We’re in part 2 of a word of encouragement from the Lord for those of us bold enough to admit we’re insecure. God has a Secure place for us. We learned in Part 1 that we can each declare that “I Praise God; For Choosing Me to Love ; For Bringing Me Home and For Accepting Me As I Was.”

I Praise God

Eph 1:6 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

We praise God because that is what Paul did in this 3rd verse..the first word “Blessed“ means (blessed, or praised); therefore we praise God by calling Him Blessed.

WHO: We are praising the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus our savior and redeemer. Praising the God of Jesus and of me. His role as God is powerful and humbling to me because I don’t feel that I’m worthy to be in the presence of such royalty; a King of all Kings. The word used for God in this verse is actually theos; (of uncertain affinity; a deity, especially the supreme Divinity, a magistrate). It this powerful position that immediately feeds into my insecurities. However, we’re also praising the Father of Jesus Christ. This Loving, understanding and gracious Daddy who intimately loves Jesus also intimately loves me melting all of that insecurity in His loving Fatherly arms. It’s the most secure we will ever feel because any insecurity is engulfed by Daddy’s abundant love. We become saturated in an undeserved far reaching love.

WHAT: God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. It says that He blesses us right?? No, it specifically says that He does not just bless us, but God blesses us with every spiritual blessing. Try to comprehend this, spiritual is the word (pneumatikos) which means: non-carnal or (divinely) supernatural, it’s not common but well beyond natural (powerful, plentiful and always present). So let me remind you that God chooses to over abundantly bless and empower us with super powerful and amazing things, and with every single one of them.

WHERE: He blesses us in the heavenly places in Christ. God blesses us in the heavenly places; which is very literal God blessed us in heaven (above the sky; celestial, in heaven(-ly). There’s quite a bit of blessing for us located in heaven, see for yourself:

Matt 5:12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. Col 1:5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel. Phil 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The reason it is laid up for us in heaven is because God wants His will to show up here on earth as it is in heaven. Matt 6:10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You see when He stores it in heaven it cannot be stolen, contaminated or tampered with by the enemy. The easiest way to access these blessings is to dwell in the secret place of the Most High, which is in the heavenly places. I have not even touched on the most important location: in Christ. But really that says everything!!

Eph 1:3-6 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

So recently I gave God something.I know what you’re saying, “what can you possibly give to God?”The truth is there is a significant amount of things we can give to God…our lives/hearts (devotion); our praise/worship (admiration); our service (dedication); our tithes (dollars) and our titles (identity).God really does want us to give (willingly surrender) these things to Him.However, even more than these God really wants us to give (willingly surrender) our hurts (pain); our flaws (imperfections); our discouragements (depression); our sin (shortcomings); and what I gave Him this weekend my insecurities (lies we tell ourselves).When we give these to God; We exchange this weight (heavy load) for His rest (refreshing).

So Eph 1:3-6 are a few verses that Holy Spirit led me to as an exchange for my heavy load.What He helped me see is a declaration I can make daily to help me overcome these lies the devil keeps yelling in my ears.I Praise God; For Choosing Me to Love ; For Bringing Me Home and For Accepting Me As I Was.

1. I Praise God: 3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
2. For Choosing Me to Love:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
3. For Bringing Me Home: 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
4. For Accepting Me As Was: 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

As I consistently declare this we will dig into each part a little deeper into each verse to break down the lies even further.

OK I love music and always have. I’m a sucker for great lyrics and I used to dabble in attempting to write songs back in the day…..way back in the day. I was listening to music tonight and the oddest thing happened (it’s not uncommon for me), while listing to a popular artist I got a message that I wanted to share. The prophet Mike Jackson once penned the words: “You rocked my world; you know you did; And everything I own I give; The rarest love who’d think I’d find; Someone like you to call mine.” That is from one of his many number one hits called “You Rock My World.” The premise is obviously about his encounter with a young woman; however, for this message I want to talk to you about having an encounter with “The Rock (and not Dwayne Johnson).” David shared something with us after overcoming a difficult time in his life that “rocked my world” today, I hope you enjoy.

