The Beauty Of Grace

The Enemy Of Self Effort

July 30, 2020 Dr. Pete Norris Season 6
The Beauty Of Grace
The Enemy Of Self Effort
Show Notes Transcript
Speaker 1:

Welcome to today's program. The beauty of grace, I'm pastor Pete Norris of harvest fellowship, church, Goldsboro, North Carolina. And today I want to talk to you about the enemy of self effort. You know, so many times in our life we're told to do, we're told to do. We're told to do, you know, most of us guys grew up believing that if you don't work, you don't earn don't live. And if you don't work, you don't deserve to eat. And if you don't look after your family, then you're worse than the infidel. And we take a lot of scriptures and we, and we twist them. And, and I remember when I got born again, some 30, something years ago, the first thing I was told by the pastor was, you know, you need to get in church. You need to read your Bible. You need to pray. You need to get involved and you need to tie. Then you need to get on some groups. And so we want to get you involved and get you in Sunday school. We want to teach you some things we want you to study on your own. Matter of fact, what the church told me 35 years ago. So I want you to go to work brother. And if he can't work around the church, then we really don't need you. And I understand it, all the reading, the Bible, praying and fasting and doing all those things are absolutely the right thing to be doing. But we do them a lot of times now out of works, instead of doing them out of get to, we put a little demand on it and it's got to, you know, yeah, you got to join the church. You got to pray. You got to read BIBLE, you got to FAST. How many of you, pastors? And people tell everybody that, that you got to do these things because you know, man, that the body needs you. And, and it's, it's about working for the father. It's about being, it's about being on the call and, and he that puts us into the plow and looks back. He's not fit for the kingdom. And, and we take all these scriptures and we put people in pure bondage with enemy of self effort. You know, it's about your works. If you miss it. My goodness, people every day are so sick and tired of church and religion because they try to do the best they can. And when they fail, they come and talk to people. And the first thing they tell them, well, if you were living right, if you'd pray enough, you'd fast enough. You wouldn't, you wouldn't stumble. They don't tell them that they are. They do have a, a nature. And, and that they, they do have the old mindset and they do have the same desires. It's as you begin to study the word of God that you begin to change and be transformed. That's the enemy of self effort. But look at first John chapter one, verse seven, and it says this, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleansed us from all sin. Now it's not how we walk in our relationship, but it's where we walk. The only place you can carry, what you did is in your mind. My part is to believe what's already been done for me. Now, if I look at Colossians chapter one and 12 through 14, it says giving thanks to the father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed or translated us into the kingdom of his son, of his love in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins. So we see here that as we begin to read verse 12, it says in the light, now we got it. We got to understand something right here, because the word meat in the actual text here is saying that we're able, we're not able to walk in the light. We are qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance, the saints in the light. So what he's done is he's made us heirs and we're joint heirs with Christ Jesus. So we're no longer servants. I hear people say all the time, we need to serve the Lord. That's not what he's looking for. Jesus said, I didn't come into the world to be served, but I come to serve. Now I know I'm coming with a little bit different perspective than what you're hearing a lot of times today, but the message of grace has taken works out of it. That doesn't mean you sit back and do nothing. That means you just sit and what the voice of the Lord tells you. That's the thing that you do because the Bible says in Romans chapter eight, verse 17, if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer him, we say also be glorified together. Now love Galatians four and seven. Therefore you're no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son then you're the heir of God through Christ. Now isn't that wonderful to know that we're sons now we're not service. We don't get rewards based on what we do. Right? We get rewards based on what he's done right now. That's the wonderful thing about this message because we read Ephesians chapter one, verse 11 in him. Also, we have obtained an inheritance being predestined, according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. So we know that God's got a plan for our lives. God's got a good plan for our lives and he's predestined us according to the purpose of him, because the Bible said, the steps of a righteous man has been ordered by the Lord. So the steps that you and I are taking have been ordered by the Lord. So God's got a perfect and a generous plan for you. He didn't plan you to struggle. He didn't plan for you to be in darkness. He didn't plan for you to be in perfect. It's not depending on what you do. It's based on what he did. He presented you perfect before the Lord with one offer. And he's ever perfected according to Hebrews chapter 10, verse 14, he's forever perfected us and see that's the wonderful thing about getting away from self ever, getting away from works and learning to rest in the finished work of Christ and enjoying that finish work and enjoying the love of that finished work and just enjoying your father, not in a relationship that you, that he's going to be mad at. You he's going to be angry at you. I want you to understand something. God is not mad with you. He's not angry with you. He didn't cause COVID-19, he is not upset with you. He is not trying to get judgment on the earth. All the judgment was placed on his son, Jesus, and you and I are free in the righteousness and love and compassion of the mercy of Jesus Christ. And that's the great thing about what he wants to do in our lives. He wants to allow us to be who we are in him and allow him to flow through our lives. That is the enemy of self effort you trying to work, work, work. Do do, do you, you do more. It's amazing. You know, you read your Bible, you an hour of the day, you'll meet somebody reads it three hours. First thing will happen. You'll be thrown right back into condemnation to get what I I've tried. And I can't get past this. And so many times we live in that. And if we could just enjoy therighteousness of who we are, we could enjoy the beauty of grace.