The Power of Our Decisions.

As a finale to our Words of Life over the past few weeks, I want us to see the power of our decisions.  Because decisions are not made in a vacuum; nor are the consequences which accrue.  Our attitude {arrogance or humility} determines our priorities; our priorities {what is critically important to us in life} determine our decisions.  Good or evil, the consequence of a decision we make will always be consistent with the decision itself!  Call it the ‘Universal Law,’ if you like {Gal. 6:7}.  Those decisions can be spiritual or carnal, sacrificial or selfish; it’s our choice.

Joshua set before the elders of Israel an amazing challenge in Joshua 24:15.  He said, “If serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve: whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.  But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”  This was a real man in the sight of God: a man of character, a man of conviction, a man of courage, a Warrior among warriors, one of only two men in the Old Testament who were said to have “followed the LORD fully,” meaning “wholeheartedly:” Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.  This is a unique phrase in the Hebrew found only five times in Scripture, three of these in the Book of Joshua.

Of these two men the Lord said to Moses in Numbers 32:11-12, “Because they have not followed Me wholeheartedly, not one of the men twenty years old or more who came up out of Egypt will see the Land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob— not one except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite….”  Notice something here.  He wasn’t even an Israelite; he was one of the ‘mixed multitude’ who joined up with this nation of nomads in their wilderness wanderings.  The “Kenizzites” were part of the Canaanite peoples living in the land according to Genesis 15:19.  They were to be dispossessed by the Israelites.  And yet this man’s rank in the Heraldry of Heroes stands head and shoulders above the Jews of his generation.

“And” who else?  “Joshua son of Nun.”  Why?  “For they followed the LORD wholeheartedly.”  There it is.  They did not stray from the course; by faith they exercised endurance, by faith they practiced perseverance on the trail which leads from the Cross to the Crown.  Their commendation came in Time {they were allowed to enter the land when no one else from their generation was}, and it will come again in Eternity, only on a much, much greater scale.

The natural outcome of our decisions is our actions.  The actions of our lives reveal the attitude of our hearts {pretty major lesson for life}.  We can boil action down to right or wrong {not always motivation, however: only God knows all the circumstances surrounding why we do what we do, or why we don’t do what we don’t do!}.  How’s that for simplicity?

Finally, we come to the eagerly ignored but impossible to avoid, consequences.  Remember this: To every action belongs a result; to every decision a consequence {Hos. 8:7b}.  Our actions bring either blessing or cursing for ourselves and for those around us.  No man is an isolated island, no woman is unrelated to the rest of the world!  And you cannot change cursing into blessing until you humble yourself in the presence of Abba.  And that is all in the attitude.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

What Is Most Important to You In Life?

Our priorities represent our scale of values, what’s most important to us in life.  They’re either going to be temporal or eternal, but they won’t be both.  Jesus in Matthew 6:33 said, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well,” i.e., ‘everything else you need, I will provide.’  This brings out a priority point: The main thing in life is to keep the main thing the main thing!  And the ‘Main Thing’ is Jesus Christ.

In Colossians 3:1 the Apostle said, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” {v. 2}, meaning not on the distractions and deceptions of the satanic system around us.  Phroneo refers to our ‘thinking,’ and the present imperative means- ‘be constantly thinking about what draws our gaze to the Master.’  To “set your minds on things above,” where your great King currently resides, is to take an eternal perspective, day after day after day, so that your priorities are aligned with Eternity.  And with a Kingdom lasting for all Eternity.

The author of Hebrews in 3:1 said, “Therefore, holy brothers who share in the heavenly calling [meaning the Royal Family of Faith], fix your thoughts on Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest whom we confess.”  The compound katanoeo means- ‘bear down with the mind, concentrate, think carefully, examine closely.’  We bear down with our minds upon the Living Word.  And one of the ways we do this is by concentrating, by thinking carefully and examining closely the written Word.  Which is another way of saying we live with a passion for Truth.

In Hebrews 12:2 he writes, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our Faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross, scorning its shame....”  To “fix” the “eyes” of the soul “on Jesus” and keep them there is from the present participle of aphorao meaning- ‘view with undivided attention, fix one’s eyes by looking away from every other object.’  You know what the formula for successful running in the Life of Faith is?  To look away from everything on the horizon, all the sinful encumbrances and entanglements, all the distractions and deceptions of the world, and to concentrate our upward gaze on one thing— the Lord Jesus Christ!  This is a faith-filled, Scripture-formed focus on the Son of God.  Get this.  Clarity and objectivity come from taking an eternal perspective, from putting the Word into practice in the circumstances of life.  They come from recognizing and embracing: [i] this world is not all there is; and [ii] a far greater World awaits.

