25th June
2017 – Don’t be God
Preacher: Liam Parker
Scripture: Proverbs 3 v 5-8: Trust in
the Lord with all your heart and lean not on you own understanding, in all your
ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your
own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and
nourishment to your bones.
Liam
described that he has two older brothers. He enjoyed being part of a band of brothers.
The best thing was during celebrations: when they got presents, Liam said he also
got the present as he could use their presents! When his middle brother got a Man
Utd football, they played with it for a short time but his brother soon picked
it up to clean it as it got slightly muddy. He was restricting the use of the
football, even though that was what it was intended for.
During
problems in our life we try and fix the problems. We try and control what
happens to us and feel it is our responsibility to get rid of the trouble.
Liam reminds
us ‘not be God’, even though we are representing Him, praying with Him and
talking to Him etc. We are not Him. Don’t be God and don’t try and fix the
things. He has to be in control.
Remember
that God’s ways are higher than our ways….His thoughts are higher than our
thoughts……
When God is
working to a different time scale than ours, we need to recognise it. Gods
timings are different to ours. His ways are higher than our ways.
When those
difficult times come, we easily go back to our ways and we start to take
control of our of lives.
Don’t be God
in fighting our sin. (Sin =When we do something out side of the will of God.)
Sin will
cost you more than you want to pay and will keep you longer than you want to
be. Sin has a habit of spiralling out of control. Sin has a way of creeping
around your whole life. It always come back to get you. It spreads and spirals
throughout all our life.
1 John 3
describes sin as being ‘lawlessness’. It attacks all if you let it take over.
It has no end. It will continue to grow and grow.
Our human
temptation is that we feel we have to do something about it, we have to pray
harder and we have to fight our own sin. However, we cannot fight sin. We are
no match for the power of sin. Sin will always win.
Don’t fight
by yourself. In Proverbs 3 it states, ‘Fear the Lord and shun evil’. To shun
evil means to avoid or to ignore or reject. Don’t even get involved with it.
Don’t fight it. Stand back from it. We need to have a healthy respect of God’s
presence and therefore we ‘want’ to do as HE says. We should fear the Lord.
What He says goes.
Jude
describes Arch Angel Michael who stood and declared that the fight is not with
him but with God. We need to do that. We need to give it to God. Just give your
life to God and trust in Him. Fear God and turn away from evil and fleshly
desires. Only with God can it occur.
In all your
ways acknowledge Him.
Questions:
1) in proverbs it says “shun evil”
share with the group how you can “shun evil” – such as not watching certain
programs, not to go to certain places? -
2) Are there areas in your life where
you need to give it to God – if you are able to- share with the group some of
your struggles you are facing – be open and honest with your small group
3) we keep hearing the word
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