2 Sam 22:1 “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; The God of my strength, in whom I will trust;

2 Sam 22:47 “The LORD lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let God be exalted, The Rock of my salvation!
&
Psalm 18:46 The LORD lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let the God of my salvation be exalted.

David is extremely grateful, and he is praising the LORD because the LORD has delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, including Saul. David’s been through tremendously hard and terrifying times and the LORD came to his rescue. This truly “Rocked” his world, changing everything in his life and the LORD has done the same for us:

David Declared:

1. The LORD lives!: Are we sure that David was not around in the New Testament; because this is a today praise if I’ve ever heard it. We proclaim the resurrection of Jesus TODAY as a reminder of his loving sacrifice and His shed blood that redeems us. Because the LORD lives “our lives are worth living” and our futures are made new. Because we know that The LORD lives! we know that we were once sentenced to a horrific death but now we have eternal life (Jn 3:16).
   
2. Blessed be my Rock!: Here is where David gets me. He praised God as his Rock. The word Rock used in this verse in Hebrew (ṣûr) means a compressed stone; a large boulder, but you see it also means Strength and Refuge. David’s Rock was his Refuge (shelter and safety) and Strength (physical strength and power). Then David also personalized it; “My Rock.” David acknowledged that his shelter and power was found outside of himself. We need to understand that Jesus is our Rock (Strength and Safety). But David didn’t stop there, he personalized this relationship (my Rock!). David understood the capacity of the Lord was great, but that the LORD cared about David personally. Jesus has a “You” agenda, He has a plan, position and purpose individually crafted for you. Jesus’ Mark Harris agenda is detailed and laid out specifically for me, my needs, my gifts, my strengths, my shortcomings, my weaknesses; it’s tailored to me and me alone. The God of the universe is all up in my business and that has “Rocked My World.” To know that He cares for me, has plans for me and desires to bring them to past has changed my life and should change yours too. Let the LORD become “my Rock!” for you.
   
3. The Rock of my salvation!: David also realized that the same pier and strength of his Rock was Al’s where his Salvation lies.  Salvation in Hebrew means liberty, deliverance, prosperity; it is true freedom. The LORD not only wants to be your Protection and Power, but He has soooooo much for us to receive from Him; there’s benefits to having the LORD be “my Rock!:” [Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits (Ps 103:2)].  my Rock! Gives us so many benefits, in Hebrew the word means treatment, service/have served recompense (make a mends) and reward.  So as a part of His benefits, Jesus gives us special treatment, He serves us rewards and makes a mends for those who have wronged us.  If that along doesn’t “Rock Your World,” I’m not sure what will.  Along with His Strength and Refuge Jesus gives us His special benefits.

Michael Jackson proclaimed, “You rocked my world; you know you did; And everything I own I give; The rarest love who’d think I’d find; Someone like you to call mine;” while David declared that “the LORD Lives, is my Rock and my Salvation.”  Both statements have significant relevance to me…. Because The LORD Jesus Lives; He’s Rocked my World and He knew that He would; and now because He is my Rock and Salvation everything I own I give for the rarest love I’d ever fine. Jesus My Rock is the LORD I call Mine…..

In scripture after scripture following Jesus’ resurrection, we see some of the most passionate disciples of Christ fail to believe Jesus was indeed alive. I think at times we get a bit “bold in the faith,” as we condemn the “weakness” of the disciples back in that day because they had Jesus with them and at times would not believe. We often assume how much easier it should have been in those days since they had the Anointed One in their actual presence. Yet we discount the impact of the numerous years we have with this huge Bible; having all of the stories from the Prophets and Apostles with their first hand knowledge of Christ, that we have to ability to refer to regularly. However, I offer this “It difficult to believe and even more when you’ve been hurt/heartbroken.”

