God want us to do more than just survive. If you think that by staying a Christian you’re doing God a favour, think again.
That doesn’t mean pretending to be living in constant faith and victory, God knows us and we are to worship in spirit and in truth. We need to be real……but the Word of God also says -‘Aim for perfection’ (2 Cor. 13:11)
‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving’ (Col. 3:23,24)
‘I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received’ (Eph. 4:1).

Are you living a passive life ?
Just letting things happen around you, either for good or bad ?
Not where God wants you to be.

To follow Jesus is to be actively seeking God, to listen to Him through prayer and His Word. To be obedient to what He commands – both the general commands in the Bible and what He says to you specifically.
To use the experience, personality, gifts and abilities, time and money…..that He’s given you, for His Kingdom and glory.

Read Matthew 25:14-30.

If you find yourself feeling sorry for this third guy who is described as a wicked and lazy servant, then you’ve missed something…. and are probably in danger of making the same mistake he did.
Apathy and laziness are issues for the Church in this nation, as we sit by and watch it go down the drain. And apathy and laziness is particularly a struggle for those living in peaceful, beautiful surroundings where the pace of life is slower and people come to retire or get away from things. Beware, be alert, be focussed on the Lord and His kingdom.
It is not an option for a follower of Jesus. There are many warnings in Scripture about cowardice, apathy, and laziness.

Men especially need to hear this – for the men of our nation have become cowardly, most clearly seen in so many opting out of being a present and caring father. If there’s an easy option we’ll take it. This is not to blame men solely for this, but it’s simply the way it has become. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

In our flesh, us men, all we want is a simple easy life – no hassle, no pressure – the old stereotypical norms of going out to work 9-5, coming home to slippers, paper and pipe, meal on the table, kids kept out of the way, …suited us fine. Men, fight it ! Because neither what we were generally, or what we have become generally, is what God wants. The old man was wrong, and the new man is little better. Both need to die.
Being a man of God is about integrity, doing what is right, being self controlled, taking up our God given responsibilities loving and serving our wives and children, fighting for the weak and needy, speaking the Word of God. Lay hold of what God wants you to be.

Going back to laziness and activity in general, look at the examples we have in Scripture – take Jesus, and Paul. Outwardly very active, always about the Father’s business….inwardly at peace, at rest, and content. True ?
So have you got it the right way round ?

Biblically, if you are not living it out, then your faith probably isn’t real.
We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works that God has prepared for us to do (see Eph. 2:8-10). Actively seeking God. Actively seeking to do His will.
This is so radical for some people, for some Christians….that it will mean a complete change of lifestyle and priorities.
And your flesh will scream against it…..’because the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other…’ (Gal. 5:17).

And this brings us to the main thing that we’re going to look at this morning.
If you’re a Christian, you’ll be aware I hope of a struggle inside you between your sinful nature and the Holy Spirit
What should I give into, and what should I resist ?
What should I hang onto and what should I let go of ?

Firstly. Let go of sin.
Sounds obvious, but are you doing it ?

Bitterness. Lust. Envy and jealousy. Slander and gossip. Greed. Pride or arrogance.
Laziness.

Read Hebrews 12:1-3.

If you’re going to run, if you’re going to finish the race….you have to get rid of sin and not hang onto it. No option here. If you’ve been hanging onto sin, repent today, don’t delay it.
Any rebellion against God is sin. Any breaking of His commands. In fact ‘anything that is not of faith is sin’.

But what are other things that can hold back and hinder our walk with Christ ?

Secondly. The pursuit of comfort, the pursuit of pleasure, and materialism. This has done more in the Western world to hinder the Church and the Gospel than anything else. They are Idols. And what do you do with idols ? You remove them. Again this is lifestyle, changes on what may be a significant scale. Of course you may think you have no problem with these things, but why not ask God anyway ?
Or, as you look at evangelism more, you may have become very aware of these issues.

Thirdly. ….And this effects others….. Let go of people.
Release others.
Especially in families and marriages.
Insecurity and fear breeds control – seeking to make others do what you want, …and control brings bondage. It holds others back.
To manipulate, to deceive, to play emotional and psychological games, to seek to control – this is the spirit, the essence, ….of witchcraft.
To encourage others, build others up, to serve others, to consider others better than yourself – this is Biblical. To point them to Jesus. To release others to become the best that they can be in Christ.
Are you doing that for your husband or wife ? For your children ? For your parents ?
Are we thinking of others in our relationships, or ourselves ?
‘You will know the truth and the truth will set you free’. Sometimes it starts with the truth about ourselves and our attitudes. And then the truth that Jesus has died for us and those sinful attitudes, and we can now die to sin, and become a new creation in Him. Set free, and setting free others.

So how do you let go, what does it feel like ?
I know this is a question that some of you have, who struggle to let go of things.

The psalms give us examples in words of people letting go, but we know it’s more than words, it has to come from inside, from the soul.

If you’ve had a conversion experience you’ll know, because at that point you let go of your sin and guilt before the cross of Christ. And you’ll remember the incredible sense of release and relief that happens.

