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A shorter podcast than usual because I’m traveling but here’s a meditation on Isaiah 46 that I hope will be a blessing to you.
New Book: The StoryChanger: How God Rewrites Our Story By Inviting Us Into His
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Listen here.
0:22 StoryChanger Devotional: How Big is God’s Salvation (Isaiah 45:14-25)
7:13 Why I’m deleting Facebook by Jo de Blois
12:45 What your Eyes have Seen by Brianna Lambert.
New Book: The StoryChanger: How God Rewrites Our Story By Inviting Us Into His
Visit thestorychanger.life for more resources on changing our story with God’s Story.
0:30 StoryChanger Devotional: Behind the Headlines (Isaiah 45:1-13)
6:44 Disabilities Ministry
New Resolve After 55 Years in My Wheelchair by Joni Eareckson Tada
11:23 I Will Sing by Jari Jobe
New Book: The StoryChanger: How God Rewrites Our Story By Inviting Us Into His
Visit thestorychanger.life for more resources on changing our story with God’s Story.
INTRODUCTION
“How long will this go on? How long do I have to wait? How long will this last? How long? How long? How long?”
“How long?” is a question that we all ask, isn’t it? How long will my child rebel? How long will their bullying last? How long will evil go unpunished? How long will this pain go on? How long will the chemo be? How long will my depression continue? How long do I have to wait for a wife/husband/friend? How long will this temptation endure? How long with this test be? How long until he forgives me? How long must I wait for assurance? How long until God takes me to heaven?
What’s God’s answer to our “how long” questions? In Psalm 13, God gives us three short answers to our “how long” questions.
SUMMARY
The Psalms are God’s infallible study of the connections between feeling, thinking, and doing. They stimulate healthy thoughts, feelings, and actions. But they also help us process dangerous and damaging emotions. So far we’ve felt the following Psalms:
What’s God’s answer to our “How long” questions?
I. OUR QUESTIONS ARE LONG (1-4)
“How long, O Lord?” is a question that David often asked because he suffered many times in many ways. Look at how many ways he suffers even in this Psalm.
David was desperately worried that his frail faith wouldn’t endure the lengthy suffering he was experiencing.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
Why does God make us wait? Some possible answers are:
Sing it to Jesus. We sing this Psalm to the God who has experienced it himself in Jesus. Jesus suffered spiritually, mentally, emotionally, externally, fatally, and socially. His enemies rejoiced at his sufferings and defeat. “How long?” was the cry of his soul. “How long will I suffer?” We sing it knowing that he knows and can sympathize. We sing it knowing that the only reason he suffered is for our sakes.
LONG SUFFERING GENERATES LONG QUESTIONING
“So what’s God’s answer?”
God’s answers are surprisingly short and simple?
II. GOD’S ANSWERS ARE SHORT (5-6)
God provides David with three one-word answers which David articulates and expresses.
The first answer is “Trust.” “But I have trusted in your steadfast love” (5a). David is reminded of how he has trusted in God’s steady love in the past.
The second answer is “Rejoice.” “My heart shall rejoice in your salvation” (5b). Whatever else he has lost, he still has God’s salvation and that alone is reason to rejoice.
The third answer is “Worship.” “I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me” (6). Whatever else is going on in the present, he can find plenty reason to praise God from the past.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
Accept God’s short answers. When we are asking “How long?” God gives three short answers: Trust, rejoice, worship. When you’ve got long complex questions, hear God’s short simple answers. Trust me. Rejoice in me. Worship me.
Sing it with Jesus. God the Father’s answer to his suffering Son’s question “How long do I have to suffer?” was “Long enough to save.” Therefore Jesus in his human nature trusted, rejoiced, and worshipped even when the question mark was immeasurably high. Eventually God said, “That’s long enough.” And it was finished.
IF WE QUESTION GOD’S TIMING
IT’S TIME TO START TRUSTING
SUMMARY
THE NEXT CHAPTER
Gospel: If we trust in Jesus we will rejoice in Jesus and worship Jesus and it’s Jesus alone who can give us that trust, joy, and worship each day and each step of life.
Heaven: Praise God that our “How Long?” questions will end at death as we will have nothing left to wait for and will give us perfect answers to all our questions.
Hell: Unbelievers’ “How long?” questions are only beginning when they die. “How long?” is the cry of hell and it will go on forever because the suffering will be forever.
Prayer: Patient God, I confess my impatience, and request that you enable me to trust you, rejoice in you and worship you, so that I can build my patience and praise muscles.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What circumstances have produced “How long? questions and prayers in your life?
2. What has God taught you through waiting?
3. On what occasions might Jesus have sung this Psalm?
4. How does hearing this Psalm sung by Jesus change the way you sing this Psalm?
5. What do you need more of? Trusting, worshipping, or rejoicing?
6. Who do you know that needs this Psalm and how will you disciple them with it?
INTRODUCTION
How many people doubt that their father is their father? It’s very rare, isn’t it? How many Christians doubt that God the Father is their heavenly Father? That’s much more common, isn’t it? It’s more common for a number of reasons:
This spiritual problem is often called a lack of assurance and it has some serious spiritual consequences. It hinders outward actions such as prayer, worship, witness, service. It hinders inner experiences such as joy, hope, and love.
How can I know that God is my Father? How can I get more assurance of being a child of God? Let’s look at Romans 8:15 for some answers.
BACKGROUND
God’s Fatherhood brings many desirable blessings into our lives.
Romans 8 gives us three ways the Holy Spirit increases our assurance: the Spirit’s leading (8:14), the Spirit of adoption (8:15), and the Spirit’s witness (8:16). It’s the second of these we want to explore today.
