Trust & Obey, by Branson Sears

I’m so thankful our God loves us so much. He never gives up on us and He is so tender when He shows us things. Recently I set my alarm to wake up early to pray and meditate, I am a server at a local restaurant and my hours can be late sometimes. At times when I get home and shower its midnight, and then you eat and you get to bed late, pretty routine. So I set my alarm for seven am and planned on getting up. Apparently the Lord didn’t think that was early enough so promptly at five my spirit awakened me and said “get up”. As I get up and headed to make my coffee I sensed the Lord telling me “get your shoes on and leave”. So I began praying and drinking my coffee and headed out the door wondering where I was off to.  Praying and driving I started heading for the church. As I drew closer my spirit tells me to keep going; so I continued praying and driving. Pretty soon I do a lap around town and start heading out to the country and I’m wondering, ” Lord, where are you taking me”. I pray and drive and feel the presence of God with me and my prayer is getting deeper and more intimate. It’s been over and hour and the sun is rising with an awesome thunderstorm in the distance. As I start to head back and get into familiar country I realize a bit of anxiety I hadn’t even noticed lifted off me. Immediately I realized I hadn’t been going anywhere, I had been driving and spending time with the Lord. Then I realized God just wanted to spend some time with me and wanted me to trust and obey Him. It’s funny, I wanted to know the next step so bad and see what His plan was and why I had headed out so far. Sometimes God doesn’t show us the whole picture, He wants us to follow Him and just take the next step, when we get out of our comfort zone it really causes us to completely focus and give Him our undivided attention. The focus and attention He longs for and deserves. I wonder if I knew I was just going to drive around for an hour and a half maybe my response would have been “I can pray here at home”. God always has a plan and longs to reveal Himself to us.  He always knows what’s best and how to teach us and show us things we can’t see. Following the leading of God is always in your best interest even when it doesn’t make sense. I was thinking about Elijah when God had fed him with the birds.  God’s plan was working and it was a step of faith for Elijah to follow God to the brook. Maybe when God told him to move on and go to the poor woman he thought, “where am I going God, this is working just fine.” God longs for us to totally and completely trust Him, even when it’s outside of our comfort zone, because often when we get out of that comfort zone, we look to Him and seek Him like we really ought to be all along. And when we trust and obey it is always better than we ever could have imagined.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” - 2 Timothy 4:7

It is no small number of Christian people who have given up on a battle in their life and accepted defeat.  Who, had they kept on standing, praying, and fighting the good fight, would have found the victory they were waiting for only days - maybe even hours - after they threw in the towel.  The church must again be reminded that we are in a fight.  We are running a race, and our race is not a sprint but a marathon.  You’ll never win a battle that you lay down in and quit.  But our God is with us!  And if He is with us then who can be against us!  Maybe you’re fighting the fight of a lifetime today.  Don’t give up child.  You’re God is on your side! 

Too many marriages have ended in divorce because someone quit looking to God for the strength to keep fighting the good fight of faith and instead started taking matters into their own hands.  Too many people have given up on God because they forgot that it is in the trials of life that our character is developed and rather than looking to God for wisdom on how to run the last leg of the race they simply gave in to the whispers of the old serpent “you can’t do this… you’re too tired… the sooner you give up the sooner you can rest…”  Believe this child of God - giving up will do anything but give you rest!  God help us to fight the fight.  And to KNOW that’s exactly what it is: a FIGHT.  God help us to run the race!

With His last dying breath our precious Lord cried out “It is finished”.  What a blessed promise!  Brothers and sisters: we must remember to look to the cross when we are fighting the fight and running the race.  When you feel you can’t go on just look to the cross and remember that He died that you might live!  When you feel too weary to take another step look to Jesus and remember that He died in order that The Great Comforter might come, the Blessed Holy Spirit!  And look to the Spirit of God within you to carry you another step, to hold you another day, to give you wisdom through the trials of life!

Keep running the race.  Keep fighting the good fight of faith.  Our Lord has conquered death, hell, and the grave and He’s coming back very soon to take us home!  Don’t give up now… that trumpet just might sound today.

