Finding Our Purpose in Life - Timing

Years ago, in a meeting with an old, retired pastor in Nevada, he pulled me aside and said, “I want to tell you God’s purpose for your life.” I found that somewhat intrusive but said okay. He said, “God’s purpose for you is to be where you are to be, when you are to be there, doing what you are to be doing, the way God wants it done, and doing it all for His glory.”

As I’ve considered this over the years, I’ve discovered these principles aren’t steps but the process of stepping - walking. You don’t do one, stop, then the other, stop, then the next. Like walking, all the motions are combined into the action necessary to walk. We don’t send separate commands to our feet and legs. We just walk. To do so, several things are taking place at the same time. These principles are a collective package of doing what connects us to a single purpose, and that is to glorify God.

I offer this to you as your (our) purpose in life as Believers and as a Church. And though they are this collective package, we need to break them down individually to get a handle on how all of this works.

·       Be where we are to be – It’s the principle of abiding – John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. Abiding means to stay or remain connected in a position of readiness for the actions the Master wants from us.

o   Like a well-trained dog told to stay as he awaits the next command

o   Like a branch attached to the vine, waiting for the juices to flow that will produce fruit: the evidence of faith – what’s produced when we trust God.

·       To be where we are to be, when we are to be there – Timing

I was to catch a flight once. I’d made specific reservations because I had an appointment at the other end. I was at the airport, had my confirmation number, my bags. I was trying to check in and the computer wouldn’t let me. I was 12 hours early. Apparently, when I booked, I clicked PM instead of AM. I was at the right place but at the wrong time. By disconnecting the when from the where, I messed up the appointment.

Being where we ought to be does no good if we’re early or late when it’s a timed action.

Draw a line across your mind, marked off by years. Let’s call it a life-graph. Each of us can plot out where we’ve been and what we’ve gone through to get to where we are today. Where we grew up, vacations we went on, where we went to school, who we dated, when we married, where we lived, where we worked, where our kids were born, what were our tragedies, what were our successes, when we retired or plan on retiring, loved ones we’ve lost. We can graph out our history.

But when we look back, if we’re not careful, we might say it was all a matter of being in the right place at the right time as though our life was a result of good luck or chance. But for those of us who know God and know He has plans for our lives, there’s more to our life-graphs than luck.

Though we exercised choice in much of what went on – like college or vocation, most of what went on just seemed to happen. How many, other than me, picked your wife out of a catalogue, then had her delivered? No, we just met and things developed. We didn’t plan it or schedule it. It just came along and we embraced it. Which has made our lives a journey and not a trip.

A trip is the action of getting from one place to another. A trip draws a line between two points. Connecting point A with point B. A journey is everything that goes on between point A and point B. The process of getting there. In a journey, much more happens than just arriving at our destination. Much more than we plan.

Like the turtle on the fence post. How on earth did he get up there? At the end of our lives, we look around and ask: How on earth did we get here? There seemed to be an invisible hand guiding us along, which also explains the turtle. There has to be some plan connected to our lives.

When God said: Jer 29:11 For I know the plans that I have for you, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope, He was saying our lives are significant to Him and therefore worthy of Him investing His plans into our lives. To accomplish those plans, He attaches to them a strategy.

Strategy is intended action designed to achieve an overall aim. In other words, the job of strategy is to help us hit the target.

Put in simple terms, strategy is the instruction: Ready, Aim, Fire. That order is crucial to the success of hitting the target. If we, instead, go: Ready, Fire, Aim, we still shoot the gun, experience the noise and feel the recoil, but the bullet isn’t going anywhere near the target.

Within the strategy God sets, there is a target and a time frame by which to hit the target. That timeframe becomes the framework upon which He builds our lives. It’s how God fills the life-graph between our birth and death giving meaning to why we’re here and what He has planned. My life-graph is different from yours and yours from mine.

Which means, though the purpose of our lives is the same – to glorify God – the way that will be accomplished will be different. God’s plans are specific to each of us.

It starts with vision. Vision is the view from the top down. The whole picture from beginning to the end. Seeing the parade from a bird’s view, not from spectators along the parade route. God sets the vision. He’s the only one who can see our whole life, where everything is going and how it all fits together.

Gen 15:7 And He said to Abraham, "I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it." 

“Abraham, I know where I found you, where I brought you from and where I am taking you. I’m working out a strategy for your life-graph. I’m going to use you to help Me accomplish a greater plan. So, together, this is what we are going to do.”

