[music] Dr. Charles Stanley: What
would you think about a person who was very, very wealthy and
yet was always complaining about not having enough? And you look at them and you
think, Wait a minute. Know that he's wealthy, but look
how he dresses. Or, Look what he drives. Look where he lives. You wonder, Well, it doesn't
quite match. In other words, if he has all of
that, why does he act the way he acts? And so you have to ask yourself
the question, Well, does he not know that he's wealthy? Does he not believe that he's
wealthy? Does he not know how to cash in
on his wealth? What's wrong with a person who
lives that kind of life? Well, something definitely is
wrong. But I know a lot of believers
who are the same way. They are very wealthy. They don't act like it. They don't claim it. I think because they don't
believe it, because either they've never been taught or
somewhere along the way they missed this awesome truth. And when I think about how clear
God has made His Word, and the awesome way He has provided for
us, and yet people oftentimes act like they're paupers. Or act like, you know, I just
never have enough. God's left me out. God doesn't understand what my
needs are. I know that's what the Bible
says, but it's not working for me. Well, what's the problem? Is the problem with God? Or is the problem with the fact
that I don't understand what I have. So I want you to listen very
carefully. It'll change your way you think
about yourself and maybe the way you think about God. So I want you to turn to the
little book of Second Peter and look if you will in chapter one. And this is the second message
in our series on "The Promises of God." And we talked last week about
why we can trust His promises. And in order to trust someone's
promises you have to look at their character, first of all. And then you look at their
ability to fulfill what they promise. And we saw then looking at the
attributes of God that He certainly has the right
character. He's always going to be truthful
and faithful and so forth. And certainly He has the ability
because He has all power and all might. And in this particular passage
of scripture, Peter describes this awesome wealth that you and
I have. Listen to what he says. Beginning in verse one of this
first chapter of Second Peter, "Simon Peter, a bond-servant and
apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith
of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and
Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in
the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." Now watch these next two verses,
"Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything
pertaining to life and godliness, through the true
knowledge of Him," that's Jesus, "who called us by His own,"
listen, "by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to
us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you
may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped
the corruption that is in this world by lust." Now it's these last two verses I
want us to look at for a moment, when he says that, "His divine
power has granted," us something. That it has gifted us something. What's that gift? He says, Everything we need to
live a godly life. And when he says, look, "He has
granted to us." He uses a form of the verb which
means that has granted to us in the past; and what He has
granted to us in the past is still going on. It is called the passive
participle. Something happened in the past
and is still going on. So God has granted to every
single one of His children something that is still going on
in their life. And what that is is He note--He
mentions here these, "Precious and magnificent promises, so
that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in this world by lust." In which He's simply saying is
this. You and I trusted Jesus Christ
as our Savior; we took upon ourselves the nature of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Doesn't mean that we're exactly
like Him, but we have Him living on the inside of us. Now think about this for a
moment. If you have Jesus on the inside
of you, which He talks about abiding in Him and He's abiding
in us. And as Paul talks about Christ
in us, our hope of glory. If Jesus Christ is abiding in
me, living in me, then I have the most valuable thing possible
on the inside of me. And he puts it in this way. He speaks of promises and
describes them as precious and magnificent. Now if something is precious,
that means it's very valuable, of course. And, if it's magnificent, it's
superb. It's beyond what is ordinary by
far and it's splendid and it's noble. And when he talks about
something being precious and then being magnificent, we're
talking about something precious is something I cherish, I adore,
I take care of it. And so, he's simply saying this,
that every single believer has this possession. We have the promises of God
within us and these promises from God's viewpoint are very
precious and they are magnificent. Now the question is this. Why should we believe that the
promises of God can be described this way? That they are promises that are
cherishable, magnificent, precious, why? And so most of this message is
going to be answering that simple question. And first of all, I would simply
say that one of the primary reasons that they are
cherishable, magnificent and precious is Who gave them. All the promises in the Word of
God came from Almighty God. He never gives anything that's
second-rate. He doesn't almost do anything. He didn't sort of create the
world, but perfect design in every single aspect of it. So it is in your life and mine. He doesn't do things halfway. He does them completely,
beautifully, magnificently. And the problem is we don't get
that message oftentimes. And so when we talk about His
promises falling in that category, then here's what it
says to me. That means if I have these
promises, I have something extremely valuable to me
personally. Because His promises are given
to every single one of His children. Once you receive Jesus Christ as
your personal Savior, it's this awesome sense of wealth that
comes with that that most people will never recognize. In fact, most people are going
to live out their lives and they're going to come toward the
end of it and here's what they're going to start saying. If I'd-a. If I'd-a just made that
decision. If I'd-a taken that job. If I'd-a taken that direction. If I'd-a said this. If I had not done that. If I had not moved. If I had not made that decision. So it's If I'd-a. If I'd-a done this; If I'd-a
done that; If I'd-a done the other. And you don't have to come to
