Living The Promise

Introduction

I want to begin tonight with this thought, and that is that what you believe should affect how you behave. This is Paul’s point to Timothy and 1 Timothy 3 and verse 15. He says, In case I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct, how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God. Which is the church of the living God that we spoke about this morning, the pillar and support of the truth. And so, based upon this premise, what you believe should affect how you behave, I want to talk to you tonight about a principle that is stated a few pages earlier in the scripture in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, just a couple of pages over, and the concluding words of Paul to the church at Thessalonica.

Now may the Lord of peace himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. And then he says, and in my Bible, it is followed by an exclamation point, the Lord be with you all. This is similar to the words of Jesus that we referenced this morning in Matthew 28, after he talked about baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit. He said, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. I started thinking about this concept and this statement, the Lord be with you all, he says to his church in Thessalonica. He says to the disciples in Matthew 28, Jesus does, lo, I am with you always. And I thought of a couple of Old Testament examples.

I thought of Exodus chapter 3, verses 10 and following when he tells Moses, now I’m ready for you to deliver my people. I want you to go to Pharaoh and to lead my people out. But Moses, unlike 40 years ago, is not ready for the task. He says, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt? Now he has some concern and some trepidation. And yet God says, Certainly, I will be with you. And this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain. Well, who shall I say sent me? And God says to Moses in verse 14, I am who I am.

Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am have sent me to you. He says, Moses, expel your fears or dispel your fears. Certainly I will be with you. A few centuries later, in the era of Gideon, out thrashing the wheat or getting saving the wheat from the Midianites who were raiding continually. An angel of the Lord appears to Gideon, and the opening words are, Oh Lord, the Lord is with you, O valiant warrior. Which probably shocked Gideon to pieces. What? Me? Started looking around. Are you sure you got the right guy here? The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior. And I thought about these passages and their link with one another. And so here we go. Are you ready? Do you believe that the Lord is with you?

Your answer to that question is very important. We see these biblical examples. The Lord be with you all. I am with you always. He told the disciples, certainly I will be with you. He tells Moses, the Lord is with you. Do you believe that God is with you? I’m not so sure that everyone who claims to believe in Jesus. Even those who have been baptized in the past in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I’m not so sure that they are convinced. I’m not so sure everyone here is convinced tonight that the Lord is with you. And I’m here to talk to you tonight about how important that is. And the first thing that I want to say about it is, you need this.

You need to be able to say, the Lord is with me, and you need him to actually be with you. If he is not, you need this, you need him, and you need to be assured of it. Well, I should be sure. But what is the evidence that he is with me? Well, if you’re looking for something tangible, something you can touch, an audible voice while you lay in bed at night from heaven that says, I am with you, or an angel coming to you like he did to Gideon and saying, I am with you, O valiant warrior. Well, if you’re looking for something tangible, a burning bush, you’re going to be disappointed. We live in a different time and in a different era. But the assurance to the believer is nonetheless real.

What would be the evidence? I think one of the struggles we have with this is that, well, we don’t want to be presumptuous. We don’t want to be overly confident and arrogant about it. I mean, if I say the Lord is with me, well, that sounds a little haughty, doesn’t it? Not if that’s the way the Lord wants us to feel. He promised. Just like he made these promises in biblical time. So he said, Well, but I’m not good enough. I’m not perfect enough for the Lord to be with me. Let me just tell you again, if you are a believer in Christ who has been baptized in the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit, if you’re not there, we need to get you there.

If you are striving to live righteously before God, you need to get to this point. And when you have, it won’t be because you were good enough. Or you were perfect enough, or you’ve done enough. It was reported to me by another preacher who he and I have been talking about assurance and swapping emails about this subject for a while now, David Osteen down in Texas City, a great thinker. I think the world is David Osteen. And he sent me this little tidbit that George Slover, who is also a preacher of the gospel, reported that some of Dan Shipley’s final words. And as many of you know, Dan Shipley passed not very long ago, a preacher of the gospel for many years. Ben, his son, is a good friend of mine.

I played golf with a number of times, one of the elders of the Lyndale Church, where I held a meeting last summer. But Brother Dan is reported to have said to George, or in the presence of George, I don’t think I’ve done enough. I think all of us facing the end of our lives are going to be able to say that. I don’t think I’ve done enough. But I do believe that Dan Shipley had every reason to face death confidently. And here is a man who has been a tireless and effective worker in the kingdom. Not good enough. Embracing this promise can positively affect our lives as his people.