The whole Bible reveals God’s plan. But it’s not until the NT that the plan becomes more obvious. When we get to the Gospels, we notice there is a timing factor connected to the plan. That within the plan is a schedule.

John 7:3 Therefore His brothers said to Him, "Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world." 5  For not even His brothers were believing in Him. 6 So Jesus said to them, "My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. 8  Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast [as you suggest] because My time has not yet fully come." 9 Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee. 10 But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret. 

Jesus was working from a schedule. Though much of what we read about Him seems to be just happenstance, there is a clock attached to His life. Each thing He did moved the story toward its scheduled climax. Each moment held significance in the overall story.

·       Matt 5:17 Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 

o   God used the prophets to share details of His plan. Primarily, so that when the things prophesied happened, people could check and see, “Oh, this is the Lord’s doing.”

o   Alfred Edersheim found 456 prophesies in the Old Testament that point to or describe or reference the coming Messiah. About 80 prophesies relate to the 2^nd Coming, but he found that Jesus fulfilled at least 375 prophecies during His earthly ministry.

o   A professor used 48 prophecies to estimate the probability of them being fulfilled in one person. He came up with 1:10^157 – 10 with 157 zeros.

o   Jesus came to fulfill prophecy as proof of who we was.

·       Also, He came to fulfill the Law.

o   Rom 11:26 THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB. 27 THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS. 

o   The Law established the sacrificial system. Within that system was the all-important Day of Atonement. Atonement didn’t mean forgiveness. It meant covering.

o   The Law has no expression that sins are forgiven. Always – sins will be forgiven.

o   Lev 16:8  Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat. 9 Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the LORD fell, and make it a sin offering. 10 But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat. 22  The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness. 

o   Scapegoat taking away sin was a picture of what was to come.

o   John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 

You don’t do that in one setting. It takes time and events to orchestrate. Jesus couldn’t have just walked up to Pilate and announced, “Okay, I need to be crucified to take away the sins of the world. How about this Thursday?” There was a schedule, an alignment, and players that needed to be put in place.

Not seen better than in Laz: John 11:1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick." 4  But when Jesus heard this, He said, "This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it." 

John 11:14 So Jesus then said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, 15 and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him." 17 So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off; 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. 

John 11:21 Martha then said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You." 23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." 24 Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." 25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" 27 She said to Him, "Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world." 

John 11:39 Jesus said, "Remove the stone." Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?" 41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me." 43 When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth." 44 The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." 

John 11:45  Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. 47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. 48 If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish." 51 Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. 

John 12:9 The large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. 10 But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; 11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus. 

Story with many twists: love of family and friends, hope, promise, identity of Jesus, instructions and resurrection. But mainly timing.

What if Jesus had gotten there when everyone wanted Him there? He would have healed Laz and it would have been no big deal. Jesus healed a lot of people but only a few got mentioned. A large crowd wouldn’t have been there. They came because Laz had died not because he was sick. Many who believed would have missed their opportunity. Word wouldn’t have gotten to the Council to stir them up. The death plan wouldn’t have been initiated.

Had He come early, Jesus would have missed the window of God’s plan. That miracle, at that time, took those that wanted Him removed, all the way into their plot to when God had scheduled Him to die. Timing was crucial.

Mid-air refueling – a strategic plan that requires timing.

Chronos (clock-time) and Kairos (timing). Kairos time means making the right decision at the right time.

John 5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time [Chronos] in that condition, He said to him, "Do you wish to get well?" 

John 7:8 Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time [Kairos] has not yet fully come.

Kairos – the time when conditions are right for accomplishing crucial action: the decisive moment.

We’re more “by the clock” people. You do realize how much of a hindrance that is to faith? Faith is trusting in a God who works on His own time schedule. We watch the clock. He watches the calendar. He doesn’t just send an answer but prepares the right moment for the answer to come.

We want to know how much longer? God says: however long it takes. Because to Him life isn’t a trip but a journey. Some really important things may be scheduled to happen along the way that He doesn’t want us to miss.

Since we don’t always know when those are, we set our lives into a readiness mode - abiding, anticipating God to work in and through us as He chooses - timing. Being where we are to be, at the time we are to be there, is an attitude of anticipation. I stay, awaiting the next command, ready for what God plans to do, anticipating what comes next.

Jesus had a schedule. Moments within that schedule were strategic to the story. But that schedule was connected with the Father’s plan. His Goal remained the same: to do the Father’s will. Which made it essential that He was where He needed to be, when He needed to be there. Each moment held the expectation and anticipation of the Father’s work in His life. It’s the same for us.