the end of your life to start thinking that. I meet people all the time, and
in the course of the conversation, if that
conversation's long enough somewhere along the way, if we
get to talking about spiritual things, they're going to bring
up this whole, whole idea, Well, If I'd-a this and If I'd-a that,
and I wish this and wish that. And so, what you have to ask is
this. How do you want to live out your
life? How do you want to come to your
end of your life? And I want to show you a
wonderful passage in a moment. How do you want to come to the
end of your life? Thanking God for what He's done
in your life. Thanking God for what He allowed
you to do. Are you going to come to the end
of your life and think, Why, If I'd-a this and If I'd-a that? That's the story of a defeated
man or woman. And so, what I want you to see
in this passage of scripture and in all these passages is this. Watch this carefully. I know that many of you are not
going to believe this, but listen carefully. Whether you know it or not, the
day you received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you became
this awesome, wealthy person. Now, you say, Well, why am I
where I am financially? I don't know, maybe you've made
some decisions that weren't very wise. But let's just scratch the
material things for a moment. When you think about what you
own and what your wealth is, where is your wealth? Is it in your family? Is it in your material
possessions? Are you wise enough to recognize
that your wealth is in a form and a fashion that no one can
take from you. You will never be able to spend
it all. That it's there, given to you by
God. And it's given to you by God,
which He will never change. Because the moment you trusted
Him as your Savior, you inherited something. You became a child of God. And with that decision of
becoming a child of God, you became a very valuable person. Now where is all this value? Here's where it is. It's in the promises of God. And I'm going to show you in a
few moments why I say that. That when you trusted Him as
your Savior, the promises of the Word of God became your
promises, you are a very wealthy person. And there are many believers
who think, when they look at their lives, they talk about
what they don't have and they wish this and God hasn't
answered this prayer and so forth. There's a reason they're
thinking what they're thinking. What I want you to see is this
simple truth. How wealthy you are as a child
of God by the gift of His magnificent and precious
promises, they are yours, but you much cash in on them. For example, you could be a
multi-millionaire, have a big checkbook and you could write a
check for anything you wanted. But if you just took the
checkbook and you looked at it and you played with it and you
ripped this one out and you filled out this one, filled out
that and throw it in the trash can and you just sort of played
with the checkbook. You could starve to death,
because you don't cash in on what's yours. The money's in the bank under
your name. And you talk about it. You'd tell other people about
it, but you never present the check, and you never cash in on
it. Listen carefully. As a child of God, your life has
been bequeathed. And when he says in this
passage, "Granted to," you these awesome precious promises of
His. Magnificent promises. Then the question is this. What is all that? In other words it's like walking
to this treasure chest and opening it and saying, Wow! I didn't know that I had all of
this. So what I'd like to do is simply
tell you what you have. Now one of the messages I want
to preach about is simply this. And that is, How do you claim a
promise? That's coming later. Right now I want you to see what
is at your disposal; what is before you to be enjoyed, to be
claimed, to call upon. And you have to ask yourself the
question, number one, do I believe this? And secondly, how do I claim it? So let's think about it for a
moment, and let's begin where God begins in all of our lives. And I'm going to put on the
screen here, there are quite a number of these. I'm going to--watch this. I'm going to show you how
wealthy you are. Because every single one of
these promises just shows you, in a moment, how much more
wealthy you are than you think. Now, watch this carefully. You'll sit here, or out there
and the devil will say to you, Aww, you know what? That's just some sermon about
something in the Bible? Correct. But you have to make up your
mind whether you want God's best or you want to keep living in
poverty. If you are wise, you'll listen
carefully. And you'll write down what's
going to be on the screen, because it'll be real simple
from this point on. And you can follow. So, let's begin with the first
evidence of God's wealth that He's bequeathed to you. So I want you to turn if you
will to Romans chapter five for a moment. And we'll be going through a
number of scriptures. Romans chapter five tells us how
it all starts. And here's what he says. He says in verse six, "For while
we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the
ungodly. For one will hardly die for a
righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would
dare even to die. But God demonstrated His own
love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Much more then, having been
justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God
through Him. For if while we were enemies we
were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, we shall
be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also
exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we
have now received the reconciliation." Now watch this. When you trusted Jesus Christ as
your personal Savior, He forgave you of all your sins. He brought you into relationship
with Himself, a personal relationship, that from that
point on, watch this, you can call yourself a child of God. That is your possession. You now have a heritage, and
that heritage is that God is your Father; Jesus Christ is
your Savior, your brother; and you are now a member of the
Family of God. That's who you are. You ceased to be who you used to
be, a child of the devil. You are now a child of God,
number one. Very important. And until that happens, nothing
else that I'm going to say would apply to you. But that's the beginning and
that's the foundation. When I hear, listen to
Christians talk oftentimes and I'll say, You ever been saved? Yes, I have. Well, what about your Christian
life? Well, I don't know; somewhere
back yonder; this, that and the other. They don't even realize what
happened to them. God invited them into His family
and now calls them a follower of Jesus. That is an awesome heritage in a
