Sermon: "Resistance" by Rick Shabi, July 3 2021

well you know as you read through the bible sometimes you will come across some verses that you've read many times before and a word will jump out at you or a verse will jump out at you and you you stop and think about it and and um stop and think about it and it stays in your mind for a while and such is the case such is the case as we read through the book of acts as we've gone through the last couple of chapters of acts there's a word that has jumped out at me that we haven't talked about in a long time if ever um in in a sermon it's something that when we look at the app book of acts and we see the people that were involved at that time it was a it was a detriment to the people not necessarily the christians at the time we've been reading but certainly to the jews it was a spiritual malady that really really created some problems for them and that resulted in a lot a lot of heartache today we have the same thing with us it wasn't a first century type thing that that they did back then we all have it with us it's all part of our human nature every single one of us in the room whether you're very very young or very very old it's part of our nature it's part of what we do and no matter how good we think we are we still experience it from time to time at least as i start today let's let's go to romans 8 verse 7. a very familiar verse but a reminder of who we are who god has called and the people that we the the state that we should be coming out of romans 8 verse 7 you probably didn't even need to turn there because you most of you could recite it to me because the carnal mind is enmity against god it is not subject to the law of god nor indeed can be that is just human nature if god says do it the automatic reaction is i don't want to do it if god says this way we say no we want to do our way it's just the nature that's in us it's part of the thing part of the nature that we overcome we can only overcome it with god's holy spirit god's holy spirit leads us to desire and to do things god's way to not be tempted by the things that we were before to not not to think that we have all the answers and god has none and that we know best what's going on we learn over time god knows best and we learn sometimes the hard way follow him and things go well things go well so as we begin this keep that in mind because all of us still have some carnal nature in us we know that right if we're honest with ourselves there's times that we wake up or look at what we've done and think how could i have done that i know so much better than to do that and we repent and we purpose in our minds was not going to happen not going to happen again but as long as we're in physical bodies our carnal nature is going to sometimes manifest itself and it's going to cause some problems there's one thing that's common to all of us let's go to acts 6 and as you recall in acts 6 we have deacons being ordained in the church for the first time but then we also have a group of jews kind of ethnic jews in verse 9 they tell it calls it in the new king jeremy's version there's a synagogue of the freedmen they were serenians alexandrians those from cilicia and asia and they were disputing with stephen and you know stephen he was a man full of the holy spirit it says those in acts 6 he was ordained a deacon and god used him to give a powerful powerful powerful message to the leaders of judaism in that day in verse in verse 10 you know it tells us well to set the background there the jews from this this synagogue we're talking with stephen he was talking about jesus christ being the messiah they didn't know that jesus christ was the messiah turns out they didn't want to know jesus christ was the messiah but from the bible he went through the bible and he proved to them without any question or any doubt jesus christ is the messiah verse 10 tells us they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke now resist is the word i want to look at today we're going to see it again in chapter seven but we'll get to that later the people there had it absolutely proven to them jesus christ is the messiah but it says they weren't able to resist now that greek word resists they weren't able to withstand against it they had no scriptures to go to it was like stephen you conclusively proved it but you know the bottom line we don't want to believe it we don't want to accept it we don't want to believe jesus christ is the messiah they resisted so it says they didn't they they couldn't resist it i mean they couldn't stand against it there was no proof they had but they really were resisting the truth of god we don't want to know that and so we will not accept that and so what did they do they did one of satan's tactics they decided they were going to discredit the messenger they started spreading lies about stephen calling him a blasphemer this and that and whatever finally he's hauled into the sanhedrin but there he is there he is because there's a group of people who just decided we're going to resist the truth we're not going to we're not going to accept it we're just going to resist it now i'm sure you can tell me what the english definition of resist is and it means that in the greek two it's somewhere we're in opposition to something we simply don't want to accept it we might have all the facts laid out before us and we just decide not for us we're not going to do it every single one of us in the room and i include myself in that still today we feel feelings of resistance and we know exactly when we feel that don't we there's times when you know maybe you get up in the morning and you know you should take the time to pray but you think i'm just not in the mood right now you know there's things that i have to get to on the internet i got to do this for the job or whatever and you can make all sorts of excuses but you're really resisting what it is that you know you should be doing you know you should be making time to study every day because all of us have the time during the day to study it's just making the time to do it and yet sometimes we resist it we just don't feel like doing it so we don't maybe you hear something from someone and it's not exactly what you want to hear you know maybe your wife says something to you and you think i don't want to believe that so i'm just going to resist it you know we don't think consciously i'm not going to listen to that not paying any attention to that sort of going to put it out of my mind and not deal with it at that point even though we know it may be something we should deal with it's kind of easier to just resist it get on with life and not have to deal with that well that's what these jews were doing back here in acts 6. they knew they had a witness it had been conclusively proven to them they just didn't