1. It Will Make You Courageous

That God hears our prayers, that he works in our lives, that he will indeed open the doors of opportunity, and that he will add increase to our efforts. Are you living the promise? Can you say confidently, have you embraced the promise? I am with you. And if you do, I think there are four important things that flow out of living the promise. And the first thing that I want to talk to you about tonight, as we live this promise, I am with you, is that it will make you courageous. That’s why this is so important. To understand and appreciate and embrace the fact that the Lord is with us as his people. It will give you courage. What about the example of Abraham when he was told to get up and to leave his relatives?

And to go into a land that I will show you and give to your descendants. He got up and went. I want to tell you that was a courageous move on his part. Because he had the confidence that God was with him in Hebrews chapter 11. Of course, that unfolds back at Genesis chapter 12 and the great promises made to Abraham. But as the Hebrew writer tells that in Hebrews 11 and verse 8, he says, by faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed. By going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out knowing where he was going.

Tony, I want you to leave your family behind in the United States of America, and I want you to go to Siberia. Boy, that’d be a challenge. Never been to Russia before. And of all places, Siberia. I mean, just imagine being sent out to a place that you’ve never been. There’s not going to be a holiday and express there either. He went out not knowing where he was going, but he did so because of this relationship that he had with God. I want you to notice how fear is vanquished by this competence.

I could not talk about this without referencing the story of Elisha. In 2 Kings chapter 6. The king of Syria was having some real problems, and that is, he was told that everything he thinks in his bedroom chamber is being whispered into the ears of the king of Israel, and that the king of Israel is always a step ahead because he knows what the king of Syria is thinking. And the reason why he knows is because there’s this prophet in Israel by the name of Elisha who is telling the king’s secrets in the ears of the king of Israel. Which is amazing when you consider the king of Israel is not a good guy. But God still is working through the nation of Israel, and he has prophets there like Elisha.

And so this is one of those unusual occasions where the enemy doesn’t come and take on the king and his army. The enemy comes and surrounds where Elisha lives.

The prophet is the problem. And when they show up, Elisha’s servant comes in to Elisha and says, We have got a problem.

What are we going to do, my master? And then the great statement, Elisha, he doesn’t seem alarmed in the least. He says, Do not fear. Those who are with us are greater than those who are with them.

They are with us. Those who are with us are greater than those who are with them. Then Elisha prayed and said, Oh Lord, I pray, open his eyes, his servant’s eyes. Open his eyes that he may see. Great request, answer. The Lord opens the servant’s eyes, and he saw. I love that. That’s one of my favorite verses in the Old Testament. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. That lucky servant. To be able to witness that. Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, Strike this people with blindness, I pray. And they did. I want you to notice how he said, Do not fear. Those who are with us are greater than those who are with them. Obviously, the Lord is not going to miraculously deliver his people in every circumstance.

If I am surrounded by my enemies, and I pray that the Lord strike all of them with blindness.

The believers in the first century were told, Be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. And we’ve remarked about that verse before. He’s not just saying persevere to the end. He’s saying, Persevere in spite of death. You may be put to death for what you believe. Not everyone is delivered temporally. Obviously, the promise of his presence does not guarantee the absence of trouble, pain, and death. But if God be for us, who then will be against us? Paul says in Romans chapter 8, who’s going to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? Not principalities, not powers, not life or death. May in all these things, we are more than conquerors, he says in Romans chapter 8 and verse 37.

Thus, if the Lord is with us, we can face any threat, any opposition, any trouble, any difficulty with confidence and not fear.

Hananiah, Mishel, and Azariah, most often known by their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. That’s why they could say to the presence of the most powerful man in the world. Who had the power of life and death in his hand and on the tip of his tongue. They were able to face the most powerful man in the world, and say, We don’t need to give you an answer concerning this.

Nobody says that to Nebuchadnezzar. Nobody.

I’m sure at that point some of the attendants who were just standing by doing their job went, Don’t hear that every day. What’s going to happen now? They didn’t have any guarantee that they were going to be delivered from the fire. We know the story. Even if God does not deliver us, we will not bow down, we will not do what is unrighteous, we will not bow down and worship you, O king. They realized God had the ability to deliver, but they did not necessarily have the confidence that he would deliver, but that didn’t matter because their hopes were beyond this world. But they were able to face that situation with confidence because of their relationship with the God of Israel, much like in the New Testament.

