Manouchka Charles — 1 John: The Confidence We Have

so once you turn with me to first John 5 verse 14 and 15 and then we're going to jump over to Hebrews 11 so you can just place mark those two and it says this is the confidence we have in approaching God that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us and we know that he hears us and if we know that he hears us whatever we ask we know that we have when we ask of him I'm going to turn to Hebrews 11 this is the faith chapter faith in action and it says starting from verse 1 now faith is the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance about what we do not see this is what the ancients were commended for by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible I'm going to jump to verse 6 and it says and without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him and I just want to take a moment to talk to you from this thought the confidence we have the confidence we have come on let's pray together God we thank you we thank you that we have confidence in you we thank you that we can come to you in confidence in full confidence for God that you will speak to us in the here-and-now Lord pray that you would speak through me that you would let your word go forth and your name we pray amen and come on because I'm like a lot of noise why don't we give God one more shout of praise so in my studying I've realised that the promises of God are conditional but then there are also some promises of God that are unconditional and you say how do I say this as we look through the Word of God we see a lot of promises that start with if this first one that we just now read here in first John John is saying to his audience that if we anything according to his will he hears us then we read in Luke 17 it says if you have faith as small as a mustard seed and you can say to this mulberry tree be uprooted and planted in the sea it will obey you another if statement Matthew 21 and 22 if you believe you will receive whatever you asked for in prayer Romans 10 and 9 says if you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord believe in your heart that he raised him from the dead you will be saved a lot of if statements is just a few of them but I've realized that the promises of God are conditional but the nature of God is unconditional and so I've come to this conclusion that the promises of God are conditionally unconditional say how do i how do I know this I just want to break it down a little bit anybody good at math anybody no one in the room Wow amazing well what are we doing school just nothing but me I'm with you I'm not good at math but we learn something called conditional statements does anybody know what conditional statements anybody besides with vari and conditional statements is all about the ifs and the Zen the thesis and the conclusion and there's this tension between it and then and we find ourselves in this tension and how do I know this it's because we say things like man I'm just waiting on God I'm just waiting for this door to open I'm just waiting for this opportunity and while there's nothing wrong with waiting the Bible says they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength but can I submit to you you might be waiting on God but what if God is waiting on you what if God is waiting on you if and then and James says here he says you do not have because you do not ask God when you ask you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures see you know even if you haven't asked this is the beauty of God's promises being conditionally unconditional the promise still stands so even if you didn't do your part the promise is still there for the taking God is still waiting for you to do your part he's not saying hey just because you messed up you you're going to miss out see you still have an opportunity to the promise this is what I love about God and God's love for us we're talking about this love this radical love of Jesus and because of his radical love even when we don't get it right the promise still stands even when we've messed up the promise still stands God is still faithful even if God still can't see it's in his nature he is a promise maker and and not like we make promises with one another but God is the one who created the whole idea of a promise why would he not keep his to us he is a promise maker it is his nature he cannot deny who he is and so I've come to a conclusion that there are three different types of people in this world don't debate me you've got your Google Maps people you've got your iPhone Maps people and you've got your ways people and see some people are just like committed to their GPS app I am a Google Maps girl I am safer to Google Maps if you get in my car and you want Direction somewhere and you try to put on a different map I don't even want to hear it I don't want to see it close the app take it to Google Maps and then I can talk to you but I remember the very first time I ever use a GPS I'm pretty sure a lot of people don't remember but I remember the very first time and it was our first family wedding first wedding of our generation and you know my cousin was getting married we're so excited it's just a little background information on me I'm from Brooklyn New York and so I don't drive much or I didn't I now do put I don't drive much I could get anywhere through the five boroughs Brooklyn Queens Manhattan Staten in the Bronx fairly easily through the subway or through the bus and so I didn't I didn't drive the very first time I ever drove on a highway was here in Miami a few years ago and I was terrified you guys scare me and so my first time using a GPS see I'm from Brooklyn I can get to New York City but I am the youngest of three and I have two older brothers brothers and I didn't want to get ready at home I was like you know what I'm going to go out on Long Island my other cousins lived there all the girls are there I'm going to get ready with the girls and get to New York City and so there's like right Michigan here's this GPS is brand new you know this was before the iPhone Maps this is like you they had MapQuest er you had a GPS those