 A day at the pool

During an outing at the city pool the family and I were enjoying some of the activities. One of the activities at the pool was a set of floating lily pads. My daughter grabbed a hold of the top ropes and made her way swiftly across almost to the other side. As I stood there and anticipated starting across the top of the water, I noticed a very young girl standing beside me, which could barely reach the overhead ropes. That’s when I asked the little girl; “do you think I can go”. The little girl looked up at me with squinting eyes and said; “No, you can’t go until he says you can go”. As she pointed to the teenage life guard on the other side of the pool I asked the little girl another question. I said to her, “do you think he is big enough to stop me from crossing if I wanted to”? As she leaned toward me tilting her head she abruptly said, “He is a Life Guard”. As if it made no difference that I outweighed the young man by a hundred pounds. As those words came out of her mouth it was as if the Lord was speaking through her.

This evening, as I thought about that day at the pool, I thought to myself, Lord what do you want me to remember from that day? The first thing that came to my mind was her trust in his absolute authority.  She had learned from her experiences that he was in charge.  His physical appearance didn’t matter to her; his lack of wisdom didn’t matter to her.  He had the authority over me no matter what I wanted to do.  Oh, glory to God, if we could just accept the authority of Christ.  It doesn’t matter the size of the problem, it doesn’t matter what something looks like, it doesn’t matter how wise we are, and it doesn’t matter what faces are on the cards.  We need to get back to child like faith in God’s absolute authority.  It’s not finished, until he says it’s finished.  This thing isn’t going to destroy you; it’s going to improve you.  The devil can’t put a hand on you unless God says he can.  You are the head and not the tail, you are above and not below, you’re not a beggar, you are an ambassador, (Ephesians 6:20). “Every weapon formed against you shall not prosper, every tongue that rises against you in judgment, you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me says the Lord, (Isaiah 54:17, NKJV).

He Did it All… by Brother Branson Sears

What an amazing thing to know that two thousand years ago my Lord and Savior was thinking about me, while dying on that old rugged cross.  Jesus is a hope to the hopeless and without Him paying the price for us that day where would we be? What an awesome love that our King was willing to come and save a wretch like me! To think all those years lost in the darkness chained up in my sin, my sin had already been paid for and I was loved by the Almighty even as an enemy who rejected Him. He paid the price for everyone that day, and yet He had me in mind.  Jesus’ love rescued all who will believe from eternal punishment that day, and chose to place us in heaven with Him forever! This world has a hope, and His name is Jesus Christ!

Jesus told us in the gospels that when He went back to the Father it would be better for us, because He would send the helper, and praise God He did! The Holy Spirit! We now have God living within us and access to the Master whenever we choose! For thousands of years people sacrificed animals for there sin and had to go to a priest for access to God. Jesus put an end to all that when He died and became our atonement.  His blood paid for us and gave us direct access to heaven through the cross. We now are the temple of the Holy Spirit and His word says He will never leave us or forsake us! Praise God for He has called us family and a royal priesthood and we can go to our Father anytime , we have full access because of Jesus and Jesus alone!

In the beginning chapters of acts God’s word tells us that when the Helper comes we will receive power! With Him coming being our hope, and giving us access, we now through the Holy Spirit have the power of God within us! So many times as Christians we let the enemy and ourselves write off the power within us ; we say “ I couldn’t do this or that,” and right you are! Only Jesus through you could do such powerful and amazing things, and His word tells us in John chapter fifteen He longs to work through us. The Father is glorified when you bear much fruit , abide in Him, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you!  We are His workmanship Ephesians tells us and He longs to be glorified through us, in power, not in timidity, but in the strength and power of His might! Jesus  gave us power by dying on that cross for us and truly it was all finished that day, the victory was won on the cross!

And praise God for the resurrection!  For without the resurrection we would be hopeless, without Him conquering the grave that day we would have no access to the throne of God. Finally without the Lamb sending the Helper to dwell within me I would be powerless. Praise God that He sent His son Jesus to die on that cross and pay for me that day! He arose from the dead and overcame the grave and now sin has no power over me, I have been bought by the King and this world has a hope, Jesus. Proclaim Him from the mountain tops , from your house, at your schools and job, in your city, that there is hope, access, power, because the Lamb who was slain came, and defeated the grave and arose on the third day! Halleluiah!

- Bro. Branson Sears

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Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new…” – Rev. 21:5

   This passage in Revelation chapter 21 speaks to the ultimate and final completion of God’s redemptive plan for His people.  It speaks of the new heaven, the new earth, and the new Jerusalem.  What a day that will be!  With the Easter season approaching I couldn’t help but think of all that God has already made new through the power of Christ’s resurrection on that blessed Sunday morning.

