God has said, be ye holy, for I am holy. I am
glad that holiness is what he calls us to and
that which he is working in us by the power of
the Holy Spirit. Holiness is not something we
produce on our own, but holiness is God's work
in us, both the willing and the doing of His
good pleasure. And one day that work of holiness
will be complete when we're with the Lord. But
now we're in a pilgrimage. We're in this world.
And God has given us assignments to accomplish
as a people of God. We've talked something about
that in the month of January. As we entered a
new decade in the ministry of our church, these
are also probably the most ten critical years
in the history of our nation. I don't think that
that's an overstatement. Because of the crossroads
that we find ourselves in, in this nation and
in the Western culture, I believe that the next
ten years are the most critical in the history
of our nation. While focusing on a new vision
for our ministry as a local church and retooling
ourselves with perhaps some new methods adapted
to the 90s, We must be careful not to lay aside
some of the old truths that are essential if
in fact we want the blessing of God upon us in
this new decade. One such truth, which we looked
at last week, is the truth of repentance. That
is, changing one's mind or one's way of thinking.
As that word is applied to Christians, and we
saw last week that indeed it is applied to Christians,
that we need to be a repentant people. Repentance
is a mindset that says I will change my mind
and agree with God whenever I'm convicted of
God to do so. That is, whenever God turns the
light on our spirit and we sense there something
that is not right with God, we have a mindset
that says immediately, I must change. We don't
allow our minds or our souls to become hardened.
But we change. We are repentant. The danger,
of course, is that sin is not truthful. as it
allures us. Sin says to us, if you do this, if
you involve yourself in that, if you will use
this motive, if you will make that your goal,
then I promise you, says sin, that you will be
pleased. You will have this result or that result.
That's what sin says. But sin is a liar. Sin
may point to some genuine pleasure or some human
achievement that we would desire that it could
give us, but sin always veils the final result.
It always does. Because the final result of sin,
even when it's temporally or temporarily full
of pleasure. The final result of sin is always
destruction. So sin is deceitful and it will
deceive and harden our hearts if we aren't alert,
if we don't maintain a repentant mindset. The
writer of Hebrews warns about this in the third
chapter of that book when he says, day after
day, as long as it is called today, lest any
one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of
sin." You see, sin not only deceives, but it
subtly hardens the heart, almost imperceptibly.
Without one actually noticing that the hardening
is taking place, it happens. And that heart that
once was soft and palpable, pliable in the hands
of God rather, that heart becomes stiffer and
harder until finally, if sin has its way, that
heart is fixed. The writer of Hebrews warns about
an earlier generation to whom that happened.
It was the generation of the Jews who came out
of Egypt, who hardened their hearts against God
in the wilderness. And as a result of that, God
says, they shall not enter my rest. And they
didn't. They died in the wilderness, not inheriting
the land that God had promised to them. And so
they came short because of the deceitfulness
of sin. You see, sin is not a benign deviation.
But sin actually is a malignant cancer that grows
and drains the spiritual power from one's life.
It changes the heart attitude against God and
finally will bring one to destruction. James
talks about this in the last chapter of his epistle,
the last two verses. An interesting way for him
to conclude. Often the Apostle Paul, when he
would write, would conclude with a benediction.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Or some other upbeat note, but James gives a
warning. He says, my brethren, if any among you
strays from the truth. Now notice first of all
he's talking to brethren. He is not talking to
unsafe people. And he says, if any among you
strays from the truth, that is, wanders away
into sin, and one turns him back, there's the
word convert that we looked at briefly last week,
and one converts him, one causes him to turn
around and go the other direction, James says
in that case, let him know that he who turns
a sinner from the error of his way will save
his soul from death." Now you say, does that
mean hell? Well, in some context it does. Whenever
you find the word death, you have to discover
what is it talking about? Is this spiritual death?