It’s giving up to God, ……humility is vital, …….it’s surrender, an acknowledgement from the heart that your wrong and God’s right, that you can’t do it, that you need the Lord totally. A laying down on the altar. Submitting all to God, holding nothing back.

Let’s put it another way. Just as when you’re sick, you regurgitate food. When you breath out, you breath out used air. When you go to the toilet you get rid of waste.
Spiritually and emotionally you do the same with these things before God. You are letting go, letting sin and destructive emotion leave you. And because Jesus has taken these things on the cross, you have been given the power to let go of them. So choose to do it.

Okay, what do we hang on to.
God of course…..our anchor, our rock, our fortress….and sometimes only God.
Everything else hold more loosely to, because there will probably be times in your life when you feel everything else has been stripped away – certainties, family and friends, securities, even what you thought God had said through the Bible or prophecy……all that will be left is the Lord.
Deep calling to deep, spirit to Spirit, heart to heart, the place of complete intimacy.
I can’t stress this enough. In terms of the most important thing to trust in, to rely on, to hang onto….it’s God Himself – not the Bible, not prophecy or supposed prophecy, not church or what others say…..it’s the Lord Himself.
These other things are of great value, but they’re not God.

After God, comes His revealed truth in Scripture, against which any prophetic word should be tested.
Hang on to God’s truth, the eternal truths of the Word of God.
Let the Bible be your yardstick, plumb line, set square….against which you measure everything else.
If the Bible and the world – scientists, philosophers, politicians, doctors, historians – appear to be in conflict, always trust the Lord and what He has revealed to us in the Bible, not man.
Hold on to the truth of God’s word.

Also, hold on to love. May seem a strange thing to say. We don’t think of love as something to hold onto generally, but that’s exactly what we need to do. To guard it.

Read Matthew 24:9-14.

Don’t give in to pressure from this world. Don’t give in to the attacks of the enemy.
As the world gets in a bigger mess because of sin, as God’s judgements come upon the earth – many will lose their first love…it will grow cold.
Hold on to God’s love – fight doubt, fight cynicism, fight fear, fight pride – hold on to God’s love – grace, undeserved, obedient, sacrificial, giving, serving. And a love which shares the truth of the Gospel.

‘Your Gospel O Lord is the hope for our nation’

People need Jesus. They need to be forgiven, saved, reconciled to God.
Hold onto the fact that the Lord does ‘not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance’ (2 Peter 3:9).
And the Gospel ‘is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes’ (Romans 1:16).
He has entrusted the proclamation of this message to us, His people, the Church.

Read Hebrews 10:35-39.

Don’t shrink back, don’t be lazy or a coward, or you will be destroyed.
Believe, persevere, and do the will of God.
Be active…for the Lord.
If you do, when Jesus returns, you will be saved, richly rewarded, and receive what He has promised.

‘Well done good and faithful servant’

‘Mankind looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’
– 1 Samuel 16:7.

People who don’t know you will tend to judge you by your appearance or first impressions.
People who know you well, will tend to judge you by your words and actions – by judge I mean decide what you are like as a person.
God as stated looks at the heart.

You may not agree with this next statement, because it makes us feel uncomfortable, but sometimes other people close to us, can know us better than we know ourselves.
Why do I say that ?
Because the heart is deceitful above all things, ….and we can have a false view of ourselves, an over inflated view of ourselves, or a low self image.
Our feelings are not trustworthy.
To know yourself, you have to be objective, look at what you do and say…that will tell you what you’re really like.
The Bible says that out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. So people who know us well, who hear what we come out with under pressure, or in our unguarded moments, get a glimpse of our heart and what’s going on inside us. Scary ?
Well it is if you haven’t faced up to it yet. If you haven’t opened your heart to God and been totally honest before Him, yes, very scary.
If you haven’t faced up to your sin when you became a Christian (if you have). And by sin, I’m not just talking about stealing, swearing, adultery, obvious outward things….but attitudes and motives. The thought life.
The sort of stuff Jesus pointed us to in the sermon on the mount.

Read Matthew 5:21, 22, 27, 28, ……….do not worry, do not judge, and so on.

This is vital. Without acknowledgement of sin, there can be no repentance, without repentance there can be no forgiveness or salvation. It’s the starting point, the bad news before the good news.

You can face the reality of who you are apart from God - a lying, thieving, blaspheming adulterer at heart , when you realise that God knows what you are, your darkest dreams and fantasies…..and He still loves you.
And once you know God loves you, you can love yourself, unless of course you reject God’s love and forgiveness. And when you know and love yourself, you can love others…..with God’s love.

People with low self image are encouraged by the world to think better of themselves, to be positive…..but that isn’t the answer. They feel guilty and wretched, because they are guilty and wretched – we all are outside of Christ.
It is He who makes us righteous, holy, children of God. It is He who gives us value, and meaning, and makes us into the people we were intended to be.