A New Life

“…just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,

          even so we also should walk in newness of life.” – Romans 6:4

   Through the resurrection we now have access to a new life.  I spent twenty years of existence on this earth living in death.  It was not until I met the master and was transformed by the power of grace that I ever knew what it really meant to be alive.  Thank God that He knows how to make all things new!  In this new life we find that the power of sin that kept us locked up in the prison of hopelessness has been broken and we are no longer slaves to sin.  Praise God for the resurrection power of New Life that comes to all those who will believe!

A New Nature

“For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death,

certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection”

                                                                                          – Romans 5:5

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old

things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”

                                                                                             – 2 Cor. 5:17

   I know that it’s not popular anymore in most circles to proclaim it, but can I just say that if a person has really received the new life Christ offers to us then they will also have a new nature.  I always doubt it when someone tries to tell me that they’ve been saved; born again; received new life from the Living God; and yet they have the exact same nature as they did before their supposed transformation.  Charles Spurgeon said it best when he said a grace that isn’t strong enough to change us isn’t strong enough to save us either.  Oh but thank God for the new nature!  What a wonderful God we serve.  Not only does He give to us new life but He also gives us a new nature.  Men and women have searched the whole world over trying to be set free from drugs, addictions, depression and more.  What they need is simple: The new life that is found in none other than Jesus Christ and the new nature that is accompanied with it!  Thank you Lord for making all things new!

New Hope

“But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead… So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.  O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”  …But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” - 1 Cor. 15:20-21; 54-55; 57

   The last thing I want to draw our attention to is the new hope that has become sure through the power of the resurrection.  When Christ rose from the grave He proved to this world that He was exactly who He said He was; the Son of God.  Had our Lord not risen as He said, then He would not have been our Lord at all.  He would have been nothing more than the rest of the false prophets of this world.  But unlike Buddha, Muhammad, Socrates, Zoroaster, (and the list goes on) you won’t find the body of Jesus in a grave because He’s no longer there!  He rose from the grave on that third day just as He had promised!  Thank God for it is the resurrection of Jesus that makes our hope sure.  He is who He said He was.  He did what He said He would do.  And He will come again to bring us home just as He told us (John 14).  Christians - our hope is certain!  And on this blessed fact can I draw your attention one more time to the passage we began with in Revelation chapter 5.  Our hope lies in the fact that there is coming a day when there will be no more sorrow and no more pain.  Our God will wipe away every tear and we will completely and finally be transformed into His likeness where we will never again struggle with the flesh, this world, and the devil.  As the old hymn says it best – “All will be peace forever, on the happy golden shore.  What a day, glorious day that will be!”

*** During the period of time this sermon is based on, Abraham’s name was not Abraham yet. It was Abram. Later God would change Abram’s name to Abraham. I will be referring to him as Abraham because this is his most commonly recognized name.***

The Promise

In Genesis chapter three God made a promise to send a Savior to the world. In the twelfth chapter of Genesis God called one man to begin the fulfillment of that blessed promise. It is interesting that the first thing God does with Abraham is give him some more promises. God promised Abraham the following:

1. To give Abraham a land
2. To make out of Abraham a great nation
3. To give him a great name
4. And that through Abraham the whole world would be blessed.

The Response

God told Abraham to leave everything that was familiar and begin to journey into a land that God would later show him.  Abraham obeyed God.  We must never wait to walk in the direction that God has told us to walk until we understand everything about the destination.  Just trust God and walk on.  It took great faith for Abraham to respond to God.  He had to leave everything that was familiar.  He was told that he would become a great nation yet he and Sarah had no children.  But, despite these circumstances, Abraham believed God and began his journey of faith.

The Reward

After Abraham arrived in the land that God has led him to, the Lord appeared to Abraham a second time.  Obedience to God always leads to the blessing of God.  God met with Abraham to reassure him to keep believing and following the instructions of the Lord.  ”After” is the key word here.  It was not until after Abraham obeyed the instruction of God that he would be blessed by God again.  We can not expect God to bless us until we have gone where He has asked us to go; done what He has asked us to do; and been what He has asked us to be.  Brothers and sisters: if you want to walk in the blessings of God and experience His presence and favor in your lives then be faithful to doing exactly what He’s asked you do now.

The Regression

In verse 10 of our text something incredible happens: a famine strikes the exact location that God has led Abraham.  Can you imagine the confusion?  After walking by faith, after following God where He asked them to go, and after getting the confirmation from the Lord that they were exactly where they were supposed to be - a famine comes.  In one way or another, we all come to these places in our lives.  Even after we’ve done all that we can to follow the Lord into the land that He has called us, sometimes famine (the lack of provision) strikes; leaving us all alone…or so it would seem.  It is in this place that our faith is tested.  It is in this place that we find out what it is that our trust really rests upon.  God wanted to see if it was the land that Abraham had trusted in; or was it the Lord of the land that his faith was placed.