promise from God. Now, that's one thing. So, let's think about it in this
light also. We're talking about, they's
talking about the wealth that you have. The second thing I want you to
notice is this. Not only did He save you and
forgive you and cleanse you and write your name in the Lamb's
Book of Life, make you part of the Kingdom, but He gave you
this promise. And this promise is in First
John one nine. You all know it by heart, "If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." What an awesome promise. Here's what that means. It means that as I live out my
life in this filthy, dirty world, I can stay clean every
day. Because He says, "If we confess
our sins, He is faithful," that is you can trust Him. Faithful and just, He has the
right to do it. "Forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from every unrighteous thing." That says I am very wealthy;
that I have the privilege of going to God Almighty, asking
Him, Lord, this is in my life. It shouldn't be. I recognize it. I acknowledge it. And I'm asking You to forgive me
of my sins. That is an awesome possession. A third part of that wealth is
simply this. And that is, His continued
presence in our life. Think about this. Who else can promise you this? This is the sovereign God of the
universe who says, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." There in Hebrews chapter
thirteen, verse five, "I will never leave you, nor forsake
you." You know what that says? See if you can match this. You have a traveling companion
in the Person of Jesus Christ who will never, under any
condition, no matter what, ever desert you or forsake you,
period. Now who can promise you that? Nobody can promise you that. And you see, it's when people
turn their eyes away from the Lord God, and when they start
looking at themselves and their situation, circumstances. Instead of asking, What's the
promise of the Father? The promise of the Father is
you, listen, once you trust Jesus as your Savior, you can't
ever be alone. You may want to be, you can't
be. He says, I will not forsake you. No, never desert you under any
condition. That is an unconditional promise
of God that belongs to every believer and, listen, nobody can
change that. You could go to prison or you
could be here, you could be there, doesn't make any
difference. He says, "I will never leave
you, nor forsake you." I'll never desert you, period. So the next time you get down in
the mouth and you're alone and you think, I need a counselor, I
need this. Oh God, help me. Just stop and ask yourself the
question, Now what is it that I possess? I possess Jesus as my intimate
Friend, who lives on the inside of me and who promised that no
matter what goes on in my life, He will never leave me. You can't beat that for a
promise or for friendship. That is an awesome possession
which no one else can give you and no one else can promise you
that. Then of course, He promises us
that we don't even have to live this life in our own strength
and power. But we have the Holy Spirit who
is called our Helper. There in John chapter fourteen,
verse sixteen. When He says, I'm going to send
you a Helper, and when He comes. He talks about what He will do
for us. When He calls you to serve Him,
you have the Holy Spirit to enable you, to give you wisdom
and direction and guidance for your life; and to empower you in
order to do well, to do good, whatever He calls you to do. Nobody else can do that. Listen. People, and oftentimes pastors;
and when they fall in this trap, they go on their eloquence and
they go on their education and all these things. The truth is none of us has
anything to say apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. It's the Spirit of God that
takes the Word of God that drives it home to people's
hearts. You have, watch this, you have
the third Person of the Trinity living on the inside of you,
listen, and you have His guarantee that He will never
leave you. And He will empower you to do
anything and everything God calls you to do, whether that's
being a godly mother of your children or being the president
of a corporation. Doesn't make any difference what
it is. That's His promise. And it's these promises that
make you wealthy. So far, you've not heard
anything that I've said that anybody else can provide for you
other than God because of your relationship to Him. Then of course, there's the
whole issue of God's strength. And there are lots of verses in
here about all of these, but if you'll notice in this
forty-first chapter of Isaiah. Listen to what he says. He says, "You're my servant. I've chosen you and not rejected
you, Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about
you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I
will help you." I will strengthen you. Listen. What that promise is is the
promise of God's strength. All of us come to those times in
our life when we feel weak, or we don't feel like we can
manage, or we don't feel like we can make it. He says, "I will strengthen
you." Now, if your friends promise you
that, that just depends on what they can do. But, listen, when the Sovereign
of the universe, who has all power and all might, gives you
this wondrous, precious, magnificent promise, "I will
strengthen you." I can tell you that is a promise
no one else can promise you, but it an awesome, magnificent
promise. I think about it a few times,
probably a lot of times, in the ministry when maybe the week's
been very, very full and studied and prayed and all the rest and,
and yet, come Sunday morning maybe I'd be a little tired. Or, for example, if I've had a
flu or something like that and thank God I haven't had that in
many, many years. But I can remember the times
that I have and think, God, I can hardly get dressed and
somehow think, Oh, Jesus, You're going to have to help me. And I'm telling Him what kind of
shape I'm in and I've done my best all week and pity party,
this, that and the other. Walk out on the platform, it's
like all that disappears and the power of God's all over the
place. That can only be God doing what
He says, "I will strengthen you," listen. That's your possession. It's a promise, listen. And you say well, I'm not sure
God'll do that for me. He doesn't make exceptions. Now if you are living in sin, it
doesn't mean God won't strengthen you, but what you do,
you foul up the issue. But He says, "I will strengthen
you, I will help you." I will undergird you. I will be for you whatever you
need. Then He says, for example, that
He'll supply all of our needs. Who can promise you that? Not one person. So there are lots of verses in
the Bible about that, but probably one of the most
