“Recovery” By Brother Kenneth Ray December 9th,
2012
Have you ever had an accident? Ever scraped your knee? If so, then you needed to go through some
form of recovery. It’s a necessary part of
life and a Christian walk. Sometimes we
back up; sometimes we go too slow; sometimes we don’t go slow enough. We do things that may have consequences
between us and our maker. Sometimes
that’s good. When we think of
consequences, we generally think about bad consequences, but not all
consequences are bad. All of it is so
that you can be reconciled. Believe it or not, God’s not trying to
get you to come to church on Sunday morning; He’s trying to get you to pray on
Monday morning. He’s trying to get you
to gather together with other believers.
Have you noticed that, in the New Testament, they always went from house
to house? Now, today, I am a house; I am
the temple of the Holy Ghost. I should be
going from house to house. I’m going to
come to your house, even if you don’t come to mine. Recover—to cover again
or renew (2) to catch or save one’s self from a slip, stumble, self-betrayal God goes where
you go: Matthew
18:20 …where two or three are
gathered together in My name, there am I… We see that when two or three are
gathered in Jesus’ name, He is in the midst of them. Let’s look at the opposite side of that: What about when two or three are gathered NOT
in Jesus’ name? Does God not see and
know the heart of man as well as his thoughts and reasoning. Maybe we’re looking; maybe we’re
wondering. The Word of God tells us: 1 Chronicles 28:9 …the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the
imaginations… 1 Corinthians 2:10 …the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the
deep things of God. We
like to live on the surface. That may be
good for fishing (in fishing staying in the shallows is generally a good
thing), but in God that just gets you scorched from being too close to the
source of the heat. Revelation 2:23 … I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts… From
the evidence—if this were a court of law, I would say that Jesus has proved
that He knows and understands us very, very well. God’s
loving pursuit: David
in the Psalms gives us these words: Psalms 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life… Our
limitations keep us from recognizing the One who came to save us. Our limitations: We don’t understand God’s will; our own free
will (that’s a limitation? sure, because we sometimes do what we want, instead
of what God wants). We even doubted His
presence—and sometimes we still do. How
does Jesus deal with our doubts? He follows
us: Goodness and mercy shall follow
me… Sometimes He puts a little pressure
on us; turns up the heat. Sometimes we
feel a little stress. There’s good
stress and there’s bad stress: good
stress makes you do what you need to do; bad stress makes you stop trying. We have doubts and we have limitations, but
He follows us. James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above… I
don’t quite know how to emphasize this, but let me tell you that I have this
next part written in all caps in my notes:
WITH WHOM IS NO VARIABLENESS NEITHER SHADOW OF TURNING. Our moods may shift, but God’s doesn’t. We had some bad weather yesterday; it was
gloomy, and it got dark at 4:00 PM. Really? I just wanted to go home and lie on the couch
without the TV. Our minds may change,
but God’s doesn’t. Our devotion may
falter, but God never does. Even if you
are faithless, He is still faithful. 2 Timothy 2:13 If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful: he cannot deny himself. What’s
that got to do with recovery? because when we’re not faithful, we end up going
places we’re not supposed to be. Why was
I there? because my relationship with God was not what it should have
been. What I was doing wasn’t wrong in
and of itself, but it isn’t where I was supposed to be. Or, I may be in the right place, but not for
the right reason: If I’m coming to
church more than I’m serving God; if I’m coming to church to hear Andy and
Sonia sing… He is a sure God, and because He is a sure God, David could say,
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” Can I say that? Can you?
Are you sure? Do
I need both? Yes; not goodness alone for we are sinners and in need of
mercy. Not mercy alone, for we are
fragile and in need of goodness. A man (F.
B. Meyer) once wrote: “Goodness to
supply every want, mercy to forgive every sin; goodness to provide, mercy to
pardon.” Think
of the days that lie ahead, what do you see?
Bless the mothers that spend their days alone with only toddlers; God
will be at your side. Bless those that
have dead-end jobs; He will walk you through loneliness; He will take your
hand. Not some; not most; all your
days. When so many see God sitting in
one place (on the throne), can you envision a God mobile and active? Who follows us? Who pursues us? Who chases us? Who tracks us down and wins us over? Isn’t this the God described in the
Bible? In
the beginning; in the garden: Genesis 3:9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and
said unto him, Where art thou? Have
you sensed Him following you? We often
miss Him. He is there to give you
recovery. Let go the doubts, weights,
fear, and misunderstandings. You can
trust God; it may not be easy for some, but it’s not as difficult as you make
it out to be. Trust your faith and not
your feelings, because you don’t feel spiritual each day. Measure your value through God’s eyes, not
your own. Make sure that you get a
routine checkup with Doctor Jesus. 1 John 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is
greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
See
the big picture and not the small. Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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