Unfortunately Abraham failed miserably.  When the land dried up so did Abraham’s faith.  He ran to Egypt.  Egypt in the bible almost always represents the old way of life, the old way of handling things.  It is controlled and governed by the self-serving, self-confident, and self-righteous attitudes of man.  And when we face the famines of this life, we have only two places to go.  The first choice is to run back to Egypt.  The second is to believe the promise of God and stand fast until He provides the needs we face.  The latter is God’s command, but it is certainly easier said than done.  It requires faith to stand strong in the face of famine and confusion; but we must learn to stand on the promises of God no matter how violent the storms of life may seem.  Remember that God led the Hebrews to the Red Sea so that He could bring them through the Red Sea.

Abraham’s sinful breakdown of faith did not stop when he fled to Egypt.  One sin always leads to another.  Abraham would ask his wife to lie about their marriage.  He cared more about his own life than that of his wife.  For that matter, he cared more about his own life than the life of the promised Savior who was to come through his wife.  His actions seem unthinkable; but when we run back to Egypt, we will always do the unthinkable.  Abraham had just arrived in Egypt and already we see him acting just like the people of the world.

Eventually the King of Egypt discovers the scheming of Abraham and Sarah and is furious.  He immediately has both of them sent away.  What a shame that this man of God had to be rebuked by the leader of Egypt.  I often find my heart broken at the poor testimony of professing Christians who live, look, and partake of the sinful ways of the world.  Those who do so are harming themselves and causing others in this world to doubt the REAL God because they see phony double-minded men and women living one way but professing another.

The Return

Thank God the story does not end here!  Abraham returned to the place that he had left.  This is an important lesson that many Christians need to grab hold of.  You can’t stay in Egypt and cry out for God to help you IN your sin.  You’ve got to repent.  You’ve got to get out of that place and as Genesis 13 tells us - go BACK to the place where you used to meet with God.  This is exactly what Abraham did.

God forgave Abraham (here’s that word again) after Abraham repented and returned to the place that God had told him to be.  Thank God for His forgiveness.  I’ll say it again: thank God for His forgiveness!  Never stay in the land of Egypt because you’re afraid that God won’t forgive you.  God is willing to forgive!

The Repercussion

Even though God forgave Abraham there were serious consequences for this very brief period of disobedience in Abraham’s life.  Never use the truth that God is forgiving to somehow justify waiting to repent of your sins and follow God’s commands.   Yes, God forgave Abraham; and thank God for it.  But the damage was done.  Abraham’s testimony was ruined in front of the people of Egypt.  Can you imagine him trying to share his faith with the King of Egypt after making a liar and a coward out of himself?  It was also from this trip to Egypt that Abraham’s wife, Sarah, would bring home a certain maid named Hagar.  Hagar would eventually become the greatest source of division to Abraham and Sarah they would ever know.  I would also submit that Lot’s destruction of character and morality were the result of this journey into Egypt.  Even though Abraham brought Lot out of Egypt, he was never able to remove Egypt out of Lot.  Our actions always effect everyone around us.  It is a tragic thing to think of the number of people who spend eternity in hell because of the poor testimony of wandering Christians.  We must never use the God’s forgiveness as an excuse to continue in our sin.

The Realization of The Promise

In Genesis chapter 21 God fulfills His promise to give Abraham and Sarah a child.  God always keeps His promises!  Whenever famine strikes: stand strong and wait on the provision of God - He always does exactly what He has promised to do!  Here are five promises to stand firm on when the storms and famines of this life try to move us:

1. God has promised that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).   Notice this promise is only to those who obediently are following His purposes.  But this promise is a blessed assurance that even the most difficult circumstances of life are not to hard for God to use for our good.  He has promised it and He will deliver it!

2. God has promised to supply our every need. “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). We can not confuse our definition of needs with God’s definition; especially because He is the one who has made the promise.  God has not promised to provide the abundance of things that we often consider needs.  He has, however, promised provision through Christ for every true need that we will ever face.  When provision seems to look almost dried up - don’t run to Egypt - stand strong and wait for God to deliver on His promise!

