A father gave his daughter his credit card to buy a prom dress. She called him on the cell phone about a $1000 dress. He said 'no because the price is too high' but the reception was bad cutting out the words 'because the' and 'is' so she heard 'no price too high' and went ahead with the purchase. What Paul was telling Timothy was to make sure the Gospel was taught, as it should be not missing out anything. When you are faced with what appears to be a contradiction think about Moses. An Egyptian was beating an Israelite so Moses got rid of the Egyptian. There are some obvious contradictions that are easy to deal with. Man did not evolve from an ape but was created by God in his image and likeness. But Moses faced an Israelite fighting with another Israelite. When he tried to deal with that it became a problem. This is what we find among people who read the Bible and believe different things. Even Peter said Paul's letters were tough.

But Peter qualified this.

God does not want you ignorant or unstable but to know what the Bible says concerning the Gospel and how you can live a full life. Your life is like a road you travel.

At various points on this road you will encounter a fork in the road. Choosing the correct way may or may not be accompanied by what you feel about it because the substance of your choice is faith. Turning right is all about how you can perform and measure up where God's smile turns into a frown of rejection if you don't measure up. The left turn is all about grace. If you turn left you will be right but if you turn right you will be left. We must 'rightly divide' the truth of the Gospel. We must make it 'plain and simple.' We must 'correctly explain' this. We must 'skillfully teach' it. We must make sure that we always stay on the side of grace.

The right hand side is all about performance and behavior. How we behave is very important to our witness of a transformed life. Our performance is never about acceptance from God, it is for his approval. It is not our performance that makes us Christian it is our birth. We are born again with a new identity. Every religion, from the Mormon elders that walk our streets to most mainstream denomination, predicates itself on earning the acceptance of God through what they do for Him. The left side shows the unmerited favor of God called 'grace'. That is a relationship, not a religion, and the relationship is not for sale. We all have a need for acceptance because God put it there. Believers look to earn their love supply from the environment in which there are placed. These include: their home, school and church.

(Show illustration) First grade student: Four of the six words are spelt correct. The letters are the correct way around and all sized in proportion. The focus of the teacher is to point out all the errors in the student grading him on error.

(Show illustration) Third grade student: The story is creative and the letters are all good with no spelling mistakes. The teacher has a great opportunity to encourage this talent but points out inadequacy, 'there are no sentences.'

(Show illustration) Fourth grade student: The entire math is correct. The teacher cannot nail him on anything except that it was too messy. In order to develop the student the teacher has to keep finding something that is wrong.

(Show illustration) No matter how long you have been a Christian, God looks at you in unmerited favor. The first grade student has the comment 'awesome' written on his work.

(Show illustration) The third grade student has 'what a great gift you have' written on his work.

(Show illustration) The fourth grade student has 'perfect' written on his work.

Each time God is making a comment on your work, understand that he is not grading you on what you have done, but who you are. Your old life dies with Christ and was buried with him. The life you live is the life of Christ.

What is the 'flesh?' It has a number of meanings in the Bible but the primary definition is the old ways of the sinful nature. The patterns by which you used to live to get all your needs met. The work of the Holy Spirit is to conform you to new patterns of living in Christ. The believer can be terrified of losing their old ways of life.

You have been given a new nature because the old nature was crucified and buried with Christ. The life you have is the resurrected life of Christ. The flesh is patterns or ways in how you used to live. This is why it is vital to teach 'how to do life' as a believer.

#1 - The insatiable desire

God is love and he created the desire to be loved in us. It is a burning desire. If you did not need love then you would have no need for God. You were created with needs and God is the source to meet all those needs.

#2 - Who meets your needs?

People can draw a big circle around them and declare themselves to be God of their world. They will let it run the universe but not the circle they live in. When you were born you do not know that God could meet everything within that circle. You began a pattern of living where you got your love supply from your parents, later your peers, and then your spouse.

#3 - How did you learn about yourself?

The most self-centered person is a child. He learns about himself as he interacts with other people. His dad will point to his nose and say 'nose.' The child does not think he has a nose also but that he has a nose like dad. What you know about yourself looks like the people who loved you or did not love you. The believer has the Holy Spirit who conforms you by renewing your thinking so your reference point is Christ

An eighteen-year-old boy gets his eighteen-year-old girlfriend pregnant. They marry and never go to college. In their minds it ruined their life. The boy had a dream of being a professional sports player. The girl wanted to be a principle of a school. Each time they see their peer's advance they get bitter and resentful serving a life sentence for conceiving a child. A few years go by and they blame each other and even the child wishing he had never been born. The child is learning about himself that he is like his father and mother. His family is his world because it is the only world he knows therefore the world (his parents) would be better of if he was dead. He has a desire to be loved but he is rejected.

Another child is born to a married couple in their late 20's who have planned for a family and are on the road to success. By the time the dad is 45 he is financially secure and hopes his son will follow him. The dad is sure that his son is loved but the son has developed an understanding that unless he is as successful as dad he will not love him. He has learned about himself through his parents who are the only world he knows. He has a desire to be loved and he can buy it.

#4 - A generation of anti-depressants

Your mind thinks and your emotions feel. Your emotions will respond to what you think. You see a rattlesnake in the garage and your mind tells you that you are danger. Your feelings go to red alert. Then you realize the snake is made of rubber and your life is not in danger but your feelings are still up there taking another 20 minutes to calm down. Within two minutes of this experience you feel a spider on your neck crawling into your shirt. Your mind tells you to get it out ASAP but your feelings are already up there with the rattlesnake episode. What if you were raised in a home where the rattlesnake was your father and the spider was your mother or another close relative? They would keep your mind on high alert therefore your feelings constantly charged. Each time they backed off, your mind told you that you were safe but your feelings were still up there. By the time you graduate, you went to high school being tense, wound up, in a knife-edge, reactionary, hypersensitive and easily offended. This believer has a walk by sight not by faith. Do you see that this person can react faster than a bullet leaving a gun because their threshold is so tight?

#5 - What is in the bank?

Your brain is full of memories like a bank. The deposits are not money but memories. These memories are how you used to live, what you thought about, and how you felt about that. You entrench yourself in them when these memories are repeated. The Holy Spirit wants to get you into a new pattern of thinking and therefore feeling. Someone will show you a little genuine attention and you latch on to him or her like white on rice. You just happen to drop in on them at 10am on Saturday morning and don't leave until 10pm that night. You have been sucking dry from that person who showed you a little attention all the years of love you never got. People do this with churches and pastors. As soon as the person, church or pastor gives the slightest impression of rejection they become more entrenched. The Word of God is to believed by faith and not by feelings.

Your emotions or feelings are God-given. I would not want to worship and feel nothing. But your emotions can sometimes lie to you. The Word of God will never lie. How you receive love always has strings attached to it in your earthly relationships but with God there are no strings attached. The Word of God will keep brining thins to your attention. The Word of God will renew your mind in how you see the rattlesnake therefore it will change the way you feel.

This teaching is part of a new series The Chronicles of Christ. Other teaching series can be found by clicking the links below
The Lion, the Witch and You - Part 1.
The Lion, the Witch and You - Part 2 & 3.
The Lion, the Witch and You - Part 4 & 5.
The Lion, the Witch and You - Part 6 & 7.
The Lion, the Witch and You - Part 8 & 9.
The Lion, the Witch and You - Part 10 & 11.

If you would like to see previous transcripts or hear audio available in the last series Discovery.God you can find them here.:

• Promise Land to Promise Life Series
  
• Discovery.God Series