valuable ones is the sixth chapter of Matthew. "For this reason I say to you,
do not be worried about your life, as to what you're going to
eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you
will put on. Is not life more than food, and
your body more than clothing?" He talks about the birds of the
air and the lilies of the field and all the rest and then He
comes down and He says, "Do not worry then, saying, 'What will
you eat? What will you drink?, What will
you wear for your clothing?'" He says the unbelievers think
about "these things; your heavenly Father knows that
you need all of these things." So what is He saying? Here's His promise to do what? To meet our daily needs. Who else can promise you that? Nobody. You say, Well, my--these--no,
no, no, no. Nobody can promise you that
they're going to answer your prayer but Almighty God. Nobody can promise you that
whatever the situation or circumstance that you're in,
whatever need you have, here's their promise. He says He knows what their need
is and He will provide that need, no matter what. And so, what about this whole
issue of answered prayer? Who can promise you that they'll
answer your prayer? Oh somebody may be able to help
you in some issue, but listen to what He says. In First John, chapter five,
fourteen and fifteen, "This is the confidence which we have in
Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears
us. And if we know that He hears us,
we know that we have the," petition that we desired of Him. Who can promise you that? No one else. And there are many, many verses
of promise answered prayer in the Word of God. But watch this. People say, Well, I have needs. Are you cashing in? Your--what need do you have? Well, how do I cash in? Well, prayer is certainly one of
the ways. And so, oftentimes we feel needy
and we want somebody else to meet the need or we think, Well,
I don't know how God's going to work this out. Here's the promise, "This is the
confidence that you have in Him." And so He makes it crystal
clear. For example, He says, "Ask and
it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it
shall be opened to you." So there's promise after promise
after promise of answered prayer. Therefore, if you don't have
what you need, it's because you are not claiming for yourself
what He has very clearly promised in the Word of God. He said, "I will never leave
you, nor forsake you." So He's there. And you--so your loneliness, He
can handle that. Whether a material need you
have, He makes a promise that He will absolutely supply that
need. You see, we're not living on the
path that God wants us to live because we're thinking about
other things. You see, I want you to see what
you possess. This is what you have in you. This is what you have now. That you have the privilege; you
have access to God the Father who will hear your petition,
your cry, whatever it might be. Then He gives us this awesome
passage in the eighty-fourth Psalm. Look at this for a moment. Love this eighty-fourth Psalm
because of what He promises and the way, God has said it in this
particular passage. He says for all of His children,
this only applies to His children. He says in verse eleven of the
eighty-fourth Psalm, "For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
The Lord gives grace and glory." Now watch this, "No good thing,"
watch that, "No good thing does He withhold from those who walk
uprightly." Look at that promise. Nobody can promise you that. "No good thing will He withhold
from those who walk uprightly." That is a possession you have. That every single solitary thing
that you need God has already provided for. And He says not only that, He
won't withhold it from you if you walk uprightly. That's one of those promises
that's conditional. That is if you walk, live a
godly life, whatever you need; He says He will not hold
any--withhold any good thing from you. So ask yourself today, What is
it that you need in your life? Well, where do you go? Well, God says, I won't withhold
it from you if you will trust Me and you'll walk in My way and
you will walk and, in a godly life. So then He says, and if you'll
look at the sixty-eighth Psalm and I want you to notice again
all of us have needs in our life. God knows about every single one
of them. And here's what He says in this
sixty-eighth Psalm; speaking of the burdens and so forth that we
bear. All of us have burdens we bear
in life. And here's what He says in verse
nineteen, "Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burdens,"
listen, "the God who is our salvation." There are people who wake up
every morning, and if you could see them internally, this is the
way they wake up. They're bent over with burdens,
heartaches and trials in their life they can't handle. Listen to what He says. He says, Daily the Lord bears
our burden. That's a promise we have. We, listen, we don't have to go
through any single day of our life carrying burdens and
heartaches. Now somebody says, Well, how
much weight can you bear? Watch this. I could put a few pounds right
here, but lift a few pounds or, listen, lift a few pounds off my
shoulders. You can put two thousand pounds
on my back, as long as it's a quarter of an inch off my body. You can't come up with any
amount of burden that God can't handle. He's the burden-bearer. And here's what He says. This is how rich you are. You have a relationship to God
and here's what He says. I will bear every single, I will
bear every single burden that you have. Listen to this. He didn't say once in a while,
He said "Blessed is the Lord who daily bears our burden, the God
who is our salvation." Jehovah, Yahweh, Elohim. This is the God of this universe
and He says, I'll bear your burden. I don't know what you're dealing
with right now, but here's what He says. Whatever burden you're dealing
with, He's the burden bearer. You say, Well, how do I give it
to God? You bring it before Him. You lay it before Him and we'll
talk about that. How do you claim it? Listen. It is not His will for His
people to be down in the dumps and discouraged and living with
a frown on their face. He talks about the joy of the
Lord. And we're to have that joy. As long as I'm bearing down with
all kind of things and all kinds of weight in my life and
frustrations and anxieties and worries, suppose this, suppose
that, can't have any joy in my life. You see, you don't have to live
that way. That's a promise from God. Then of course, He says that
whenever you and I are troubled, He will comfort us. We have a comforter. In Second Corinthians and that
first chapter, and notice what he says here. And the reason he says this. He says, for example, "Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all