are your two options so there's like here's the GPS type in the address and I was like I've got this type in me address and we're on our way we're getting ready to go to New York City and we're driving to my cousin who's from Long Island I think we missed the exit sign no no no don't worry I got this I'm time controlling the GPS and she's like all right so we keep driving to like I think this might be the last opportunity for us to get off to make it to the city I was like the GPS didn't say so keep driving and so 30 minutes in we are in the middle of nowhere I can't even tell you where we were the wedding was getting ready to start and it's like hand me give me the GPS I give over the GPS this is like you didn't put the right address and needless to say I sat in that car silently for the entire they all hated me I said in the car silently as we finally made our way to New York City we're so late the wedding was over like people are walking out I just started walking out with them I'm just like man wasn't that great my cousin still has no idea I didn't make it to her wedding she thought I was there I just went straight to the reception but I just thought that how many times do we put our confidence in things that fail us or how many times we park companies in ourselves and fail ourselves man but here is the encouragement that even when we go our own way even when we do our own thing God is faithful to redirect this he's faithful to bring us back exactly where we belong see because of God's love he's not going to leave us where we're at here's the guy that says I will make rivers in the desert then you will have dry bones live again we serve a God that is faithful even if God still can come on that's something to be excited about God still can this is our confidence see the way to God is already paid the weight of God is already paid God has made a way for us to go into his prayer he has given us access to his presence that we can't approach him with confidence see I grew up in church and I remember growing up I heard a phrase and I'm pretty sure it had good intent but someone said man everyone's appraiser but not everyone's a worshiper I don't know if that's theologically correct don't write that in your notes that's just what I heard and so I took that to heart so I'm younger and so what I thought praise was was a fast song and I thought worship was a slow song and I was just like I couldn't I couldn't yet connect to the slow song so in my mind I was like you know what I'm appraiser I'm just not a worshiper I was just like I'm not a worshiper so I remember being in service and the fast songs if you don't I'd be dancing having a good time and the slow songs would come on about earrings this is where I disconnect and I remember one day I'm sitting down in a friend of mine she Pat me as like a manouschka why aren't you worshiping and in my mind I'm like man is so awkward I'm gonna have to tell her that I'm not a worshipper I'm only appraiser and for a really long time I thought that worship was just music or that I thought that worship was just a slow song but what I realized is worship is how we approach the presence of God everyone has access to value you're not written off from the presence of God we all have access to his presence and in the book of Samuel is a woman by the name of Hannah and the Bible says that she is weeping bitterly before the Lord she has a need and she comes to the temple and she's went weeping so bitterly that the priest comes in is like men are you drunk like what are you doing drunk in the temple and she wasn't drunk she was just desperate see she understood it if I can only get God to hear me I could get him to answer me and sometimes we're so focused on what we look like when we approach God rather than what we would receive when we approach God see we should be like the woman with the issue of blood she she understood that she could only make her way into the presence of God if I could only approach my Savior if I could just touch the hem of His garment I could be saved and then if she was here today and we asked her man how far would you go to approach God she'd say as far as it takes and that's the kind of mentality that we have to have that I will push past my disappointment I push past my shame I'm going to push back to my past I'm going to push back every doctor report I don't care what it is I'm going to push past so that I can get into the presence of God sees the writer of Hebrews says that it is impossible to please God without faith because when we come to him when we approach him we have to believe that he can do what he says and so when we come here on Sunday mornings and we're reading you know prayer requests or we go outside and we write a prayer request so we talk about it at cruise we've got to actually believe that God can do it and the reason why is because if we don't believe that he can do it when we when he does it we won't believe that attempt if we don't believe he can do it when he does it we won't believe it till we think it's something else but it's because of God that we can get into his presence and approach him and ask what we have Nita and be in the Old Testament there was not this easy access that we have into the presidency the only person that could go into the presence of God was the priest and so there was this place called the the Holies of Holies and the only person that could enter in was a priest and once a year he'd go in and he would sacrifice for the sins of the people and the people were separated from the presence of God and the Bible says that when Jesus came that he died and what happened was that this veil this veil that was in the temple and it was high and it was wide and the veil is what separated from the presence of God this veil was torn in two and so no longer did a priest have to go in and no longer does a priest have to go in for us no longer do we have to get someone else to go into God's presence we have access to God's presence himself we can access the presence of God this is a beautiful thing that we know that God is big and God is great but he was concerned with every single need he is