Lighthouse Church Durban
Dependence on God
God has provided grace through Jesus to live lives that are totally dependent on him. This grace is available to all who believe.
This grace does not just save us from the consequences of sin, but also from the power of sin. It stirs us to say "yes" to godliness and "no" to ungodliness.
We learn to live in humble dependence on God and we discover that he does what seems impossible.
As we fully submit our lives to him, he transforms us! He is faithful - we can trust him to do this!
Titus 2:11-14, Romans 4:17-22, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, Ephesians 2:10, Romans 6:13-14, 1 Thessalonians 5:24
- Broadcast on:
- 28 Sep 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
Good morning friends. Good morning to everyone listening to me this morning. It is once again a blessing to be able to share the Word of God. I want to welcome you to the light house change, someone broadcast. We'll get straight into the Word of God and the topic for today is dependence on God. Now frames we can't talk about dependence on God without touching on faith. Now I grew up in the charismatic movement and the word faith was synonymous with you know only provision. In most cases it was about God providing or meeting our needs. It could be financial needs. It could be many things. But as I grew up in the things of God I'm beginning to realize that to live a life that is pleasing to God you need to depend on Him. We need faith to live a life that is godly. We need faith to live a life that God can be pleased with to be people that God can use. So friends the question to all of us as we get into the Word of God is are we depending on God in our day to day lives, in our dealings, in ministry. And when I say ministry friends I don't mean the people that stand on Sunday and preach. I mean where God has put you. Are you being effective in that which God would want you to do for Him and through the means that God has put before you to save Him. Are you depending on God? Now friends we're gonna begin from the beginning and we're gonna begin from the book of Titus chapter 2, verse 11 to 15 and this is what the Bible say to us who believe. And even to the people that do not believe because it says this for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. So before we speak about living a life that is pleasing to God before we speak about saving God it all begins with salvation. And the Bible says for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. In verse 12 it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to leave self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. They stay in. While we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of a great God and Savior Jesus Christ, verse 14, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own eager to do what is good. Now friends the Bible makes it clear that God has provided grace and salvation for all people. So it's up to people to receive or to accept the salvation and the grace that God has provided. Now the Bible also talks about the coming of Jesus Christ. It says the appearing of the glory of a great God and the Savior Jesus Christ. Now friends Jesus came on to the earth. It died for us. He went to do with the Father, the Bible says to prepare a place for all of us and is coming back again. But in between from the place of salvation to the place where Jesus comes there are things that happens friends. We need to live. We need to save God and we need to do God's will. So in between is coming and in between salvation and is coming we need to depend on God. We need to learn to depend on God. So the first thing that we see friends is that grace has been made available to all people. So as you listen to me friend grace has been made available to you. It's up to me it's up to you to receive that grace or it's up to you to reject the salvation or the grace that God has provided. And friends the Bible says this grace or the salvation that God has provided it teaches us to say no to ungodliness. And the Bible goes further to say it teaches us to say no to ungodliness but it helps us or teaches us to live godly lives. In other words lives that are pleasing to God. Self controlled upright the Bible says. Now friend we see there that God wants us to be his people. In other words we accept the grace and we allow grace to teach us to live godly lives. And friends if we are his people we then need to depend on him to live this life that he has given us because friends even to be a Christian to live a godly life to live a life that is pleasing to God. It's very hard to do that on our own and that's why God has provided grace to teachers to live a life that is pleasing to him. Now friends I want to single out that word godliness. Now friends to live a godly life or godliness godliness simply means we have regard for God what he has to say what he's doing and what he's wanting to do in our lives. In other words we intentionally or we volunteer to depend on God. We have regard for God's will for our lives because remember friends we have been created with a free will but we have to come to a place where we intentionally put aside our own will and we depend on God we seek God's will for our lives. And when we do that we are living a godly life because then we leave according to the will of God. Now friends growing up you know in the traditional churches we mostly associated godliness to posture the way we dress the way we speak and all those things friends are important but these things are supposed to be a byproduct of the godliness that we would then leave after we surrender our will to him and we have regard for God. Our dressing because the Bible friends infest Timothy chapter 2 verse 9 to 10 it says I also want the women to dress modestly with distance and appropriate. So in other words yes we have to be presentable we have to you know the where we walk the where we talk the where we dress there has to be in a line with scripture it has to be in Allah it has to align with what God would want us as his own people but that's not the definition of godliness godliness is when we depend on him for our sustenance for our Christian lives for saving him for everything that we do we depend on God on God's will that is godliness praise the name of God. Now friends I want to look at some few examples in the Bible that helps us to see the picture of living a godly life of depending on God and I want to speak I want to go to the book of Romans chapter 4 verse 16 to 22 in fact verse 17 and the Bible says as it is written have made you a father of many nations he is our father in the sight of God in home he believed the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not this 18 against all hope Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations just as it had been said to him social your offspring be in this 19 without weakening in his faith he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since was about a hundred years old and that Sarah's womb was also dead in this 20 yet he did not we were through unbelief regarding the promise of God but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God this 21 been fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised this is why it was credited to him as righteousness now friends this is the story of Abraham and if you read the Bible in the book of Genesis God gives a promise to Abraham when Abraham was old and his wife was old and he says I will bless you and I will give you many children offspring now Abraham is old and everything is dry and friends are humanly speaking it was impossible what God was promising Abraham was