want to deal with it so we have we have this this thing that we all do god may bring some things to our attention things that we know we should be doing maybe we read it in the bible and we think oh whoa i do what the bible says not to do didn't understand that what do we do when we find something like that do we just kind of like well that's okay it's not that big of a deal it's not that big of a problem it's not like i'm out you know killing someone or stealing from someone or anything like that but we just kind of like resist and think i didn't want to hear that maybe hear something at church sometime and think no i don't i don't really want to do that i just kind of don't want to deal with that i don't want to uh don't want to make the time for it i don't need to do that you know we can make all sorts of excuses for ourselves whenever we're making our excuses for ourselves on things we know we should do but don't we're resisting we're resisting what god does and in a way we're no different than these jews here they were reducing reducing a resisting truth but you know if we all remembered for our remember that god called us that he knows us intimately really better than you and i know ourselves but i've remembered that and know that god was putting us through a program here because his desire is that we would become the way he wants us to become and he knows exactly what we need to do in order to become that way and if we would get out of his way and just let things happen and follow him he would do what he promised us to do we'd be ready but all too often we might hear things over and over again it's not us it doesn't apply to me i've got an exemption from that god understands and when we think those ways and those things come up our minds you know we do have not sometimes we're resisting and it's not a good thing to resist god it does result in things that are not healthy not healthy and not at all and and can be absolutely just fatal to our spiritual lives if it goes on unchecked and continues on that way well there are examples in the bible of men who you are familiar with who resisted because it is something that all of us do like i said whether we're very young or whether we're very old we still feel those feelings of resistance let's go back to the book of jonah and look at a man who we know well his story but at the root of what jonah's story is is that he was resisting god he was resisting god and what his will was in his life i'll give you a minute to uh turn to jonah oops daniel jose uh let me say amos amos obadiah jonah in that order let's pick it up in jonah you know the story but let's just read a couple of verses so you see it from the bible jonah one verse one the word of the eternal came to jonah the son of amitai saying arise go to nineveh that great city and cry out against it for their wickedness has come up before me it's a pretty straightforward order isn't it nothing confusing about it jonah i want you to go to nineveh i want you to cry out against the city what should be the response that someone who's following god should have the response should be okay i'll do it that's what the goal is so when god says to do something we just think okay i'll do it i'm completely submitted to him is that what jonah did no verse three it's almost comical what jonah did verse three jonah arose to flee to tarshish from the presence of the eternal he went down to joppa found the ship going to tarshish and he paid the fare went down into it to go with him to tarshish from the presence of the lord what did he do god say go to god said go to nineveh he said i'm not going to nuneva i'm going the opposite way in fact i'm hyping on the boat and i'm out of here i'm not doing what you say god i'm pretty blatant i have to say jonah was resisting the will of god wasn't i was not about to do it simply was going to do his thing that wasn't one thing he saw in his game plan that was not something he had on his docket for that time i'm gone now we don't have to go through all the all the book of jonah here the story of it you know the story well god might have looked down on jonah and said and maybe actually smiled and thought you know jonah you may think you're not going to nineveh you're going to nineveh you're going to do my will whether you like it or not you know we look at nineveh i almost look at it as as this is something a child would do correct we all have had children or we've been children and we know that even from one more time we were very young we it was just common every child does it we've all done it to resist what our parents say the parents say something it's like you know what i might do it but i'm going to do it my way or i might not do it at all if they say speed up i might just slow down i'll show them who's boss they all do it right we all have stories of our two and three-year-olds who start start down the road of you know i'm gonna just test the waters here and what mom and dad say i'm just gonna resist it i don't have to do what they say hopefully they learn they do it's a nice nice if we can get that spirit of submission into our children earlier that they understand authority and submit to it makes it much easier for them to submit to god when the time comes for them to be on their own and being doing god's will when god is working with them but jonah kind of was in that way i mean here's jonah he's like really you're running the other direction and so jonah was out there well jonah learned the hard way you know a storm came up the men had to throw him overboard there's that great fish jonah finds himself who could imagine that in the belly of a great fish there he repents like i probably should have just done what god said rather than going through what i'm going through the fish vomits him up on the ground and jonah goes to nineveh how much easier if we had just submitted to god right if we had just done things god way god's way well jonah jonah gets there and he preaches the word to nineveh and much to his chagrin nineveh repents that isn't something he expect well no he did he was afraid it would happen didn't want it to happen as it turns out so we know the story of jonah let's go over to chapter four because in chapter four jonah tells us kind of what he was thinking through when he ran away from god john four verse one you know nineveh does repent jonah is angry jonah is angry about it that's what chapter 4 opens with it displeased jonah exceedingly and he became angry i didn't want nineveh saved i wanted those people to suffer i didn't want them to repent i didn't want you to show them mercy it's basically what jonah is saying and he goes on and he's and he prayed to the lord he said ah lord wasn't this what i said when i was still in my country that's why i fled to tarshish i know that you are a gracious and merciful