535 - What We Know to be True About Christ

The Importance of Looking Back

As we have been preparing ourselves spiritually for the dark, troubling times ahead, it is quite helpful to pause and take a moment and remember what we know to be true about Christ. This is the discipline of looking back. God commanded the children of Israel to make a pillar of twelve stones at their crossing of the Jordan River. Why? So when their children’s children would ask them what the stones meant, it was a reminder to look back and remember how faithful God was to them then, and is still faithful today.

It was a way God provided to grow the faith of His children as they entered the promise land. And it also works for us today.

So let’s look at some truths about the Lord and our relationship with Him that don’t change with time. And in doing so, let’s pray our faith will be strengthened for the days ahead.

Here are a few things we know about God and His relationship with us.

• God is Sovereign.

• There is nothing greater or higher than God.

• God created everything, including us, for a purpose.

• Knowing God’s purpose for creating us and serving our Creator is the most important thing we can do.

• It is a great and indescribable blessing for a lowly creation like us to be able to have a relationship with their Creator. Yet that is what our Creator has allowed.

• God is also a King and has a Kingdom.

• As King in His Kingdom, He rules supremely.

• We have been granted citizenship into His Kingdom.

• And we have been granted this great gift on the basis of God’s grace and mercy, and not on our own merit.

• As citizens of the Kingdom of God, we have certain responsibilities and duties to our King.

• And our King gives us the power to carry these out.

• This amazing power comes from the King Himself, who has chosen to live in us, His citizens, in the Person of the Holy Spirit.

• Therefore, the King is always with us.

• He will not, nor ever has, left us alone or as orphans.

• So we are empowered and protected by our King.

• But our King also loves us.

• So much so, our King has adopted us as His children, and has given us an inheritance as such.

Ah, and it gets even better.

God Wants Us to Know Him Personally

More than being simply a citizen of His Kingdom, God has better plans for those He loves. He wants us to know and experience Him as Father.

• In fact God, our King, loves us so much that He wants us to know Him, not just as King, but as Father.

• So, our God and King, is also our Father.

• Which means we can know Him as Father.

• And He invites us to come to Him as His children.

• Jesus, God’s Son, is the One who revealed God, our King, to us as our Father.

• And in doing so, we became joint-heirs with Christ of all that belongs to our Father, the King.

• Now, there is no fear in approaching God, for He is our Father and loves us as His children.

• And as His children, we have access to Him. We can boldly come before His throne.

• Since God is Sovereign and there is nothing greater than Him, it would stand to reason the greatest joy in life comes from finding our pleasure in Him.

• And, like Jesus His Son, our greatest joy is to devote our life to doing the will of the Father (John 6:38) and the things that please Him (John 8:29).

• Only then can we experience the blessings that come from being a child of God and a son of the King.

• But there is a problem we each face.

• We have an enemy.

• There is a sinister creation of God that wants to destroy the work of God and deflect the glory of God to himself, and not where it rightfully belongs.

• This enemy is Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44) and deceiver of the whole world (Rev. 12:9).

• And since Satan cannot attack God (for Satan is also a created being), he instead attacks those God loves, you and me, God’s children.

• We are the objects of Satan’s wrath.

• Since Satan cannot hurt the Father, he goes after the Father’s children.

• For if Satan can get the objects of God’s love to look to him and this world for satisfaction and fulfillment, he can deflect glory from God to himself and feed his insatiable pride.

• So the battle is for the trust of God’s children.

• Will they trust in themselves, or in their Father?

• But the Father has already given His children the power to withstand all the attacks of Satan.

• All they have to do is use this power by faith.

• Faith is the confidence (assurance) in the love, attributes, promises, and character of God

(since we know Him as our Father).

• And this confidence does not come by seeing some tangible proof. It comes by knowing and trusting and resting (abiding) in Him. Just like a child does to their human parents.

• In the same way, we are to approach our Father in faith in Him, and not in what we want Him to do.

Finally, as we enter the troubling times our Father warned us were to come, how can we enhance our faith and stand strong against His, and our, enemy? In Scripture, the Lord encourages us to look back. And when we see God’s sovereignty in the past, it strengthens our faith in Him for the future.

So join us today as we do just that. Let’s look back at the faithfulness of God. After all, since He has been faithful in the past, He will continue to be faithful today, tomorrow, and forever.

To download the slides for this message, click – HERE