Keep Me in the Moment – Jeremy Camp

Oh Lord, keep me in the moment
Help me live with my eyes wide open
'Cause I don't wanna miss what you have for me
Oh Lord, show me what matters
Throw away what I'm chasing after
'Cause I don't wanna miss what you have for me
Keep me in the moment
Oh, keep me in the moment
Keep me in the moment
'Cause I don't wanna miss what you have for me

TAKEAWAYS:

1. Timing is as crucial as the plan. 
2.  God works on a schedule of Kairos - when the time is right. 
3.  Since He is never early and never late, we cannot put God on our time schedule.
4. At the same time, however, God wants us on His, by us living in anticipation that we will see His goodness in our lives. 
5. Faith keeps us in the moment.

 

Thoughts on Afghanistan

We’re told two topics never to mention in polite circles are religion and politics. We’ve done both from here. Mainly, because life isn’t compartmentalized. It overlaps. Religion gets into politics and politics gets into religion. And both are wrapped around current events.

Speaking about current events is a necessity for the church, since life happens in the midst of current events. We need to know how to live and move and have our existence with things going on. We need perspective.

Did you know, the fire for the Revolutionary War was kindled in the churches of America. It didn’t start with the politicians. It began in the churches. It was the message of freedom and unity that tied the colonies together. In fact, it was a struggle for many politicians to come around to Independence since they enjoyed the benefit of England’s oversite.

Today, we fear speaking of things going on because of a separation of church and state. Actually, that’s been modified into more of a separation of the church from the state instead of its intention of separation of the state from the church.

I know speaking about current events seems to cross some lines for some, because much of what happens is caused by politicians making decisions but when those decisions make our patriotic blood boil, we must speak. Some, today, want to deny the right of the church to be patriotic. In our woke society many decry Christian Nationalists as though one cannot be the other. And we’re even included in a watchlist for radical thought. But we are and will be a Patriotic church. We stand proud to believe in One Nation Under God. We fly our flags out front. We celebrate the greatness of our country and the God who shaped our beginning.

Some don’t like that. In fact, we’ve had people leave because they say our church is too political. Believe it or not, we’ve had others leave because we weren’t political enough.

So, today, we need to get some perspective on what’s going on right now in Afghanistan. The decisions being made effect the lives of the people beyond politics. So, let’s just look at it as one of the most devastating weeks for our country has been through since the war with the Taliban began, the loss of a country and the loss of 13 Marines.

When Bush declared war against Al Qaeda after 911, that took the theater of war to Afghanistan. Al Qaeda was an extremist part of the tribal Taliban, as is ISIS. The Taliban are a Muslim militant policing force that has controlled ¾ of Afghanistan since 2001. Their goal is to enforce a strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law.

·       Under the Taliban's rule, women are effectively put under house arrest as they were not allowed to work or have an education.

·       Any female above the age of eight had to wear a burqa and had to be escorted by a male relative if they wanted to leave their home.

·       Women were not allowed high-heeled shoes as no man should hear a woman’s footsteps.

·       A woman’s voice should not be heard by a stranger when she is speaking loudly in public.

·       Photographing, filming or displaying pictures of females in newspapers, books, shops or the home was not allowed.

·       Women were not allowed to appear on their balconies.

·       Women who broke the rules had to suffer the humiliation of a public beating, or even stoning and in extreme cases even public executions.

·       Beyond treatment of women, the laws regarding crime are beyond the harshest in any country, many being carried out by men at any time.

The Russians tried throughout the 80s to defeat the Taliban and failed. We are walking away after 20 years, leaving complete control of Afghanistan in the hands of over 100,000 Taliban troops to enforce their agenda. We beat them down but never defeated them. They were held in check but still hid in the darkness, in caves or blending into society, waiting for a show of weakness to rise up.

It’s right to pull out. But pulling out must always be with honor. Many of us have images of South Viet Nam’s fall and the desperation to escape. Wait for Tuesday.

We’ve left out honor. Honor gives dignity to those men and women who sacrificed lives, limbs and psyches to fight an ungodly enemy. Walking away questions those losses. But take away the politics, this isn’t how we withdraw from conflict. We must honor those who went, fought and sacrificed. We must extract our people, our allies, our friends.

To think we are cowering to an enemy we had already beaten back and as they now assume control over the whole country and us as well is unthinkable. Logistically, none of that was necessary. We had the ability to command our exit.

