Security in Christ

Posted by anointedplace on October 13, 2010 · 5 Comments 

Matthew 6:19

¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

We all grow up eating the American pie being life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  We are told to own land, get a good paying job, save money, pay as little taxes as possible and don’t give hand outs.  We are taught to make our money work for us… We are told that if you don’t have this or if you can’t go there; then you are not living.  They say dream big and project your desires and visualize them. Aim high amongst the stars and reach for happiness.  We are shown daily that peace of mind can be found in the  security of wealth.  They give us images to obtain to then sale us the products to be that.  So they put a god in a magic eight ball then teach you how to shake it in your favor.  Pursuing an object of wealth, desiring what you see others possessing thinking that it will make your life better is coveting.  Coveting is like the opposite of faith in God.  We all know that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).  With that in mind, think of all the times we have uttered the phrase: “if I only had…. my life would be complete or perfect”.  The blank in the sentence is not God, its some created thing and now our desire or source of delight is elsewhere.  We are now in the midst of coveting and idolatry.  When our desires are  to the point that they lead you away from God, it becomes dangerous.  I will add that even a little bit is to much.  Sometimes we think it won’t hurt but all the devil needs is a foothold to lead you away from God.

James 4:1-10, 13-17

¹What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ²You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. ³When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

⁴You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. ⁵Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?^[a]6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”^[b]

⁷Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

¹³Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

People die everyday in search of wealth, trying to get with others have.  Selling themselves to buy things that they think will give them security.  We have all done this, its the American Way.  We over extend ourselves trying to have things and yet we look down on those who struggle to just live.  We treat them like they are nothing.

Hebrews 13

⁵Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”^{[a] 6}So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?”^[b]

⁷Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. ⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

1 Timothy 6

⁶But godliness with contentment is great gain. ⁷For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. ⁸But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. ⁹People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

¹⁷Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. ¹⁹In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

We have to make a choice on who we will serve and we have to stop reducing the holiness of God in order that we can continue to live in sin.  We make little of everything because we hate holiness.  We don’t find joy, happiness, contentment, fulfillment, peace and security in Christ.  Christ is not our center and it is beyond me that we would turn our backs to our Savior to chase the world straight to hell.  If you think that you are going to play games until you have made all of your money and then be obedient to God, then you are a fool.  That much time is not promised to you.  We should stop playing around because God will not be mocked.  You can’t “plead the blood of Christ” and put your trust in “faith” and not in Christ.  You can’t catch phrase your way into heaven and not know God.

Matthew 6:24-34

²⁴“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^[b]?

²⁸“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

 

Some think that I’m angry but I’m not angry, I’m in agony and sadden by our cries to God.  He hears us and constantly gives us the same answer over and over.  But we don’t listen because that’s not the answer we were hoping for.  We want the cake and eat it to.  We say why not?  Because the cake never belonged to us from the beginning.  We are overseers of all that we have, it all belongs to Christ our Lord (John1:1-5, Col. 1:15-20).

Yet, Christ does not satisfy us and we desire more.  And the “more” we desire that is outside of Christ, the closer we get to death and the wrath of God.  We hunger for the things of this world, we lust after the world’s passions.  It drives us to the brink of life.  Our blood lust for earthly treasures is indescribable at times.   It keeps us up at night, it keeps us at the altar in church.  We beg God night and day to bless us.  We would kill for bread and would sell our souls to have our lusts satisfied.  And God tells us the same thing over and over again plus He makes it plan.

Deuteronomy 8:¹ Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers. ² Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. ³ He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. ⁴ Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. ⁵ Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

¹⁹ If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. ²⁰ Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God. (please read the whole chapter)

But don’t think you can fool God and pretend to follow Christ.  Even the rich young ruler could not fool Jesus Christ.  If you pretend, God will break you and take away everything.  He has saved you and will make sure you stay that way because He promised to not lose any that He has called.  Please hear me, don’t let God have to keep you broken in order to keep you under Christ…

 

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