our affliction," not some of it, "in all of our affliction so
that we will be able to comfort others who are in any affliction
with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." That is, no matter you're facing
in life. And all of us go through those
trying times. He says He's the great
Comforter. Now watch this. He is absolutely omniscient. He knows all about what
I'm--what I need comfort about. He is omnipotent; He has all the
power necessary to comfort me. And we could go right down the
list of His awesome attributes. Think about this. When we go through those
difficult times, we want to talk to somebody who understands us. He says He's the great
Comforter. And He will comfort us in,
listen, in every affliction, whatever it might be. That's part of our possession. And this is what He called the
Holy Spirit, Parakletos, which means the one who walks by my
side. So God who is living within me
in the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit, He knows what
I'm troubled about. He knows what brings me sorrow
and heartache and regret or whatever it might be. He says, Here's one of My
promises to you. I'll be there and I will comfort
you no matter what. And I've seen that happen in so
many people's lives, in different circumstances when all
of a sudden they come to this passage or they let me sort of
explain it to them a little bit, and they say, Oh, you mean God
will take this off me? Yes, He will. He promises that no matter what
you and I are going through, whatever trial, He sets a
limitation on in First Corinthians chapter ten, verse
thirteen. Look at that. He says, "No temptation has
taken you but such as is common to man." That is, any temptation or
trial, and he says, but, "God is faithful." Now watch this. He says, "But such as is common
to man; and God is faithful." That means you can trust Him;
you can depend upon Him, "Who will not," watch this, "who will
not allow you to be tempted or tried beyond what you are able,
but will with the temptation, He'll provide the way of escape,
so that you and I can endure it." And here's what that means. You and I hit those temptations,
those trials in our life and we think, God, I can't handle this. I don't know what I'm going to
do about this. God, why do You let these things
happen? You know we claim our promise. What's the promise? Here's what he say, If anybody
else promised you this, you could doubt it. But God says, "I will not allow
you to be tempted," and tried more than, "you are able," to
bear. Now that is only to a believer. What you can bear because of
your relationship to Him, why? Well, first of all you have the
Holy Spirit living on inside of you. One of His responsibilities is
to comfort us, to give us direction for our life. And so, when it comes to
meetings those issues and trials, we say, Oh, but God, You
tempted me. No, He didn't. Lord, why did You let this
happen to me? Maybe He wants to show you
something. And he says, Mark it down. You have this possession. This is a promise that's yours
if you claim it. It's yours whether you claim it
or not. But it's yours in action. It's yours as an absolute
promise of God. I have set a limitation on
everything you have to face in life. Now that is a very encouraging
word to people who are going through difficulty and
situations in their life. Then of course, He says that He
will grant us wisdom. In James, if you will notice in
that first chapter, he makes the promise of wisdom. Listen to what he says, "For if
any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all
people generously and without reproach, and it will be given
to him." Somebody says, Well, I don't
know what to do. Well, listen, you may not know
what to do. Do you want wisdom? You have the promise of wisdom. Watch this. A promise of God says that all
of the sovereign power of God is behind what He promises and He
will make it work. You need wisdom? That is, you need to see things
from God's perspective. You need to make a wise decision
here? You have that promise, that He
will grant you wisdom in every circumstance of life because
that's who He is. You have the wisdom of God
dwelling within you. Now if you're living in sin,
here's what that does. It confuses the issue. And you, listen, you'll not be
able, listen, here's what sin does. Sin does what? Sin crowds out the truth of the
Living God. And it's not that it's not
there; it's that you don't know how to seek His wisdom. Or, secondly, you don't believe
that God is absolutely sufficient for that. This is what the devil always
does. The devil wants to create doubt. If he can create doubt within
you, then He's won a victory over you. Does it mean you've lost the
promise? No, fact is you refuse to claim
the promise and so what happens is you make very unwise
decisions. And then people say, Well, God
should have stopped it. No, God has offered you wisdom. That's a promise from Him. Listen, in every single solitary
situation you have a promise from God that He will give you
wisdom to know how to respond or how to react in that given
situation. That's one of the things that
makes us wealthy. Tell me anything any more
valuable than wisdom. Seeing things from God's
perspective and knowing how to walk in it. And then of course, He promises
us rest in this eleventh chapter of Matthew, notice what Jesus
said in those days. He said, "Come unto Me all--Come
unto Me all you who are weary and heavy-laden, I will give you
rest. Take My yoke upon you, Take My
teachings, My learning upon you and learn from Me, for I am
gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your
souls. My yoke is easy and My burden is
light." All of us find ourselves in
those situations where we need, we need, listen, not just
physical rest but emotional rest. We need to be able to rest on
the inside. What does He say? He says, "Come unto Me." And He says, I'll give it to
you. "Here's what I want you to see. Deposited within these bodies of
ours and these minds of ours is every single solitary thing we
need, given to us as a promise from Almighty God. That no matter what's happening,
He's there to make that provision, whatever it might
be." Then we come to this whole issue
of peace. And in the passage that most of
us know by heart in Philippians. Listen to what Paul says. He says, now, "Rejoice in the
Lord," he says, "Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing," don't
get upset about these things, "but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known
to God. And the peace of God, which
surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your
minds in Christ Jesus." What is he saying? He says this. No matter what's going on in