John 20:29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Following Jesus’ death on the Cross; the disciples were scattered. Their world’s had just been turned upside down. And now their refuge; protection; power and security had been dramatically taken away. The very thing they’d believed was being crucified, like a criminal. So yes everything they knew had seemingly become a lie. Even Thomas, who was one of Jesus’ closest followers; at one point even ready to die for Jesus; found himself here at this very scenario, where he would need to see Jesus’ nail pierced hands and feet before he could even entertain the possibility of Jesus returning from the dead. Why do we still attempt to clown Thomas till this day, when if we’d be honest struggle with the very same things that those disciples struggled with back then.

Therefore, their first obstacle of believing in Christ Resurrected was:

1. They Believed Wrong: Many of the disciples believed that Jesus had come to earth to become the new and physical King. He was to replace the natural order they were under at the time. The disciples believed that very soon he was going to take over the current kingdom they were living under, they assumed that Jesus would slowly begin taking over the local synagogues; the High Priest, eventually the governorship, then ultimately kingship. However, God’s plan and Kingdom were always going to be different. We have to be on the same page of Jesus and not put our plans above His. Sometimes we believe that things should go a certain way. We think God’s plan works together for our comfort and our prosperity; but it works out for what God believes is good for us, according to His plan and not ours. If these plans are not aligned (and they are not always) then we will definitely have some grieving to do, when God’s plan prevails. Stay close to Him, His Word, His direction; you will not always get it right but it will be pretty close.

2. They Didn’t Trust the Unseen: Jesus was crucified just a few days prior and even though at times Jesus had been seen by so many (1 Cor 15:6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once), there was not way to fathom what they’d just witnessed. They had never seen someone so powerful and so close executed in this manner, like a criminal. And they definitely had not seen such a death be overcome. I mean they had definitely been up close and personal to Jesus resurrecting others back to life, but of course this seemed different. They were unable to resonate with the very person/power that raised Lazarus; Jairus’ daughter and the widow’s son back to life, needing the same miracle. They wouldn’t allow themselves to trust or believe in something they had never physically seen; someone killed so gruesomely; someone not dying a natural death; someone not so very close and essential to them dying…yet rising again. Because they had not seen it, made it very difficult to process the possibility.

3. They Were Afraid to Believe Again: Luke’s Gospel tells us that “Luke 24:37-38 But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts?“ The disciples were terrified and frightened, even though Jesus Himself was speaking to them. There is one thing to be devastated, heartbroken and/or utterly disappointed. But to enter again into a situation that could potentially produce the exact same outcome…that is more difficult than you can imagine, yet every single individual Jesus showed Himself to was immediately put into that situation. Will I sign up for all of this again? If I don’t believe what I’m seeing or hearing then I will not subject myself to it again. However, if I say yes…it starts all over again. It was risky but worth it. They were being vulnerable with someone worth the vulnerability.

Are you willing to believe Jesus again? Will you align your beliefs with God’s Word? Are you willing to believe for something you’ve never seen before? Can you push past the fear of being hurt again to believe Jesus is worth the risk? If you can honestly say yes to these then you can expect to see mighty miracles in 2023……

Jn 16:8 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

God created a plan for all of humanity when He created man. We don’t know His ways, but we do know His heart for us and it is to love and spend eternity with us. Yet for ages man has been confused about what the roles of the Trinity are. Like many of us feel about those that we love, the disciples did not want to face the reality of Jesus leaving them to return to God the Father. So in order to comfort them, Jesus shared a portion of God’s great plan for us. Today I want to talk about what Jesus declared as part of the Holy Spirit’s purpose on earth was to be.

He convicts the World: (Sin) And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me.  Jesus specifically calls out the world in this part of the text.  They are the only group that the Holy Spirit convicts for their sin.  He does it to remind them of their need for a Savior.  His desire is that all of humanity be saved (Jn 3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved); so He convicts to give every possible opportunity for His salvation.  
Now I hear you saying well why do often feel convicted when I sin?  I know that I’m saved.  I commit to you the devil’s conniving ways (2 Cor 11:14); he will seem like an Angel of light, but utter lies and confusion.  He will speak as if he’s a still small voice yet his words will contradict God’s Word.  Let’s go further.  

He convicts (US) the Believer: (Righteousness) And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: ……of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more.  Here Jesus is talking directly to us, as believers as He reminds us of God’s plan (because I go to My Father and you see Me no more); He has to ascend to the Throne of God, He’s always talked about His Father and now it was time to return. Yet for Him to return it meant that His mission was completed (Phil 2:1-11) and He did it with such dignity and grace.
The Holy Spirit is not convicting us of Sin because our Sin has already been addressed (Jn 3:16 , Rom 5:8), but He convicts us of His Righteousness (2 Cor 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him). His Righteousness and not ours because our righteousness is filthy (Isa 64:6).  So the Holy Spirit wants to make sure that we: He convicts us to walk in His righteousness (Rom 8:1-5), to know that we are righteous (Gal 2:20-21) and to move away from dwelling in our shortcomings and failures (Rom 6:12-14), but to dwell on His Righteousness (Phil 4:8).  

He convicts the Devil: (Judgement) And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: ……of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.  The Holy Spirit judges the Devil and him alone.  He is not judging us (Rom 8:1There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…) or even those who don’t know him.  However, all of those who align themselves with the devil subject themselves to the same judgment from God.  We as believers, can be fooled to believe that we are being judged when something does not go our way, but Jesus took on all of our Judgment and more on the Cross so we would not have to.  
God is a just God and does not believe in “double jeopardy.”  Just like in our court system, we cannot be judged for the same crime twice.  For if we could be judged for our sin again, it would render Jesus’ sacrifice void.  And we know better than that; His sacrifice was once and for all, now He’s at the right hand of the Father (where He’s made room for us; Gal 3:1).  

So one weekend back on college, my best friend and I were driving back to school, trying to make our midnight curfew (military service academy; henceforth the curfew). Like I said it was back I College so the car I was driving was not in the best shape and I was having a fuel filter problem. The car stopped on the side of the road, my friend and I were exhausted from all of the fun we’d had that weekend so with the car not working properly, no money to call for roadside assistance, no AAA or any real since of help coming, we did what any students would do. We said Lord help us and we both fell asleep, maybe we’d wake up and it would have been a dream 😀.

All of a sudden we were both startled by a knock on the window. This was a major interstate (I-95 N), so the likelihood someone would just pull over to help us was very unlikely. Yet this smiling older gentleman said “Is everything alright?” I said “we were just having some car trouble.” The gentleman then said these words; “Everything is fine now; you’ll be fine.” That’s it!!! He didn’t give us any help with the car; didn’t diagnose the problem. He simply got into his car and drove off. My friend and I looked at each other laughing, we then looked ahead to see what type of car the man was driving and could not see anything; it was as if he disappeared into the evening sun. I then turned the key without much expectation; the car not only started, but we drove the remaining 5 hours or so back to school without any issues. God had answered our halfhearted prayer by sending this mysterious man to speak a word to us.

Why this story? Because that old man seemed to just be “Caught Away,” or taken away. That would not be the only time this type of situation had happened to me in my life; but when reading Acts recently, this was brought to mind:

Acts 8:38 So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.

Here we find such an event in scripture (one of several such events) with the explanation for our car trouble situation. It’s was not happenstance; it was the Holy Spirit.

In this text we see the end of a Holy Spirit interaction. This Ethiopian leader was on his way home after worshipping in Jerusalem. When the Holy Spirit told Phillip Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza (Acts 8:26).” When Philip arrived, he found the Ethiopian seeking to understand scripture. Phillip led him to Christ, then baptized him. And Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more. The minute Phillip’s assignment was completed, he was caught away, by the Holy Spirit.

