How are you standing in life?

We are looking at some foundational issues. Examine your heart in this series on forgiveness. We have been looking at forgiveness from different aspects. We have seen that when we do not forgive, and take offence at something. That offence can trip us up, that offence can cause us to fail to see what God is doing in our lives. When we take offence, we can be trapped by the evil one and the evil one can hold us captive. We become like a caged animal lashing out at those around us and we hurt others around us. When you and I take offence at a situation, we then are tripped up. We are ensnared by the evil one. If we do not flee from offences, run to Jesus, to forgive, as we are forgiven, we can quickly become a danger to ourselves, as well as others. We can be in Eternal danger if we do not forgive others.

We are going to be looking at being free of offence. Maturity causes a Believer not to be swayed by the circumstances of this world, but to follow Jesus. Some disciples heard the word of God and fell away. We need to learn from God's word how we might stand in these difficult days.

I want us to read a passage from Matthew's gospel about some disciples, their struggles and how they became stronger.

In Matthew 16:13-28 we read: “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

When Jesus asked the disciples who the crowd said He was they answered with different answers. It was only Peter who stuck his neck out and said that Jesus was the Son of God. Peter was Holy Spirit empowered. It was the Father in Heaven who revealed this to Peter. Jesus asked questions many times to expose people's hearts. He wanted to show them what they did not even know about themselves. They could live by the opinions of others. They could think of what everybody says. They could not really grapple with heart issues. Jesus asked these questions to determine what they thought about Him and who they saw Him as really being. It was only Simon Peter who nailed his colours to the mast and said, “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God.” The Father speaking through His Holy Spirit to Simon, revealed all that he needed to know in that point of time. At that point of time, the Holy Spirit was then the source of Revelation to Peter. Peter, was a man who was seeking. He was a man who was hungry for Spiritual things. Peter was the man who was not always listening to other people but he was trying to hear what God was saying. He wanted to hear directly from God. God gifted him with a revelation of what He was revealing.

In fact, we read in 1 John 2:27, it says that: “As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit - just as it has taught you, remain in him.” In other words, when God reveals something to you that maybe differs from the world's opinions, then those opinions are to fade away. Even in your own thinking, you are to depend on what God says in His word. God's word stands as a rock in the tides of this world. We are to build our lives on what God says in His word.

I know that when I am preaching or teaching and some people simply take notes. They might end up with a lot of head knowledge. However, if they are maybe going through a hard time that head knowledge will not carry them through. It is when we listen for God's voice through what is preached. Or when we simply read the Bible and a passage in the Bible jumps out at us, then that becomes God's word to us in that context. Then we should apply what God has revealed to us. On what He has illuminated from His word, we should build our lives. That is why Psalm 119:30 says, “The unfolding of your words give light. It gives understanding to the simple.” The journey from being simple and immature is a journey to being a mature believer. A believer filled with understanding is on a journey, if they build their life on the revelation of God. Ask God: What do You say about every single issue? You should build your life on the very word of God.

Firstly, we need divine revelation. We need revelation from God. That is why in Matthew 7, Jesus compares the word of God applied, to a person who builds their life on a rock. He tells the parable of two people who build houses. One house that was built on a rock and when the storms came it stood. The other was built on the sand and it was washed away when the storms came. The opinions and the fears of this world come as a flood, so we need to hear from God. There are many things for instance, that we cannot find in the Bible. The Bible does not tell us who to marry, for instance. The Bible does not tell us of what vocation to choose. Yet God wants us to honour Him where He has called us to. When He takes His word and reveals that in our lives, His word becomes His illumination to our life. He by His Holy Spirit, illuminates His word for us, otherwise our decisions are unstable. We are building our lives on our feelings, on our circumstances and not on what God has told us.

What God tells you by His Holy Spirit, based on the word of God in the Bible, is a solid foundation. Without it, you will be washed away in the storms of life. One of the great storms that we have been looking at is the issue of offence. There are many things that we can be offended by in life. We live in an age that seems to take offence at everything and anything. Jesus calls us to forgive everything, all people, all the time and we are to be free from offence. If we are not free from offence those offences will bowl us over and knock us down.

Those offences will cause us to become unfruitful and we will be choked, worried, stressed about everything and anything in life. That is why when Jesus speaks about the seed that we read, in Mark 4, the seed that is sown on rocky places. They hear the word of God and receive it with joy. Since those seeds have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes, because of the world they are quickly offended and fall away. Notice that quickly offended. Yet 1 Corinthians 13 says, love keeps no record of wrong and is not easily angered. We are not quickly offended when we are filled with the Spirit of God and His love. However, when we are quickly offended, we can quickly fall away from what God has revealed to us. A person not rooted, that does not have their life built on a foundation of the rock of who Jesus Christ is, will be unstable and weak. They will be immature falling to the storms of offence.