god slow to anger and abundant and loving kindness one who relents from doing harm i kind of knew you were going to let those ninevites repent i didn't want that to happen and so i ran away i daresay if jonah was praying thy will be done what a cryptocrit he was right what a hypocrite if he was praying thy will be done yet all the while is like i don't mean thy will be done i'm going to do things my way my will is the way that it's going to be my will is the way that it's going to be not your way god basically he's admitting that to god i knew you'd do that and i didn't want it that's why i ran away that's why i resisted you i didn't want to do what you said because i didn't want the outcome that i knew you were going to give isn't that a sorry state when you look at what it is isn't that a sorry state and look at all the jonah jonah went through you know sigmund freud we've all heard of sigmund freud he's considered the father of psychoanalysis psychology and whatever you think of psychology he did do and uncover a lot of how the human mind works and some of what he uncovered not all of it parallels what we read in romans 8 7 not toward god he was not talking about god but in this area in one area he noticed that as he would work with people and as he would give them counsel on what they can do when they came to him with not knowing how what state they were in or what mental anguish they were in or whatever he noticed that some of them over time simply wouldn't do what he said simply wouldn't do what he said and that fascinated him he thought well here's a trait of human nature here's or he didn't say human nature this is a state of mind this is a problem you try to help people you try to tell them what's what to do and they resist it they oppose it they won't do it it kind of fascinated him now i'm sure he realized that was all you know every human being did that and i'm sure he realized he did that as well as he was growing up and in his life but he started talking about it and writing about it he had an associate who later became well known in his own rank and he also wrote about this resistance that people have and he had key coined a phrase for it that's very interesting in the light of all the things we'll get to that we'll get to that in a minute but resistance the opposition or thus the feeling i don't want to do that i don't want to believe that i choose to believe what i believe god can write it in the bible and make it as clear as day but i think i'm the exception god's okay if i don't obey his law or what he says diligently carefully and early he's okay with that as long as i do most of it we convince ourselves that of that we can read things about ourselves we know how to live life jesus christ taught us how to live life we know how to handle ourselves with our employers we know how to handle ourselves with our families we know how to handle ourselves with our neighbors we know how to do those things we just have to do them and make them part of our lives but sometimes we just resist to think no not me i don't have to do that jonah what jonah did was replace god's will with his will could we be guilty of that could we be praying thy will be done saying thy will be done but really by the way we handle things what we read in the bible what we hear what we're told what god leads us to what he the holy spirit might put in our mind that we know is right and when we choose not to do it are we really saying no my will be done i'm going to do it my way you know until we get my way out of our lives and god's way into our lives we don't have to worry much about being in the kingdom because it will be people who do things of god's way and who learn to not resist him but submit to him well there's the man jonah there's another man that we could talk about among several moses right moses here's a man that god really held in high esteems the jews looked at him and you know he's a he's a major character in the old testament along with abraham moses was called to do a work and we remember the latter stages of moses he did whatever god asked him to do he loved those those israelites even though they caused him so many headaches and heartaches along the way but early on when moses was called he too resisted god remember when he was called and the burning bush there was there and god gave moses a commission god told him to do something let's go back to exodus 3. and moses later in life if god would tell them to do something he just did it he learned i trust god i rely on god whatever he says i'm going to do but right when he was being called he didn't in exodus 3 just going to read a few verses here there's five times that we can see moses resisting god's call as in i don't really want to do that god i don't really want to do that let's look at um exodus 3 and verse 11. god says i want you to go to pharaoh moses i want you to tell him let my people go moses basically doesn't want to do it as we know in verse 11 he says to god well who am i who am i that i should go to pharaoh and that i should bring the children of israel out of egypt god are you sure you have the right person i'm nobody and into his background he'd been there he'd murdered a an egyptian slave master who am i do you have the right person i don't think i should be the one going even though god knew he wanted moses going that had already been determined but he had an idea that no not really i don't think i really want to do that i don't see myself doing that if we go down to verse 13 just two verses later and every objection every resistance that moses offers to god he has an answer to i mean to the first one he says i'm i'm going to be with you i'm going to be with you yeah you're the right one verse 13 well moses he can't argue with that he goes indeed when i come to the children of israel and say to them the god of your fathers has sent me to you and they say to me what's his name what am i going to say what am i going to say when they say well who's this god of course in egypt every they had a litany of of gods all had different names it's like well who's this god that's throwing up a little objection to god so god tells him what it is we know that's not the only name of god some people mistakenly think that's the only name of god we know that's not true the bible is full of god's names that he's called by so god says okay here's the name you can tell them as opposed to the egyptian gods i am the eternal god because every name of god shows some aspect of his character there's too much of this character to put all in one name tell them this i'm the guy that lives forever i always was i am and i always will be give them that name okay well that answers that objection chapter 4 verse 1. moses said but suppose they won't believe me suppose they won't listen to my voice suppose they say come