Chad Robichaux – never should have been there. He put the blame on the State Department’s failures and administration’s decisions. Got out over 12,000. Went after his interpreter and couldn’t stop. Glen Beck got out over 5000 Christians.

This is an enemy that doesn’t think or act like we do. They are tribal, not national. They obey only their chiefs, no central command, are driven by radical Muslim ideology. And now they control Afghanistan. And in the process, we have handed over to them billions of dollars in equipment and weapons to continue their reign of terror.

Who is in jeopardy? Any American or ally left behind. Any Afghans who helped us in the war. Any Christians. Any Muslim not wanting to live under Sharia law. Already, away from the cameras, there are reports that Taliban are going house to house to find any of those and mark them for death. In other places, in other parts of Afghanistan, the loss of life has already begun.

The airlift is showing down and turning now toward getting troops out. Many will be left behind. And when Tuesday comes, literally all hell will break out. This war, this devastation isn’t over.

These are desperate times. But, desperate times is actually a theme in Scripture. You read of any prophet and he went through desperate times. Any King, any army. Does God handle desperate times?

Job 6:26 Do you intend to reprove my words, when the words of one in despair belong to the wind? 

Ps 42:5  Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence. 6 O my God, my soul is in despair within me; Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. 7 Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me. 8 The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life. 9 I will say to God my rock, "Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" 10 As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 11 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God. 

Ps 43:3 O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your dwelling places. 4 Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God. 5 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God. 

Words that show some stage of hopelessness:

Disturbed – shaken by what’s going on

Despair – losing the will to go on

Desperate – at the end of hope

When you go to the source, you’ll find the cause is usually that someone has placed their hope in something that can’t provide it.

What do desperate people do?

·       Some trust in people

Ps 118:8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in man. 

·       Some trust in those in charge

Ps 118:9 It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in princes. 

·       Some trust in strength and ability of others

Isa 31:1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help And rely on horses, And trust in chariots because they are many And in horsemen because they are very strong, But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD! 

·       We trust in the Lord

Jer 17:7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. 8 For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit. 

·       What lifts despair?

Light – We think of light as only what shines. But light can also be a reduction in weight to make something easier to carry or to lift. The source of both – God.

Truth – remembering what He has already taught us

It is replacement. We replace our despair with what is truer than what we face. We allow God to lift our burden and lighten our load.

We may face extreme circumstances. It’s natural to be disturbed. We may feel desperate by what’s going on and see no answer. Threats are real. But what is realer?

What remains true no matter what? The eternal word of God. That’s why people went to Jesus. He was the Word of God. In the Gospels they went to Jesus when nothing else could help them.

Mark 5:25 A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, 26 and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse—27 after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, "If I just touch His garments, I will get well." 29 Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. 30 Immediately, Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched My garments?" 31 And His disciples said to Him, "You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'" 32 And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction." 

Mark 9:17 And one of the crowd answered Him, "Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; 18 and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it." 19 And He answered them and said, "O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!" 20 They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. 21 And He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. 22 It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!" 23 And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes." 24 Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe; help my unbelief." 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again." 26 After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, "He is dead!" 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. 28 When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, "Why could we not drive it out?" 29 And He said to them, "This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer." 

The war with the Taliban hasn’t ended. This will only embolden them along with restrengthening ISIS and even rekindling the old Al Qaeda network.

We’re going to see the rise in atrocity in Afghanistan and nothing will be done about it. We’re going to see the Chinese on the move to consume Taiwan. We’re going to see Russia return to her old ways. We’re going to see Iran go after Israel. We’ll hear of wars and rumors of wars. And, in all likelihood, we’ll soon hear the trumpet of God. All the while, America sits and watches, her generals more concerned about wokeness and critical race theory than protecting liberty. We have shown the world a weakness and they will take advantage.

Does that change the message? No.

Rom 8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

TAKEAWAYS:

1. If there ever was a time we need Jesus, it’s now.
2. When what we see disturbs us and causes us despair, we need to change what we’re looking at.
3. It is important to have the right help in view.
4. When we trust that those in power, and the implements of their power, will bring us peace in our hearts, we will always be disappointed.
5. Jesus has given us hope; now’s a great time to use it.

 

Finding Our Purpose for Life - Glorifying God/Abiding

This morning I got to my office and my computer wouldn’t come on. I called David Ray and he came in and did a reset. There are times when a device has too much going on, gets overloaded and you simply need to turn it off and on to reset it.

