Bridging the Gap - Real vs. Ideal

Hebrews 10. While they're doing, let's read together. If you have an rsv, I'd appreciate your support in reading with me. How many have RSV this morning? Revised Standard Version. Okay, loud and clear. Hebrews 10, verse 32. Are you ready? Read out loud with me if you have an rsv. But recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on the prisoners and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and abiding one which has great reward. For you have need of endurance so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised. For yet a little while. And the coming one shall come and shall not tarry. But my righteous one shall live by faith. Stop a second. Let's all read that. But my righteous one shall live by faith. Once more. But my righteous one shall live by faith. Would you declare it? But my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and keep their souls. Let me say it's not playing with the word of God. It is important that when you read the scripture, read it with confidence. It's the word of God. Don't be afraid to put a little bit of the diaphragm into it. I think it's important. Anyone that reads the scripture timidly is transmitting. What? Well, they're not sure if this is. And we don't want to do that. All right. Anytime you read the scripture, if you're invited to read it at a wedding or something, get up there and let it. I mean, amen. Like to read it again? Well, okay. We don't have time, but we'll do it next week. So you come prepared to read out loud and together. Great. Last November, Carol and I went out and bought a piece of furniture. It was a roll top desk. You know, one of those things that you can just slide up and down. And if you'd taken a little march through our house, you'd have recognized that it wasn't the most needed piece of furniture decoration wise in our home. But it was a vitally important ingredient in bringing to pass something else that was needed in our home. And that was a little bit of organization. One of the more chronic problems that I've encountered In being the head of a household is the information flow in and through our house. That's translated Bill paying. The struggle of keeping up with all the mail and all the requests and all the things that come, it just begins to pop. So we bought this desk that was really terrific. It had slots, all kinds of different places to put things. And mail in here, do this now, mail out here, save this compartment for files and this compartment for bank statements. And I look at that thing and I say, here's the answer. It's ideal. It's perfect. I'm going to be an organized head of the household. Bill Payne 10 months later if you come and see our desk now, you will see the top down and the pile growing underneath almost by itself. It's regenerating underneath there. And I've discovered that the ideal of that desk has basically been reduced to the reality that a desk no organized person makes. Alright, I haven't been changed because of my desk, and I'm still struggling with keeping up with all that. And I guess it's mainly because I feel so busy. I justify it. How busy do you feel sometimes, folks? Are you busy enough that you don't get to see people that you want to see anybody like that? Are you so busy that you don't get to do some things that you'd want to do? Are you so busy that you don't do some things you need to do? I was talking to a girl the other day that had 20,000 miles since her last oil change. Too busy to get her oil changed, but she won't be too busy to buy a new car. So busy that we don't get the things done that even we should be getting done. And you know, that busyness builds up. Car repairs, house repairs, relationship repairs, body repairs. And we just begin to feel under it more and more and more. Do you feel like that? And does that translate over into your relationship with the Lord? How many of you feel so busy that you haven't given God time that you know he wants? Have you spent any time in the last week with just you and the Lord? Are you too busy? And you know what that does for us? It brings us to a point where feeling like God wants me to be this certain way, but I don't even deserve to come to him and ask him anything because I'm so busy I haven't even given him the time of day, so to speak. And we begin to feel farther and farther from the Lord. And we begin to feel out of touch with the Lord and his purposes. And then with the body of Christ. And when you don't have anything fresh from the Lord, what do you feel like you contribute when you go to your home group, how many of you get tired of going to your home group and saying, I've got all these problems. You want to be able to contribute, but you don't feel like you have anything. And this is cumulative, isn't it? The longer you go feeling like you don't have anything fresh from God, the farther underneath you get and the less you seem to be able to come up over it, and the less you seem in touch with the Lord. And you know what ultimately can happen? The enemy can step right in there and say to you, as apparently he is trying to do to some of you today, because of that word of prophecy, you're not worth much of anything to me. Why are you even coming? And you can bring yourself into feeling a terrible guilt trip. And that's not my purpose today. But I wonder how many people know what I'm talking about. That busyness that just leads to frustration, that leads to uselessness. Okay, I believe today, church, that the Lord is speaking to us. An opposite frame of mind to the one I just described. I believe far from uselessness, the Lord is speaking usefulness to this body, to you as a person. He wants to speak to you about what he would work through your life. I just know that not long ago at our elders meeting, the Lord was speaking to us about his purposes for us corporately. And he gave an analogy to us of North Way being as an army that had been called together from all different places. And it was as the Lord revealed this thing, it was as though when we first came together, we all had our certain ways of marching and our certain ways of carrying the weapons. And the Lord had taken the last three and a half years to sort of bring us into harmony together, to cause us to march in step, to outfit us with new garments of praise and salvation, to even give to us new equipment and training and healing and counseling and all the different weapons of our warfare and prayer and faith and praise that he's done. But now, church, God's saying an army isn't there just to look good. An army is there to confront an enemy and to drive back intruder and the church. The truth is that the enemy of God is encroaching on lives. Everywhere you go, everywhere you go, life is being robbed out from people. And you're part of an army that's there to draw the line and say no more. The kingdom of God has come, Jesus said, and that's what you're there to proclaim, both in life and in Word. But church, there's a gap between what God's calling us to be as people and as a church and what I just described as we really are in many, many ways. Now, let's take a look for a second at what this is about and the nature of this gap. Alright? Okay. Let's talk first of all about God's ideal. We've said for the last two Sundays, and I hope it's fresh in your mind, that God's ideal for us as a people is increasingly, increasingly evident that he has purposes for us. You know, the Lord put in my heart this week, covenant. How many know what a covenant is? How many of you have made a marriage covenant and you realize how sobering that is. What is it? It's a promise. It's a vow that cannot be broken. And the new covenant of God is a covenant that God has made with you. Isn't that neat? It's not that you've made it. You haven't made a deal with God. You're not born again because you made a deal. You're born again because you said, God, I receive your promise to me. And the New Testament tells us this, that God not only says, I'll make a promise with you, but you know what else he says? He said, I'll even keep it for you if you'll let me. That is amazing. Me, I'll even keep the promise that you're part of. So he's not only saying, I'm going to extend it, he's going to say, but I'm going to keep it if you'll let me. And that's what we're going to talk about this morning. See, God wants to pour his blessings of covenant through you to the world. It's not just for you, it's through you. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. 2 Corinthians 5:7. I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians 4:7 says, your treasure in earthen vessels. One of the things that I grew up with, that is a memory, and pleasant one at that, is my mother's making of my favorite chocolate cake. Now, the cake was important, but the icing was the vital ingredient. And Mom's here today and she can testify to this, that just ever so faithfully, as a trained animal in the circus, I would show up when that cake was being iced and I'd wait for those spoons, the icing spoon that took the chocolate icing out. And, you know, that thing was like the gift of the hour. You know, when that was done, I'd get that, and it would be caked on there, thick like that. And then I'd get the bowl and, you know, and just finish off. That spoon became to me as important as the cake, because that was the pure stuff. There's no cake to mess up that icing. It was just cake. Just the icing there. Now, one of the things that I've had Carol do is get that recipe. And I'm still in line for those spoons. In church. God is using us as vessels. He wants you to be a vessel, a spoon to the world of his blessing. And I see in four ways. His will, his works, his words, and his ways right there. I'd like to just take another half hour and tell you what I think that means in terms of the kingdom, his will, his words, his works, and his ways. That's what he wants you to tell the world about and demonstrate to the world. Potential is all through this body. This is the second service this morning. God's bringing people every week to be equipped, full of potential to go out. When I see you, I see a body full of potential. We just got a puppy two weeks ago. Big event in our house. We decided that it was time. All the arrangements were made beforehand. Duties, strictly defined, you know, which duties I have as part of my duty. Part of my agreement was that Carol had the children and I have the dog. That's the