Security in Obedience



There is security in obedience. This is what I hear the Lord saying this morning. God desires to "set me before His face" and "uphold me in my integrity." But having integrity with respect to God is up to me. God won't force me into integrity:


Psalms 41:11-12 By this I know that You are well pleased with me, Because my enemy does not triumph over me. As for me, You uphold me in my integrity, And set me before Your face forever.


Integrity is defined as a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes. David, one of the most victorious people ever, said that victory was directly related to integrity in his trust of God's ways over man's ways. He starts his statement by talking about money:


Psalms 41:1-3 Blessed is he who considers the poor; The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, And he will be blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed.


God really cares about what I make my "strength"...what I really stand on. It is easy to say things with my mouth that I really am not willing to back up with my actual choices. This is a lack of integrity. Integrity is "put your money where your mouth is"...this is a cliché because it drips with truth. My money, my time, and my energy...these are the strength of my life. Wherever I am willing to invest these reveals the true beliefs I hold. Aside from the kingdom of God, Jesus mentioned money more than any other topic. 11 of the 39 parables are about money. This wasn't a divine setup to allow preachers to con people out of money...this is because the choice between Jesus and everything that opposes Him, including the antichrist, is primarily about strength and who we believe has it! My words do not reflect my beliefs about what my strength is nearly as accurately as my choices.


God's economy is the opposite of man's economy. Period. It is counter to what we naturally believe is wisdom. I have heard hundreds of sermons where teachers try to marry the two economic philosophies, but they are polar opposites. In man's economy, you make your ability to generate and sustain wealth your strength. In this economic philosophy a "good man or woman" will use what is left over to help others, but the primary motive is to sustain and cushion his or her own life, and to make it sound responsible, the life of their family, as much as possible.


Jesus' economy works in the opposite direction. Jesus said we give to get:


Matthew 5:42 Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.


Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.


Matthew 10:42 And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”


Jesus isn't short on money. Trust me, He can make money show up wherever He wants to. This is how He paid His taxes:


Matthew 17:27 Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.”


The point of all Jesus' focus on money wasn't that he wanted money. No! It is that He wants to redeem His people from slavery. When He is our strength, we are free, because He gives strength freely. He cares very much about where we think our strength is. The world would say "I can't afford to give freely"...Jesus would say "you can't afford not to." We think in terms of resources, but Jesus taught that the strength, or limits, of our resources were a figment of our imagination. He loves me, He owns everything, He is really smart, and He instructed me to give freely...if I REALLY believe Him, I would realize I could never give all I had to live on:


Mark 12:41-44 Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”


Jesus was not some evil bystander watching a widow foolishly throw her last two pennies out. He didn't just watch an old lady starve so He could have a good object lesson. He knew God would never let a heart so dedicated to Him fall. He knew she was the wealthiest of all the people who dropped money into the temple treasury. The more you are willing to place your strength on the true strength of this world, the stronger you are. Period. The world will constantly lie to me and tell me "you better be careful"...but Jesus said the opposite.


I have heard many say that old testament tithing is no longer the standard. Usually, people say this to get out of giving money. I would agree with the concept, but for the opposite reason. 10 percent should be the absolute minimum...Christianity 101. If I won't even give 10 percent, I should question if I even believe the Bible is true. Giving "as much as I could" would be better. Giving all I "have to live on" should be my goal....if I really believe what Jesus says.


Giving away everything the world claims is strength to live in the bosom of real strength is to have integrity to the Word. Detaching my heart-logic from what I can touch and see, and attachin it to what God says is true, is the whole point of walking with Jesus. Jesus said I should be dead to my own strength to live in His:


Matthew 16:24-27 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.


The truth is, whatever we make our strength will make us its slave. Jesus, the one who freely died for those in rebellion against Him, is the only safe master. Many have saved up enough money to be "comfortable some day" to find out that maintaining that security steals their comfort every day of their life. Their false idea of security makes them a slave to the very thing they trust in for freedom. They might even be able to spend it somewhat freely, but that nagging insecurity never leaves them. This is slavery.


Life is so uncertain...one minute you have saved a fortune, the next minute circumstance cleans you out. We mostly live in an illusion of security. There is only one true place of security. There is only one truth. I have to decide what truth I believe. It isn't wrong to save at certain times, and with an open hand, but it IS wrong to make your savings your strength. Soon, according to the Bible, every believer's money will be useless to them:


Revelation 13:16-17 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.


This is going to happen, for real. In Nazi Germany, in Stalinist Russia, in Maoist China, if you don't go along with the program, your wealth was confiscated. This will be a globally enforced reality. It is written. It will happen. If my strength is in wealth on that day, woe is me. Now is the time for me to train my heart to give Jesus everything. He taught that I could actually give what it didn't seem I even had:


Matthew 14:16-17, 19-20 But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained.


I love that He told His disciples "you give." He could have said "I will give them something to eat," but He was teaching His followers an important truth. If I really believe Jesus knows me, owns everything, and isn't limited by the constraints of this world, then I should be able to obey with abandon. I want to obey with abandon...I want to live free from the slavery of trying to make a dying currency my strength!

Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you."

Comments

Most Popular Posts

False Love (Polite Ignoring of Truth) Is Killing the Bride of Christ

Advent: Anticipating the Coming of Messiah

False Unity: Ecumenicism, Math, and Time

Sanctified? Spared?

Tent of Meeting and the Tabernacle of Moses