I also had a reset this past week to fix my Vertigo. Vertigo is typically caused by the crystals in your inner ear getting out of place. The result is dizziness and balance issues, among other things.  You never know the crystals are there until you do something that gets them upset. Like turning your head in a way they don’t like. When that happens, the world spins, you’re suddenly dizzy and unable to function normally. It’s a horrible feeling. Well, on Monday afternoon, I went to a therapist who manipulated my head to get the crystals back into place. After a few minutes, she sat me back up and the vertigo was gone. She reset my crystals.

“The Covid-19 crisis, and the political, economic and social disruptions it has caused, is fundamentally changing the traditional context for decision-making. The inconsistencies, inadequacies and contradictions of multiple systems –from health and financial to energy and education – are more exposed than ever amidst a global context of concern for lives, livelihoods and the planet. Leaders find themselves at a historic crossroads, managing short-term pressures against medium- and long-term uncertainties.” This was the defining statement of the World Economic Forum in June 2020. It was called The Great Reset. Now the solutions they came up with are highly intrusive and take us another step closer to a one-world government, a one-world religion and a one-world existence on earth. Though it’s called the Great Reset, it technically isn’t a reset or they would have returned to the larger concept of a Creator and His purpose for mankind.

Reset is to return to the original design – the default setting. Today, most devices have a reset operation. Usually, it’s as simple as turning them off and then back on. We used to call it rebooting. It returns the innerworkings to how they were originally designed to operate.

Is there a spiritual reset button? Is there some way to get our lives back to how God intended them to operate?

Our minds are receptacles of thought. They collect information, consider what it means, then choose how to respond. We’re multi-faceted, and designed to handle multiple input and still function well. But what if the mind gets overloaded? What does that look like?

If we think of the information being received into our minds as voices speaking messages to us, what happens when those messages begin to compete for attention? What if they start a shouting match to occupy greater influence to control our lives?

·       Secular reasoning: the voice of the world. It represents the world’s solution to our problems. Not always in agreement with what the Bible says.

·       Expectations of others: the voice of those we consider important to us. We call it the voice in our head that challenges everything we do.

·       Our personal need for validation: seeking affirmation. We want to know that we’re good and doing good things.

·       Fleshly desires: the voice of our body looking for satisfaction.

·       Our own inner voice: comparing and competing – the voice of the child than never grew up needing to do better or more than someone else.

·       Satan’s voice to tempt us to deny who we are and live contrary to God’s best.

·       Then there’s the general assortment of confusion: 1Tim 1:6 For some men, straying from these things [principles of truth], have turned aside to fruitless discussion, 7 even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. 

·       But finally, there is the voice of God. How do we silence the voices that keep us from hearing God? By resetting our default.

 

Matt 22:35 A lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." 

The Jews had 613 laws, rules they drew out of the 10 Commandments. If you can, imagine it as a to-do list with 613 things on it. Each one as important as the others. Those in charge made doing them a measurement of righteousness before God. And violating one of them made a person guilty of all of them.

That’s like 613 voices yelling at the same time, telling you to remember to do something. “That is important. Don’t forget this.” My brain would be so overloaded, my system would shut down. And guess what? So did the people under those obligations.

So, this really was a great question for Jesus to answer. Even though it was designed as a trap, it actually told them how they could reset their lives.

He said: let’s just go back to the original commands. Let’s summarize them like this: LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND and 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.

The first will cover the first 4 of the Ten Commandments. The second will cover the rest.

Talk about clearing the overload. 613 voices become one voice telling them two things to keep in mind. Jesus just reset their lives.

Paul did that for us: 1Cor 10:31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. A million expectations dissolved down to one – just live to glorify God.

Now, last week we looked at glorify as pictured by the moon reflecting the sun. Shining back in a way that says, “Look how bright the sun is.” It was found in Jesus’ words: Matt 5:16 Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. 

Glorifying God is what happens when our lives are turned toward Him. It’s the reset for how we live, what we do, who we are – all of which reflecting back the greatness of God. Which then makes the purpose of our lives to demonstrate God is good – All the Time.

Accomplishing that isn’t tricky. We don’t force some unnatural effort to make God look good. He is good. We simply do whatever we do in such a way that it reflects accurately who He is. That’s glorifying Him.

John 15:8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 

What is fruit? It’s the natural product of a fruit-bearing tree. Natural being the key word. It is the expected outcome of what that tree is designed to produce.