way it is. And so I take care of all those things that have to do with being a puppy. And that puppy is a little guy right now. He's just real little. You can't see that real little. But if you take a look at that puppy, it's got big paws, all right? Big puppy paws. You know, you droop it over your arm and his paws just lay down like that. Now, what do those paws tell you about that puppy? That'd be a big puppy someday. No longer a puppy, but dog. Right, dog. Probably 60, 70 pounds worth of dog coming along here. Would you hold out your hands in front of you? I see potential in you. I see God's desire to grow us up as full grown. Full grown in God's purposes. Potentially rich. Forgive the analogy, but puppies are fun and they do all kinds. But if that's all they are and they don't grow up to fit into the house and to have their part, then they really haven't fulfilled their purposes. And I trust, of course, you know, if puppy Keeps doing the things Puppy is doing now. Puppy won't last long in the house. Right? And God wants to do things with us, but if we keep up with the silliness and don't grow up into it, we're of no real use to God. So how many of you would this morning say, I accept the truth, that God has potential in my life? How many people say that? How many people say that I believe he's put me in this community so that corporately I can have impact in the world? How many now? How many of you would say, today, I don't feel like it. I don't feel the ideal happening in me. And if I'm honest today, Jay, I hear you saying something that just seems to be so much spiritualized. Garbage, so much stuff that doesn't make any sense, because you don't understand that yesterday I was swearing at my wife and kids and the day before that I hated my boss. And my neighbors are a constant irritation to me. And you don't understand what it's like to cry yourself to sleep at night because you're so lonely. And you're talking about being great for God. And I can't even deal with the fact that my husband and I haven't had a conversation in the last two months of any significance. Do you feel that way sometimes that you know God has this out there for you, but you just feel so lousy because you have bitterness in your heart, or you feel so frustrated because all you ever seem to do is deal with the same fantasy in your mind and the same sexual temptations time after time or whatever it might be? Does anyone else feel like that besides you? I want you to know something. I do. I wonder from time to time, Lord, why am I not where I know you want me to be? Put that up again, would you, please, girls? Why do I feel myself being here in this thing called reality when I want to be here in the ideal of the fullness of my potential in Jesus? Do you feel that way? Do you sometimes feel so bad about being in reality down there that you don't even want to be told what the ideal is because you feel you're miles from it? Do you? In fact, I bet there's some people here today who feel so useless and confused about what God wants to do in their life that you're sitting here today and you feel like a hypocrite that you couldn't really even sing this morning because you know that in your heart it's hypocritical to praise God, when you've got the kind of mind that I've got, You call yourself, and Satan comes to you and says you call yourself part of the church, and you haven't said a nice word to anybody in two weeks. You know that anyone else feel that way, the constant threat and condemnation. And I want you to know that the same things go through this, Pastor. The same things happen in my life where I know I'm not where God wants me to be. I know what reality is. And I wonder sometimes will I ever get there. And I'm here to say to you this afternoon, now almost, that God has come to speak to us through his word today about the way that we can get from the reality of our situation to the ideal of his provision. How many of you want to go there and be where God wants you to be? Now, how do we close that gap? Well, the diagram already shows us that. The diagram shows us that we close the gap by faith. God's promised that his ideal is provided. Philippians 4:19, we read a couple weeks ago. My God shall supply most some all of your needs according to his glorious resources. In Christ Jesus I came across second Peter 1:4. Listen to this. God has granted you precious and very great promises that through these promises you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion and become partakers of the divine nature. God has given you all that you need to please Him. Now, how do we do that specifically? Well, faith is the answer. You say, well, that's great. Now you're talking about something that I don't understand. Faith. What is faith? The Bible describes four kinds of faith. Let's show those one at a time. Time, if we could, please. Four kinds of faith. The first kind, I left a little blank on your outline. If you want to jot these down and take them home and think about them. Is saving faith. How many of you have entered into saving faith? That is, you know by faith that you're born again, a child of God. How many of you, all right, most of us here have. Maybe you've never done this, though. Maybe