TROLLS

Whether in person or online, you eventually run into a troll.  With our technology today most of us run into trolls online.  What’s a troll?  It’s someone who’s looking for a fight.  They criticize and pick fights.  But we don’t have to respond to them.  You don’t have to show up for every argument you’re invited to, and in the world of social media you can see plenty of them.  For the most part it’s best to avoid them.  That should certainly be the case when you discover a troll.  It’s a waste of your time and energy.  Like the old saying goes:  “Never wrestle with a pig.  You both get dirty, but the pig likes it”.  Don’t befriend angry people (Prov. 22:24 NLT).

“IF YOU REALLY BELIEVED IT”

Fixed Point Foundation recently surveyed active members of atheist student groups in order to discover what led them to their unbelief.  The survey revealed, “… these students were, above all else, idealists who longed for authenticity, and having failed to find it in their churches, they settled for a nonbelief that, while less grand in its promises, felt more genuine and attainable.” 

Michael, one of the participants in the study summed it up well:  “Christianity is something that if you really believed it, it would change your life and you would want to change the lives of others.  I haven’t seen too much of that.”

The Apostle Paul gives us instructions:  Give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.  Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect (Rom. 12:1-2 NLT).

As far as our responsibility goes, the gateway to change is through our minds.   For as he thinks within himself, so he is (Prov. 23:7 NAS).  Certainly the Holy Spirit in His power transforms us from the inside out, but our part is to feed our minds God’s truth, and God’s Spirit utilizes His Word within us to transform our lives.

Jesus said, “You are the light of the world … let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matt. 5:14-16).

If you really believe it, how’s your transformation going?  Can others tell?

COMMUNICATING YOU CARE

We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. 1 Thess. 2:8 (HCSB)

How far are you willing to go to communicate God’s grace and truth to others?

Gordon McDonald writes that people communicate along a range of five levels:

1. Clichés:  “Hi, how are ya?”

2. Facts/reports:  “We had 125 show up.”

3. Opinions/judgments:  “We just didn’t get the message across.”

4. Emotions/feelings:  “I’m heart-broken over this.”

5. Loving/truthful conversation:  “I can really tell you’re learning and growing.”

Each level calls for increasing courage, trust, and commitment.  A casual relationship will accommodate the first two levels.  But only a carefully developed relationship over time can cultivate the fourth and fifth levels.  Few people reach (or care to reach) the fifth level – not enough time, not enough curiosity, not enough courage.  Yet if you’re going to make more devoted followers of Jesus, if you're going to make an impact on others' lives for eternity, levels four and five are necessary.  We must care that much.  People’s eternities are on the line.

DISTRACTION

Screwtape, a senior devil trains his apprentice, Wormwood, in the art of demonic manipulation.  In C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape recounts the time when his patient – the man he is assigned to tempt – was moments away from a colossal spiritual breakthrough.  Seeing twenty years of demonic work beginning to totter, the senior demon suggested to the man that it was time for lunch.  Within moments, the patient was halfway across the street in search of the nearest pub, and the threat of a real spiritual breakthrough had passed.

One of the Devil’s greatest tools is “distraction.”  The Devil gets just as much satisfaction from luring us into meaningless distraction as he does from our disobedience to God.  Those minor distractions – constant tweeting, nonstop text messages, ongoing calendar reminders, unending anxiety-laced news – take us away from the stillness needed to seek God.

God’s Word is clear about living a balanced life:  let your life flow from a heart centered in God’s peace.  Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, (Col. 3:15).   Does the peace of Christ rule in your heart?  Jesus said in John 14:1, 27, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in me … I leave you peace; my peace I give you.  I do not give it to you as the world does.  So don’t let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”

There is nothing more countercultural than living a deliberate life infused with margin.  Choose to be deliberate, not distracted, and let your life flow from a heart centered in the peace of Christ.

GETTING THE WIN

After defeating Jericho City in a spectacular way, Joshua’s army moved on to take Ai, a small crossroads town.  They thought it would be an easy win.  But when the battle was over it was Joshua and his people who ran for their lives.  Why the unexpected defeat?  It was because of Achan and his secret.  He had baggage.  He had stolen items hidden under the floor of his tent.  Consequently his relationships, an entire community in this case, were held hostage to the secret in his life. 

The dark side, unresolved wounds, internal pain, hidden guilt and anger and fear, secret sins – all have a mysterious power to neutralize a strong army, a team, a community, a family, a relationship.  What’s hidden under the floor of your tent, unless confessed and revealed and surrendered will undermine the good, the wholesome, the faith, and the health of your relationships. 