Is this physical death? Is this some other kind
of death? He's talking here about physical death,
as I understand this text. That is the discipline
of God. He says, let him know that if he turns
a sinner from his way of error, that he will
save that soul from death. That is the discipline
of God and will cover a multitude of sins. Sin
is not benign. It is malignant. And the only
answer to sin is a repentant heart. A heart that
is always ready to change. when enlightened by
the Holy Spirit. A heart that says there is no
territory that is protected. God has access to
all of me. The heart that says there is no room
that is out of bounds to God's inspection. The
heart that says I will allow no callous to develop
on me. The heart that says, I will be sensitive
toward God. I will have a near listening to the
voice of God and a will determined to be right
with God. And so I think it's appropriate for
us to ask ourselves this morning, am I right
with God? Am I right with God? Have I been repentant?
When God has turned the spotlight on my life,
have I responded positively by changing my mind,
resulting in changes in my life? Am I a repentant
Christian? Repentance is not possible apart from
brokenness over sin. I see brokenness over sin
involving several things. In the first place,
it involves recognizing sin for what it is. That
is, I don't allow myself to excuse it. I don't
allow myself to play with it. I don't allow myself
to taste it by rolling it around in my mouth.
I don't allow sin to be protected. But rather
I bring it out into the open in my life, and
I recognize it for what it is. Then I must also
go beyond that. I must then perceive how that
sin affects God. I must understand how that sin
affects God and others around me. I must see
what that sin does to me. I must understand the
grief that it causes. I must understand the sorrow
that it brings to the heart of God. I must understand
that it brings me to destruction. That it will
destroy my life and my effectiveness for God.
Once I understand all of that, then it will bring
me to the final step, which is to respond with
sorrow over it. A sorrow that leads to repentance.
Paul talks in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 about that
kind of sorrow, suggesting that there is a sorrow
that does not bring one to repentance. It's merely
a superficial kind of sorrow. For example, the
kind of sorrow that says, I'm sorry I got caught.
Boo hoo. And tears are shed because one has been
found out. But it's not the kind of sorrow that
brings repentance. The change of mind. resulting
in a change of direction to one's life. I first
need to recognize sin for what it is and then
understand what it does to God and what it does
to me and what it does to others. And the only
response I can have if I go that far is to sorrow
over it and be brought to repentance, brokenness.
Is your heart broken over sin? Sometimes it's
easier for us to be broken over the sin of others
than it is our own sin. Sometimes it's easier
for us to sorrow and to grieve over what others
are doing or not doing than what we ought to
be doing or not doing. As we enter a new decade,
an exciting decade with lots of potential, We
must also recognize that sin abounds, and it
comes to us in nearly every shape and form. Repentance
as a mindset, as a way of life, will keep us
walking in the light of God and not falling into
the darkness of the devil. Repentance is one
of those old truths that we have to hang onto.
I want to move ahead this morning to another
one. Another old truth for a decade that is before
us, filled with exciting potential for God. If
we want to see that potential realized, here
is a truth, an old truth, that we must get a
hold of and never release. And it is that truth
of dependence upon God. The truth of dependence
upon God, I invite you to turn with me to a verse
in John chapter 15, our Lord Himself speaking.
And He says to us, abide in Me and I in you.
You recall that He compares us here to branches
that partake in the vine, the true one, He Himself.
And he says in verse 5, I am the vine, you are
the branches. He who abides in me and I in him,
he bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can
do nothing. Notice the totality of that statement.
He makes no exception. He doesn't say you can
do most things apart from me. He doesn't say
you can do a few things apart from me. He says
you can do no things. apart from me. Now, obviously
there are some things we can do. We can go through
the motions of life. We can accomplish things.
We can accumulate things. We can affect the lives
of other people for good or for ill. There are
many things we can do. But one thing we cannot
do is to bear spiritual fruit. That's eternal.
apart from Jesus Christ. So when you enter into
that realm of what counts forever, in that realm
there is nothing that we can do apart from Him.
We are dependent upon the vine to produce in
and through us the fruit that will be pleasing
to Him. As a church we can go into this next
decade and accomplish a lot. There are things
that we can do that may even attract the attention
of other people, or which we ourselves will find
very fulfilling or pleasing to ourselves. We
may get written up in a newspaper, good or bad.
There are lots of things we can do, but if we
want to do things that are going to count forever,
that are going to pass the test of the judgment
seat of Christ, then we must hang on to this
old truth that we are dependent upon Jesus Christ
and we cannot do these things in ourselves and
in our own strength. This is one of the most
difficult things for us to comprehend and practice
in our culture, isn't it? Because in many ways
we have the impression at least that we don't
need the Lord. We can go out and get a loan.
We can use a charge card. We can call upon other
people. We can get in the car and go somewhere.
There's something we can do ourselves to respond
to our crisis rather than have to depend upon
God. Maybe that's why it is that God often puts
us in places where we are completely bound up
and can't. do anything. So that hopefully we'll
come to this truth that ultimately we must depend
upon Him. We can't get along without the Holy
Spirit. I think that we have bought into this
humanistic lie of our own autonomy. Humanism,
the religion of man worshipping himself, teaches
that man is autonomous, that he is independent
of others. and certainly of God. Now, we would
not say that. We would never put that into a
statement of faith for our church. If you were
asked to write out what you would believe, likely
you would never put down, I am independent of
God. But the fact is, though we are not professing
humanists, we are practicing humanists. Because
we tend to do so much. apart from God. And we
have the wealth and the ingenuity and the freedom
to do so in our culture. There are other cultures
where that doesn't exist as readily as it does
here. Where people are very poor, where they
have nothing, they have no resources to drop
on. For them to think of themselves as independent
would be very difficult. But on the other hand,
for us to think of ourselves as dependent is
very difficult. The fact is that we will make
a mess every time that we fail to depend upon
God. Ultimately, our efforts must fail if they
are efforts apart from His enablement. Perhaps
the greater curse, though, is not failure but
success. God allowing us to succeed in our own
efforts apart from Him. Perhaps that is the greater
curse. God has not designed us to live our lives
in a vacuum apart from His direct involvement.
He has created us so that we might live by faith.
That's why we have a spirit. Immeasurable distance
between ourselves and mere animals. It's interesting
the Bible doesn't say that we are created a little
above the animals. It says that we are created
a little below the angels. We have the capacity
to know God and to relate to God and to trust
God. To depend upon Him. That's how God has created
us. That's how He wants to relate to us. A relationship
of faith, dependence. And it is that faith or
dependence that makes his involvement in our
lives a reality. The writer of Hebrews, as he
goes back through his chart of Old Testament
figures, talks about a number of them, as you
know, in the eleventh chapter. And if you were
to sum up the eleventh chapter, just in a verse,
I think verse six would would pretty well be
the summary. It says there, without faith it
is impossible to please Him, for he that comes
to God must believe that He is and that He is
a rewarder of those who seek Him. If we seek
God, it's because we need God. If we don't need
God, we don't seek Him. The seeker is one who
senses his need, his dependence upon God. And
the writer of Hebrews says, the one who senses
this dependence is one who will be rewarded by
God, because that dependence is faith. And again,
it's a statement of totality. He says, without
faith, it is impossible to please God. It's not
just pretty hard, but it's impossible to please
God. Because you see, God is well pleased. God
rewards when there is faith. Back in verse 2,
it says, for by it, faith, the men of old gained
approval. In verse 39, he concludes the chapter
with basically the same thought. And all these
having gained approval through their faith. So
what is it that brings God's involvement in our
lives, that brings God's reward to our lives?
It is our attitude of dependence, our trust,
our faith. We have to understand that faith is
not passive. Faith is not merely saying, I won't
do anything. God has to do everything. That is
not faith. Faith is not an inactive mindset.