mindful of us and we think about that conditional statement if you ask according to his will and see we can't miss that part because we can just say well man I asked God and he'd do anything no you have to ask according to his will what we have to understand is that the will of God is already rinsed we have confidence because far before we were born God put his will in writing and see the will of God is already written in it but it's not this just like document that we can just read it just has every step that we need to take in life the will of God is found in the Word of God and the Bible says that the Word was made flesh and so the Word of God is a man in his name is Jesus and the Word of God is a person and so in order to know the will of God we've got to know God I think we go through life trying to figure out man how do I know God's will how do I know what I should do with my life and the only way we can do that is by knowing who God is and see that's what the first step of the growth track is all about knowing God and we talk about this because it's not just like knowing of God because like I know of Beyonce I can tell you the name of her two three kids I can tell you her birthday I can tell you the album's that she came out with but I don't know her see that word no is good no scoffs its no skills in the Greek and it means to know intimately and to know personally and so what God desires of us is for us to know him intimately and personally this is the only way to know the will of God it takes walking closely with him every single day God wants us to know him and it's our responsibility to get to know God sometimes we think it's just only like Sunday's I come in and I get my you know my portion but it this is a Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday seeing where I am saying hey I am continually seeking the presence of God the presence of God doesn't just show up just because you came in this room the presence of God is wherever you are you can have the presence of God in your car you could have them at home you could have them at work to show you have access to the presence of God wherever you are and just like a will or will is just a piece of paper until someone dies it says this in Hebrews 9 verse 16 and 17 in the case of a will it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it because a will is enforced only when someone has died it never takes effect while the one who has made it is living and I was just thinking about this and realized until someone dies what his promise can't be released until something dies what is promised can't be released and sometimes we wonder a man I feel stuck my prayers aren't being answered but our flesh has to die in order for the promises of God to be released I just want to take it a step further we talked about the word being made flesh and what happened is when Jesus came and he put skin and bones on in order for the promises that he had for you and I to be released he had to die see God is not asking us to do anything he's not willing to do himself see Christ had to die and so does our flesh our flesh has to die because we can't have our way in God's Way we can't have two competing wills we can't rely hey God can you match up what I want to what you want and it's not like God doesn't want what we want the Bible says in the Book of Psalms it says delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart so you serve a God who cares about the desires of your heart but they must align to the will of God sometimes we pray for things that we think that we want because we think that we know better which is like well god I really want this and I really want that but I know when I look overall to my own life I'm so glad that God didn't answer some of those prayers that I pray that that God didn't give me some of the things that I asked for that he didn't open some of the doors that I thought were the right ones for me we ought to be glad that God doesn't answer some of our prayers he's not asked what kind of prayers should we pray and the types of prayers that we should be praying or the kind of prayers that we're asking God to do a work through us and not just a work for us because we can have these selfish prayers in his human nature which is like well god I want this and God I want that and that's great and all but God just like no no can you align what you want to what I want because what God wants is always better God's not asking you to praise his world just because it's right it is he's asking you to pray his world because it's better it's better for you he knows the plans he has created you he knows exactly what you need and he knows when you need it and that's the confidence that we have that we can trust it as we pray according to God's will that God will work things out and Jesus prayed this thing pray he prayed for God's will to be done in the book of Matthew he's in the Garden of Gethsemane Matthew 26 he says this verse 38 my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death stay here and keep watch with me this is going a little further he fell with his face to the ground and prayed my father if it is possible may this Cup be taken from me yet not as I will but as you will I think we can all say that we are so glad that Jesus didn't do what he wanted to do but he did what he needed to do he didn't say man it's really I don't feel like dying I don't think anybody wants to no one feels like it but he's like I know that what God has planned is better that if I just did what I wanted God would never be able to do what he needed to do through me we need to understand that the promises of God go conditionally unconditional they are proven to us we see that they are proven time and time again that it is proven in his wording and right here Jesus had the opportunity to say hey man I just I just want to walk away from this but he kept to his promise and his will was done so the will of God and the Word of God has already proven the Word of God is already proven there is evidence in the Word of God see God didn't just say he loved the world he showed he loved the world it was so evident in everything