritual motivations when, as God's Word could show them, they were acting unfaithfully as did Israel of old.
Resources:
"Life Application Study Bible" by Tyndale House Publishers
"The Bible Knowledge Commentary" by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck
"The Bible Knowledge Commentary" by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck