the Spirit

2 Kings 17-18, Galatians 5

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Trust in God.

2 Kings 17-18, Galatians 5

On what do you rest this trust of yours? – 2 Kings 18:19 ESV

When everything seems to be falling apart around you, where do you place your trust? Where do turn to for help and hope? It is in the darkest moments of our lives that we truly discover where our trust really lies. And it is in those moments that the enemy surrounds us and taunts us to give up. He tries to cause us to despair and dismiss any notion we may have of rescue by the hand of God as ill-placed and unfounded. Hezekiah, the king of Judah, found himself facing just such a circumstance. The northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen, with the people of Israel having been taken captive and exiled to the land of Assyria. Now King Sennacharib’s armies stood outside the walls of Jerusalem demanding that the nation of Judah surrender. King Hezekiah was a good king who “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done” (2 Kings 18:3 ESV). “He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, not among those who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord” (2 Kings 18:5-6 ESV). Hezekiah enjoyed the favor of God and his reign was marked by success. But the day came when the enemy came against him. The same mighty army of Assyria that had defeated Israel was not outside his walls demanding tribute. Hezekiahttp://www.ccbcfamily.org/wp-admin/post-new.phph would respond by ransacking the temple, even stripping the gold from the doors, in an attempt to appease Sennacharib and buy himself some time. But the Assyrians were not satisfied. They wanted surrender. So Sennacharib sent emissaries to demand the complete capitulation of Judah. Their message to the people of Judah has a familiar ring to it. It is the same one we hear whispered in our ears by the enemy as we face the dark moments of our own lives.

“Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live, and not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’” (2 Kings 18:29-35 ESV).

What does this passage reveal about God?

It’s that old familiar refrain: Will God really deliver you? Hezekiah’s enemy taunted him and mocked him, even speaking directly to the people, demanding that they look at their circumstances realistically. Had any other nation’s gods been able to stop the army of Assyria. Hadn’t they seen what had happened to their brothers in Israel? What chance did they have against the power of King Sennacharib? Their fate was sealed. The outcome was obvious. The best thing to do was surrender and make peace with the enemy. They even promised “a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live, and not die” (2 Kings 18:32 ESV). All they had to do was refuse to trust God and make peace with the enemy, and their lives would be dramatically better off, their circumstances would dramatically improve overnight. But chapter 18 starts off with the reminder that Hezekiah trusted God. He held fast to the Lord. Now that trust was being tested. His grip on God was going to be strained as the forces of evil pulled against him, attempting to let go and give in to what appeared to be the inevitable. The enemy was taunting Hezekiah. Now he had to make a decision as to what he would do. How would he respond? The circumstances could not have been any worse. The situation facing Hezekiah could not have been bleaker. But his God had not changed. His source of strength and power had not left him. God was still in control. He was still present, even though things looked dark and desperate.

What does this passage reveal about man?

Hezekiah was a rare breed in those days. He was a king of Judah who actually loved and obeyed his God. He was faithful and obedient. He was God-fearing and law-abiding. But he still had enemies. He still had to face difficult circumstances. Hezekiah still had to fight against the likes of the Assyrians and the Philistines. He had to sit back and watch as the Assyrians besieged Samaria for three years and then finally defeated the nation of Israel, sending the people of God into permanent exile. He had to wonder about his own fate. He knew the people of Judah had a long history of unfaithfulness and disobedience to God. He was well aware that of their track record of idolatry and spiritual infidelity. There was the constant temptation to take matters into his own hands and solve his problems his own way. There was always the option to turn to another nation like Egypt for help. Even the Assyrians knew about this potential plan B, and warned Hezekiah, “Behold, you are trusting now in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him” (2 Kings 18:21 ESV). There will always be seemingly viable options to whatever predicament we face. But the real test is whether or not we will trust God. Even Hezekiah panicked and turned to the treasury of the temple to provide him with a solution to his problem. Rather than trust the God who dwelt in the temple, he turned to the gold and silver that adorned the temple. But at the end of the day, the question remained the same, “On what do you rest this trust of yours?” Hezekiah was going to have to make a choice. He was going to have to trust in God or place his trust in something or someone else. Or he was going to have to listen to the lies of the enemy and assume that he would be better off giving up than holding on to God.

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

This scenario goes on regularly in the life of every believer. Our situation may not be as dark and foreboding, but the reality is that every one of us faces times in which we have to decide “On what do you rest this trust of yours?” Paul reminds us that it is at those times a battle rages inside us. “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17 ESV). In times of difficulty, the Spirit will speak to our hearts, reminding us of the love, power and abiding presence of God. He will attempt to restore our faith in God and fill us with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. But our flesh will rise up inside us, causing us to doubt the goodness and greatness of God. Our sin nature will speak to us much as the emissaries of Sennacharib did, tempting us to doubt God’s faithfulness. But if we listen to our flesh, the results will always be devastatingly destructive. Paul tells us, “the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,envy,drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Galatians 5:19-21 ESV). If we let our sin nature make our decisions for us, we will place our trust in the wrong thing. We will lose our grip on God and miss out on an opportunity to watch Him work in our lives. Hezekiah was faced with a choice. Perhaps you are faced with a similar choice today. Maybe you need to ask yourself the question, “On what do you rest this trust of yours?” Is your God big enough? Is your grip on Him tight enough? Is your trust in Him solid enough? The problem lies not with God, but with us.

Father, I want to trust You more. You have never given me a reason NOT to trust You. The fact that I sometimes face difficult situations is not an indication of Your weakness or absence in my life. You are there. You’re always there. My circumstances are simply opportunities to watch You work and to test the strength of my trust in You. May I always be able to answer the question, “On what do you rest this trust of yours?” with the simple words, “My God!”åç Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Ephesians 3:14-21

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Rooted In Love.

Ephesians 3:14-21

Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. – Ephesians 3:17 NLT

When Paul thinks about the mysterious plan of God for the church – the blending together of a wide variety and cross-section of humanity through the redemptive work of Christ – he can’t help but fall to his knees in prayer to the Father. He understands that it was God who made it all possible. It was God who sent His Son to die in the place of sinners. It was God who expressed His own love to us while we were sinners, not after we got our spiritual act together. It was God who came up with the idea of the Church. It was God who sent His Spirit to reside within His people, empowering and enlightening them. It was ALL God.

So Paul prays that this very same God, who created everything in heaven and earth, would use the same unlimited resources He used to create the universe to empower His children with inner strength through His Spirit. He is praying for an intimate and intense relationship between God and His Church. Paul longs for them to experience in full what God has made possible through His Son. It is the life Jesus promised – life more abundant and full (John 10:10). The key word in Paul’s prayer is “trust.” As believers trust and put their faith in God, their roots will grow down into God’s love and keep them strong. It is as we trust in Christ daily, that we learn just how much God loves us. We develop and experiential knowledge that is far better than simply academic knowledge. Reading about the love of God is one thing. Experiencing it is another. Reading about the power of God can be helpful. But experiencing it firsthand can be life-changing and faith-building.

Understanding the incredible depth of God’s love is essential for the believer. To know God is to know His love, because God is love. The better we come to know Him, the greater we will come to appreciate His love for us. Trusting in Christ has a direct impact on our ability to know and experience God’s love. God’s greatest expression of His love for mankind came through His own Son and His death on the cross. And as we learn to trust in Christ, living our lives in keeping with His commands and according to His example, our spiritual roots will grow deeper and deeper into God’s love – the very thing we need to sustain our lives on this planet. Paul prayed that they would understand the magnitude of God’s love for them. But he also prayed that they would experience the love of Christ for them. The result would be spiritual maturity that manifests itself in fullness of life and power.

Paul’s prayer conveys the idea of ever-increasing knowledge of God’s love and an ever-growing understanding of all that God has made available to us through Christ’s death and resurrection. In Paul’s mind, there is no standing still, no status quo. We are to keep moving on in our relationship with Christ, growing in our understanding of His love as we trust in Him more and more. Salvation is just the start. We trusted Him for our forgiveness and redemption, but we must also trust Him for our ongoing sanctification and spiritual maturity. And Paul reminds us that, ultimately, God will get the glory because it is His power at work within us, that will accomplish His finished work in our lives – a transformation far more significant than we could ever hope or imagine.

Father, Your love for me is beyond comprehension at times. I can’t fathom why You would love someone like me, but You did and You do. In love, You sent Your Son to die for me. You have lovingly placed Your Spirit within me. Your love placed me in Your family, the Church. Your love empowers me and protects me. Your love surrounds me. But at times, I still struggle with the feeling that I am unloved because I am unlovable. Help me understand how wide, how long, and how deep Your love really is. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Romans 7:14-25

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The Solution to Sin.