But faith is hearing what God says and then taking
action on the basis of that. You see, faith is
active. It's potent. Faith causes us to respond
in some way. It produces within us. This last
week, our staff was able to get away for a day
and a half retreat together. On this occasion,
we took our families. It was a wonderful experience.
We went to Camp Forest Springs, which is the
camp that we're cooperating with now in our ministry.
I'm excited about that. It is a first -class
operation. from top to bottom, side to side,
is just a class operation. And some of us will
be there throughout this year in various kinds
of activities, including family camp, a little
bit later on in the summer. So you'll have a
chance to see it for yourself, but in the summer
you won't have the opportunity to go cross -country
skiing or downhill skiing or tubing, the latter
of which I prefer. Because it's so easy. You
just get on the tube and you're dragged to the
top of the hill with the tow rope and then you
slide down. It's so easy. Now, you take John
Benham, for example. He liked to go downhill.
In fact, was this your first time, John, out
there on the skis? No, it didn't look like it.
He really did well. He was coming down a hill
and it was a steep hill, frankly. It was pretty
steep and there was not fresh snow on it. And
Pastor Bartlett was just along beside him. They
were skiing together and all of a sudden Pastor
Bartlett took a left turn. A real sharp left
turn. And John could do nothing and it was humorous
to those of us watching. I'm sure it wasn't humorous
to be involved but there were skis and legs and
arms flying up into the air and snow and they
lit and John came back with an injured right
arm. I was surprised to see him leading the singing
this morning. But I didn't go downhill. I decided
to go cross country and I got my youngest son
Out there and as well some others in the family,
but the two of us were together in particularly
one occasion They have several miles of trails
far too many miles But we took a shorter path
and as we were going along We'd been out about
an hour by that time and my son said to me which
way is back to camp I said, just follow me. You
see, they had signs up with arrows. So I knew
where I was going. And we kept going. Five minutes
went by, and my son said to me, this isn't the
way back. And I panted out the words, trust me.
That's about all I could say at that point. Trust
me. He did, and eventually we got back to camp.
And as I experienced it, I thought to myself,
how many times have I been out on the trail of
life, not knowing for sure where I was, panting
for my breath, and I've said to God, which is
the way out of here? And he said, just follow
me. A little bit later, as I get tireder and
more weary, I say, this isn't the way out. And
he says, trust me. And inevitably, we got out.
There's a lesson there for all of us, folks.
There's an old truth that we need to get a hold
of. It's the truth that we are dependent upon
God. Wherein we find in ourselves that streak
of independence. That stubbornness of heart.
That questioning of God. We need to go back to
point number one and repent. And then come back
to point number two and say, Lord, I'm following.
I'm trusting. Lord, I am dependent. Larnell Harris
puts it this way in one of the songs that you
hear frequently these days. It's not in trying
but trusting. It's not in running but resting.
It's not in wanting but praying that we find
the strength of the Lord. Maybe you're one of
those of God's children today running hard. You're
trying your best and you want something bad.
But if we want God's involvement in our lives,
if we want to be rewarded by Him, then we need
to trust and to rest. We need to pray. And when
we do that, God delights to reward. It says here
in this same chapter that He is not ashamed to
be called the God of those who will trust Him.
Isn't that great? Oh, I don't want God to be
ashamed to be called my God. I want to be a dependent
child and trust Him. You may feel today that
God is calling you to do something you can't
do. Maybe it's an issue of some service that
God is calling you to. He has said to you, my
child, this is what I have for you. This is the
way walk in it. And you look at that and you
say, oh Lord, I can't do that. Lord, that's beyond
me. I can never... Hold out for that. Lord, I
can never accomplish that." And he says to you,
just trust me. Just take it a step at a time.
When you're out there in the back of the trails,
cross -country skiing, and you think about how
far you've got to go to get back to camp, you
can start crying. My son did. And I almost did
a couple of times. I mean, you can think about
how far you've got to go to get to that goal,
and it just seems like you can't go any further.