your life, God will give you a garrison, a wall that will
separate you from anxiety that will, listen, that will fulfill
your need of peace in your life. Why, what did Jesus say? The Bible says that Jesus is our
peace. Who's living on the inside of
you? The Lord Jesus Christ. And so, we go through situations
and circumstances. Sometimes we hear bad news and
frightening news, whatever it might be. Where do we get our peace from? Oftentimes it's not from our
friends, not from the doctor, not from the banker, not from
this, it's from Him. Think about this. Your peace isn't something you
get from him, her and them. Your peace abides within you. It is an indwelling promise of
God. What did Jesus say? "My peace I give unto you; not
as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled." One of the most awesome promises
He gives us is that we can have peace in whatever we're faced in
life. Now, I want you to get this one
down. I want you to turn to Psalm,
ninety-two because here is certainly one that a lot of
people need to think about. Because here is a promise that
many people are certainly not living by because if they were,
you could see it. And that is the promise that you
and I can be, listen, watch this, that we can be strong and
fruitful in old age. Now, there are a lot of folks,
they're getting about fifty-five or fifty-seven or sixty, and
specially sixty-five. Well, it's time to retire. Well, now who said so? Number one. Secondly, Well, you know, after
I'm getting tired and so I'll just relax and take it easy and
just slow down. Well, what does the Word of God
say? In other words, is that reality? Is that what God wants? Because there are many people
who do their best work after they're sixty-five years of age. So what kind of a promise do I
have about getting old? Well, first of all, let me ask
you this. What is old? I can tell you what it is. Not as old as it used to be. Listen to this passage, Psalm
ninety-two, verse twelve, "The righteous man will flourish like
the palm tree." I'm coming back to that, "He
will grow like a cedar in Lebanon." Now a palm tree flourishes with
fruit--coconuts. Coconuts, coconuts, coconuts,
flourish like the palm tree, will grow like a cedar in
Lebanon. Lebanese cedars are straight up
and down. Their limbs are straight out
like this. They're just beautiful examples
and pictures of strength. Listen to what he says, "The
righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, he will grow like
a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the
Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in
old age; they shall be full of sap and very green, To declare
that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no
unrighteousness in Him." Now here's the promise of God. Here's what He promises. First of all, what's old? It's the way a person thinks. And He says, look. Even in old age you can be like
the flourishing, flourishing, growing, fruitful palm tree. Blows with the wind; doesn't
have any roots, but the cedars of Lebanon, straight up,
powerful, root goes straight down. Stand all kind of storms. He said, That's the way God's
people can live out their lives. And that is that no matter what
your age may be, you can be fruitful he says and
flourishing. And when he talks about the idea
of sap, he says, "They shall be full of sap and very green." What does that mean? That means the energy that is in
a growing plant, the sap is flowing; something's going on. So why do you want to get old
when you don't have to get old? Because old, in other words, age
doesn't mean necessarily old. Because notice how he says this. He says, "The righteous man will
flourish like a palm tree grows like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the
Lord, flourish in the courts of our God. Still yield fruit in old age;
full of sap and very green," what is it saying? He says, "The righteous man,"
the righteous woman. The righteous man and woman has
the privilege of living a life that is fruitful no matter what
the age may be. And they can be strong no matter
what the age is. Full of sap means energy,
strength, bearing fruit, still making a difference whatever it
may be. So, I would just simply ask you,
When do you want to get old? We have to choose. Are we going to claim His
promise? And if you claim His promise
today, God, I know that You can call me home any time You get
ready, but until then I want to give it my best. I want to be strong. I want to be fruitful. I want my life to count for the
kingdom of God. And then look in Psalm
thirty-seven and because here's a wonderful promise of God. If I should say to you, Would
you like to have the desires of your heart? And if I say to you, What are
the desires of your heart? Somebody says, Well, I want a
husband, I want a wife, I want this, I want that. What are the desires of your
heart? Here's what God says. This is a promise from Almighty
God who has all power and, listen, He has unconditional
love for you. "Delight yourself in the Lord;
and He will give you the desires of your heart." In other words, what does it
mean to be delighted in Him? Look at that passage. Read it a little bit. Ask God to show you, what does
it mean to delight yourself in Him? Ultimately, simply means this. Above everything in my--else in
my life that's important, my relationship with Him is the
most important thing. I am delighted in serving Him. I'm delighting in worshipping
Him. I'm delighting in giving Him. I'm delighted in living out a
godly life. He says, "Delight yourself in
the Lord; He will give you the desires of your heart." Then you say, Well, what about
when we face troubles, real troubles, difficulties, and so
forth? What's His promise. Look in Psalm forty-six and
verse one, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present
help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth should change and though the mountains slip
into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains quake at its swelling pride." And so forth. The reason I remember that verse
of scripture. This is the influence one school
teacher had on me in the eighth grade that I've never forgotten. Every morning we started our
class, she read the forty-sixth Psalm, and a number of verses,
but primarily she always emphasized this one, "God is our
refuge," watch this. Where do you run when you're in
trouble? "God is our refuge," a place to
run in time of trouble. And our strength. What's the source of your
strength? Watch this. I love this. He didn't say a help in time of
trouble. He said, "A very present help,"
which means no matter when and where and what, present. Why?