When the Jews recognized that Peter and John and the other apostles had been with Jesus, these uneducated and untrained men were speaking with such confidence and boldness. And so they just, well, if we can’t deny a notable miracle has taken place here. Duh. I mean, the miracles that were being performed, how could you deny the power of God in that and the apostles performing them? And so they just said, you know what? We’ll just tell them don’t speak anymore in the name of Jesus and send them out. And they just said, We cannot stop speaking what we have seen and what we have heard. And later to the council, they would say, We must obey God rather than men, and they flawed them, and that didn’t stop them.

See what kind of confidence and courage issues from this knowledge. But the Lord is with you. And what that says, young people is we don’t have to throw in our lot with our peers when they want us to participate in evil. Like the Proverbs, the wise writer says, the evil person says, throw in your lot with us. We will have one purse. Come on, be a part of the crowd. It’s going to be great. But it’s a purse full of holes, the wise writer says. They lie in wait in ambush, they ambush their own lives. He goes on to say, I love that statement in Proverbs 1 and verse 18. They ambush their own lives. You see, when you know the Lord is with you can say, I’m not going to participate in that.

No thanks. I’m not going to smoke the marijuana. I’m not going to practice the fornication. I’m not going to take the alcoholic drink. Because my relationship to the Lord is the most important thing. And you don’t have to worry. You don’t have to worry about the potential risk to the relationship. Oh, there might be a risk involved. You might be cut off. You might be ridiculed. You might be persecuted. But you don’t have to worry about the risk to the relationship because you have the relationship that matters most.

2. It Will Take Your Pride

See how important this is. And one of the reasons why people struggle in the face of the pressure appears is because they don’t go into those circumstances embracing the promise. I’ll tell you what else it’ll do. And this is important as well. Living the promise, I am with you. It will take all your pride. And that is important. Success is because of him. The church’s growth is because of him. And we are merely instruments to his glory. I want to tell you, churches that struggle with disharmony and sit around and pick each other apart and fuss and fight and argue, they have failed to embrace this promise. And they have become carried away with themselves. If something good happens in this church, it will be because God gave the increase and God caused the growth.

3. It Will Make You Pray and Trust

And there are several things that I have noticed through the years that are important to church growth. You have to have excellent leadership, you have to have solid preaching, you have to have members who truly care about one another and serve one another. And we have those kinds of things here. But at the end of the day, when the church grows and it becomes more cohesive and things happen to the glory of God, it is because of him, it is because of the Spirit who is at work in our lives as we submit ourselves to this message. And all glory belongs to Him. I want to tell you, when you realize the Lord is with you, it will take your pride. And thirdly, it will make you pray.

It will make you trust. Jesus told his disciples if you just had faith as the grain of a mustard seed. You could say to this mountain, be cast into the sea, and it will be done. What a marvelous statement that is in Matthew chapter 17 and verse 20. You see, that’s all based in this confidence in this relationship. If you had faith, that is confidence and trust in God. As the green, I mean something silver, just a little bit, you can say to this mountain, get out of the way. And it’s gone. Trusting his promise will motivate you to ask for important things too. Like open doors to teach a soul. Ask him to be with the elders, to give them a shepherd’s heart and strength for their work of guarding the sheep and a vision for what his people need to be and to do.

4. Living the Promise Will Make You Spiritual

Look at this in 1 John chapter 5. One more thought here before we move to the final point. 1 John chapter 5, verses 13 through 15. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence which we have before him that if we ask anything, according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked from him. That’s how important living the promise is. It will make you pray and trust in him. And one more thing. Living the promise will make you spiritual. Who truly is a spiritual person?

In Galatians 6 and verse 1, there’s an interesting reference there about the brother who’s overtaken in a fault. And it says, You who are spiritual. Restore such an one in the spirit of meekness or gentleness. And he goes on to address these believers who are supposed to be spiritual to be able to do this, bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. When a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Coming back to point number two. Who is the spiritual person? Some people would equate spirituality with being overly emotional. I do think it will work on your emotions to be spiritual. But I think some people equate in their minds to be spiritual is to be overly emotional and weak.

It’s not manly to be spiritual. Are you kidding me? There’s not anything more manly than to be a spiritual man. Was David a weak emotional wimp? He was a warrior. He was a king. He was a leader. He felled the giant. But he also wrote many hymns and psalms of devotion to God. Hey, young men. It’s not weak to lift your voice in praise of God. Sometimes I think young men think it’s not cool to sing and at least not sing very loud where you be heard. You want to be a real man. You sing praise to your creator. You acknowledge him in prayer. You see what it means to be spiritual. It starts first and foremost with an awareness of the spiritual realm. That there is a spirit realm beyond what we see this physical world.

