A choice we make: Anxiety or Faith in Future Grace

Even though we may be anxious with many things; weather a new job, or finding time to do things or just being a worried person in general. We all feel the same, we all feel anxious at some point but it is how we channel that that can help us. Once we know the cause of our anxiety and worries we can then find how to conquer it!!
We find that by praying and finding the grace of God can drive us deeper into knowing him and trusting him. By worrying all the time this shows the little faith we have in God, we must trust in him at all times. No matter what we are worried about, we get through it and don’t even remember why we were worried in the first place. We need to remember that God is faithful and will never leave us!

The root of anxiety: Jesus says in Matthew “Don’t worry about tomorrow for today has enough worries of its own”. He also tells his disciples “Do not be anxious”. God knows that we are anxious and worry about what life throws our way, even Jesus disciples were anxious through the storm but we need to learn to pray and give it to God.
“Fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). Finding the connection between our anxiety and our unbelief is good news! Because it is the only way to focus our fight on the real cause of sin! Our anxiety is rooted in our failure to live by faith in future grace.
Sometimes it’s like we are driving along and our vision gets blurred temporarily and we can’t see what’s going on outside of the car. But God can and once we put on out windscreen wipers it’s like we can see again and actually everything was ok. So even though we temporarily get anxious during the blurred vision times, we have trust in God. But by Grace, we set in motion a process of resistance!!
Psalm 56:3 “When I am afraid I put my trust in thee”.
Even promises of Future Grace against anxiety:
Matthew 6:25 – 34. God’s promises.

Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God, I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you, with my Victorious hand”. God will never fail me or never leave me. Have faith and trust in God and cast your anxieties and worries on him.

“If God is for us, who is against us” Romans 8:31.

A True Community?

Thoughts on community

Over 30 times Paul writes to the churches he looks after and tells them to 'one another'...

'Be devoted to one another in love.'
'Honour one another above yourselves.'
'Live in harmony with one another.'
'Accept one another.'
'Greet one another with a holy kiss(?!!)'
'Agree with one another,'

Are we a community that cares for each other? Do you phone people for help when you're low? Do you encourage someone when they do something well or when they take a risk? Do you notice when someone's not there?

As a youth group we have a mission to accomplish and it starts individually in your own heart, it's to do with how you think about and treat other people. That's your relationship with others - horizontal, from you out to the world around you.

Jesus made some big statements about his followers (light of the world, city on top of a hill, salt of the earth etc.) and all of them point to the fact that we are supposed to be a force for good and for God in our town. True is meant to be a place that is different from the rest of the town's youth groups; it's a place where Jesus is lifted up in the way we live, the way we speak to one another, the way we care about each other. Horizontally (our relationship with others.)

What can you do to play your part to be the youth group you want to see?

Should we try to pay back God?

I have been reading a book called Future Grace by John Piper. Its been an amazing read and has really encouraged me to focus on God's future Grace based on the hope that he has given me in the past. So I just thought that maybe this would encourgae some of you!

Gratitude is the emotion that rises joyfully in response to a gift. When we receive from God (it is a free gift that we don’t deserve), we joyfully receive and accept it. However do we feel obligated to pay him back?
What would God want from us? We can worship him and praise him in thanks but he deserves that all of the time. He requires nothing from us and loves to give. Psalm 11:4 tells us “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name”. We should always give thanks to God and honour and worship him, not because he gives us things from a loving Father but because he is a loving Father who deserves to be praised.

In the Old Testament God revealed himself and made himself known to the nations, even though he gave them faith in past grace they sustained no trust of faith in his future grace. Even though they saw his good works and received from him they showed no sign of faith in god for his future Glory. Like us, when we receive from God we don’t have to feel obliged to pay him back but actually just to respond in faith to Gods future glory!
Fear of the Lord and Future grace can be subtly linked together with gratitude to God and obedience. Moses teaches us in Deut 6:2 “Fear the Lord your God, to keep all his statutes and commandments”. Psalm 115:11 says “You who Fear the Lord, Trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield”. To fear the Lord is to tremble at the awareness of what a terrible insult it is to be a holy God if we do not have faith in his future grace after all the signs and wonders he has performed to win our obedient trust.