We should never be surprised when God sends His angles to assist us in our times of need. The Ethiopian man needed Christ and Phillip was sent to make the introduction. Yet following Philip baptizing the Eunuch, the man saw him no more. Once the “old smiling man” gave me and my fried a comforting Word, we saw him no more. When you’re in your time of need the Spirit of the Lord will send help (Psalm 121:1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills; From whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth). We are reminded in Hebrews, to treat everyone with kindness, because they may just be positioned as your help (Heb 13:2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels).

John 12:42-43 Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

The synagogue before the early church days represented the central point for life in a Jewish community.  It is where many rites of passage take place.  It was where the children learned about life and where adults made decisions critical decisions, even more so than the politics of today.  It was a place that every Jewish person wanted to be and, honestly, would do anything to remain in.  So here in the text of John 12, we find a group of Jews who have been around Jesus, seen the miracles of Jesus, heard the teachings of Jesus, and most of all, felt the impact of Jesus’ presence.  Vs. 42 tells us that they believed in Jesus (even among the rulers many believed in Him), but because of their connection to the Pharisees, they could not confess Him (but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue).  They feared the ability of the Pharisees to impact their lives over the power of God in Jesus Christ.  Even with what they witnessed, they feared being put out of their community found in the synagogue.  What is your synagogue?  What is that community you’re so conscious of being in that possibility of not being in it produces fear in your heart? 

What could be a synagogue?  Well, it could be friendships, family, maybe work colleagues, or the cool kids at school. 

There are many communities we desire to be involved with. However, we just cannot be like the Jewish rulers.  In vs. 43, John said, “for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God,” they could see man’s praise up close but didn’t understand the generational impact of the praise of God.  We must be able to hear God and obey as opposed to fearing what our synagogues might say.  Two seemingly short verses, yet they pack such a significant punch.  In a nutshell, Obey God and not man.  I was reminded of this earlier today” Yahweh; there is no one greater!!” 

Psalm 51:6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

Don’t you just hate being lied too?  It doesn’t matter who lies to you (Spouse; children or even colleagues), but that they didn’t trust or respect you enough to be honest. 

This hits home because I was raised on lying.  I did it so that I wouldn’t get in trouble of course; I did it to “protect” the family (what happens in this house stays in this house); and I did it to try and promote an image that I wanted others to see in me (that I didn’t see in myself).  I did not see the impact of my lies then being a lack of trust or respect for others back then.  I also didn’t realize how “practice makes perfect,” and the continuous lying would continue off and on later in life even when I didn’t want or need it to.  

David realized what we all should, our relationship with God is the first and foremost relationship that is impacted by our lies and God desires truth in every part of us (You desire truth in the inward parts).  One of the things David actually taps into is that most of us have many parts.  If we’re not careful the inward parts, get corrupted by our other parts; unless we walk in truth.  What am I saying.  I happen to be a Son of God; a Husband, a Father; a Brother; a Minister; a Mechanical Engineer; a Project Manager; a Board Chairman; a Friend; a Mentor and even a few more.  The truth is we have many parts and it’s very easy to become a different person in many of them, and in doing so lose a bit of ourselves.  Which is why it is so important to be a person of truth in the inward parts. 

David understood that we often try to hide those things we don’t others to know about us, he called them or hidden part.  When we’re truthful with God in the inward parts, He will give us His Wisdom to overcome our hidden parts.  

Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.

David was not confused about his past.  I remember being so zealous that I wanted everyone to also be saved.  I would tell many what I had just recently come to appreciate; Jesus Christ is Lord.  There is nothing wrong with that level of excitement (zeal).  The issue that can raise its early face is the seeming erasing of your memory, when you quickly become “holier than thou.”  This is when your conversion is so excellent, that you cannot resonate with those who have remained sinners or Christians struggling to live holy.  

This verse demonstrates a certain level of humility and introspection.  David understand that he was indeed at one point a sinner (Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity).  Since birth, he was full of sin.