You've already phoned up muscles you haven't
talked to for a long time, and they're answering.
And you say, there's no way I can make it. How
do you do it? Well, you just keep putting those
feet out there, keep using those skis. Eventually
you get there. How do you get to that goal God
is pointing out? Just a step at a time. Trust
me, he says. That's what he said to Moses, wasn't
it? So he met with him in the backside of the
wilderness. He said, Moses, I want you to go
back to Egypt and I want you to tell Pharaoh
to let my people go. And Moses said, Lord, not
me. That's too much for me. I can't that's not
my gift God says look. That's what I'm calling
you to do Moses trust me So who think who do
you think made your mouth? Who do you think made
you just the way you are Moses? Who do you think
has prepared you for these 80 years? These 40
years these 80 years is going to use you for
the next forty. Moses, trust me. There are some
of you that are at a point of decision in your
life and you're saying to God, Lord, I don't
know. The reason for that is that you're looking
at that goal in light of how you feel and what
you think about yourself. You're trusting yourself.
God is saying, trust me. Because when you give
out, I'm there to carry you on. Trust me. It's
an old truth, isn't it? But it's a truth that
we cannot let go of. Because God may be calling
you and me, not only as individuals but as a
church, to enter into some things that will cause
us to say, oh my goodness, how in the world can
we do this? God says, trust me. Trust me. We
must not limit ourselves to those actions, those
involvements, those commitments that we perceive
we can do. Because if we do, that's all we'll
ever accomplish, what we can do. We need to have
our ears open and our eyes open. to hear and
to see what God says. And when God says there,
it will always be a stretch for us. God is never
going to point out something that we can do in
ourselves because He doesn't want us to be reinforced
again that we can make it independent of Him.
He's always going to point out something to us
that will stretch us. Because that's the way
that we learn dependence upon Him. Our need today
is for a fresh and filling of God in this area
of our lives. And if today you're one of God's
saints just trying hard and struggling and bogged
down and overcome and wondering and questioning,
God says, my child, have you hit bottom yet?
Are you worn out enough yet trying in your own
strength? Are you yet finished being independent?
If so, now trust. Declare your dependence and
I will show you what I can do. And I will reward
you and what you do. will last forever and it
will get my mark of approval at the end of the
road. Let's pray. I don't know where this message
from the Lord may catch you today. Maybe you
are quite aware of your dependence And you're
walking by faith not by sight Praise God for
that my friend But I have a hunch there are not
a few of us here We're out there on the trail
weary and wondering how we'll ever make it back
Or God has pointed out something to us that seems
so far beyond that we have a big question mark
in our lives. God, do you really know what you're
doing? Today it's time to say, Lord, I declare
my dependence. I'm weary. I've tried. I've been
running, but it's all in my strength. And I am
coming to you to declare that I need you and
I trust you. Would you do that right where you're
seated? Make this old truth real in your life
Well understand it will be challenged maybe even
yet today For if Satan can keep you from really
trusting He doesn't have to worry about anything
else you might attempt Because without faith
it's impossible to please God So he will try
to keep faith from being active in your life.
Declare your dependence today and ask God to
make it a real daily living principle within
you. If that is your declaration to God today,
would you indicate that by the lifting of your
hand? I'm asking you to do something physical.
Just to reinforce in your heart a spiritual decision
Lift your hand to God saying God today is my
declaration of dependence. Yes The scores hands
God bless you all remember friend. He is a rewarder
of those Who seek him? Father, I pray that faith,
dependence, trust will become the principle by
which we live our lives every day. We acknowledge
to you the temptations, especially in our culture,
to live by sight, to live by what we can do for
ourselves. Forgive us And bring us to that point
of brokenness about our independence that we
repent And begin to live as you want us to live
Like branches on the vine In Jesus name Amen