3. God has promised that His grace is sufficient for us. (II Corinthians 12:9).  No matter what we face or battle God’s grace is sufficient to give us the strength to carry on.  His grace is sufficient to save us.  His grace is sufficient to forgive us.  His grace is sufficient to change us, and His grace is sufficient to keep us.

4. God has promised that we will never face a temptation that He has not provided a way out of (1 Cor. 10:13).  No temptation we will ever face whether it be drugs, alcohol, sex, greed, - anything - can we ever claim that we did not have a way out of.  God has promised us a way out.  Period.  We must stand strong on His promises when we face temptations and by faith believe God and find the way out.

5. God has promised salvation to those who repent of their sins, place their faith in Jesus Christ, and follow Him.  To us he has promised we will be saved from the eternal punishment of hell fire and in turn inherit the glorious home of heaven that He is preparing for us now.  What a blessed promise of the hope that we have!  (1 John ch. 1- ch. 5; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; John 10:27-28; John 14:1-2).

May we live a life that is in keeping with God’s Word in order that His promises will be unto us.

- Brother Joplin Emberson

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Contributing thoughts to this sermon from the following:

1. Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the Old Testament

2. www.bible.ca

Written by Branson Sears

Some time ago my wife Hannah and I stayed at a friend’s house to watch their kids while they were out of town for a week. We were excited for the fun and time we would be able to spend with the kids; but something else I was intrigued and eager to do was to see the deer that often come by their house. They live close to a wooded area with a creek in the back yard and it was beautiful.  I knew in that often early morning at the right time the deer came to drink.  I planned one night before I went to sleep to wake up the next morning at six to go out and see them. To my dismay the next day I woke and it was seven thirty.  I thought to myself as I jumped up, “it’s too late” while a song in my groggy but hurried state of mind ran through my head.   It was the famous Psalm “As the deer panteth for the water so my soul longeth after thee.”  For several weeks I had been really praying to draw closer to God and when the song came to mind I thought back on my prayers.  Still really fuzzy eyed and tired I got to the back window and started to rub my eyes.  Focusing, not really paying attention, dead ahead were three deer directly in front of me.  As they drank from the creek it hit me - I was right on time; right on His time, not too early not too late. Even when we think that we are late or that we didn’t do the right thing God will meet us right on time.  He knows all things and He loves us so much.  Jesus is never late or early but He is always right on time, even when at times were not expecting Him.  I love that old Psalm about the deer.  God knew my heart had been seeking Him.  “My soul longeth after thee”.  He knew the deer was coming out that morning for the water. I sensed God’s presence in a mighty way that morning and then it hit me, the deer was me.  Just as God was supplying water to sooth the thirst of that deer, He was also giving Living Water to me.

- Branson Sears

What seemed to this world nothing more than the birth of another child would prove to be the most significant event in the history of the world.  So it was that while the world was sleeping God gave His Son.  A gift so magnificent it was beyond the scope of even the greatest teachers to comprehend.  And thus, he came unexpectedly.  There was no room for Him (or his family) amongst the people for which he had come.   Rejected by those for whom He would die, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords - the spotless Lamb of God was born in a manger brought forth from the Virgin Mary.  

Immediately, as He was being wrapped in those swaddling clothes, this child began to change the world.  It would be shepherds first who would find themselves transformed by the coming of the Savior.  Angels appeared to them and awoke them from their sleep to announce that a baby had been born - a Savior, Christ the Lord.  These shepherds would hurry to the place they were told the baby would be and behold with their own eyes this blessed gift of God’s Son.    Morning would not dawn before these men would leave glorifying God and proclaiming that the Savior had been born.  These shepherds had been forever changed because Christ had been born.  His birth was changing the world before the sun had even begun to rise.

His birth is still changing the world today!  Because He came, because He bled, because He died, and because He arose again defeating death, hell and the grave today is now the day of salvation!  Because He came we can live!  Brothers and sisters let us proclaim this gift of salvation to the world as loud as we can as we celebrate this Christmas season.  There is no gift greater than the gift of salvation.  This is why Christ came - to seek and save that which was lost.  I will never forget when He found me.  I wasn’t worth finding.  I wasn’t worth loving.  I wasn’t worth saving.  But praise be to God for His love was bigger than my worthlessness, His righteousness greater than my wickedness, and His grace abundantly larger than my sins.  And when I turned to Him and turned from myself I found life – for the first time, I found life!  I wish there were words enough to describe the completeness, the wholeness that is found in Christ.   Ten years I have spent now attempting to explain this miraculous transformation offered to all who will believe and yet I have found no words worthy to explain such a marvelous mystery.  This one thing I know - Christmas changed my life. 