Living on the inside of us. We have the promise of His
presence; the promise of His strength; the promise of His
help, no matter what we are facing in life. No one can promise us that but
Almighty God. And then, for example, if you go
back to Psalm thirty-two, listen to what He says. I love this passage because we
all need it. He promises to give us direction
for our life. In the eighth verse, "I will
instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I
will counsel you with My eye upon you." Think about the--think about
what a possession that is, what a promise that is, that God will
give you direction anytime in your life you need it. Here's the promise, "I will
instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I
will counsel you," listen to this. Not from a distance. He says, "I will counsel you
with My eye on you." That is, I know where you are. I know where you're headed. I know what's ahead. I know the things you--pitfalls. I know the things that are
dangerous. He says, I will give you
direction and guidance for your life. That's an awesome promise of
Almighty God. And every single believer has
that promise. Then, He says, for example, a
passage that many people don't believe. We have the promise of healing
in time of sickness. Look at the hundred and third
Psalm. Look in that first verse, "Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His
holy name." Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget none. Listen, "And forget none of His
benefits." What are they? "Who pardons all our iniquities,
who heals all your diseases." Now let me ask you a question. When we talk about the
attributes of God, the attributes of God is one of
them; He is--He's--He never changes. He's immutable. He never changes. So did He heal people in the Old
Testament? Yeah. Did He heal people in the New
Testament? Yes. Does He heal people past the New
Testament? Yes.
Does He heal people today? Yes. Then if we believe that, why do
we have a little sore throat or have a little sniffle, we want
to run to the doctor for antibiotics. What about running to Jesus? You say, Now are you against
doctors? Absolutely not. God calls them to be physicians. And Paul had Luke along with
him. But what I want you to see is
this. I think God would heal many
things and many things about us if we stopped and reminded Him
of what He said. He "who heals all our diseases." Now either He quit in Jesus' day
or Paul's day, or He's still doing it. Now the reason He's still doing
it is because it can't change. And we're just as much children
of God as the Apostle Paul or anybody else. Think about how simple this is. Now this part, this part we
believe, who forgives all our sins. Amen? That's not loud enough. Amen? What about this part? "Who heals all our diseases." Mm-hm, sounds a little bit low
on that one. You know what? We don't even realize what we
let the world do to us. We say, Well, now I know, I,
yeah, I-mm, mm, mm. I believe that. Well, do we believe the healing
as much as we believe the other part? That He forgives our sin? Let me ask you a question. Which cost God the most? Healing my sins or my physical
body? All of it got wrapped up in what
happened at Calvary. I simply want us, you to see
this. We have possessions. We have all these promises and
His promises. He, for example, He says, I sent
My Word, and with My Word I healed them. My Word will not return to me
void. I'm simply saying we have
promises we don't even think about cashing in. Now most people want to pray
about something, and some physical ailment when the
doctors have said it's all over or something very serious. Why don't we talk to Him first? Because we have grown up and
we've been acclimated, and we've been told, and we've been
warned, and we've been scared. The truth is, God is the great
Healer. Does that mean that nobody's
going to die? No, it doesn't mean that. But it means we can be healthy
and as strong until the Lord finishes with us. Then it doesn't make any
difference what happens because think about this. If we have all these promises
here, what about going to Heaven and be in the presence of God? Then of course, look in Romans
eight. When I think about the awesome
promise in Romans eight; and that is the fact that nothing
can separate us from the awesome love of God. Listen to what he says in this
passage. And here's a promise. And many people don't, they
don't really believe this. Listen to this. He says in verse thirty-eight,
"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
powers, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing,
will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord." Think about this. You have the awesome gift of
God's unconditional love within your life. Nobody can promise you that but
God. Now you may want this person to
love you or that person, but look who loves you. And He said besides that. And He named all these things. Nothing can separate you from
the love of God. That's a possession you have. You possess the love of Almighty
God. That will never change. Then if you will turn to John
chapter ten for a moment. And here is His awesome promise
of eternal security. Listen to what He says, "My
sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; And I
give to them eternal life, and they will never perish." He didn't say except, if, and,
but, when, where, "they will never perish; and no one will
snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who gave them to Me,