you're here and you don't know that you've been born again, that you've been given a new spirit. You don't feel, you don't sense in your heart that you're right with God. Saving faith, the knowledge of the Son of God. Saving faith. The next kind of faith is doctrinal faith. This is what Paul told Timothy. He said frequently, guard the faith that you've been entrusted. It's Talking about the whole sum of what we believe, defend the faith, hold fast the word of faith, okay? The faith that we believe, all that we believe about the virgin birth and the atonement of Christ and the second Coming and the resurrection and all those things. The third kind of faith is practical faith. Practical, practical faith. Some call it operational faith. And we're going to come back to that one. The fourth one, just to mention, is what I'll call miracle faith. Miracle faith is the kind of faith that the Bible talks about that sees supernatural intervention into natural processes. First Corinthians 12, 8, 9. Talk about the gift of faith. This is the kind of faith that's operating in spiritual warfare. Put up the shield of faith. I'm going to talk about this, by the way, Thursday night at tnt. Spiritual warfare and faith to stand against the enemy. Let's come back to number three, practical faith. Practical faith is having confidence in daily life that God is in control. Let me say that again. Having confidence in God in daily life that he's in control. Control even when it seems like nothing is happening. Right? A couple of years received a word of prophecy during the service that God was releasing to them a baby. They wanted a baby. Not long after that, the woman conceived the child. And they came up so ecstatic because God had supplied for them. They began to believe God for this child. Two months into the pregnancy, alive with faith, there was a miscarriage. I need to tell you the struggle that goes through the heart of a person who receives a word from the Lord, begins to bear it in their bodies, conceiving it by faith, then watches it die. And they, just like most of us, struggled before God. Why you promised us this. We had the word. And yet I remember so clearly that they came up and said, you know, we know God spoke it. We know God's going to do it. We know it's this year, 1984. Four months passed. They chose to believe the word of the Lord and in July, once again, the woman conceived. Praise God, things are going much more smoothly, not merely the problems of the early pregnancy. And I believe with them that God's going to fulfill his promise. It's going to slip over into 85 that the word of the Lord will be fulfilled. That is practical, everyday faith. Every day we walk by what faith? Not by sight. You see. When you look around and see, you may see yourself falling apart. We don't walk by what we see, we walk by what we know. God's word says to us. Now what we're saying here is if you step out in faith. Put up the diagram again, please. And you take a step from that real to the ideal. Would you just think right now of one area where you know you are not where God wants you to be here. One area where you want to move from where you really are. Maybe it's your time alone with God. Maybe it's your attitude at home. Maybe it's in your thought life. The minute we by faith have confidence in God. Lord, I believe that you're speaking to me. To move ahead, I want you to know, and this is where we turn to our text today, that you're going to encounter conflicts. Conflicts, testings of faith. Look with me now. Let's spend a couple minutes in Hebrews. All right, Let me give you the context of this situation before we read it. What we're seeing here is the writer of Hebrews talking to a church that had been established and then come into the terrific and terrible persecution of Nero. Remember what Nero did about 64 A.D. most historians believe, believe that he was the one himself who set Rome on fire. But what did he do in order to exonerate himself? He blamed the Christians. And what did that lead to? Horrible persecutions. Horrible persecutions. Christians were. Everything imaginable happened to them in terms of torture and death. And what they're going through is this period when this was written. They're going through this torture and death. And he says, verse 32. Recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings harkening back to that time. See, they stepped out to engage the ideal of God's salvation. And they got into the zone of faith and they encountered a hard struggle. The word there, athletes and the Greek. We get our word. What. What does it sound like? Athletes, athletics. A physical struggling. They encountered a physical obstacle in the fulfillment of their faith. And here's the nature of this conflict. There's four ingredients of the nature of this conflict. Let's make up a scene so you can. You can related. Let's say that your area of moving from reality to the ideal of God is in witnessing, sharing your faith. Where you work. Maybe it's in school or what have you, or in your neighborhood. And you say, you know, the Lord's calling you to move out. All right, I'll suggest to you from the text four ways that you're going to encounter conflict in faith. Here's the first. First