Thanks be to God for giving us His Son.  Thanks be to Christ for giving His life so that we too might live.  Let us rejoice!  For unto us a Savior was born!  May our hearts burst with joy and gratitude for the most gracious gift we will ever recieve and this Christmas season may all of God’s people remember that Christmas starts with Christ.  Have a blessed and merry CHRISTmas!

Recently I had a great friend and brother in the Lord, Aaron Leichner, come to me and share with me some of his concerns about a shift that I had made away from Christian apologetics.  After several weeks of prayer and meditation on the topic I saw exactly what he meant and would have to say that I couldn’t agree more. 

Let me start by saying that during the first four to five years of my Christian life (I was saved when I was 20) I spent a vast amount of time studying the evidences that separated our Christian faith from every faith in the world.  I found that without any question, in the court of law, it could be proven without a reasonable doubt that the Christian faith is based upon reliable and provable facts and evidences that cause it to surpass all other religions of this world as the only one true religion.  This is why Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life”. (John 14.6)  I will not be sharing the evidences of those facts in a simple blog post, but during those years I learned that without any need for faith at all we could still prove several things such as #1 The bible is accurate, preserved, and in tact historically, and factually #2 Jesus was a real person who lived, performed miracles, was murdered, and rose from the grave #3 The account of the global flood is a tight scientific explanation for the millions of fossils we find throughout the world #4 All “races” of people came from Adam and Eve, etc. and so on.  I spent years teaching high school youth groups, college student bible studies, and in various different settings the evidences for our faith answering the “hard” questions that critics had concerning Christianity.

After years of teaching these “proofs” and attempting to convince people of the validity of the Christian faith I came to see that proof alone was not enough.  I would see people come to a place in their knowledge whereby they could have no realistic conclusion other than to agree that the bible had to be true and Jesus had to be the Son of God (unless they just chose to stick their heads in the sand) YET they would still not believe.  I came to see that “proof” alone was not enough to cause people to be saved; that simply “proving” something was not sufficient.  This was shocking for me because I found that no matter how factual, and provable something might have been - people still refused to believe - despite the overwhelming, undeniable evidences staring them in their faces.  I began to see that without the drawing of the Holy Spirit, without God opening the eyes of our hearts - we would stay in our blindness.  Ephesians 4:18-19 states “having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” (NKJV) I saw that without the help of the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of the heart; that head knowledge would never save anybody.  I began to realize the need for prayer that God would move and open hearts to hear, to receive His Word.  We must have an awakening in our soul that only God can bring to pass.  Facts alone are not enough.

This realization began a shift in my teaching and preaching.  I began to wonder if proof had any place at all in the message of the church.  I began to see proof (because it alone wasn’t working) as rather pointless.  I began to place my trust only in the spiritual aspect, the opening of the eyes of our hearts if you will.  I used much less evidences and proofs for what I was preaching and teaching and took much more of a “just have faith” approach in the messages that I would deliver.  It was this approach that my brother questioned me about.  After weeks of prayer and thought concerning the balance between faith and facts I have come to the conclusion that it is not one or the other.  It is both.  It has to be.  We must preach and teach the evidences and the facts that demonstrate our faith BUT we must also pray, knowing, that unless God opens the eyes and the ears of the hearers of the message in their blindness they will not be able to see or hear.  We must know that even if we have done our best to provide the reasons to believe we can not stop there and think that we are done.  We must pray.  We must fast.  We must look to God to move on the hearts of people and we must trust in the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit to change lives.  It is God that changes lives.  Not facts.  However, those facts and intellectual reasons for faith are what God often uses to break down the barrier between Him and the heart of unbelief.

THE REASON FOR REASON

So what is the reason for reason?  Reason appeals to the intellect of man which is the first place we must deal with before we can ever reach the heart.  The bible is full of such examples.  Let us examine just a few. 

In Exodus 4:34-35 we read “Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him.” (NKJV)  Notice that the bases upon which these people should “know” that there is no other God besides God was not “faith” it was instead to be based upon the factual evidences that they had seen and experienced.