Therefore is it right to pay back God? In Deut 23:21 it says “ When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the Lord your God will surely require it of you”. Hezekiah didn’t make a vow to God which he should have done in service to the Lord, but why? In the Old Testament they would make a vow of burnt offerings which was a way of repentance or worship, so why make a vow to it?
Is making a vow to God not like making a deal with God and trying to make a bargain with him?
We receive so that the Lord may give, as he loves to give freely to his children who don’t deserve it (we get what we don’t deserve) and that’s the mighty power of Gods mighty Grace. Our receiving is done by transforming our gratitude into faith as it turns from contemplating the pleasures of past grace and starts contemplating the promises of the future.

Keeping the Main thing, the main thing

Over the next few months at True we're going to be spending a series of evenings looking at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I don't know if you've read it before, but you should, it's amazing. One thing that jumps out at me is Paul's driven determination and obsession with the gospel of Jesus. He can't help it, he's always going on about it, it's what motivates him. It's what gives him comfort, joy, strengthening, hope - you name it and he's convinced that the gospel is the answer.

Essentially he's convinced that the Main Thing (God) really needs to be the main thing in our lives, the most important thing. He wants people to see how the gospel seeps into and consumes every avenue of our lives and we need to allow it to give God centre stage on our lives.

If I said to you in a rather bored tone, showing no sign of alarm or emotion 'there's a scorpion climbing up my leg' you'd think me a little strange; you wouldn't believe me about the scorpion. The statement 'there's a scorpion climbing up my leg' points to a reality that is urgent and requiring immediate action, my life is at risk - how can I be bored? I clearly haven't understood the reality of what I'm saying, I must be lying about the scorpion.

Often I find I meet people who say 'yeah I'm a Christian, so what?' or if they don't say it, they convey it. You meet people who convey a feeling of 'being a Christian isn't that big of a deal'. If you were to see someone standing at a football match in and amongst the terraces, surrounded by screaming football fans all yelling about how brilliant a particular football team is, but this person was sitting down, looking bored. What would you think? That they're in the wrong seats? I certainly wouldn't think that they supported the same team as the people chanting. Supposing you saw them out after the game wearing the football strip of the team the fans were chanting about, you'd perhaps be a little confused wouldn't you? I'd certainly have some questions.

In church you see people sometimes looking quite bored whilst all around them people are lost in worship and relationship with God. What do you conclude about these people? Well, I think to myself that they either don't believe the same thing as those standing around them, or that they don't understand what they say they believe, if they in fact say that they believe it. Do you follow?

Consider these statements:

'I believe in a holy, all powerful, awesome God who sent his own son to die on a cross for the sins of the world and now is alive ruling and reigning forever more... so what, that doesn't make a difference to my life.'

'There's a scorpion climbing up my leg... so what, that doesn't make any difference to my life.'

'One day I'm going to stand before the creator of the universe and he's going to call me to account for all the things I've done/not done with my life... so what, that doesn't make any difference to me and my life.'

'There's a tiger loose in my front room... so what I can still watch TV in there.'

There's a disconnect bewteen the statements and the realites that the statements points to.

What we need is some dominoes thinking.

Dominoes you know - push one and they all go down, in turn.
Work it through:

Tiger in front room = potential death for anyone in the room, need for help = I can't watch TV in there = I need to watch TV some where else, or go get help to get the tiger out of the front room = I think I'll leave the house, just to be on the safe side...

For Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 he says a few things like this:

We will all stand before God to be judged one day = God is holy and awesome = I want to be ready when I meet him = I want to do all that I can to warn/tell people about the death of Jesus.

Do you see how it goes?

To keep the Main Thing, the main thing you need to do some dominoes style thinking.

Have you thought through the implications of what you believe? Of what others believe? Have you seen how the guys in 'The Hangover' responded to the tiger in their bathroom?

Come on: The main thing, is to keep the Main Thing, the main thing.