on the lord hasn't appeared to you what if they say that what if they challenge me on that what do i do then see all these things he's coming up with i what what do i do about it and god says you know what i'm going to i'm going to give you the power to do these miracles they're not going to be saved they're not going to be able to say there is not god with you because you're going to do things that can't be done by magicians hand goes in the shirt comes out leprous goes back in the shirt comes out non-leprous god says i'll show them i'm with you down in verse 10 he says well okay but god i'm not eloquent neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant i'm slow a speech is slow of tongue i'm not a spokesman i don't want to do this i can't speak well how is pharaoh going to pay any attention to me how are the people of israel going to pay any attention to me well god is getting a little more direct with moses at that point and he goes well who do you think made the mouths i'll give you the words moses i can make you do anything moses trust in me and have faith in me if i send you to do the job it'll get done you'll have the tools and as long as you're with me i'll be with you so moses hears that okay and down in verse 12 then it comes down to the bottom line it's now verse 12 13. moses said o my lord please send by the hand of whomever else you might send i just don't want to do it can you please just send someone else to do that you know god says no it's you moses it's you moses i've humored you long enough you've had every excuse in the book you've given me every reason that has been in your mind to not do what i say but i've answered every single one of them moses you're going and moses did god gave him no out wouldn't it be nice when we tried to resist god if he gave us no out if every time we resisted god if he would just hold our feet to the fire and say no you are going to do it my way you're going to learn exactly what i have for you to learn you are going to weed out of your lives exactly the things that i want you to weed out i my purpose is that you will become people who i can use for eternity that i know your heart i know your soul and i know what you're made of you have to yield and submit to me and yet we don't do it you know i can i can you know i can relate to moses in a way and i think all of us probably have a story where god has worked with us and at times in our lives where we resisted him or resisted what it is that he had for us and we realized you know we came to realize sometimes no isn't the answer that guy's going to accept i remember back decades ago and we lived in another area and i never i never liked public speaking i didn't like spokesman club i didn't like any of those things i never saw myself in that regard i would stray or i would i would resist it with every chance that i got didn't like giving opening and closing prayers it all just i just didn't like it and we had a pastor at that time and he said you know i'm going to develop this leadership club and he came to me he goes i want you and the club and i told him no i didn't i didn't say flat out no i had excuse after excuse after accuser said no you know what i didn't really like that that's not my forte that's not really what i enjoy doing there's other people that you need more than that then i was like well you know my job i don't know what nights i can get home early and whatever keeps me away some time so i can't be there i had every excuse in the book and he finally said be there you you will be there and you will be in it and i listened to him and i had no choice but to turn to god and say i don't really want to do this but you're going to have to work with me if this is what your will is and you know i've watched god at work over the years i realize it's him it's not me and i absolutely know whatever god gives you to do or gives me to do he can provide what it is he needs you to do just like bezel l back at the time of the of the when the instruments of the tabernacle were being formed he gave god he gave him his holy spirit so they got done exactly the way god wanted them done god will give us what we need to become exactly who he wants us to be but there comes a point where we just have to stop resisting and submitting to god and letting him do what he has called us to do and given us the tremendous opportunity to do that you know you've heard me say many times lately about we have to look for the opportunities in our lives that god gives us to grow that god gives us to learn to trust him that god gives us to learn to rely on him that god gives us to have faith in him to believe in him to obey him there are opportunities he gives all along the way because you are you are and i am in his sights and he loves and he knows exactly what it is there is no coincidence he wants us to learn from those things to become who he wants us to become whatever that is because you have your strengths and weaknesses and i have mine and the road isn't going to be the same for any one of us or any two of us in the rare area but god in this room but god knows what it is we just have to yield to him moses finally did it look what god worked through him god said moses moses there's no more there's not a man more meek on the face of the earth than moses look where he started out look where he ended up that is the progress you and i need to make we may resist we may think not me god's made an exemption for me i have these special circumstances i don't think that's important i don't think i need that i think i think i think i think you know what if god opens your mind and it comes there you need it i need it and we're fooling ourselves if we think otherwise well that's moses that's moses you know what let's turn over to luke luke bring this into new testament times jesus christ's own words here luke 14. you know we're very good we're very good at when we want to resist something that we don't want to pay attention to it we want to just kind of cross it off our our list we're very good at making excuses we're very good at justifying what we don't do now we're masters at it right we can make excuses all day long can't do it because this can't do it because they i can't do it because that god looks at it and says well what's more important to you what you want to do or what i want you to do what's where where's the where's the balance there where is the focus supposed to be on what god wants or what we want is he sacrificing his life for us jesus christ did does he really expect us to sacrifice our life and our time and our even desires to do what he wants how dare him right of course he wants us paul says that living sacrifices living sacrifices to god well here in luke 14 jesus christ gives a parable that we might see in ourselves as we see things hear things do the things that you know god that god might open our minds to to see that we should be doing luke 14 verse 15 or 16 gives this parable about the wedding supper verse 16 says christ said to him answering him a certain man gave a great supper and invited many and he sent his servant a supper time to say to those who were invited come for all things are now ready but they all with one accord began to make excuses the first said i bought a piece of ground i must go and see it i ask you to have me excused what did he tell the master what i want to do is more important than what you want me to do i don't really you know this wedding supper i've just kind of like taken it for granted but it's more important to me to do what my will is at that time than what your will is the bottom line that's what that's what he was saying more important to me do what i want to do it's my time another said verse 19 i bought five yokoboxan and i'm going to test them i ask you to have me excused was there only one time only one time in that day or that year that he could test those oxen no he just didn't want to do that's that human nature well you've asked me to do it you've kind of coerced me to do it you kind of said you want me to i don't want to doesn't fit my plans that day it isn't what i want to do i need to go test my oxen instead still another said well i've married a wife therefore i can't come that's a pretty good excuse right really not even to the wedding supper of his you can't done that even the time for that so verse 21 the servant came reported these things to his master and the master of the house being angry and rightfully so right if you invited people to a supper and one by one they had excuse you know what would it tell you well you're not that important i don't really care what you want what's more important is what i want so the master being angry said to a servant go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind i'm going to have this house full i'm going to have this supper full of people and the servant said master it's done as you command it and still there's room even they're making excuses even they won't comply with what you want so the master said verse 23 to the servant go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled for i say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper those are some tough words aren't they do any of us at the time when god has this wedding supper says none of them who i invited who resisted what i said who had every excuse on earth who had everything that's more important to do none of them are going to be there my supper will be filled with people who didn't resist me who learned to submit to me to learn to do what i said to do when i said to do it how i said to do it diligently carefully and earnestly with their heart you know i look i look at this resistance and i look at excuses yeah i mean i'm like any of you i can make excuses all day long for things i'm learning the moment the thought comes into my mind and you know someone says this or whatever in the home office calls i can have an excuse but i'm learning don't have an excuse simply do it simply do it that's what god has called us to that's what he says just do do what i ask you to do that's all he's wanting us to do and there's eternity on the other side of it there's all those promises on the other side of it and how many people sitting here in this room sitting in jacksonville sitting all over the place we continually resist god at some point in our lives and not just once or twice and not that we will the rest of the time we live that we'll never resist god again but i hope that we can get to the point i trust that we will if we let god's holy spirit lead us trigger mind when we find ourselves i don't have to do that i don't need that why does god say that i'm exempt from that he's he knows my circumstances they're different than everyone else whatever it is that we give that we would stop and think whoa i'm resisting god who am i to resist god we don't want to resist we don't want to resist god and we certainly don't want him to say about i don't want him to say about me he's not coming to my supper he had his chance and all he did was say i got more important things to do well you know we look at moses and we look at jonah and at the beginning of their lives you know they resisted a little bit maybe all of us resisted a little bit but we did come to the point where we repented and we were baptized and we became part of his body part of his family children of god and part of that responsibility is to submit to god and so moses later in his life and i hope jonah later in his life learned just submit to god whatever he says do just simply learn to do you know abraham whatever god said to do he just did it we learned about philip the other night in acts 8 when god said go here in this desolate place he just did it he didn't have excuses and he didn't try to counter and say let's do it another way i see attitude that you and i need to need to strive for there's another man this one a king in the old testament that we can learn something from as well turn with me back second chronicles 15. and it's a king that you may not remember much about but i'll fill in some of the story for you his name is asa asa and asa was a king who was determined to follow god to follow him implicitly to have faith in him rely on him trust in him and that he was going to seek god with all of his heart with all of his mind with all of his soul and he started off very strong probably the way a lot of us in this room did when we were baptized we started off very strong whatever god says to do i'll do it i'm going to have faith in him i'm going to trust in him if i have to give up my job because of this and that and whatever they won't let me have this day off i'll give up my job i'll give whatever it is up and when we're new we trust god we look to him we follow him and that's exactly what asa did so i'm not going to take the time to read in chapter 14. i'll give you the story a little bit there asa is is confronted with an ethiopian army of a million men and 300 chariots some pretty it's pretty extraordinary numbers for those days meanwhile asus army only has 580 000 men and no chariots so the cards that would appear are pretty well stacked against asa a million to a half a million chariots versus no chariots not odds that you want to go into entering a war now asa might have thought well you know what i need to call neighboring kingdom over here and see if if he will ally with me against this ethiopian king or i need to see this can my people can they craft some chariots before how what can we do he didn't do any of that what he did is he went to god and he put his faith completely in god it didn't he didn't do any of those other things that you might do as a human he simply trusted in god and the victory was one by god asa trusted in chapter 15 there's a prophet that comes to asa in the wake of this in the wake of his faith in god and his complete trust and submission to god and doing what god had always instructed israel to do and for chapter 15 verse 1 it says the spirit of god came upon azariah the son of odid and he went out to meet asa and he said to him hear me asa and all judah and benjamin the eternal is with you while you are with him now we might pause to think what does that mean while you are with him well god sees that we are walking with him when we are doing his will when we are submitting to him not when we're just giving lip service to him and not when we're just doing some physical things but what's in our heart are we truly walking with him the lord is with you while you are with him if you seek him he will be found by you but if you forsake him asa he will forsake you how do we forsake god well we can make excuses we can look for allies we can look to our own selves we can kind of forget god and maybe try to do the things on our own and write our own script rather than completely trusting in god you would think with the experience that asa had that that would last him the rest of his life i will completely rely on god what he did with that army couldn't be done without him couldn't be done without him but in the 36th year of his reign chapter 16 you might say if we want to put in modern day terms in the 36th year that he was in the church the 36th year that he was following god he's had all these years now started off really strong had a lot of faith in god but israel has had peace israel has had good times he still knows who god is but over the time his zeal for god has waned it's not as strong as it was back then and so 36 years later we look in on asa and he's having a similar situation with the nation of israel who's going to invade him and this time asa who should have thought back all i got to do is call on god god will be there he'll take care of it i will trust in him and i will tell him i'm putting my entire stock faith trust reliance dependence on you asa didn't do that at all verse 2 chapter 16. this tells us baisha is coming up against judah in verse 2 what did esa do asa brought silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the lord and of the king's house and he sent to ben haydad king of syria who dwelt in damascus saying well let there be a treaty between you and me as there was between my father and your father see i've sent you silver and gold come break your treaty with baisha king of israel so he will withdraw from me well this time he goes to the world what does the world have to offer in this situation now i've got a problem god isn't in the god isn't even in the equation this time 36 years later all these years in the church where he should be even more loyal more more submitted to god more trusting more relying it's the opposite hey hey can you come over and ally with me so we can fight against israel so i don't have this foe this war going on over here now he's looking to the world now he's looking to that he's not looking to god what happened asa how did how did this happen to you who started off so strong well you know not good things not good things that he is doing is a new better he knew it wasn't that he'd forgotten who god was he of course knew who the god of abraham isaac and jacob were he just got too used to doing things his own way life was too easy there were no challenges along the way and he wasn't challenging himself to stay close to god so when the time came you know what let's just do it the way the rest of the world does it well god sends a messenger to asa to kind of remind him what he has done find that down in verse 7 here of chapter 16. it says at that time hannah and i the seer came to asa king of judah and he said to him because you've relied on the king of syria and have not relied on the lord your god therefore the army of the king of syria has escaped from your hand asa you made a mistake you resisted god in fact god didn't even enter your mind and maybe he did and you said you know what i'm just doing it i'm just going over to this other king and do that and he reminds him of what happened decades earlier verse eight were the ethiopians and the libyan not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen yet because you relied on the lord he delivered them into your hand he would have done it again you would have had another victory but you took matters into your own hands you decided not your way god my way not your will be done my will be done that's basically what asa told god the same thing that you and i tell god when we do things our way what's best for us what's more convenient for us and we resist god and say i know you don't care it's not that important you're loving forgiving god patient all those things that god is but he also is a god who is pretty direct with us with what he expects us to do verse 9 verse 9 a very telling verse the eyes of the lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him he'll show himself strong to those whose hearts are loyal to him i should back up for a moment oh no i donated you back up i know what the next verse says here my next sentence in this you've done foolishly asa therefore from now on you shall have wars you didn't do it my way you decided to do it your way you know what from here on out that same trial is going to plague you throughout your life you tried to do it your way but you know what this is going to keep happening and happening wars are going to be there for the rest of the time and that's what happened you know maybe if we look at our lives and if we see the same trial happening over and over and over again we might want to pause and think what does god think about what i'm doing am i doing it my way or his way because if i'm doing it his way he says he'll be strong on my half behalf but if i keep doing things my way the same result is going to happen might be financial situations might be relationship problems maybe the things between husband and wife friends members of the church who have issues maybe it's because we keep doing the same things and we need to start doing things god's way it's there if the same thing happens over and over and over you are not doing it god's way but he is giving you the opportunity and me the opportunity to start doing it his way change our ways to match what his will is because he's not gonna say okay rick you keep doing it that way that's okay i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna give you a pass god doesn't work that way god doesn't work that way we do it his way verse 10 look at what happens when we resist god take matters into our own hands and whatever asa should have been angry with himself he