Secrets To a Life Well Lived: Secrets About God
Life is short, today is the day you need to start living it well.
You have no guarantee for tomorrow,
so right now is the time to make a commitment to living well.
I want to help you with your commitment by letting you in on the secrets that you
will need to activate in your life to live it well.
We’ve looked at the secrets to happiness,
to relationships and to purpose.
Today I’ve saved the best for last—
Secrets about God.
The secrets are simple yet profound as they are powerful to transform your life.
Secret Number One:
God desires you for fellowship.
Secret Number Two:
God desires you to succeed.
Secret Number Three:
God desires you to be guilt free.
Secret Number Four:
God desires you to trust Him.
You must activate each of these secrets if you want to live your life well.
We’re going to briefly explore each of them,
But you’re going to have to dig on your own to claim the treasure they bring.
Secret Number One:
God desires you for fellowship. (Cloud, Secrets, p.p. 177-181)
The Psalmist asks:
Psalms 144:3 (MSG)
I wonder why you care, God— why do you bother with us at all?
Why does God bother with us?
The Bible reveals that it is human kind that is made in the image of God
for the purpose of having a unique relationship with God. (Genesis 2)
You and I have the potential to enter into an intimate,
communal relationship with God. (John 17:22)
The Bible reveals that God specifically created you for His glory. (Psalm 139:13.
Each of us are the result of His craftsmanship. (Ephesians 2:10)
The Bible reveals that God knows you inside and out, (Psalm 139:15)
Your past, your present, your success, your failure,
Your secrets, your sins. (Psalm 139: 2-6)
The Bible reveals that God loves you,
God comes to us as Jesus demonstrating that love. (John 3:16-18)
God incarnate came seeking to meet your greatest
need, reconciliation with God. (Ephesians 2:16)
The Bible reveals that God wants to establish an intimate relationship with
you, in which you can feel accepted and secure. (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6)
Why? Why does God bother with you at all?
Because the Bible reveals that God is love (1 John 4:16)
Love opens arms wide to embrace and include.
Love desires intimacy; to know and be known.
I guess the simplest answer to why God bothers with you at all is
because He wants you.
He wants to share His life with you.
If you are practicing the 7 habits of a disciple, break out habit 7,
Habit 7 is contemplation
a heart to heart talk with God about his desire for you.
You have to do the work here.
Give God an open invitation to convince you that He desires to
have an intimate life giving relationship with you.
Secret Number One: God desires you for fellowship.
Secret Number Two:
God desires you to succeed. (Cloud, Secrets, pp. 182-188)
Romans 8:31 (MSG)
So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose?
God is pro you.
He designed you, gifted you, fitted you with talents and abilities, set you in
times such as these (Esther 4:14) to accomplish things that He specifically
created you for. (Ephesians 2:10)
God has torn down every barrier that prevented His fellowship with you (Ephesians 2:14)
To accomplish this, the scripture reveals that there was a price. (1 Peter 1:19)
God became one of his creations. (Philippians 2:6-8)
God became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21)
God died for us (Romans 5:8)
God conquered death for us. (Acts 2:24, Romans 4:25
God is pro you.
“God is for you, He wants to make good things happen for you,
and He is powerful enough to do something about it.” (Cloud, Secrets, p. 184)
One of my favorite verses of scripture is Jeremiah 29:11
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
“God longs to fulfill the desires of your heart when you live according to his will.”
(Psalm 37:4, Cloud, Secrets, p. 186)
Ah, there’s the catch—
God helps you succeed when you make a commitment to live
according to His will.
To discover God’s will you need to practice the
7 Habits of a Disciple.
Do not limit yourself,
Do not say “I can’t.”
God is pro you.
God will help you overcome every obstacle as
you seek to accomplish His desires for your
life.
Proverbs 16:3 (NIV)
Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
Two secrets: God desires you for fellowship.
God desires you to succeed.
Secret Number Three:
God desires you to be guilt free.
Even though people sometimes resort to guilt in order to motivate someone to
change their behavior,
God doesn’t want you doing anything out of a sense of guilt.
God wants you to do, because love compels you. (2 Corinthians 5:14)
God wants you to live guilt free.
There is a huge difference between feeling guilty and feeling convicted.
Guilt heaps abuse on top of the wrong we’ve done.
Conviction empowers us to right our wrong.
Got a person in your life who is a guilt manipulator?
Tell them no more HGT will be accepted.
HGT—Heavy Guilt Trip.
People do better when they are motivated by love, (Romans 2:4)
Than when they are motivated by guilt,
Or motivated by the fear of punishment.
Guilt enslaves, conviction liberates.
God wants you to live your life before Him free of a sense of guilt.