is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My
Father's hand. I and the Father are one." Think about what you possess. You possess the gift of eternal
life. Watch this. Nothing, no one, no time,
nothing can alter that under any condition. You are a child of God. You are eternally secure. You live in sin, then there are
some other promises about chastisement and discipline. But we're talking about the
promise God has given you; that you are eternally secure. And I spent almost two hours
talking with someone this week who was totally convinced and
persuaded that when you die, for example, that you did not
believe in eternal security anymore. And when you die what happens is
you go to the grave. I said, You mean, you don't
believe you die and go to be with Jesus? No. You die and you go to sleep. Now where'd you get that? I knew where they got it from. In First Thessalonians chapter
four, Paul talks about being asleep in Jesus. But that's a term he uses in
order to describe how a Christian dies. That is, you went to bed last
night; you went to sleep; you became unconscious; woke up this
morning; a whole new day. Some of you woke up late, but
you woke up this morning. And so what did Paul mean by
that? He was simply describing how the
Christian lives. So, we went on talking about
that, and just let that other person just go on and on and on,
telling me, why they believe what they believed and so forth. And I said, Well, I wonder if I
could just give you one verse of scripture, or maybe two. Listen to this. Paul said, "For me, to live is
Christ and to die is gain." Which simply meant this. For me to live is for Christ to
keep living in and through me. But for me to die is to be my
gain, "But if I am to live on in this flesh, this will remain
faithful, labor for me; and I do not know which to choose." He says, on the one-hand I just
want to die and be with Jesus. On the other-hand I want to stay
here and preach the Gospel. He says, For I have "the desire
to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;
yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake." Now, I said to her, I said,
Listen. Do you think the Apostle Paul
meant that He wanted to die and get buried in a casket and
covered up with six foot of dirt and be there sleeping for two
thousand years. Is that what he meant? It's like the light suddenly
dawned. No, He said, Absent from the
body, present with the Lord. This death business, in other
words, what would a pastor say at a memorial service if that
were true? That when you die you get--you
go to sleep, sleep for two thousand years. Wouldn't make any difference
what the pastor said. But he'd have to end up saying,
Well, our dearly beloved one who's gone to be--he'd have to
stop and think, Oh, gone to be placed in the grave, covered up
with six feet of dirt. One of these days, maybe two
thousand years from now or six months from now, we'll see him
again. There would be nothing consoling
in that whatsoever. Paul said, Here's the issue. I want to stay here and preach
the Gospel so you will keep on growing in a Christian life. On the other hand, I want to die
and be with Jesus. If he'd have thought there'd
been any other choice, he would have named it, he didn't. It's to die and be with the
Lord. That's one of the awesome
promises you and I have. That when it's absent from the
body, present with the Lord. Listen. Who could give you that promise? Only Almighty God could. Then I would give you one last,
we could deal with this all day long, but I'm going to stop in a
few moments. But what I want you to see is,
is what you possess; what you have. Listen to what Jesus said. He said, "Do not let your heart
be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many
mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; I go to
prepare a place for you. And If I go and prepare a place
for you, I'm coming again to receive you to Myself, that
where I am, there you may be also." Period. We have the promise of Heaven. Now think about this. You possess as your own awesome,
unchangeable, eternal promises from Almighty God who rules all
things. And every single one of these
promises, listen, is given to every one of His children the
moment that they're saved. Now the problem is that
oftentimes people live their whole life and never gain enough
information, enough knowledge, enough experience to realize
what's theirs. What I want you to see is simply
this. A promise from God is an awesome
thing. And my challenge to you is
simply this, claim what is yours. And whatever you're facing in
life remember who you are, a follower of Jesus, and how rich
you are, and listen, and the awesome capacity you have to
serve Him with all of your heart in a way that you will never
grow old, but you'll be flourishing and fruitful and
strong all the days of your life. Amen? Father, how grateful we are this
morning for the wonderful promise of your Word. And what makes it so wonderful
is the fact that we know it'll never change. You'll never change. We can't even begin to think up
anything we need that you haven't covered. So we say thank you this
morning. And I pray that you'll show us
how to so live that people who are spiritually in poverty will
want to know what is the source of our riches and we can tell
them. In Jesus' name, Amen. announcer: If you've been
blessed by today's program, please visit us at INTOUCH.org.