should have knocked himself in the head and said what was i thinking what was i thinking how could i have not turned to god he should have repented he didn't do that verse 10 he was angry with the seer he put him in prison for he was enraged at him because of this you know back in acts 6 that's the same response that that those those jews had towards stephen we don't want to hear it we don't want what you have to offer and now we're mad at you we're just going to discredit you and we're going to do whatever we can to shut you up and get you out of our lives and that's what asa did he was so mad that he even took it out on his people they so oppressed some of the people at that time you know go down to verse 11 there for verse 12 we find him in the 39th year he's got a few years to think about what's going on and whatever you know has he turned back to god has he learned his lesson no in the 39th year of his reign asa became diseased in his feet and his malady was severe yet even then in his disease he didn't seek god but he sought the physicians where was his heart who was he relying on what was he doing he didn't seek god he sought the physicians asa died you know we have to learn to ask god for what we would want him to do you know whether that's teaching us certain concepts that we may not fully understand how to implement in our lives nothing wrong with asking god i don't know i don't know how to do this can you show me what to do he will when he sees it's in your heart sometimes when we're sick you know we need to ask remember jesus christ said you don't receive because you don't ask ask and you will receive seek and you will find knock and it will be open to you and yet every once in a while you know someone will call and there have this problem and that problem and this sickness and i keep waiting for the question can i be anointed can i have an anointed cloth sometimes the question never comes sometimes i'll even offer because i think we need to ask god that needs to be where our thoughts go first ask god humble yourselves before him submit to him there is a there is a tremendous lesson that comes from having to ask in america and we made the same mistake with our kids we anticipated their needs so many times before they ever had to ask god knows what our needs are before we ever ask him but he says you must ask we see we need to ask him we need to be humble people otherwise we just run around thinking patting ourselves on the back aren't we great i know this i know that i've got all this pride and don't ever think that resistance to god doesn't have a little bit of pride in it there's no humility in in resisting god it's think i i know better i know better i don't need this who does this you know who is this and what is the importance of that i'll make my own decisions on what's important thank you asa never even asked and he died now lisa a lot of things to learn he knew better he should have known better he just never he just never did it isaiah 45 if we remember what god is doing with us if we remember who we are and isaiah 45 beginning in verse 9 tells us pretty clearly who we are and what we've seen in the examples so far tell us who we are but we learn as god is the master he's the one who's molding us he's the one who's developing us he's the one who's training us his his desire is to make us into who he wants us to be if we would just get out of the way and submit and let him do it isaiah 45 verse 9 woe to him who strives with his maker you know every time we strive with god every time we resist him it's kind of like we're striving with him we're kind of at a little bit of a war with him we're telling him i think we kind of know better what we need god than you go to him who strives with his maker let the patriarch strive with the passage of the earth shall the clay that's who you and i are remember shall the clay we're the clay god is the one who is molding us we said when we were baptized i give you my life show me what you want me to do i'll do what you say no matter what it is i'll give up what i need to give up i know to follow you i believe you trust you rely on you and whatever you want shall the clay say to him who forms it what are you making you know is this god we're pretty much asking god well what are you doing i don't need that i don't need that little crack cut out of my my clay or whatever it is i don't need that little thing that you just did shall the clay say to him who forms it what are you making or show your handiwork say he has no hands what is he doing he doesn't know what he's doing woe to him who says to his father what are you beginning put god the father in there what are you doing god our father you really have our best interests at heart what are you really doing we're going to question god job answer job questioned god saw what happened to job god brought him to his senses so to him who says to his father what are you be getting or the woman what have you brought forth and yet when we do these things that's what we are telling god well let's go to acts 7. acts 7 we also see in verse 51 of acts 7 at the end of stephen's rather forthright sermon to the jewish leaders who were assembled that day that he uses the word resist against them as well acts 7 verse 51 at the end of it and and stephen didn't prepare this message ahead of time god gave him the words to say just as he tells us that when we're called before people he would give us the words to say stephen trusted god gave him the words in verse 51 as he's wrapping up he says you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears well i tell you those uh jewish leaders ears were burning when they heard that you always you know when god says always he means always you always resist the holy spirit as your fathers did so do you well as he went through this sermon he showed one by one you know you are without excuse jewish leaders look at the history of israel god sent you warning after warning after warning after warning over and over god showed you mercy he sent you profit after profit after profit after profit what did you do you resisted the holy spirit you didn't listen to them you instead decided we're doing it our way forget what jeremiah said forget what isaiah said forget what stephen says forget what jesus christ says we're doing it our way and that's the bottom line you always resist the holy spirit as your fathers did so to you we could go through everything the jewish leaders they should have known better god gave them every reason to know who jesus christ was the miracles that he did the way he conducted himself even at the crucifixion after they murdered him when they saw what happened in the time he was on the cross the darkness the earthquake the temple veil being ripped in two the resurrection of the people saying he's alive he's a