V. 3, “Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men....”  Analogizomai is a command meaning- ‘think over, ponder, consider by comparison.’  Why?  Why ‘think through’ the Life and Death of our Lord at length, why should we ‘consider by comparison’ with our own pain the incredible “opposition” Jesus endured from a hate-filled enemy embodied in the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the teachers of the Law?  “So that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”  I’m going to let you in on a little secret to divine endurance.  You will grow weary in the Race; but you don’t have to lose heart while it’s happening.  You can find rest in the shadow of His wings, in the secret place of the Most High.  And you will need to— again and again and again.

I want you to know this and to remember it.  It is possible to live with faith, to live with courage, to live with conviction, by constantly comparing the treasure of knowing Christ Jesus to the trash of far lesser priorities!  By fixing the eyes of our faith on Jesus, it is possible to lay aside the distractions, deceptions, and destructions of this world.  It is, and we should.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

Humility Is the Missing Element.

There are two basic attitudes in life: arrogance and humility.  The former is self-centered {that’s just the nature of the beast}, the latter is Jesus-centered, Christ-consumed, you might say.  You and I approach life from one of these two perspectives every day.  We know which one the Scriptures enjoin.  In Psalm 138:6 David said, “Though the LORD is on high, He looks upon the lowly [‘the humble’], but the proud He knows from afar.”  See this?  There will never be closeness, camaraderie, companionship between the arrogant and Abba.  “Before her downfall a woman’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor” {Prov. 18:12}.

The missing element in the lives of so many of Abba’s post-modern Children is humility.  There’s an old saying, ‘Plan wisely, and hold the reins loosely.’  You know why?  Because God could change those plans at any given moment!  As long as we’ve got our plans all figured out, God withdraws His presence and therefore His power.  But the minute you cry out, “Have mercy on me, Lord; I need You desperately,” the minute you humble yourself He comes close, He draws near in your time of need.  What did James tell his hearers in 4:8?  “Come near to God and He will come near to you.”  This was a word used in the Original Testament for priests entering the Tabernacle and the Temple to offer sacrifices and to minister before the Lord; it means- ‘approach for worship.’  “This very moment, this very second, come near to the Holy One; and you will experience this deeply relational reality: He will most certainly come near to you!” {RRExp}.  Promise.

You want to make a fashion statement in the spiritual realm?  Here’s what ‘fashionable attire’ for a Follower of Jesus looks like.  “Therefore,” Paul wrote in Colossians 3:12, “as God’s chosen People, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”  The Family of Faith upon whom grace will pour down like a River of Living Water is one which maintains a humble attitude before God and man, one which stays low and trusts in their Abba.  If you’re a leader, listen up.  Leaders who get this will never fail to find the Path of Life, as David said in Psalm 25:9, “He guides the humble in what it right and teaches them His way.”  The secret to receiving divine guidance is humility.

Didn’t Peter tell us in 1 Peter 5, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another”?  Why?  Because “God makes war on the proud but gives grace to the humble,” v. 5.  I don’t know about you, but I want to be on the “humble” side of this equation, on the “grace” end of this stick and not the other!  Rather than scrambling for prominence and position— just like the world— humble Disciples will serve one another in love.  And that’s a beautiful thing to be a part of.  Just so we understand each other: the Greek word tapeinos means- ‘in the dust, never rising far from the ground.’  It describes the Child of God who follows her Lord down the path of humility— which, ironically, is the only path to promotion in the Kingdom of Grace.

James say’s in 4:10, “Humble yourselves before the Lord….”  The result?  “And He will lift you up,” He will exalt you.  And why would we “humble” ourselves before the Lord?  Didn’t Jesus teach His Apprentices, that “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” {Lk. 14:11}?  Indeed, He did.  “If you plan to build a tall house of virtues,” wrote the 4th century father Augustine, “you must first lay deep foundations of humility.”  A French archbishop {Francois Fenelon} from the 17th century said, “Nothing will make us so tender to the faults of others as, by self-examination, thoroughly to know our own.”  It’s been said, “Life is ten percent what happens to you, and ninety percent how you choose to respond to it.”  This, my friends, comes down to one thing— attitude.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously