Matthew 10 - Part 5

 

Read Matthew 10

Here is the thing.  You don’t need to go head to head with the devil right now, but you don’t need to fear him either.  He can only do so much.

Everything will come into the light.  Everything will be revealed in God’s time.  Don’t worry if it looks like evil men have bested you.  God, goodness, and righteousness prevail.  God wins and that means you win.

What the Lord has told you and taught you and invested in you is what you are to present to the world.  It doesn’t matter if you heard the Lord in a still, small voice or in class on a mountainside, or in a quiet moment with just the two of you enjoying the creation under the stars.

What you have received from the Lord you are to proclaim to the world.  Satan may afflict your flesh but he has no authority to drag you to the pits of hell.  God alone decides life and death, heaven and hell, blessings or torment.

Sin may degrade your life, but confessing your sin liberates you from bondage.  God is faithful and just to forgive.  If you don’t confess, the powers of darkness will try to leverage your guilt against you.

And don’t think that God thinks you insignificant.  He keeps up with the sparrows—common birds that are everywhere.  The birds were not after thoughts.  They were created before you were.  They are a vital part of creation and you are much more important to God than the birds.

If you must fear, then fear the Lord.  He numbers the hairs on your head.  Some of us have made his job much easier as of late, but this is not about hair.  It’s about how important you are to God.

You matter to God.  Proclaiming his word matters to the world.

Realize that he trusted you to take his message into the world.  The 12 went first before Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected.  We go now, but the instructions not to fear the enemy still hold.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.  Fools despise wisdom, and instruction, and disciple.  If we have any fear at all, let it be the fear of the Lord for such fear sets us on God’s path.

Sometimes we think, if people only knew…

Understand that God knows.  Nothing is hidden from God.  God sees the heart.  One day, everything hidden will be revealed.  While we look at the world and so desire that so many injustices would be exposed, we are cautioned to confess what we have hidden now.

If we have something against our brother, reconcile before making your offering to God.

If we hate another person, make peace before seeking God’s justice.

If we are seeking justice from others in this world, make sure that we don’t have a lumberyard in our own eyes.

Live as if everything you did was done in broad daylight.

Speak the words given you by God boldly for all to hear.

Trust that God will deal with the wicked in his time and their deeds will be exposed.  Live to bring glory to God not to be excited in the day of reckoning for the wicked.  Their day will come.  Trust God.  Bring glory to God. 

The fact that others may be getting away with sinful things is no excuse for us to not do what we know to do.

Do as the psalmists did.  Cry out to God over injustice while affirming that the Lord of the earth will do right.  Affirm your trust in him.

Be faithful to God in everything.  Never deny him.  He intercedes for you with the Father.  Never give him a reason not to. 

Profess Jesus is Lord to all.  Never miss an occasion.  Never deny him, even by omission.

You may sin and sin some more and some more, but never forsake your Savior.  Never deny him.  Confess your human weakness, but never discount the power of the blood of Jesus or the intensity of God’s love that we know in our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Live as if everything you do and have done will be exposed.  You don’t need to boast in your good deeds.  You must not think your sin is hidden.  God sees what you do.  He sees what others do.  He sees the heart.

Trust that everything evil done in secret is not hidden from God.  Those who are against him and who may oppress us or persecute us will be dealt with by God.  That’s not our burden.

Confess your sin.

Trust that the Lord will do right and don’t retreat to our own understanding.  Trust in the Lord.

Amen.