that he did it he lived his life 33 years stepped onto earth so that he could prove that he loved us this radical love that we're talking about in the book of first John was proven to us I love that sometimes you can just say things and not mean it but every word that God says is proven and we have confidence because God has proven himself to be true the book of Romans 12 and 2 says do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good pleasing and perfect will and so how can you test God's will gotta ask yourself these three questions is it good is it pleasing and is it perfect and we can mix that up and we could think oh it is my life good is my life pleasing is my life's perfect see but God did not promise us a perfect life he promised us a purpose life and we cannot test the will of God unless we our minds are transformed see we can look at it from a world standard if we look at the will of God from a world standard we'll think man well this this could not be the will of God there's nothing going right for me this could not be the will but in order for us to test the will of God it only happens when our mind is transformed see when our perspective shifts when our thinking is changed we we need transformation in order to know the will of God see the will of God is a little complexes it's not as easy as we think and in order to know it we've got to know God and as God transforms our mind as he gives us a new view a new world view what happens is we can recognize something that may not seem good to the world we can look at it man like this is the will of God it doesn't matter what it looks like I may not understand it but this is the will of God and I love how it is in the message version it says so here's what I want you to do God helping you take your everyday ordinary life you're sleeping you're eating going to work and walking around life and place it before God as an offering embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him don't be so well-adjusted to your culture that you sit in without even thinking instead fix your attention on God you'll be changed from the inside out readily recognize what he wants for you and quickly respond to it unlike the culture around you always dragging you down to its level of immaturity God brings the best out of you and develops well-formed maturity in you see we've got to readily recognize what God wants from us and quickly responds to because we serve a God that wants us to be mature and not lacking anything that when God is doing his will it's because he wants what is absolutely the best for you and following God is a step by step journey it takes following God one foot in front of the other and following God into the unknown may seem scary but following ourselves is even scarier when we begin to put our confidence in what we can see that's when things get complicated when we start putting our confidence in ourselves that's when things get complicated because we're not seeing it from the lens that God wants us to see it and there's this old song and I love it because it's always a reminder to me because I don't know about you but there's some moments in my life where I'm warring against what the will of God is for my life where I'm just like god I really don't feel like doing this right now or I don't understand why you've called me to do this this seems way too hard and this doesn't make any sense and there's a song it's a further along with no walls about it further [Music] I will understand why cheer up my brother live in the sunshine cuz we'll understand it or buy and buy and all that song is saying is I may not understand it all in the here and now but God didn't call me to understand his will he called me to stand in his will that is my response to his love I've made a decision to stand in God's will no matter what it looks like no matter what my life looks like right now I am committed to standing in his will this is the confidence that I have there's a book in the Bible Hosea and it's about a prophet and because we're Miami we're going to call him Hosea Jose had a very daunting past God had called him to do something that was rather unusual and unheard of in' God call Jose to marry this woman named Gomer but but here's the thing Gomer was a prostitute God said hey I need you to marry Gomer and because we Jose understood that the love languages of guy was obedience he obeyed and he married Gomer and gods like I don't just need you to marry her I need you to love her like love her unconditionally agape love and so Jose takes this woman home and marries her and loves her but time after time she she runs out and she goes back to the same streets into the same corners which he bought her from realizes is way harder than he thought to make her into a housewife she constantly running away but he remembered what God told him God said I need you to love Gomer like I love Israel and Hosea writes this in Jose 2 and 13 it says she decked herself with rings and jewelry and went after her lovers but me she forgot she decked herself in rings and jewelry and went after her lovers but me she forgot she got ready she got prepared to just go her own way she dressed up real nice she put on her perfume and walked out the door but me she forgot me the one who loved her unconditionally the one who picked her up from the pit she was in who bought her who paid for her for a price but me she forgot and even in the midst of that Jose never stopped loving her he was called to love her and the reason why this book is in the Bible is to show the radical love of God his love for people who made a decision to turn their back but he said look I have committed myself to loving you that even when you turn your back I'm going to pursue you I'm going to love you I'm going to care for you because it's in my nature it's who I am I can't stop loving you even if I try and I love that it's the same God the same God in the book of Jose's the same God today the same God that pursues us and that loves us is like hey even when you step out of my will I have every plan to come rescue you that even when you go your own way that I've made a decision to love you