VBS 2017 – Maker Fun Factory
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What’s In Your Heart
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Guest Speaker: Pastor Maurice Lassiter
What’s In Your Heart?
Luke 6:43-45
For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speak…what’s in your heart?
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Big Prayers—Big Peace
6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6–7)
Throughout the day we need little arrow prayers—quick prayers in the car, in the office, in the kitchen. When we “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), this connects us to the Lord in sweet communion. But these quick-fire prayers, though important, don’t yield the deepest peace.
Nor does ritual praying. Mindless repetition is unbiblical and won’t bring you peace. Little prayers yield little peace. Big prayers yield big peace.
Here’s a practical checklist: fervent prayer, by yourself, out loud, kneeling down, with a list. If you pray like that for five or ten minutes, a river of peace will rush down the parched canyon of your anxiety. Peace is coming like a flood to a person praying fervently to the Lord.
The enemy of your peace is anxiety. If you are living crippled by anxiety, that suggests your prayer life could use some focused improvement. Review the past month of your life. Have you been fretting over some things? Fearful? Anxious? Worried? No doubt, those feelings increased as you moved further and further from your last, fervent prayer time with God.
On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your prayerfulness over the past month? Ten means you’re rocking your world several times a day with faith-filled, awesome prayer. Zero means . . . zero. A prayer vacuum in your life. Perhaps you can’t even recall the last time you knelt down and prayed out loud fervently with a list.
On the same scale of one to ten, rate your anxiety level. Zero means you are calm. Nothing deeply divides you. Though bad things happen to you, they don’t rob you of peace. Ten equates to frequently freaking out, crippled by dividing cares—no peace.
Now notice the correlation. The lower your score in prayer, the higher your score in anxiety. The higher your score in prayer, the lower your score in anxiety. Where fervent prayer abounds, peace abounds.
If you want to lower your score in anxiety, the solution is to raise your score in prayer. This isn’t a mystery. It’s not a function of personality, as if some people are natural pray-ers and others missed out on that gene. Philippians 4:6 clearly links anxiety and prayer. “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” When anxiety goes up, up, up, you must pray it back down. Start by reviewing what you know to be true about God and His faithfulness.
Go in a room by yourself, shut the door, pray out loud fervently with a list, and begin to thank God. Thank Him for who He is, all He has done in your life, the ways you’ve seen Him provide, and His personal, intimate care for you.
When you pray “with thanksgiving” and review God’s résumé of faithfulness, you become more aware of who He has been and will continue to be. In light of His faithfulness, your anxiety will minimize and your problems will shrink into perspective.
It’s a holy exchange—anxiety for peace, through prayer. Available for you today.
Light My Way
105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
106 I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.
107 I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O Lord, according unto thy word. (Psalm 119:105–107).
What is God’s will for my life? Am I even on the right path? When I come to a fork in the road, which choice should I make?
This is how so many of us feel about God’s will: confused. We want clarity; we feel confusion. The good news is that God doesn’t leave us in the dark. Not only does He give us a path, but He also provides a lamp to light the way. All in favor of light? Then consider these three, absolutely guaranteed, path-proven guidelines to walking in the light of God’s will.
First, find God’s will in His Word. According to Psalm 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” The Bible lights up your path so you can navigate the way forward.
When you are uncertain or feel like you’re in a dark place, turn on the light of God’s Word. Make it your daily practice to read the Bible so that you’re not just reading random snippets but beginning to know where to find the answers. Keep a list of particular passages that have given you direction. The Scriptures help you see where your feet are standing and where the path leads. God may not show you miles ahead on the path, but He’ll show you the next step.
Second, seek godly counsel. Your second source of light is advice from wise Christians. Proverbs 12:15 teaches, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.”Too often we’re tempted to think, I don’t want anyone’s input! I already know what I want to do. If I ask for advice, someone might tell me my plan is a bad idea. The foolish person doesn’t seek or listen to counsel from others before making an important decision. Don’t be indecisive—or decisive on your own.
Who are the wise, trustworthy advisers in your life? Who are the solid Christians who want what’s best for you? Who cares more about what God wants for you than what you selfishly want? Advisers don’t coddle you; they coach you.
Third, follow the Spirit of God. Jesus didn’t leave us here as orphans. He gave us the Holy Spirit to be with us forever (John 14:16–18). He’s working on us and in us! “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13). Many people claim to want the Holy Spirit’s guidance, but they skip steps 1 and 2. They don’t fill their souls with God’s Word, and they don’t seek godly counsel. Yet these are the very tools the Spirit of God uses to guide us.
If you don’t fill up on the Word and wise counsel, then you’re not giving the Spirit much to work with. You’re left with only a subjective sense of “the-Lord- told-me- to-do- this.” God will never tell you to do something contrary to His Word or counter to true, godly wisdom. If you insist on deciding against God’s Word and wise counsel, then the results will be entirely your own fault.
Together, these three guidelines provide a powerful decision-making grid. Start with Scripture. Include wise counsel. Rely on God’s Spirit. Then you’ll know your feet are on God’s path, and He will light your way.
Directed Paths
5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Christians don’t generally set out to doubt God. For most of us, life’s pain simply catches us off guard. Doubt is like a wrecking ball, pounding against the foundation of your life—what you believe about God. However, doubts should drive us back to God’s promises, not cause us to back away from Him! When you say, “I don’t know exactly what God is doing, but I know He’s in control,” that’s evidence you’re trusting Him. When life slams you, you need something to wrap your faith around, like Proverbs 3:5–6.
