OK - today's a holiday. Don't take a day off from meeting with the Lord. Endure.
If you were to specifically say to Jesus Christ, “I want a change in me, God. I don’t want to be the same. I want to be different,” what would He do? He’ll do the same three things He did to this man we started looking at yesterday.
#1. He will help you face your fears.
Imagine this scene. Jesus was in a packed room – standing room only, crowded. And all of a sudden He hears some noise above His head in this house. He looks up. The roofs in Palestine were flat. He starts seeing some stuff crumble down on Him. Pretty soon the tiles are being removed and there’s a gaping hole in the roof right where He’s seated. Four men peered down at Jesus and then all of a sudden they start letting a man down on a stretcher. They let this man down on the stretcher, right in front of Jesus, right in the middle of His sermon, right in front of everybody. That’s what I call an interruption!
How would you feel if you had been that paralyzed man? You’d certainly feel embarrassed. You’d probably feel fearful, a little anxiety, a little anxious. This by the way, shows how desperate this man was to be changed. He allowed his friends to tear up a roof (and somebody’s going to have to pay for it) and publicly let him down in front of all these people stopping Jesus in the middle of a sermon. Because he wanted to be changed. That’s how desperate he was. (how desperate are you for change?)
And when Jesus looks at him He doesn’t say, “Excuse me! I'm busy. You’re interrupting me! I'm on my most important point right now!”
Notice what Jesus says, Matthew 9:2 “They brought to Jesus a man who was paralyzed and lying on a mat. Then Jesus said to the paralyzed man ‘Be encouraged young man.” Take heart, cheer up, don’t give up, don't be afraid. It’s OK. You’re not bothering Me. What's the point?
Jesus cares about how you feel. If you’re discouraged He cares about your discouragement today. If you feel lonely, He cares about your loneliness today. If you feel worried, frightened, insecure, anxious about the future, He cares about that. Why is Jesus’ first response to us to ease our fears? Three hundred sixty five times in the Bible it says “Fear not.” That's one for every day of the year. Jesus says “Don’t be afraid!” When you study what Jesus did to people He almost always started with, “Chill out! Don’t be afraid. It’s OK. Be encouraged. Cheer up.” Why does Jesus ease our fears before He does anything else? Two reasons:
Let me give you an encouraging word. I don’t know what you’re going through, what you’re facing this week, what you faced last week, but I do know this: God does. And He cares. He can help you and His first word to you is, “Don’t be afraid. I can handle it.”
So what should you do with your anxieties? What should you do with your fears? You give them to Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Give all your worries and cares to God [circle “all] for He cares about what happens to you.” He cares and the Bible says, “Perfect love casts out all fear.”
When you come to Jesus Christ, the first thing He says is, “Before we get started on this personal improvement plan in your life, give Me your fears.” Why? Because fear is a universal problem. But more important than that. Fear is what keeps you from getting close to God. In the final analysis, when you boil it all down the reason you’re not closer to God is because you’re afraid to get closer to God because you fear the unknown. “If I really got close to God, what might happen to me? I might be so changed I don’t like myself.” And so you are afraid to get close to God. We all have these fears. “If I get close to God, what if He turns me into a fanatic? I may have to be on TV and wear funny hair and wear polyester and say ‘Jesus!’”
Push through that fear, because the reason you’re afraid is you don’t know what God’s really like. If you did, you wouldn’t be afraid of Him. Because God is love and “Perfect love casts out all fear.” You just need to get to know God. The better you get to know Jesus Christ, the fewer fears you’re going to have in your life. Just like David prayed in Psalm 34 “I asked the Lord for help and He answered me and He freed me from all my anxious fears.”
Would you like to be freed from all your anxious fears? That is the starting point for personal change. When you come to Christ and say, “Jesus, I want You to change me,” the first thing He’ll do is ease your fears and you won’t have to be afraid any more. What fears do you need to cast at the feet of Christ today? OK then, do it.
I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course. ENDURE!
No comments:
Post a Comment