The answer is found in confronting our inner selves, owning our faults and sin, admitting our need for God’s intervention, and revealing our wounds and weaknesses to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  James says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).  The confessed and cleansed heart is the pathway to healthy, powerful, and effective relationships which win for our good and God’s glory.

WHY NOT OWNING ANYTHING IS GOOD FOR YOU

Jesus said, “You cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own” (Luke 14:33 NLT).  Jesus wants you to surrender to His ownership everything.  Why is the decision to surrender to Jesus so incredibly important?   Here’s why:  The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him (2 Chronicles 16:9 NLT).  God will “strengthen your heart.”

Giving up ownership leads us to live lives of integrity.  Integrity means you’re the same person in your private life as you are in your public life.  You’re the same person when you’re alone as you are when you’re at church.  What you have committed to the Lord in your heart you commit to with your actions and words.

Why would you or I not be a person of integrity?  Because of fear.  When fear is in your heart it influences your motives and actions.  You say one thing and then do another.  And you’re not true to those around you, or to yourself, or to God until you deal with the fear in your heart.  Fear is the root cause of many things:  anger, depression, control issues, worry.  We’re afraid of rejection, abandonment, not being loved, what others think about us, tomorrow, financial loss, not having enough for retirement, of not being accepted, and the list goes on.

When we don’t deal with the fear in our hearts we will do two things:  1) First we hide.  We wear masks.  We put on a front.  We don’t let others know who we really are.  And who you are when you’re alone doesn’t match who you are when you’re around other people.  2) Second we look for ways to get love.  We have trouble loving ourselves and loving others and loving God. 

Without knowing it you’re trying to compensate for an emotional wound deep down in the core of your being.  The answer  is to not only place your trust in Jesus Christ for forgiveness and salvation, but to grow to believe more and more in God’s love for you and in who you really are in Christ and all that is yours in that relationship with Him.  It takes the Heavenly Father’s love to heal your heart.  God tells us in His Word that His love “expels all fear” from our hearts, and There is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God, (Romans 8:39 GNT).  Therefore, Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children (1 John 3:1 HCSB).

He is present with us so that we don’t have to be fearful.  For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, “Father! my Father!” (Romans 8:15 GNT). 

Specifically what can you do in light of God’s truth?

1.      Cry out to God as your Father Who loves you perfectly, more so than your earthly father.

2.      Choose to continually thank God that nothing will ever be able to separate you from His love.

3.      Think long and deep about God’s great love for you.

4.      Practice “resting” in God’s love for you.  Just say, “Father I choose to rest in your great love for me.”

5.      Accept His forgiveness of you and choose to forgive those who’ve wronged you.

Let God love you and transform your life such that you’re the same person inside and out.

We’ve got to give up trying to fix ourselves, control our own lives, and medicate our pain.  We must give up the ownership of our lives to God.  He wants your honest total surrender, and then He’ll produce the right things in your life.  That’s when your heart will grow in His love for you, in His strength, with courage, and with inner security.

YOU WERE MADE FOR MORE

God wants to take ordinary lives and make them extraordinary.  We weren’t made to live boring lives where it’s the “same old same old.”  There’s more to life than living and dying.  We were made to live an exciting adventure.  Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”  Many people live dull and mundane stressful lives, and they have no sense of lasting motivation or joy or enthusiasm.  God never intended for us to live depressed, worried, fearful, powerless, and mundane lives.  That’s not the kind of life God wants us to live.  But for many that’s their “normal” way of life.  God wants to take your ordinary way of living life and transform it into a life that is extraordinary.  You were made for more than you think.  The Bible says in Ephesians 3:20 (NLT)  Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

How is your life changed from ordinary living to extraordinary living?

1. Value your future resurrection to be better than your life now.

They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Hebrews 11:35 (NLT)

2. Submit to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Make it a daily practice.  Make it an on-going practice throughout each day.  Take action based on what you learn from God’s Word.  It’s called obedience.

3. Live loved and forgiven.

Do not let the grace that you received from God be for nothing.  2 Corinthians 6:1 (NCV)

4. Keep company with Jesus.

They realized then that they had been companions of Jesus. Acts 4:13 (GNT)

• Read and study God’s Word, the Bible
• Pray persistently
• Fellowship regularly with other believers
• Tell others about Jesus, because they notice something extraordinary about you
• Serve people for the sake of Christ
• Worship God privately alone and publically with the church

As we learn to follow Jesus, our lives begin to change because He changes us.  God wants to take your ordinary way of living life and transform it into a life that is extraordinary.