our radical love the radical love of God and our reasonable response what is our response when we think about a love so great when we think about a love that is pursuing us day after day even when we don't pray the right prayers even when we don't ask for the right things he says look I love you you can try again you can try again and you can try again because I'm not giving up on you and our response to a Savior like this is God I want to do your will see when there's a love like this pursuing us we don't want to take advantage of it we don't look at this loving like man he's going to love me tomorrow so I'm just going to do my own thing because God loves us so deeply we're just saying well God how can I match my desires to your will God how can I match up what I want to what you want for my life what can I do to what can I do to be good what can I do to be perfect what can I do and when we get into God's presence the prayers that we begin to pray change see when we get to know who God is when we get to know who our Savior is our prayers change our want to change our desires change it it could only happen through transformation it can only happen when we make a decision to spend time with God we approach the presence of God see God wants us to approach him God doesn't want us to be far away he just like approach me he loves you so much like whatever you ask me according to my will I will give it to you we serve a God that wants to give us anything that we ask for that his love is so great like whatever you asked me for I want to give it to you and we have things that we're wanting and we have things that we're just waiting for God to do but gods like can you just come in my presence and ask me and the reason why God asked for us to come into his presence because he wants you close he wants you near gods like just approach me I want you to come to me I want you to ask me it's easy to say well God knows everything already he knows what I need he knows my heart but no God says approach my presence approach me come into my presence really believe that if we approach God and pray his will we just have to watch him work see that's the that's the formula approach God pray his will and watch him work I'm believing that some people are going to walk out of here and they're going to start praying things according to the will of God and things are going to start happening faster than you could ever imagine when your prayers begin to change when your mind begins to change thank God I'm connecting to what you want because I know that God you will do greater than I could ask for things you have a God that saying hey you asked me and I'm going to do better who else is like that who else will think that I want to do better than what you could ever ask me I want to do greater than anything that you could ever seek see this radical love of Jesus is what changes everything in our lives and we don't have to be discounted from anything you are never discount from the presence of God God desires your approach God desires for you to be in his presence and see we can have confidence a lot of us walk around with the opposite of confidence we walk around with insecurities we walk around with shame we walk around feeling like man I'm just I'm there's no way God wants to hear what I have to say there's no way God can do what I've asked him to do but God asks us to approach his throne confidently believing that he can do what he says in the book of Hebrews says it in chapter 10 it's a beautiful depiction of our confidence in God and I didn't give them this verse so that's why don't have it it says so do not throw away your confidence it will be richly rewarded you need to persevere so that when what you have done so when you have done the will of God you will receive what he has promised for you see we've got to persevere we've got to continue to ask God we sometimes feel like hey I've asked and he hasn't answered but if it's the will of God we can continually go into his presence and continue to ask because he cares about that need you have a need that you feel like man I've been asking God and he hasn't answered me but continue to persevere do not let go of your confidence continue to hold on to the confidence that you have in God there's a security in the confidence of God that you can walk around knowing that hey I serve a God who loves me so deeply I serve a God who cares about me so much your whole walk will change your mindset will change your talk will change the way that you approach life will change the way that you approach situations will change because I have a confidence that is greater than anything that I could ever imagine that I stand in the presence of God that I approach my Savior knowing that he hears me I have this confidence and couple we're just going to pray in this room and we're believing that God is getting ready to give some people confidence back that people who've been feeling like man I just I just I do not believe but today we're believing that God's confidence is getting ready to sweep this room and then we're going to watch miracles happen we're going to watch things that we never thought could actually happen take place because we've been faithful to persevere in the confidence that we have in God Lord we thank you for your confidence Lord we thank you that we can approach your throne we thank you that you care about every need father we pray that you would completely change the way that we pray that you would change the way that we think that you would transform our mine Lord that we know that when we come to you Jesus that you hear us and God if you hear us you will answer us and we will have all that we have need of Lord that we thank you for what you're getting ready to do Lord I we thank you because we're believing you to do it more God in your name we pray amen come on we just stand to our feet and we're just going to respond to the radical love of a savior of a savior [Music]

Channel: VOUS Church

Views: 13,841

Keywords: manouchka charles, vous church, 1 john

Id: Mf-dmqh08ro

Length: 33min 56sec (2036 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 07 2017