You know…to believe that most people are basically good caring people and to look for that good in everyone, is not Christian…..it is humanist, the belief in mankind, that we can do it.
Biblical Christianity is more honest. It says we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, we all like sheep have gone ashtray, each of us has turned to his own way, there is nobody righteous, no not one. That’s the reality. But God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
We deserve hell, …we deserve to pay for all our sins in the lake of fire, ….but the Lord cares about us so much that He died in our place so that we don’t have to.
We need to receive this truth and believe it.

When you are honest about yourself and what you’re like inside, and believe that God’s loves you and forgives you anyway, then you can accept and love anyone…even those who treat you as an enemy.
So I know everyone I meet is a sinner, with impure motives – someone prone to greed, lust, jealousy, selfishness. But I don’t judge them…why ?….because without Jesus that’s who I am too. I’m no better than they, I’ve simply experienced the forgiveness and love of God in Christ.
God has changed me and is changing me into a new person – but I can’t take the credit for that, it’s Him who’s doing it…..I just have to co-operate with Him in it.

Paul himself said, ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst’ (1 Timothy 1:15).
He had recognised what He was without Christ, but also what he was and could become in Christ.

When I worked in alcohol rehabilitation I first came into contact with psychology and counselling theory – Freud and so on. And like many Christians I asked the question how all this self analysis fits in with the Bible.

A lot of it is to do with language – similar things described with different words.
But some of it is to do with foolish thinking. If you are a psychologist or counsellor who doesn’t believe in God, then your foundation is wrong, so everything else will be not right.
For example you will believe that guilt is false, a conditioned response to be denied, rather than the feeling which confirms the truth about our sinful state outside of God’s forgiveness.

Books, psychologists, psychiatrists, and so on are of some use….but this is worldly wisdom….which is foolishness to God. Even if some of it is helpful, it will never be quite right.
All Scripture is God breathed, is always right, and should be our starting point for everything. And what the world makes very complicated…. in trying to avoid acknowledging God,… is actually very simple.
It’s not that the Bible doesn’t address the inner person and inner healing, and mental and emotional healing, and so on. It’s that we don’t want to hear what it says, because it puts the responsibility not on our parents, not on our dna, not on our circumstances, …..but on us.

Two sentences, if truly believed and acted upon, what they express will address most mental and emotional health problems.

• Forgive others, and receive God’s forgiveness yourself.

• ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding’

The answer to low self image, worry, anxiety, stress, depression. Why do we find it so hard ?

Over the years, in my experience there are two main mental, emotional, and spiritual problems that people face in the Church. If we’ve been properly converted and born again they shouldn’t be, but the reality in the Church is, that they are problems for many.
They don’t need to be, they can be dealt with through Jesus.
One is to know without a doubt that you are forgiven, all your sin, completely. That you are loved and accepted by God, even though He knows everything about you.
And the other is to forgive others – particularly your parents, or a parent or step parent.
These issues hold people back and screw them up more than anything else.
Don’t let guilt and unforgiveness hold you back. These may be issues for you, but no one can make you receive forgiveness or give forgiveness, it’s a choice, a decision of the will that only you can make, with God’s help.
Know the power of the forgiveness of God. Let Jesus be your Saviour.
‘Perfect love casts out fear’
Don’t let either guilt or bitterness reign in your life – Jesus Christ is Saviour and Lord.

The other area to believe and act on is to trust God, that means to depend on Him, to leave stuff in God’s hands, to know without a doubt that He loves you and is working for the very best for your life – or to put it another way, rest, be at peace, be content, chill in the Lord.
To walk by faith and not by sight, to walk humbly before your God (not thinking you know better). Worry is an expression of doubt, and/or pride, that we don’t actually trust God.
Kill it, put it to death, don’t accept it. God is real, He loves you and will look after you.
Let Jesus be Lord of your life.
‘Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be given to you as well’
‘Fix your eyes on Jesus’

These are fundamentals about who Jesus is and what He has done – Him as your personal Saviour and Lord. Is He ?

You might be confused about one thing in all this. Do we focus on ourselves and self examination …or on God, or a bit of both at different times, or what ?

It’s as you draw close to God, honestly…and that’s key, don’t pretend before God (if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us) …then He is able to reveal the truth to you and change you. It’s as we come closer to God that we discover what we are like inside because His light reveals it – make sense ?

And as we are obedient to Him…. – it has been in the most challenging times of my life, usually in evangelism or serving others in some way, that God has revealed to me most about myself. My self discovery has not come about by lots of introspection, but by honesty, and revelation from God. And it has come in the process of serving God and others.

You’re probably finding this with the Way of the Master course that we’ve been doing – evangelism is both challenging and revealing, isn’t it.
You have to confess your fears and let God deal with them, for example.

Know yourself, find yourself, by dying to yourself, …..by giving your all to God.

Read Luke 9:23-26.

It’s about Jesus, following Him wholeheartedly, serving Him effectively, allowing His Spirit to transform us as we give up self, and our wants and rights. Jesus Christ is Saviour and Lord.