Romans 7:14-25

Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. – Romans 7:24-25 NLT

I have always taken comfort from this passage. Here is Paul, the great apostle and a veritable icon of spiritual virtue and Christian integrity, wrestling with the very same issues that plague me as a believer. Even as a great man of God and powerful spokesperson for the cause of Christ, Paul still struggled with the effects of sin in his life. Like me, Paul still had a sin nature. There was that part of him that was still susceptible to falling back into slavery to sin – even though he had been set free by Christ. Remember what he wrote in chapter six? “Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living” (Romans 6:16 NLT). It’s a simple matter of choice. You can choose to obey God or you can choose to obey sin. And it results in a daily struggle for most of us. Paul said, “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate” (Romans 7:15 NLT). In other words, in his heart he desires to do the right thing, but his sin nature leads him to do just the opposite. The problem with Paul is the same one that we face. He had an active sin nature. “And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature” (Romans 7:18 NLT).

Paul describes in simple, yet stark, terms, the all-too-common theme of my life. “I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t” (Romans 7:18-19 NLT) The important thing to remember in reading these verses is that Paul is pointing out our inability to conquer the presence of indwelling sin through self effort. We may desire to do what is right with all our heart, but our flesh is inherently sinful and incapable of living up to the righteous standards of God. Which Paul describes as a principle of life that manifests in the following way in each of our lives. “…that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong” (Romans 7:21 NLT). It is as if there are two persons living in the same body. One wants to do the will of God, while the other seeks to resist that will and pursue a life of sin. It reminds me of the image of the demon and the angel, sitting on opposite shoulders of an individual – alternately whispering into the poor person’s ears, providing contradictory counsel about what to do in a given situation. Paul describes it as “another power within me that is at war with my mind” (Romans 7:23 NLT). The result for Paul was misery, which caused him to call out for deliverance from this daily, ongoing battle with sin in his life.

Paul knew that he had been set free from slavery to sin by the death of Jesus on the cross. He knew he was a new creature and a new creation. But he also knew, from experience, that he still had a formidable sin nature that waged ongoing war with his new nature. As long as we live on this earth and in these bodies, we will do battle with sin. Jesus’ death did not eradicate sin. He simply ended its strangle hold on our lives. We no longer have to live as unwilling slaves to its influence, obeying its every command and fulfilling its every wish. We have been set free. But sin still remains. And if we try to conquer sin on our own, we will always fail. If we attempt to rely on our own strength, we will always come up short and unsuccessful. Which is why Paul exclaims, “Thank God! The answer is Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25 NLT). Jesus is the answer for not only our salvation, but our ongoing sanctification. It is He who gave us victory over sin and death, providing us with a way to made right with God. And He continues to do it throughout our lifetimes. He gives me the strength to say no to sin. He has provided me with the Holy Spirit, as a powerful ally in my daily struggle with sin. I need to recognize that it is Jesus who saved me, but who continues to save me from the effects of sin on my life. He alone can deliver me from a life dominated by sin and death. The presence of sin in and around me, should drive me to a greater and greater dependence on Christ and His Spirit within me. I should know from experience that my flesh is weak and incapable of winning the battle alone. But I have Christ on my side and the Holy Spirit within me. I have a resource that provides me with the capacity to do what my heart desires. Paul goes on to describe this capacity as “the power of the life-giving Spirit” who has “freed you from the power of sin that leads to death” (Romans 8:2 NLT). Jesus has provided us with eternal life. The Spirit provides us with the ability to live righteously in our daily lives – here and now. Thank God!

Father, there is a daily battle going on in my life that I far too often fail, because I am attempting to do it all on my own. Continue to show me my daily need for Your Son’s saving power. He didn’t just save me and then leave me on my own, but He gave me His Spirit. I just need to learn to rely more and more on the Spirit’s power and less and less on my own. As I grow increasingly aware of my sin nature, drive me to Your Son and Your Spirit’s indwelling presence in my life. I have the power to live the life You’ve called me to live, and it comes from You, not me. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Galatians 5:16-26

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The Fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:16-26

But the Holy Spirit products this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! – Galatians 5:22 NLT