Are you perhaps like one of the 11 other disciples, who are swayed by the opinions of others in the world? When Jesus asked them, who do the people say said he was. Some said Jeremiah or the prophets. Are you swayed by the opinions perhaps of preachers you hear or the quotes on Facebook? Then you only live by what people say, and not by what God has said. I know I have had some young men come to me and say they think they must go to Theological College and study for the ministry. The first question I ask them is, “Have you been called by God to go there? Has God called you to study? If you think you are going to become a rich and popular Pastor, the reality is most spiritual workers, at least the honest ones, are not rich. They are like Jesus. Living simply with nowhere to even lay their head at times.” The reality is that Jesus called us to follow Him; we are not called to wealth and power. Do not to be deceived and be a false teacher, like prosperity preachers. Jesus called us to follow Him. When I ask young man or women, “where is God's calling on your life?” If they cannot answer that, I encourage them to go back and spend a lot of time fasting and praying. It is necessary to know whether God has called them to being equipped for ministry, because theological education is a sharpening of the tool (gifts) God gives. A sharpened tool then that is a useful instrument in the hand of God. That is so important in our day and age. We need divine revelation from God. We need to know that God has asked you to do this and to persevere, even through the tough exams and the difficult assignments. We need divine revelation.

Secondly, we need deep roots in what God has said. We need deep roots in Jesus. We need to build our lives on the Rock. I have been happily married to my wife for over 31 years. However, about 10 years ago, there was a number of weeks where we went through some deep waters together. I remember thinking, “Well now I can understand why some people would even think of divorce.” It was so difficult. It was an incredibly stressful time for us. Yet, I can also remember the time when God intervened in time and space. He met us as we sat and talked together. Suddenly, there was a breakthrough. We got help from others. We would fast, pray and cry out to God, but it was God who intervened. God carried us through that. We can look back on other times when it has been difficult and God has carried us through that.

We need to remember that it is God revealing Himself to us and building our live through what he has told us about Jesus. Firstly, as our Rock and as He leads us through the particular issues of life from His word daily. God had revealed to me when I met Marianne that this was to be my wife. It was based on those clear revelations of God that carried us through that rocky patch in our life.

Now you might be saying “What happens if I got married when I was not saved.” Let me remind you of what 1 Corinthians 7:10 says: “To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.” Whether you were saved or unsaved when you got married. Remain faithful. Why? Simply because marriage is a covenant. In marriage, God takes two individuals from two different families and unites them to be one flesh. Two individuals become one. That is why divorce is so painful because it is an amputation of oneness. We are not advised to be amputated in any way. We are to settle in our hearts that God has brought us together. God has joined us together and we need to work through every offence.

Some may not have married even in the will of God. They may have been Christians but gone against the will of God. Again, we need to remember that to enter the blessing we need to turn back to God. Cry out to Him to forgive us and He will forgive us our sins. We need to settle in our hearts, two wrongs do not make a right. Rather we are to seek God's word for our marriage, whether you met your spouse before you met Christ is immaterial. Christ has joined you and now He calls you to persevere. Work through the difficulties. Forgive those things that are so quick to offend us. Be quick to forgive and slow to anger. We must be so careful to do that. We need to put deep roots into God's word.

We must not give up on marriage nor our local church. In this day and age when so many people have fallen away, we need to get back to church, love God and serve Him where he has put us. That is why in Matthew 16:18, when Jesus asked the disciples and Simon said, “You are the Christ.” It was God that revealed it to Simon. Jesus then said, “I tell you that you are Peter and, on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Notice what Jesus says then. Jesus renames Simon (which means to hear) to Peter, (which means stone or rock). He says to Peter, you have received the word of God, now build your life on that truth that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus can help you. Jesus who died on the cross can save us for eternity and from every difficult circumstance in this life. Jesus can help us through all the offensive issues of life. We need to put deep roots into Jesus, into good soil, into the very word of God. We need deep roots.

Thirdly, we need to see that there is, the possibility of dangerous reason. We have seen it particularly in Matthew 16:21-23 in this passage, where presumptuous Peter steps forward when Jesus said that he was going to Jerusalem. Peter said, “Never Lord.” Using his mind again and not what God had revealed to him. Peter uses his reason to debate with Jesus. It is as foolish as the apprentice arguing with the managing director of a company. It is as foolish as a prisoner in prison debating with the State President in Pretoria. It is not the way we are to address the Lord who has revealed Himself to Peter and to us as the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Being immature as a Christian causes us to stumble. Jesus says put down deep roots and mature. He wants us to be mature as a Christian and to know Him personally. To know Him on His terms not our own terms.