When Israel turned their backs on God and refused to enter the promised land (Num. 13-14) it certainly was not because they had no reason to believe.  They had been brought through the red sea.  They had been fed with manna from heaven.  They had seen the miraculous healing of the water.  Yet though they had evidences to validate a reasonable faith to trust God they chose not to trust and obey Him.  This is why the Lord would say to Moses “How long will these people reject Me And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?”  (NKJV) Again God does not say “where is your blind faith” but instead God asks the basic question why would they not believe with all of the evidence in front of them.  God appeals to the intellect of man first.  Knowing God was not simply a matter of “feelings” but instead - knowing God was based upon rock solid indisputable evidences that were plainly seen to everyone.  God had been angry with Israel, not because they couldn’t muster up enough courage to take a leap into the darkness of belief, but because they had every reason to believe and still refused.(1) ”He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.  He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand firm like a wall.  He guided them with the cloud by day and with the light from the fire all night…But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High…When the Lord heard them, he was very angry…for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance” (Ps. 78:12-17, 21-22).  God Himself appeals to the intellect of man.

The apostle Paul often included reason in his evangelism (Acts: 17:1-4; 18:4; 28:23)  Paul also commended the Christians of the Berean church because they sought to prove the teachings of Paul.   Acts 1:3 states “To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.” (NASB)  After careful examination of the scriptures one can hardly conclude that we need not know the “convincing proofs” of our faith.  The bible repeatedly uses the facts as a reason that people should believe and will be held accountable for their unbelief.  IT IS THESE PROOFS THAT MAKE THE CHRISTIAN FAITH DIFFERENT AND ABOVE ALL OTHER FAITHS.  It is the ONLY and ONE TRUE faith.  And we have the evidence to prove it.  We need to be declaring the facts of our faith from every avenue possible!

Even Jesus used reason to validate his ministry.  Speaking to his disciples in John 14:11 Jesus said “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.” (NASB)  And just before John the baptist was about to be beheaded he sent his (John’s) disciples to Jesus to ask Jesus if Jesus was indeed the Messiah.  What was the Lord’s response?  “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. (Matt. 11:4-5)  Jesus didn’t rebuke John and say to him “just believe”.  He sent back to John a testimony of convincing proofs that would answer John’s question.  In essence Jesus was saying to John: “Believe in the evidences of what I do.  For it is these facts that prove I am the Messiah.”  If Jesus himself would handle the question this way then so too should we. 

REAL faith is never a step into darkness, but rather, REAL faith is always a step into the light of a multitude of facts and evidences that leave us no reason not to believe.

WHAT ABOUT THE WORKING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?

It must be stated that proving something does not mean that people will believe.  Real faith in God can only come with the help of the Holy Spirit.   When we as the people of God attempt to spread the Gospel and lean entirely upon our ability to win an argument through better factual evidences we will never win anybody to Christ.  I learned early on in my ministry that I could win an argument and yet lose the person.  It was this realization that caused me to swing the pendulum too far in the other direction.   I began praying that God would move and open the eyes of people’s hearts without any factual reasons for them to believe.  That is not God’s plan either.  We must learn the balance between faith and facts.  There is a balance.  It is through the intellect that God breaks down the barriers that keep us from opening the eyes of our heart.  Dismissing reason and argumentation for the facts of our faith is unbiblical and will lead to a multitude of “believers” that are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. (Eph. 4.14)  These so-called Christians will live on “feelings” and “experiences” as their “personal truth” which is guaranteed to end in devastation.  The reality is that this is the type of generation of young people that are being brought up in our churches and without a strong return to the facts of our faith the church of the future will be in much danger.  However, trusting only in reason and argumentation will lead to a multitude of people who think they are saved because they “know” the facts and have no choice but to believe, yet they have never had a born again experience where the eyes of their hearts were opened and the Spirit of the Living God came to abide in them. This was the case of Nicodemus in John 3.  There are also a large handful of people in the church today that fall into this category.  Just like Nicodemus they have been convinced of the proofs and therefore have had “no choice” but to admit Jesus must have to be God, but they do not know him. (Matthew 7: 23) 

It is for this reason that we must have both reason and the illumination of the Holy Spirit that will cause reason in the mind to result in the conversion of the heart.  One without the other is meaningless.  There is a reason for reason.  We have been commanded “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matt. 22:37 NKJV)  We are incapable of fulfilling this command if we toss reason and intellect out the door of the church. 

