Confidence

“Breakthrough in Confidence” Sunday School Lesson for January 27 Parents have a heavy responsibility to look after their children from the moment the child is born. When a child needs nutrition, the parents are to provide it. In sickness and in health, the child looks to responsible parents for whatever is needed, from clothing and shelter to guidance, rules, behavioral boundaries, and all the rest of it. As a child grows into those troubling and worrisome teenage years, dependence on the parents morphs into a growing desire for independence that will hopefully lead to unsubsidized, responsible adulthood. Those childhood years go hurtling by, and to those of us who have raised children, they seem all too short. As human beings, We were born of water when we entered this life on earth, and if we receive the free gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord i.e., we are born again spiritually (John 3:3). At that point, we become the ultimate responsibility of Jesus Christ, the sovereign Creator of heaven and earth (see John 1 and Colossians 1:16-17). We are deeply responsible to Him for what we do from that point on, but since we don’t physically meet with Him and look into His eyes every day, we tend to forget our responsibilities. The Spirit of God begins a good work in us when we receive the new birth, which brings with it the indwelling gift of His Spirit and He always finishes what He starts (Philippians 1:6). Any failure that may come about in this process is our fault, not His. He’s faithful even when we aren’t, and He never ‘drops the ball.’ But even when we’re diligently pursuing spiritual growth, there are painful times when Jesus seems far away, but remember, the Vinedresser never closer to the vine than when it is being pruned. Our confidence in His loving protection should never fail as long as we are living blameless lives. David, incidentally, had a perspective most of us lack; he had, in his teenage years, been given the responsibility of keeping the family sheep; Jesse knew he could trust his youngest son with those precious-but-wayward animals, and young David took his work very seriously – he loved the sheep to the point of risking his own life to save them. A teenager who was willing to tangle with a bear and a lion on behalf of his father’s sheep with nothing but rocks and a club might seem fairy-taleish until we realize the true Source of David’s indomitable strength, character, and success. We also need to realize that those shepherd years were divinely appointed – not long after killing Goliath, David

graduated to the second stage of his divinely appointed ‘basic training,’ in that he would find himself hiding in caves as the commander and governor of a ragtag army of hundreds, many of them with wives and children. He was, in effect, their king and their military commander for more than a decade, and the job wasn’t an easy one. What he may or may not have realized was that God was preparing him for kingship in a much larger way. As the redeemed in Christ, we need to remember that aspect of our relationship with our Lord when we’re struggling. He engineers all things to work together for our good, regardless of how it may seem, and we are ‘the called’ Romans 8:28 refers to. David never failed in those early years to place his trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, praising His Lord with his every thought and pondering the glories of heaven and earth during times of rest. As we read the psalms of David, we see into the rich heart of a very godly man. If you and I were to write verses that truly revealed the innermost thoughts of our hearts, how would they read to other people? Is God really the centerpiece of our innermost thoughts? Psalm 23:1-2 (KJV) 1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. The Lord is the Shepherd of all who believe in faith; He supplies everything we need – but do we really believe that fact enough to trust Him? Who do we really trust when our bank accounts are full and our earthly future seems secure? Those of us who don’t see God as the Source of all true blessings have a warped worldview that needs to be overhauled. Green pastures and still waters are like heaven to a sheep, but as we enjoy His pastures of endless provision, we need to be careful that we don’t wander off in search of pastures greener than His. That’s the fastest way to a shipwreck of faith. All the people of this world have gone astray; there is none righteous, no not one, and it grieves the Spirit of God when we follow the world instead of Christ and wander away from His perfect will for our lives. Don’t ever forget that friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4). To truly know and understand these elements of our relationship with Jesus Christ, we must make Him the focus of our goals and our thoughts (we need to have the mind of Christ according to First Corinthians 2:16). What that means is that in our work and our interactions with those in our respective spheres of influence, we must continually be on our guard against the deadly sin that comes from yielding to the world, the flesh and the devil.

As His sheep, we should know His voice, come when He calls, cherish His presence, enjoy the company of our fellow saints whenever possible, and yield to His hand of discipline. Verse 3 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. In a world that works tirelessly to drag us away from God, we all need First John 1:9 and the restoration of our souls that comes from keeping short accounts with Him. Remember Psalm 66:18! In Second Corinthians 4:16 we read that our outward man is perishing (and it is – just look in the mirror), yet Paul goes on to say that our inward man is renewed day by day.

He leads us in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake: Now what in the world does that mean to you and me? Let’s put this principle to work in a practical way – when people see the level of integrity with which we as followers of Christ handle our relationships with people, daily situations, not to mention the material things that belong to others, they should see Christ in and through us. Remember, one of the worst parts of David’s sin against God with Bathsheba was the fact that the enemies of God were blaspheming God’s name because they knew about David’s blatant sin and they also knew David as God’s man. A long time ago, I invited a woman to visit the church of which I was a member at the time, and she said she would never visit our church because she had worked as an employee of one of the prominent members of our church and didn’t see a shred of Christianity expressed in that member’s life – ever. As a matter of fact, she said that person was absolutely horrible to work for. Granted, I wasn’t hearing both sides of the story, but in one regard, it was an interesting perspective. If the allegations were true, then where were the fruits of the Spirit? You and I need to consider the fact, as it has been said so many times, that we are the only Jesus some people may ever see, and that doesn’t just refer to our verbal witness, as important as that witness is. We all know in our better moments that there are faithless people watching us very closely and quietly, especially when they find that we are children of God. We should ALLOW Jesus to lead us in the paths of righteousness!! Are we allowing Him to do that? The lost people in our spheres of influence diligently observe the way we handle our work, company resources and property, the way we solve our problems, and the way we deal with difficult people and situations. They notice whether we genuinely care about them in the things we say and the way we react to their human concerns. 2