Not only are we free to love others, but we are free to live under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. But if we’re not careful, we are also free to live according to the desires of our own sinful flesh – our sin nature. It’s a choice. I can choose to let the Holy Spirit guide and direct my life, or I can give in to the constant cravings of my sin nature. It’s not only a choice, it’s a daily battle. “These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions” (Galatians 5:17b NLT). The Holy Spirit directs us one way, while our sin nature prompts us to take an opposite and radically dangerous path. Allowing ourselves to get enslaved to the law only feeds our sin nature. Paul pointed this out in Romans 7. “…it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, ‘You must not covet.’ But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me!” (Romans 7:7-8 NLT). The law tells me what I should not do, and then my sin nature desires to do just that. It’s like telling a young child not to touch a hot stove, and that becomes the one thing they want to try and do. Their sin nature creates a desire for the very thing they have been denied. Like Eve in the Garden, we can’t seem to stay away from the one thing God has told us is off limits. When you attempt to live according to laws, decrees, rules and standards, your sin nature will always resist, tempting you to break those rules or justify your ignoring of them. When you try to do what God wants in your own strength, you will fail. But when you live empowered and guided by the Spirit of God, you will have all the strength you need and the motivation to do what needs to be done.

Following the desires of our sin nature produces obvious outcomes. Paul gives us a comprehensive list. Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these” (Galatians 5:19-21 NLT). Notice the diverse nature of his list. He includes sexual immorality alongside jealousy. Drunkenness makes the list right there by envy. All of these things, from the dramatic to the seeming inconsequential, all have one thing in common – they are focused on self. They are self-centered and driven by selfish desires. This list contains destructive behaviors that are anything but conducive to community and selfless servanthood. Trying to live your life according to some set of standards or rules will feed your sin nature and produce an unhealthy and destructive list of outcomes. You’ll end up comparing yourself with others. You’ll compete and attempt to outdo others in rule-keeping. You’ll attempt to justify your own insufficiencies and expose those of others. All this will lead to division, dissension, quarreling, jealousy, anger, and more.

It’s interesting that when we try to produce the fruit of the Spirit on our own, we end up with results that look nothing like what we were aiming for. Rather than love that is focused on others, we end up loving ourselves. In place of joy, we find ourselves with discontentment and dissatisfaction. Instead of producing patience, we become irritable, judgmental and angry. Kindness gets replaced with pettiness and an overwhelming need to find fault in others so that we can feel better about ourselves. Goodness gets trumped by selfishness. Faithfulness comes out as unreliability and self-seeking. Gentleness becomes harshness. And self-control goes out the window, as love of self takes over our lives, turning out attention inwardly rather than outwardly.

Only the Spirit of God can produce the fruit God is looking for in our lives. These things are not self-produced. We are incapable of manufacturing any of them on our own. If we try, we only end up with cheap imitations that are like those knock-off perfumes you can buy at the local drug store. They may cost less, but they stink in comparison to the real thing. Paul encourages us to live by the Spirit, according to His power, not our own. Rather than having to live enslaved to the desires of our old sin nature, we are now free to live in the Spirit’s power, allowing Him to produce in and through us what we could never have done on our own. He produces in us supernaturally what we could never have produced naturally. Like our salvation, it is the work of God, not man. This is no longer about trying to live up to some kind of standards, rules or laws. It is not about trying to behave in such a way that we somehow make God happy and satisfied with us. It is not about comparing ourselves with others and measuring our righteousness based on that of others. This is learning to recognize that our righteousness is the work of God, from beginning to end. It is the fruit of His Spirit, not our flesh. It is made possible by the work of Christ, not anything we do or don’t do. So Paul encourages us, “Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives” (Galatians 5:25 NLT). Let’s live in His power. Let’s operate according to His agenda. Let’s seek His will, not our own. Let’s watch Him produce His fruit in us, rather than try to produce it on our own. “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death” (Romans 8:1-2 NLT). We are free to live in the power of the Spirit and to bear the fruit of the Spirit – for the good of others, not ourselves.

Father, I want to live increasingly in the power of Your Spirit. I want to say no to my sin nature and yes to Your Spirit’s leading. I desire to see His fruit produced in and through me. My attempts at fruitfulness always fall short and never produce what You’re looking for. My sin nature tends to make everything about ME. But I want to live for You. Continue to patiently show me how to live in Your power, according to Your will, and expressing Your love for others through my life. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org