1.  (Daniel A. Mann, CRI Christian Research Journal Vol. 32 / Num. 01)

     …And those who passed by blasphemed Him…[saying] “save Yourself, and come down from the cross!”…Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”…And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last…And the whole crowd who came together to that sight, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned.  But all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. (NKJV Mark Ch. 15 and Luke Ch. 23 compilation)

     “But all His acquaintances…stood at a distance, watching these things.”  Can you imagine being one of His disciples standing at this scene?  Can you imagine the confusion that was flooding their minds and hearts?  Can you imagine spending three years with Him, watching Him heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf- all to end like this?  To watch their master be stripped down, beaten, mocked, spit upon, crucified, and stabbed through the side with a spear, lowered from the cross, and His corpse sealed in a cold dark tomb.  It was over, or so it seemed. 

     The tragic emotions that His disciples were experiencing can hardly be understood by us who were not there.  At the cross they stood at a distance.  After the cross they would distance themselves even further.  They would hide away in a secret location in fear of losing their own lives.  Our initial reaction is to cast judgment on these men, but we were not there and only a fool would argue that he would not have done the same thing.  The reason that judgment against these men comes so easy to us is because we know something that they did not - Sunday was coming.

     While Jesus had told them that He would rise again (Mt 20:19; Mr 9:9; 14:28; Joh 2:19-22), they did not expect this.  And in the midst of this unexpected tragedy His disciples had forgotten that blessed promise from their master.  The fact that they had forgotten, however, made His promise no less true.  On the third day He did rise victorious over death, hell, and the grave proving that He was exactly who He said He was!  PRAISE THE LORD!  After two long nights that must have felt like two long years - Sunday had come.  And on this day, after His disciples would see with their own eyes the risen Lord of lords and King of kings, their lives would be changed forever.  His resurrection on that blessed Sunday would transform these men from fearful recluses to courageous martyrs who would die boldly proclaiming that He had risen from the grave.  This one Sunday would change the history of the world forever.

     Because He lives His authority and divinity are divine facts for all of humanity to rest in (Romans 1:4).  Because He lives we have forgiveness (1 Cor. 15:17).  Because He lives we have an unshakable hope (1 Cor. 15:19).  Because He lives we have justification from all of our sins (Romans 4:25).  Because He lives we too as His brothers and sisters will live (1 Thes. 4:14).  Because He lives death has been defeated (1 Cor. 15.55).  Because He lives the works of the devil have been destroyed (1 John 3:8).  Because He lives we can face tomorrow!  Because He lives all fear is gone!  Because He lives He holds the future!  Because He lives life is now worth living!  Praise God! 

    The disciples had temporarily lost sight of their hope.  Their purpose and meaning on this earth all but done away with.  And then came Sunday.  You may be in a season of life right now feeling just like the disciples did during those dark and lonely three days.  Don’t give up.  Sunday is coming.  Had those days not first come, Sunday never would have come either.  God often allows circumstances in our lives that force us to look to Him and Him alone to rescue us.  As terrible as the situation seemed to the disciples, God new all along that Sunday was just around the corner.  Thank God for that day!  We too may go through times of confusion, worry, and doubt - but we must never back down.  We must never retreat in fear.  We must learn from the resurrection that our Lord is right on time, every time, all the time and we must trust Him that ”Sunday is coming” for HE HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE!  If God is for us then who can be against us?  The resurrection of our Lord is the undeniable evidence that our God can do ALL THINGS.  He is all powerful.  He is unstoppable.  He is unbeatable and He is uncontainable.  There is nothing that He can not do.  And children of God - this risen Savior, this King of all kings, this Lord of all lords - He is on our side!  Hallelujah!  Praise the LORD! 

     One last thing about that Sunday…  Not only did it transform the disciples into the greatest evangelists this world has ever known, not only did it change history forever, not only does it provide hope for us during the trials in our lifetimes, but that blessed resurrection day is also the shadow of a day that is ahead of us when on one final day we will leave all of our troubles and all of our trials behind!  This world and all of its trouble will burn with a fervent heat and the world as we know it along with all of its heartache and pain will be destroyed!  There is coming a day when this mortal will put on immortality and we will live forever in total complete peace and joy for all of eternity!  Bless the LORD!  Sunday is coming! 

    Church of God - let us remember this Easter that we are celebrating the greatest day in the history of humanity.  During this season let us proclaim unashamedly that He has risen from the grave and HE IS LORD!  Let the Light that is in us shine in the darkness.  Let us labor while it is yet day.  Preachers - preach.  Singers - sing.  Teachers - teach.  Laymen - keep sharing that Jesus is king.  Let us win the lost with the message of the cross and the hope of the resurrection.   Sunday is coming!  Sunday is coming!  Sunday is coming!