humanly impossible but then the Bible gives us an account it says against all hope because humanly speaking Abraham's body and Sarah's body at least a stage where they could not have babies it was practically impossible so it was against human hope but the Bible says Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations what that means friends is that Abraham looked at the circumstances around him and he knew that it was it was impossible for him to offspring so Abraham shifted is dependence from what is natural and he depended on God and so the Bible says he believed and in this 20 in this 19 says without weakening in his faith so he totally depended on God for God's promise to come to pass and the Bible says he did not wiver through unbelief it depended on God there's 21 being fully persuaded that God and power friends I think this is a time that we sit sometimes and list some of those things that bother us you know some of those things I'm thinking about some of them now in my own life things that we look at and say this looks impossible it might even be about people that we trust God that God should change them but when you look at their lives you look at our city you look at our communities even friends we look at what's happening outside and you ask yourself is it even possible that God can change lives you look at people that are addicted to drugs there are colleagues as we pray for our cities as we you know as we go on a part to make disciples and you ask yourself is it even possible yes it's humanly impossible but if we can only depend on God it becomes possible praise God so friends Abraham depended on God and I like what the Bible says in day 17 it says the God or gives life to the dead and goes into being things that were not it's the things that we can't see with our naked eyes that's why the Bible speaks about walking in spirit and not by sight because sight can be misleading so Abraham chose to walk in spirit it shows to see things differently beyond what we can imagine or think beyond the things that we can see and because of that it depended on God and it came to pass if you read the Bible in the book of Genesis that Abraham and Isaac at some point at Ishmael but you know through the struggle and depending on God Isaac came into being praise the name of God the other thing friends I want us to look at is sanctification that's another good picture of depending on God so friends you and me because we have received Christ we have received grace we have been sanctified by God as we see from the book of the salonians chapter 5 23 to 24 the Bible says may God himself the God of peace sanctify you through and through God is you know it does it and it does it in the sanctifying us may your whole spirit so and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is 24 the one who pose you is faithful and he will do it so frames there it's straightforward God does the sanctification he sanctifies us praise God to to sanctify is to clean for use you clean something because you want to use it you set it up hot you clean it so that you can use it so God as sanctifies us sanctified us as we see from the book of festive salonians of the 5 to 23 reading that together with the fissions of the two best in the Bible says for we are God's handwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works we have been sanctified and the Bible says we are God's handwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do so friends God has prepared work for you and me to do and because God has prepared work for you and me to do he has sanctified us he has cleaned us so that we can be something that God can use as we will see from the book of Romans in Romans chapter 6 verse 18 to 14 the Bible says do not offer in any part of yourself to sing as an instrumental wickedness not that word instrument but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness this 14 for sin shall no longer be your master because you are not under the law but under grace friends one of the things that stops us from saving God effectively is sin and you and me have no powers to deal with sin the only thing that you are capable feeling is that condemnation but as you have seen in the Bible the Bible says God sanctifies us so we can depend on God for sanctification when you feel condemned you feel like you have sinned you can depend on God for sanctification because it's the one that sanctifies but here is the thing in Romans there's a part that you need to play do not offer so again you make it's it's a voluntary thing it's it's an intentional thing where you make a decision to depend on God but you also make a step not to offer yourself to sing as an instrument of wickedness praise God now you see an instrument let's look at the word instrument maybe let's look at the keyboard a keyboard is an instrument but if a keyboard just lies there and it's not played you will never understand or appreciate the value of that keyboard someone has to come and play that instrument so the Bible is saying do not offer yourself to the instrument of wickedness in other words you can choose to offer yourself to the devil and the devil can play you to wickedness or you can choose to offer your life as an instrument into God's hand that God can play so only all you have to depend upon God you depend on God to be sanctified you depend on God all you do is to offer yourself to God and say God here I am I'm your son please use me please sanctify me and God does what he does he does the sanctification and he plays you to be something that is useful in hands in his hands and to be a blessing to other people so you are depending on God to live your life for provision as God provided for Abraham he needed a son and God provided for you to live the God the life for you to save him God will play you and you become something that is useful in the eyes of God so all in all friends we are depending on God our duty is to offer ourselves into the hands of God and let's conclude with these frames God is faithful into salutants of the five there's twenty for the Bible says the one who calls you is faithful and he will do it and that's very important friends to understand because if we can understand that God is faithful if we understand that God is good he never lies is dependable it's not like you and me is good at all times ever willing to sanctify us if we can only go to him ever willing you know to help us through but friends we need to have the revelation in fact it's not a revelation because it's planned there it's in the Bible God is faithful God is good and if we can only believe that God is faithful and good then we can depend on him friends we cannot do this thing called Christianity without God we can't otherwise friends we run into problems of condemnation beating ourselves we have to come to a place where we surrender to him and said God help me in my day to day dealings help me I'm depending on you I need that I need that I'm depending on you let's depend on God and have a fantastic and implicit week and God bless you
God has provided grace through Jesus to live lives that are totally dependent on him. This grace is available to all who believe.
This grace does not just save us from the consequences of sin, but also from the power of sin. It stirs us to say "yes" to godliness and "no" to ungodliness.
We learn to live in humble dependence on God and we discover that he does what seems impossible.
As we fully submit our lives to him, he transforms us! He is faithful - we can trust him to do this!
Titus 2:11-14, Romans 4:17-22, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, Ephesians 2:10, Romans 6:13-14, 1 Thessalonians 5:24