one. You will be abused. The scripture says, look at it publicly exposed. The word there is from which we get theater can't remember exactly how it's pronounced, but we get theater from it. Publicly exposed to abuse the word reproach. And it's verbal. If you begin to let your light shine folks, you can count on the fact that you're going to encounter some phys, some verbal abuse. Well she's getting really on that religious trip, isn't she? People in the office start buzzing. She sure is getting self righteous. And you start hearing these things being talked about and it hurts. It's a conflict that you go through. Then it slips on down. Notice that it says that they encountered affliction. And the word thlipsis in the Greek means pressure and pressure mounts. And I want to tell you something, when you begin to move, you will encounter pressure. You'll come home and say I don't feel as happy as I once did. Well that's only because you're letting the pressure be interpreted as opposition from God. Perhaps. When indeed James says count it all joy. When you meet these kinds of obstacles, pressure comes up. You know what kind of pressure in this witnessing situation might come up? People say I can't stand to be around him anymore. I don't want to hear about this God anymore. And you'll feel rejection. There's a pressure to that. And then look down with me that it gets on to the point of loss. Verse 34 joyfully accepted the plundering of your property. And if you continue to stand for God you might find yourself losing face. Maybe not property, maybe your job. There are people I know in this community that have been basically set out from any career in a particular company because they chose to stand for God. Not arrogantly and not self righteously folks, but just on ethic and moral. They said I'm not going to do that. And they lost what particular gain they might have had in that company. Although I must say when that happens, God always supplies another way. And fourth, they also shared in this loss. And that's what's going to happen to you. Others will suffer in this conflict. When you're going through it, people that are close to you go through it. Right when the Lord's dealing with you in an area, don't other people around you know that it's happening? Doesn't it make it you feel like gee I wish I didn't have to go home and share that with my wife. But sometimes you do. What do you do when this happens? How many of you know the kind of conflicts I'm talking? You've been there. You know what I'm about talking I feel church, that this is the time that your spiritual maturity is really proven. This is when you show what kind of believer in Jesus you really are. This is when you'll either stand firm in what God's given you or you'll shrink back. Let's talk about the choice that happens in that gap, okay? When you step out and things begin to be difficult here in some areas of your life. God, I don't understand. I can't hold on. This is terrible. How many of you have tried to exercise at some point in your life to get back in shape? Is that all? How many of you tried it? How many of you found that it was really fun, the felt good about yourself, finally getting this together? You know, how many of you felt good about it the second day? But by about the fourth or fifth day, what was your body telling you? Not a good idea. Not a good idea, right? Aches and pains and all around, everything in you resisting, resisting. And you say, I don't understand. And the temptation when you step out in any area and encounter this conflict is to do what? Shrink back. The Bible says, look at it in verse 38, okay? My righteous one shall live by faith. But if he shrinks back, the word means retreat, cower, draw back into a shell. That's what it means. My soul has no pleasure in him. The Lord says, anyone ever tried fasting to see something happen in the spirit? Boy, is that a good illustration of this principle. You'll step out in faith to bring about the ideal in a situation, God's ideal. And you'll get into this conflict and there will be whatever billion number of cells you have in your body. That's how many are telling you, don't keep doing this to me tonight I will get even with you. And you begin to get headaches. And you literally think that, is it possible to die missing two meals? Has anyone ever died from fasting in one day? And everything in your body? I find that that happens every time I set out to fight every time. And you have to just bring yourself to the point of going through the conflict, enduring, persevering, standing firm. To reach God's ideal, you've got to do it. Because the Bible says if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure. There's two results of shrinking back. One. One is verse 38, God isn't pleased. And here's the second one. Look at verse 39. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed. Shrinking back leads to destruction. The word Apuleo in the Greek means to be a total loss. I say this with a measure of. Of heartache, and yet I need to share it as an illustration. I believe that the spirit of the lord in the 60s and 70s was calling the church of Jesus Christ the institutional church, from reality to God's ideal. Many of you were part of and product of the charismatic movement of those decades. You found yourself stepping out one, wanting to be where God wanted you to be. But what happened when you stepped out? You got into all kinds of conflict, you had all kinds of opposition. And I want to just share my heart with you today and say that I believe that God spoke to the church by the Holy Spirit and said, come up into what I've provided for you. The church stepped out and those in power created. Of course, the enemy was manipulating, but created a tremendous conflict. And I personally believe that in the end, the church, the institutional church, will suffer great loss, great loss for shrinking back because many churches took a step out and when it didn't all fit together the way they thought, well, the heck with that. I prefer to be safe back here in the reality of being in control. And most of you here know exactly what I'm saying. The church has shrunk back. It's been afraid to come on and do what God wants it to be. In conclusion, how can we then, when we're in this conflict zone, stand firm? Let me give you five ways. Five ways to stand firm. Verse 32 tells us, recall the former days. There is something encouraging to your spirit about looking back and seeing what has God done? What has God done to get me to this place? Every time I look at North Way and I say, lord, how come this isn't happening? How come we're not moving up in the ideal in this area? You know what I like to do? I love to go back and look and see. Look where we've come. God. Look where you've brought us. Recall the former days. The way the Lord's worked in your life in the past is a reminder. Psalm 77 today. Did you read it in your quiet time? Psalm 77, recalling the victories of the Lord, knowing that the Lord hasn't changed. Number two, talk with other warriors, other people in the conflict zone. There's great encouragement when you. You can say to people, I'm having a battle right now. I'm under this affliction. I'm feeling pressure because I stepped out in faith. And you can receive encouragement. Hebrews 11, the faith hall of Fame. We're going to talk about that in coming weeks. That's an illustration of those who stood the test. And right around you are people who are going through a test and they can encourage you. Number three, see the future. Look out there and see what God is going to do when he completes that working. That's such an encouragement. Remember the puppy? One reason why we picked out that puppy was that both the mother and the dad of the puppy were still on the premises where we bought. And they were beautiful dogs. Just beautiful and obedient and lovely and just full of energy. And I know I looked at that little puppy with big paws and I said, someday that puppy is going to be like this beautiful mother. That's the kind of dog we want to have, folks, that's seeing in the future. And God wants you to see what he wants you to become. Faith brings into the present what hope sees in the future. You understand what I'm saying? Hope is what you're going to be. Faith is what reaches out and says, and I'm going to be that now. It's coming now. That's what we're taught. Fourth thing. Recognize from Hebrews 11:6 that you're pleasing God. I don't know of a time in your walk when you're. You're more pleasing to God than those times when you're right there in the conflict zone and standing in faith. You're a blessing to God. I don't think God just. I just don't believe that he's all upset when people fail in faith. If indeed they come back to him and say, but Lord, I'm going to come again. It's when they shrink back and cower and say, forget it. Don't ever think that in failing, God forsakes you. That's not the message today. You may get in that conflict zone and fail, but beloved, you repent and say, but God, I want to go on again and get through it this time. That's what you're pleasing God in faith. Finally, speak praise to the Lord. Because praise is the language of faith. Praise is the language of faith. Lord, I praise you that everybody in this office thinks I'm looney tunes because I've determined to stand for you and I praise you that you'll be glorified through my life. Praise is the language of faith. Praise is what breaks down the walls of faith. Opposition Church I believe that God wants to bring us from the point of reality where we are today, in your life and in our life corporately, to the ideal of God. The question is, do you want to go on and take a step of faith, do you? That wasn't real convincing, do you? All right. I believe that the Lord will meet us. Let's pray together, Father. Lord, we're born for this day today. What we've been in the past, Lord, is by youy grace. And what we will be in the future is known only to youo and will be accomplished by youy grace. Lord, we know in our hearts that by faith we reach out and grasp the ideal that yout would have us to be now. Lord, whatever it is that we're fighting inside, whatever it is, as we come now and minister, Lord, we just pray that we would reach out by faith into, endure the conflict and come in to the ideal that you have for us. Lord, I believe that you would make this a turning point in the life of our body moving ahead. In Jesus name.