How can I get more assurance?
1. THE SPIRIT OF SLAVERY MAKES US AFRAID
We were slaves
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear” (4).
“God is my slavemaster.” That’s what most unbelievers think of God. They see themselves as free and any relationship with God as enslavement. Understandably, then, they do not want any relationship with God because to be a slave is to be a prisoner of someone else’s will against our will. It’s the worst condition to be in as a human being. It’s degrading, demoralizing, and dehumanizing. A more powerful person orders you around to do your will without any regard for you or your well-being
“Sin is my slavemaster.” That’s what we say when the Holy Spirit begins to open our eyes to our true spiritual condition (John 16:8). We realize that we are not free as we thought, but rather captives of the devil doing his will (Rom. 6:6). Our wills are not free but imprisoned by a greater and evil power. It’s degrading, demoralizing, and dehumanizing.
We were afraid
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear” (4).
When we view God as a slavemaster, like slaves, we live in a state of fear. We try to avoid him, we’re terrified of him finding out about our failures and punishing us. We try to be free and fearless but in reality we are imprisoned and petrified.
Then when the Holy Spirit begins to open our eyes, we see that we are in a far worse state than we thought. Rather than being free we realize we are actually in bondage to a terrible master. We realize we don’t have as much power as we thought but rather are under the power and sway of our lusts and the Devil who uses them to enslave us to himself.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
You are not free. No matter how much you proclaim your freedom from God or fight for freedom from God, you cannot get truly free can you? You know he is your inescapable Judge. No matter how much you insist that sin is freedom, you know it’s shackling you and mastering you, don’t you? Ask God to show you that you are not free, that your freedom is false, and that you have the worst possible master.
You are afraid. You try to put a brave face on it, but in your quiet moments, you’re scared. You know you are misrepresenting God and that by choosing sin as your master you’ve chosen a tyrant. The Christian can fall back into this kind of fear if they fall into serious sin and start seeing God more as a Judge than a Father.
GOD’S CHILDREN CAN
ACT LIKE SCARED SLAVES
What’s the alternative to slavery and fear?
Adoption and assurance.
2. THE SPIRIT OF SONSHIP MAKES US ASSURED
“…you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” ” (15).
The Spirit of Sonship
The Spirit leads us from God as Judge to Christ as Savior, and then back to God as Father. He takes slaves and through Christ turns them into sons. When someone becomes a Christian, they are given two confessions by the Holy Spirit: “Jesus is Lord” (1 Cor. 12:3) and “God is my Father” (Rom. 8:15). We don’t just move from slave to free, but slave to son.
This is the highest privilege of the Gospel. As J I Packer said, “In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship—he establishes us as his children and heirs. Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship. To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.”
It’s one thing to have a certificate or legal document of adoption, it’s another to feel adopted. The Holy Spirit reveals, applies, witnesses, and ratifies the blessing of sonship, just as he did with Christ on earth (Mk. 1:11). The Spirit brings us into Christ’s experience of sonship which is not just the Father’s delighting in us, but also our delighting in and depending upon our Father.
The Spirit of Freedom
If slavery means fear, sonship means freedom. Freedom from terror, torment, uncertainty, distrust, and silence. Freedom of spontaneity, warmth, confidence, exuberance, and intimacy. Jesus used “Abba” often when addressing his heavenly Father. It’s not casual familiarity or sentimental chumminess but an affectionate respectful confidence as opposed to the cold resentful fear of slaves.
“Cry” means an earnest, fervent, intense, exuberant, desperate address. It’s the kind of cry heard when a child is bullied, ill, injured, blessed, or in danger. Sometimes all we can do is cry “My Father….My Father.” This cry is a gift of God given to his children and to those who ask for it (Lk. 11:13).
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
See how much you are loved. It takes a ton of commitment to adopt a child, overcoming many obstacles and costs. It’s a deliberate act, not an accident (Eph. 1:5). He wanted to adopt you and wants you to know you are his child.
Feel free to cry “Abba” like Jesus. When we become confident about who our Father is, we become confident about who we are. Jesus shows us the Father that we can know like he did.
GOD’S ADOPTION IS OUT OF LOVE,
BY LOVE, AND FOR LOVE
SUMMARY
THE NEXT CHAPTER
Gospel Adoption. This is an invitation, even an appeal, to all scared slaves to come to God for assured adoption into his family.
Constant Adoption. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve sinned, how much you are suffering, what you feel, or what you deserve, every Christian is fully and forever adopted.
Practical Adoption. More sonship means more service, prayer, and witness. More sonship means more joy, hope, and love
Prayer. My loving heavenly Father, thank you for your full adoption of me into your family. Give me your Spirit of adoption so that I can cry to you as a confident child.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. On a scale of 1-10, how confident are you that you are one of God’s children?
2. How did you come to know that you are one of God’s children?
3. What makes you revert back to a scared slave at times?
4. What evidence is there in your life that you live more like an adopted child than a slave?
5. How can you strengthen the Spirit of adoption and freedom in your life?
6. How will this sermon change the way you present the Gospel to unbelievers?
Listen here.
0:21 StoryChanger Devotional: A Welcome for Wanderers (Isaiah 44:21-28)
5:46 Personal Autonomy or God’s Authority by Meribeth Schierbeek
10:34 A Punishment-Free Relationship With God
Why we don’t punish our kids by Sara Wallace
Sermon notes: Discipline for the Disobedient
God’s Discipline: A Word of Encouragement in the Midst of Hardship by Tim Chester
New Book: The StoryChanger: How God Rewrites Our S
tory By Inviting Us Into His
Visit thestorychanger.life for more resources on changing our story with God’s Story.