Now Peter partially understood this revelation that Jesus was the Messiah. He used his mind and he wrestled with the fact that following Jesus includes hardship. We are to go through the storms of life and not collapse in a heap. Just as a little child, for instance, in school, wonders, why they must leave the playground and go into the classroom, sit in a desk, do tests, grow and go through 12 years of schooling and then maybe further study. Why all of that? It is to mature their child and in the same way, Jesus is taking us through the school of life and into the university of life. He wants us to be mature, to grow up and not to take offence at little things or even big things. We need to keep forgiving as we have been forgiven by Jesus. We must not force Jesus into our own understanding. We need to realize that there is dangerous reason. It is not that we throw our mind out the window, but that we take God's word as it stands. We wrestle with God's word and apply it to our lives. Although Peter's rebuke seemed appropriate in the context. “O Jesus, do not die for us.” Jesus identified that it was even the evil one himself trying to use Peter to become a stumbling stone. A stone in the path that would cause Jesus to go off the plan that God the Father had set for him. Peter, the stone, was now in danger of becoming a stumbling block.

We are called to go back to what God has said. That is why it is so easy to take offence at Jesus. We can look at Jesus and be offended by Him. I have seen people turn their back on Jesus. I wonder how they can do that. Yet, Jesus warned us it would happen. In the parable of the sower, we see it. Also in the time when Jesus walked here on Earth. Some disciples wanted to go back. No, fix your eyes on Jesus and do what He said, “Follow me.”

We see Jesus saying some hard things. For instance, when He rebuked the Pharisees. Some of them became full of hate and took offence at Jesus. That statement in John 6:53 about eating Jesus flesh and drinking His blood, caused offence, it says the people fell away. On hearing this it says in John 6:60-61, “many of his disciples said: “This is a hard teaching, how can accept it?” Aware that His disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, does this offend you?” Are you offended by Jesus and the things He says? Ask Him not only to save you but to ask Him to help you to trust His word to you.

Notice that Jesus does not retract His statement. Jesus does not say, “I am sorry. I should not have said it that way.” No, Jesus confronts His disciples. He even ask them if they are going to leave? Of course Peter in verse, John 6:60 says, well, who do we go to? There is no one else in this universe that can save us. The word of God means that we depend on Jesus 100%. We are not swayed by opinions. We need to depend entirely on Jesus. We then realize that offences build up. They build up to the point that that many of the disciples them left Him. They may have felt deceived, or mistreated, but they were not. The reality is that they did not hear God's voice in Jesus. They did not realize that it was God Himself walking among us. We have beheld His glory. The glory of the only begotten Son of God. Full of grace and truth. They did not seek that truth, for their eyes were focused on their own selfish desires. When Jesus asked the disciples, they remained faithful. They did so because, like Peter, they built their life on Jesus.

The question is, when you go through a hard time, do they reveal cracks in your life? Do you know that God allows trials to reveal what is in your heart? These tests that come our way basically show us, our hearts just like tests at school show us, what we really know about the subject. Is your life built on the rock? Is your life taking deep roots in the word of God? Can you stand in all the storms of life? This message is really asking you simply on whom are you building your life? Are you trusting in Jesus Christ alone to save you? Is all of you depending on Him and what He has revealed to you in His word or is it something you read or heard somewhere else? Are you depending on Jesus and Jesus alone because the storms will come? This Covid-19 crisis of the last three years has rocked the world. Has it rocked your faith? Have you given up perhaps, or are you tempted even now to give up, Are there great big cracks showing in your life?

Today you need to run to Jesus. You need to ask Him to strengthen you again. To build your life on God’s revealed word to you. To be an overcomer in this world you need to build your life on Jesus, The Rock. That is why you need divine revelation where God reveals Himself to you, even through the Bible as you read it. Through the message that you are reading now. Do not only hear it, but apply it. Put down deep roots and you live the word of God, Be careful of dangerous reason. It is not by reason that you are saved but by grace, through faith, in Jesus Christ alone that will save you. It is Jesus who is God, who can save you. Trust Him. Put your faith in Him and put down deep roots in Jesus Christ. If you want to be an overcomer and stand in the storms of life. You need to build your life on Jesus Christ, the Rock.

Let us pray together. O Lord Jesus thank you, for coming into this world and showing us how to live our lives. How to build our lives on You. On what you have revealed to us in your word. Lord Jesus, help us now. For some of us we need to examine the cracks and turn back to You. Be careful of our own thinking. Of our own insights and depending on our own wisdom but help us to depend fully on You. Help us to do that Lord Jesus. For others, we need to cry out to You and say, “Jesus save me.” Help me to build my life now with as You the rock. To put down deep roots into the good soil of Your word and to be nourished with what You say to me. What you say, not what people say, not other people's opinions. Help us to be grounded in You and to stand in the storms of life. O Lord Jesus help us in this we pray. Hear our prayer. In Your powerful name we pray this, the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Well may God bless you as you build your life on Jesus Christ and what He tells you in His word and all then to His glory, amen.