well seeing the power of the seeing the power of the apostles that god gave them as peter healed that man in front of the temple and then peter gave the powerful message to the jewish leaders that could only been assembled in that way that god brought them together seeing stephen even at the last verse of chapter 6 in acts when they looked at him when they called him together he said it he had the face of an angel how many more warnings do you need this is of god and yet they resisted it every step of the way we don't want it we don't care what you say we don't care about the holy spirit you and i have the holy spirit never discount the fact that the holy spirit will urge us what to do and when we don't do it we grieve the holy spirit and if we grieve it enough and if we resist it enough we're in danger of quenching the holy spirit don't ever forget that and so stephen was put to death they did what satan did we resist we resist we resist we resist we're mad at you we hate you we want to kill you that's what happened with stephen that's what happens with jesus christ the same the same malady could befall you and me if we resist enough eventually god will just take the spirit away eventually we will just give up and say yeah not important everything in life is more important than god everything and more than everything in life is more important than what he wants me to do where he wants me to be when he wants me to be all these things everything in life is more important than that every time we disregard or resist something that he shows that's what we're telling god that's what we're telling god every time you do every time i do and every time i feel those feelings of resistance i think you know what no god i am not going to tell you that anything else i have right now is more important than you take some time god's spirit will help us with that we can ask him remember what it says and one of those perils in luke jesus said whatever you ask the father he'll give you how much more will he give you the holy spirit ask him to remind you knock you in the head when you when you're resisting that you think oh i can't resist him anymore well we don't want the resistance that we all naturally feel every single one of us have it to be the cause of our spiritual death i hope we don't i hope we think about it a little bit you know we talk about satan john 8 44 tells us that satan is the father of lies he's a liar he's the father of murderers he is satan is also the father of resistance he's also the father of resistance what it just occurred to me that i didn't tell you is what sigmund freud's sigmund freud's counterpart his name was otto rank and austrian when he encountered this resistance they saw with people he actually called it something other than resistance you know what he called it he called it counter will counter will this attitude among people that they'll do something different than what your will is now he wasn't thinking about god when he did that but i think it's a very good thing for us to remember when we resist god it's counter will our will not his will here's what counter will the definition from if contra will is it means that it this counter well is a psychological term that means instinctive get that instinctive it's part of us carnal mind natural human mind contra will is psychological term that means instinctive resistance to any sense of coercion coercion or direction it's all of us it's all of us in the bible the bible talks about it let's talk let's turn to james james 4. james 4 you know we never want to be we never want to resist to god how do we resist how do we overcome resisting consciously think of submitting to god if he says do it do it it's not rocket science there's nothing magical about it let go of your way do it god's way james 4 verse 7 james says therefore submit to god the antithesis of resistance is submitting to him yield to him surrender to him trust him faith him all have faith in him all those things that we need to have because if we aren't means we don't really have faith in him it doesn't mean we don't really believe don't where we don't really trust especially if we want to go out and do things our own way we've got to have this in place and that in place and whatever and then kind of maybe you know god will will take care of things therefore submit to god but we should resist notice the next verse reas our next sentence resist the devil that's what we should be resisting that's the opposite of our human nature that's what the holy spirit can help us do resist the devil and he will flee from you draw near to god he'll draw near to you cleanse your hands you sinners purify your hearts you double-minded if you aren't trusting solely in god but trying to do things still our own ways write our own script write our own law of what is acceptable to us therefore it must be acceptable to god first peter 5. first peter 5 peter says the same words as well likewise first peter 5 5 you younger people submit yourselves to your elders submit yourselves to your elders children right we teach our children submit yes all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility persistent attitudes are not humble submissive attitudes doing god's will having humility is required to break down the resistance because look what god resists god resists the proud we want god resisting us god resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble therefore humble yourselves unto the mighty hand of god that he may exalt you in due time cast all your care on him all your care all those things that come our way think of him first go to him first take the opportunities to build that trust build that faith build that love build that obedience build that reliance build that dependence on god that he wants us to have all our cares cast on him for he cares for you be sober vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour one of the tools he can use is that attitude of resistance if i can just get them to resist god a little if i can just let them do something and like i don't want to hear that i don't want to do that i don't want to you know christ said dulling the ears blinding the senses put our hands over our ears verse 9 god says you know again here's who to resist resist satan stay steadfast in the faith bring every thought into captivity of god you know things that we talk about the things we need to do you know as we yield to god and as we let him work with us mold us as the potter does the clay let's be mindful and think about the times we may be resisting him and let's work hard at developing the sense of resisting resisting resistance to him

Channel: United Church of God Orlando

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Length: 66min 2sec (3962 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 03 2021