Is the Lord of heaven and earth glorified in your life and mine as people observe us, or do we operate in a manner totally driven by the flesh when a stressful situation squeezes us? Example: Do we expect others to modify their behavior so as not to make us angry? Exodus 20:7 is the direct Commandment of God that tells us not to take God’s name in vain!! That doesn’t simply refer irreverent speech, i.e., using the name of Jesus Christ as an expletive or giving God a last name that starts with a d. It has more to do with whether or not we genuinely reflect the nature of God after we take His name in claiming to be a son or a daughter of His! To accept Christ and then continue to imitate the world at large with no evidence of our salvation is empty and vain in God’s eyes. Sadly, our vanity is expressed all too vividly in the worthless things we place before our eyes, like the books some of us choose to read, the movies some of us watch and in some of the absolutely not-funny things we laugh at. Choices like that have a lot to do with who we really are in Christ and whether He is at the center of our thinking. How many people vainly espouse Christianity as their belief system yet express no desire to please God, deliberately refuse to grow in faith and knowledge of Christ, and don’t even pretend to serve Christ in any way? Let’s consider the premise of the verse again:

Christ leads us in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake! You see, for Christ to lead us in the path of righteousness, every day we have to follow Him. So where does the path of righteousness lead? That’s easy: it leads to Paradise and ultimately to the golden streets of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21-22), but too many church-goers are living like practical atheists and simply aren’t following Christ at all. Let’s examine ourselves daily to make sure we’re in the faith. Verse 4 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. There are dedicated Christians who walk through the valley of the shadow of death every day. In other countries, the shadow of death is cast by the government or by militant groups that hate Christians, and those same shadows are growing here. We should thank God every day for Christian legal organizations that are restraining those wicked forces! Persecution notwithstanding, we have all been stalked by physical death since Eve’s pearly white teeth sank into the forbidden fruit – one of my dearest friends is in a life or

death struggle with cancer right now that can be directly has it in His unquenchable power to give us so much more traced back to the curse of death that started in Eden. than we can imagine, and in Paul’s first letter to the So many Americans were (and are) outraged at Michael Corinthians (ch 2 vs 9), he reminds us that no eye has seen, Vick’s dog fighting ring and were so moved when Ellen no ear has heard, neither has anyone been able to conceive DeGeneres’ donated dog was confiscated by the doggie the things God has prepared for those of us who love Him. adoption agency. Elwood McQuaid writes that those people Don’t be troubled, and don’t be afraid. He has gone to are pounding their chests where their hearts are, and we prepare a place for us, and He will come again, bringing would expect them to. But it’s sobering to see how the folks those believers with Him (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17) who who are pushing animal rights and green policies care a lot have preceded us in physical death – absent from the body, more about animals and trees than they do the hundreds of they have been present with the Lord in Paradise, thousands of Christians who being sold into slavery and continually conscious, enjoying the goodness and mercy of tortured for their faith every year. Yet even in the places Christ in a personal way. where people are being marginalized, To those of us who truly believe and “Picture if you can the hopelessness of maimed, and murdered, people continue receive the Spirit of God, we can be sure Annie Johnson Flint's position when she finally received the verdict of the doctors to come to Jesus Christ for the peaceful that goodness and mercy shall follow us of the Clifton Springs Sanitarium, that comfort of His rod and His staff and the all the days of our lives, and that we will henceforth she would be a helpless eternal hope He offers that quite indeed dwell in the house of the Lord invalid. obviously extends beyond the grave. forever. “Her own parents had been taken from her in childhood, and her foster When we’re weathering the parents both passed away. 5 inevitable storms of life, we need to focus Verse 5 Thou preparest a table “Her one sister was very frail and on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our before me in the presence of mine struggling to meet her own situation faith. And we shouldn’t cast away our bravely. enemies: thou anointest my head “Annie was in a condition where she confidence (Hebrews 10:35) – God with oil; my cup runneth over. was compelled to be dependent upon the rewards those who diligently seek Him No matter how our enemies plot care of others who could not afford to and draw near to Him. against us, our relationship with Christ minister to her except as compensated by her. Are you experiencing pain and should be our mainstay, our final hope, “In after years she always stated that tribulation through physical, financial, or our unbreakable link to heaven on earth. her poems were born of the need of emotional circumstances beyond your He has it in His power to keep us healthy, others and not from her own need; but control? It’s possible that nobody fully protected and fed, even during the worst one knows full well that she never could have written as she did for the comfort understands your situation (except Christ circumstances imaginable. Some of the and help of thousands of others if she had Himself), but when things seem most greatest hymns we sing in our churches not had the background of facing those hopeless, it might be good to pause and come from the hearts of men and women very crises in her own life.” read the words of a lonely prophet who who, like David, placed their trust in God saw the destruction of his homeland and its capitol city and even when circumstances seemed so totally dark as to be the carrying away of his countrymen into bondage. without hope. Many of the great hymn writers would never have written a single verse had they not passed through the “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall deep waters of pain and chose to trust in the promises of fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the Christ for comfort and hope… He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater He sendeth more strength when the labors increase To added affliction He addeth His mercy To multiplied trials His multiplied peace… Annie Johnson Flint

Verse 6 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. Who among us would reject these words and this destiny? The Lord in whom we as Christians have trusted 3

fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.” Habakkuk 3:17-19a

Grace and glory, and power and dominion and might be His forever and forever! Maranatha. R.W.M.