This is life verse material, one of the most cherished promises in the Bible. Let’s take it a phrase at a time.
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart” is obviously an exhortation to turn from doubt. When you trust God with all your heart, you’re making a deliberate choice not to let unbelief trample all over your soul. You’re choosing to walk by faith with both feet—and with your heart!
“ . . . and lean not unto thine own understanding.” You can’t trust God wholeheartedly if you’re also depending on your own understanding. When a crisis hits, do you lean on your own resources and know-how? Is your confidence rooted in your own ability to get out of tight spots? Are you self-reliant or God-dependent?
If your trust in God is limited by your understanding of His ways, then you will always have a limited trust. You’re not going anywhere good if you doubt God’s Word and lean on only what you can see or figure out.
Instead, “In all thy ways acknowledge him.” In every choice, recognize God and factor in His participation. You might be able to fix that situation or relationship by yourself, but you don’t just want to get through it; you want to honor God in it. If you want to please Him, then in all your ways, put Him first.
Let’s take a practice run at this. Suppose you run into financial problems: job loss, rotten investment, blizzard of bills, rising cost of living. Maybe things are getting so tight that you don’t know how you’re going to make ends meet. How do you respond?
If you lean on your own understanding, you say, “Austerity measures! Tighten the belts. No more money to charity. We can’t sponsor our little Worldvision child anymore; she’s going to have to take care of herself. No more juice boxes in the kids’ lunches; they can drink from the water fountain. We’re not giving to the church anymore; they seem to be doing fine.” While it’s wise to spend carefully, if your plan is to just gut it out, then you’re leaning on your own understanding.
If you trust in God wholeheartedly, you say, “We’re going to keep our commitments, including our tithe. We’re choosing to believe that 90 percent with God’s help is actually more than 100 percent if we’re on our own. We can’t get out of this tight spot without God, so we are going to put Him first, acknowledge He’s right here with us, and trust Him to come through.” (If you still feel squeamish about that, read Malachi 3:10.)
“And he shall direct thy paths.” This is a conditional promise. You have to do something. Your part is to trust in, acknowledge, and lean on God; His part is to make your paths smooth and passable.
Every person faces bumps in the road. Imagine driving on a gravel path pocked with potholes and speed bumps in a dangerously overloaded vehicle. Down with living like that! For the one who trusts God as Proverbs 3:5–6 describes, God will level the ground, giving you the safest, fastest, smoothest path.
The Warrior Mind-set
1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; 2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. (1 Peter 4:1–2).
Suffering will come. “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (2 Timothy 3:12). All will be persecuted? Yes, all.
Because God loves us, He warns us that pain is coming so we aren’t blindsided by it. If you’re driving down the freeway, a car cuts in front of you, and you see a collision coming, you brace yourself. If you stumble down a flight of stairs, you instinctively throw out your hands to break the fall. God’s Word repeatedly, lovingly warns us that suffering is God’s number one tool for chiseling our character so that we have realistic expectations and can brace ourselves for what’s to come.
Since suffering is coming (or for some of us, is already here), we also need to know what to do, and God’s Word gives us practical advice. It begins with the right mind-set. “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind” (1 Peter 4:1). How did Jesus think like this? From the moment His ministry began, He knew where it would end. At the right time, He turned His face to Jerusalem, knowing exactly what awaited Him there. He chose the cross. He willed Himself to be our sacrifice.
We need to arm ourselves with the same mentality. Rather than scratching our heads, wondering why we’re going through hard times, we should be thinking, I’m one of God’s children, so I’m not surprised by suffering. God has this planned for me, so I’m staying under it. With God, I’m going to get through this.
Along with these realistic expectations, we also need to guard our behavior. Often when we’re going through difficult times, we are more vulnerable to sin. We stand at a crossroads and either get bitter or get better. Either we move forward/upward, or we drift backward/downward. Trials present a watershed moment.
During a time of real hardship, you become a target. Peter warns, “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” (1 Peter 5:8b). Satan sees God’s children going through hardship, and he’s waiting for an opportune time to pounce. What God allows for your good, Satan wants to twist into evil. Sin that hasn’t tempted you for a long time can crush you during a trial, when all your energy and resources are directed toward surviving. That’s when Satan rushes you. You can find yourself falling into patterns you thought were gone forever. An unsuspecting person might lament, I thought I’d never touch that bottle again, but here it is, empty. Satan wants to shame you and make you think you haven’t made any progress at all. But as a blood-bought son or daughter of the living God, you were chosen for something better!
Arm yourself for the onslaught. Guard your behavior “That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.” (4:2). We only have a few more years, if that. We’re in a free fall. Life is short, fleeting, like a vapor—gone. God forgive us for the months and years we’ve spent with our pleasure at the top of our agenda. What a shallow existence! Instead of pursuing personal passions, go hard after the will of God in your life. It’s not the hardship but your response to it that really matters.
Though temptation to sin can sometimes be heightened in trials, suffering can also make you more focused in your walk with Christ. Pain in one area can sensitize you to other parts of your life. Suffering teaches you in new ways that life isn’t a series of random, unrelated events; it’s all connected. As you formulate urgent prayer requests, you examine your life for anything that would prevent you from being heard. You might ask, “God, what do You see in my life that needs to be dealt with? Anything I need to get right with You about? Have I been ignoring You about something?” You get the mind-set of a warrior, not wanting to carry anything extra into the battle. “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” (2 Timothy 2:3). Arm yourself like a warrior.