How To Survive the Most Difficult Times In Our Life.
Notes
Transcript
Vs. 13 - Grace Will Lead You Through.
Vs. 13 - Grace Will Lead You Through.
Grace is the favor of God showered upon us.
None of us deserve the favor of God.
All have rebelled against God.
God has favor for all of us.
God provided a way for us to be saved and experience His favor.
Jesus Christ (vs. 5-9).
2. Jesus Christ took the guilt and punishment for our sins
How do we endure through the most difficult circumstances in our life?
First - Gird up the loins of your mind.
Gather all your loose thoughts.
A. We are constantly bombarded with the things of this world.
Lust
wealth
greed
control
2. We must focus our thoughts and attention upon the coming salvation.
A. It is easy to lose sight of what God has promised.
Especially in the midst of trouble.
B. We are creator of comfort as well.
We can lose sight of God’s promises when we get comfortable and complacent.
3. Men’s wardrobe in Peter’s day.
A. Men wore robes and they wore a belt around their waist.
B. If they were involved in some strenuous action they would gather their robe and tighten in under the belt.
4. Believers are to do the same with their thoughts.
A. Gather them and keep them focused on our salvation.
Phil. 4:8 - What to focus our thoughts on.
2 Cor. 10:3-5 - Paul tells us the war that we are fighting is not physical it is spiritual.
Believers must
A. Cast down imaginations
B. Cast down every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
C. Bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
Second - Be sober.
Don’t be influenced by a sustains that controls us.
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
2. You are in control of all things including your innermost thoughts.
A. We must pursue the thoughts that focus our attention on the salvation we received in Christ Jesus.
3. We must live a life that is balanced and focused on God.
Titus 2:11-13
Third - Hope to the end for the grace and salvation of God.
Some people live in a dead hope.
They hope God will accept them after death.
They have lived a good enough life that God will not reject them.
Scripture says to pursue this hope that is available through Jesus Christ.
For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Vs. 14 - When the Going Gets Tough the Tough Get Going.
Obedience is a key to overcoming difficulties in life.
A. Our characteristic reflects obedience to the point we are called the “children of obedience”.
B. It is a basic trait of our lives.
2. There is a contrast in this passage.
A. The contrast is from what we once were in our sinful nature to what we have become in Christ.
B. It pictures us as children of lust.
Without Christ we are given over to our own desires.
Every person desires the basic needs of life. (food, clothing, finances, etc.).
Without God that becomes the pursuit of our life.
Scripture says the reason for our pursuit to find satisfaction in the world because we are ignore of God.
Without God we feel we are left to pursue our own passions which are fleshly passions.
These passions leads us away from God.
Paul defines ignorance for us in Eph. 4:17-20.
God has revealed Himself to us through Jesus Christ.
Remember I said that the use of Jesus Christ gave you the context of scripture.
A. Vs. 3 - Lord Jesus Christ.
B. When Jesus is made Lord of our lives because of His sacrifice.
C. We follow Him in obedience.
D. He was obedient to death on a cross for our sins (Phil. 2:8).
We go from being ignorant sinners to obedient saints.
Pursue Holiness - Vs. 15-16
Holiness - to be righteous, pure, sinless, and godly.
A. To be prefect, complete, and fulfilled.
B. To be separated, entirely different from all who live worldly.
2. Here’s the thing - humanly speaking none of us are any of those things.
3. One thing makes us holy.
A. God Himself.
God has called believers to be holy.
Israel was called holy
Israel failed.
God has called us and demanded us to be a holy people.
How can we be holy?
Holiness is a gift of God’s grace.
A. No one or no nation is deserving of God’s holiness.
B. God desired to have a people that would;
Represent His way of life.
Teach His Word.
Be an agent of salvation to all the world.
2. Holiness requires covenant faithfulness.
3. Holiness comes from wholehearted obedience to God.
4. Holiness grows in response to God’s Word.
5. We are to be holy in the midst of an evil world.