To be spiritual means you’re in tune with that. You’re aware of that there is a living God and creator in that spiritual realm that I do not see with my eyes because no man has seen him at any time. But we know that he is there. There is evidence everywhere in this material world. And so I acknowledge that my creator lives, and that his son is my redeemer, and I am focused on him. We look to Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith. And the word spiritual is awfully close to that other person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. And we acknowledge him too as the source of God’s message, who has revealed these things from the mind of God to us.

And so I’ll tell you who the spiritual person is. He or she is aware of the spirit realm and is confident in the presence of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and is in tune to the Spirit’s message, thus walk after the Spirit, Galatians chapter 5, be filled with the Spirit, Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18. And so the spiritual person is dedicated to the welfare of his or her own spirit or soul. That’s what it means to be spiritual. And as I thought about some of these thoughts for this lesson, I thought about David and not only David, his buddy.

You know, Jonathan was a pretty spiritual dude as well. Remember when he and his armor bearer went up against the garrison of the Philistines in 1 Samuel chapter 14. There was a sharp crag on one side and a sharp crag on the other. Apparently they’re going to go between the crags, and they’re going to take on the garrison of the Philistines. You know, the armor bearer might have thought, what in the world is this upstart getting us into? And he tells that armor bearer, the Lord is with us. We can do this. This wasn’t new to the armor bearer. He had seen the faith of Jonathan before. And he said, Whatever’s in your heart, I’m with you. Now there is a man who’s spiritual. As he faces the enemy, he is outnumbered by the enemy, but he believes they can have success because the Lord is on their side.

He has an awareness of the spirit realm while he is about to engage in battle. And the Lord is indeed with Jonathan and his armor bearer. Didn’t mean there weren’t going to be any obstacles, man. Man, he had a lot to deal with that deadbeat father of his King Saul, as things began to go south with him, and he tried to stand up for his friend David. All sorts of trouble ensued. And ultimately, it meant the death of Jonathan on Mount Gilboa. But when David has long been separated from Jonathan, and they perhaps had one final meeting. In 1 Samuel chapter 23 and verse 16, Jonathan comes to his friend, whom he loved as himself. Their souls were knit together, it says.

Paul helped us to define it in 1 Corinthians 14. The Corinthians way overvalued the ability to perform spiritual gifts than what the gifts were designed to impart or produce. And while they reveled in the idea of being able to be a tongue speaker and do something great and magnificent and awesome, Paul said the most important thing is the understanding that comes from the gift. The things that these gifts are promoting in his people. And then he says something interesting at the end of all of that in chapter 14, as he’s talking about how an assembly with spiritual gifts should be conducted, he says at the end if any among you think himself to be spiritual, let him know that the things that I am writing to you are the commandments of the Lord.

If you are truly a spiritual person, you acknowledge that this is the message that comes from God. And all who are truly wise adhere to and submit to it.

Conclusion

And because of your relationship to him, you are offering these words of devotion, whether it be me by myself in times of meditation, as we read in Psalm chapter 1, or whether we are in this group setting of worship. All of this has meaning because the Lord is with you and with us. This is my hope. This is my gratitude. This is my love for him. This promise, I am with you, is very important. It’ll make you courageous. It’ll take your pride. And trust, and it will make you spiritual. And it is empowering to the spiritual life. It is empowering to a church. In Revelation chapter 3, as he tells the church at Philadelphia, I know your deeds in Revelation 3 and verse 8, but behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut because you have a little power and have kept my word and have not denied my name.

And he who overcomes, verse 12, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will not go out from it anymore. And I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from God, and my new name. Love that verse. It is an empowering relationship. Both in your personal life and the spiritual progress that we’re called upon to make and in our life as a church. So let’s go back to where we began. Do you believe the promise? Are you living the promise? I am with you. As a preacher of the gospel, I proclaim to you, as Paul did the Thessalonians, the Lord be with you all.

But you must be in Christ to have this assurance. And as we said at the beginning, you need this relationship. You need to know that the Lord is with you. And it begins, as we said this morning and pointed out in the introduction tonight, being baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Coming into a relationship with him. And so if you’re subject to his message, to his gospel tonight, come now as we stand and see him together.