That’s why He has made provision to be able to forgive you of
all your sins.
Consider these guilt free scriptures:
John 3:17-18 (MSG)
“God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted…”
Isaiah 1:18-19 (NIV)
"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient…”
Jeremiah 33:8 (NIV)
I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me.
1 John 1:9 (MSG)
… if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.
John 8:10-11 (NIV)
Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
Guilt enslaves you to your sinful behavior.
Guilt reminds you of how bad you are.
Conviction sets you free to be forgiven,
And empowers you to change, you seek repentance.
Conviction creates a Godly sorrow to motivate you to make things
right. (2 Corinthians 7:10-11)
It reminds you of how good you can be.
You have to go to work to get the treasure in this secret too.
That 7th habit, the spiritual discipline of contemplation sends out an
invitation to God to come and talk with you about your life,
about the things you’ve done,
the things you failed to do.
To live your life well you need to hear God say that you are forgiven.
Three secrets: God desires you for fellowship.
God desires you to succeed.
God desires you to be guilt free.
Secret Number Four:
God desires you to trust Him. (Cloud, Secrets, pp. 202-208)
Proverbs 3:5-6 (MSG)
Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track.
To live your life well you will need to trust in God.
Trust comes hard.
The older we get it seems the more we’ve experienced the pain of
misplaced trust.
We counted on somebody to do something for us and
they didn’t come through.
When that scenario plays out through the relationships we have with the
significant people in our lives we tend to distrust.
We learn to take care of ourselves,
By our wits and resources.
We learn to take control so we can secure the
outcomes we want.
Do you know when we start learning to trust others?
Seconds after we are born.
If you have trust issues its because you’ve been betrayed.
We carry that fear of repeat betrayal into every
relationship we enter into,
that includes our relationship with God.
Will God let me down?
Will God fail to come through?
Or if we are really honest with ourselves—
will God do what I want Him to do?
(That might be a problem right there…)
We are hesitant to let God be in control because we are afraid He’ll mess up.
Instead of winning the lotto, you wind up as a missionary to Africa.
Never believing that if God did send you to Africa it you would gain a
treasure more valuable than any lotto winnings.
How much of life do you think you can control?
Not much, most of us have a hard time controlling ourselves,
Let alone the everyday occurrences of life.
But when we trust God from the bottom of our heart,
Then we can let ourselves out of control.
We seek God, figure out what He wants us to do, pray that we heard right,
do our best making the most of the resources and the opportunity the
Lord gives us, then we pray that our efforts produce.
The rest is in God’s control.
What a relief to be able to retire from being the
center of the universe.
God can handle what you can not.
Romans 8:28 (MSG)
That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
What I have learned is I have to take the setbacks,
the things that don’t go my way,
the messterpieces I create and the headaches that are handed to me,
the failures, flops, fears and frustrations
and keep trusting that God can do something good with
all this bad stuff.
The higher the stakes the harder it is to trust.
When a loved one dies, when a marriage disintegrates,
when a fortune crumbles, and dreams turn to nightmares,
can I still trust God?
If you ever needed to practice the 7 habits of a disciple its when the stakes are
high.
Once again the discipline of contemplation is your invitation to God
to show up and speak with you.
You need to hear Him say the things that will pull you away from despair.
You need to hear Him say the things that will end your anxiety and worry.
You need to hear Him say that He can redeem all things if you simply
trust in Him.
The Four secrets of God to live your life well are
God desires you for fellowship.
God desires you to succeed.
God desires you to be guilt free.
God desires you to trust Him
As in any relationship to fully activate these secrets will take time and proximity.
You will need to spend time with God through
the practice of the 7 habits of a disciple
—Bible Study, Prayer, Fellowship, Service, Worship,
Obedience, and Contemplation.
Contemplation—
You have to pull away from the business of your world.
You have to get away from the distractions that urgently call for your
attention.
Then you can seek a audience with God.
A heart to heart talk.
You need to have impressed upon your heart by God,
Not a preacher like me,
But the Holy Spirit Himself,
That He desires fellowship with you because He loves you.
You need to know that God wants you to succeed at living your life to the full.
You need to hear it from His lips, not second hand from some preacher,
Or the latest book by some popular author.
You need to the liberation from guilt that only Jesus can give you,
That He doesn’t want you to be His disciple out of a sense of guilt,
A sense of ought, a sense of duty, but rather because love compels
you.
You need to reflect on the times that God has pulled you through.
The times when you would not have made it without His intervention.
You need to understand His actions on your behalf,
So you will trust Him with both the big and the small stuff of
life.
I can’t do any of that for you. You must do it yourself.
I urge you don’t put it off—now is the time to start living well.