Matt 21:19  Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, "No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you." And at once the fig tree withered. 20 Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, "How did the fig tree wither all at once?" 

That was the wrong question. They should have asked why. Why did you do this?

A fruit tree that doesn’t produce fruit is a worthless tree. Other than decoration, it doesn’t serve the purpose for which it was designed. Rarely is a fruit tree shaped to give shade or its wood strong enough so that you can build things. Its only purpose is to produce fruit.

So, comparing us to fruit trees, Jesus is doing a reset on why we exist.

John 15:2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 

In an orchard, the gardener lifts, shapes and cuts back the branches so they can bear more fruit. To make the branches more productive. We know a pruned tree produces more fruit than a tree left to naturally grow however it chooses.

Why? Pruning provides the conditions by which fruit trees can be healthy and productive, which will increase the yield and quality of their fruit. Says a horticultural website.

When you prune a tree, you help stimulate the growth of new fruiting wood. This fruiting wood is the wood that creates more fruit spurs and will bear more fruit. A neglected tree will eventually have too much non-fruit producing deadwood, that drains away the life of the tree and must be cut off.

John 15:1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser…you are the branches. Or to fit our terms: Jesus is the trunk of the tree, we are the fruit-producing branches and the Father is the gardener.

As our gardener, He will shape, trim and prune us so that we can produce more fruit.

What is the fruit we are to produce? In general terms, it is the evidence of our relationship with the Father. It is a bi-product. A bi-product is what develops when you are doing something else. It’s not the target but the result of hitting the target.

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control;

These are expressions of a life under the control of the Spirit of God, actions that come from our default setting as Christians. The only reason we wouldn’t bear fruit is we choose not to.

There’s also the fruit of love: 1Cor 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails.

Again, fruit is the expression of a life producing the qualities God expects from His children. The characteristics of love are the proof, the evidence that we belong to Him.

John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

A fruit tree is known by its fruit. Matt 7:16 Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will know them by their fruits. 

If I go to the nursery to buy a fruit tree, unless there’s a label there telling me what the tree will produce, I won’t know an apple from a fig tree until the fruit shows up. In the same way, the fruit of our lives is the proof we are Children of God.

Which takes us to the point in Jesus’ teaching that has always been confusing to me. The principle of abiding.

John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 

I understand all the other words but get hung up on that one word: abide. But if that one word is the key to me bearing fruit, it must be important. The Greek word for abide means “to stay, to remain where you have been placed, not to depart, not to leave, to continue to be present: to remain as you are, not to become another or different.”

That makes much more sense. To remain where you have been placed. To stay.

In training dogs, an essential command is to stay. From that position, the dog is ready for the next command. It may be to roll over or sit up or fetch or attack. Stay is the position of readiness for what comes next.

In the Bible, the word is translated more times as stay than abide. I don’t fully understand the word abide but I do understand the word stay. This means we must remain or stay vitally connected to the Vine. Don’t leave and go off thinking we can do better someplace else.

Being where we ought to be is a command position from which we are ready to obey the next command. It’s how Jesus lived. Go back to Jesus’ ultimate mission statement – the one sentence that covered everything He did on Earth including the cross.

John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 

That’s the heart of one so connected to the Father that He could say at the end: John 17:4 I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. 

How did Jesus glorify the Father on earth? Same way He told us to: Matt 5:16 Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. 

How do we do that? By letting fruit grow that reflects who we are in reference to expressing the goodness of God.

Plug all of this in: If we are to produce fruit that glorifies God, we must remain attached to the tree that is the source of that fruit which is Jesus. Obviously, a limb can’t run off and try to function without being attached. It needs the life of the tree flowing through it.

Then, if you stay, even if you aren’t producing, God will lift you up, trim off the withered parts and prop you up. He will prune you so that you can be more productive in your Christian life, bearing fruit that only comes when we honor Him.

That define us. It’s the reason – the why – and the purpose behind living the Christian life. We live to glorify God. It resets our default to live in such a way God is honored as our lives reflect His goodness. We stay. He prunes. Fruit happens as Jesus flows His life through us.

TAKEAWAYS:

1. Abiding is not some mysterious spiritual gyration we have to perform.
2. It is merely staying connected to our source for life – Jesus.
3. Life is designed to operate as we live to reflect God in our actions and thoughts.
4. Abiding is conscious awareness I am where God wants me, ready to do whatever He wants me to do.
5. The fruit of my life proves who I am and how important He is.