Victory Life KY

Oh Yeah, I Know Jesus

Episode Summary

Familiarity really does breed contempt (Scorn, disdain, depreciate, disrespect) Think about it, in our culture today, information is a very slippery slope. We assume because we’ve acquired a little info that we know what we’re talking about. No humility = unteachable

Episode Notes

Matthew 13:54-58,NKJV- When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?
55, Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?
56, And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?”
57, So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.”
58, Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

Familiarity really does breed contempt (Scorn, disdain, depreciate, disrespect)
Think about it, in our culture today, information is a very slippery slope. We assume because we’ve acquired a little info that we know what we’re talking about. No humility = unteachable

I can’t help but wonder how many of us are guilty of this very thing when it comes to Jesus? Let’s help each other to not confuse information with faith. Let’s stay teachable.

Think about it, because of the people’s familiarity with Jesus they allowed contempt instead of faith, they couldn’t see Jesus for who He was, because they had already concluded who He was and it limited what He could do miraculously.

Here’s where I’m going with this, can the all powerful, almighty God be limited?

Listen to Paul’s instructions from 1 Corinthians 10, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, but with most of them God was not pleased.
Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Psalm 78 makes it clear that those of us that walk with God are to tell the next generation of His wonderful works so they won’t be like this stubborn, rebellious generation, that refused to trust God. In spite of all the miracles.

It also reminds us of God delivering His people from Egyptian bondage, only to take them through the wilderness.

The wilderness is that place where unbelief is sent to die.

And at the same time, it’s the proving ground for our faith.

Psalm 78:40-41,NKJV- “How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, And grieved Him in the desert! Yes, again and again they tempted God, And limited the Holy One of Israel.” KJV, “they turned back”

When God's people continually disregarded His guidance, not only does it grieve Him, but when we rebel with unbelief, we actually limit Him.

Here’s the question we all need to consider; could our unbelieving, our ungodly thinking limit what God wants to do in our lives today?

Obviously we all do this to some degree in our faith journey.

v. 42 tells us that God's people simply forgot about His power that rescued them. Familiarity = contempt

What if we started asking God to show us areas where we limit Him?

Then believe Him for a new level of boldness and confidence to step into new areas of faith that He shows us.

For most of us, this revelation starts with a willingness to change how we think.

We serve a limitless God, so start thinking limitless thoughts.

I promise you, God wants to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all we can ask or think.

Just like any parent with their children, God wants His children to succeed in their lives.

These great examples we read of in the Bible weren't written just to show us what God use to do back then.

Remember Acts 10:34, Peter says, "I see very clearly that God does not show favoritism."

Truth is, God is counting on every one of us being more of a reflection of His greatness.

King David said, "We are fearfully and wonderfully made."

So let's make our minds up that we're going to believe that God will stretch us, or in the words of Jabez; 1 Chronicles 4, Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory... and God granted him his request.

Our key text in Psalm 78 clearly shows us that God wanted to do more than His people allowed Him to.

Think about it, He wanted to bring them into the promise land that first year, not forty years later.

But because of their unbelief it limited God from bringing them into the promise land.

Listen to Hebrews 3, Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, and they tested me in the wilderness. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God.

Remember, the wilderness is where unbelief is sent to die.

Unfortunately, the children of Israel show us that when unbelief doesn't die, it thrives.

And the result is still the same today, it limits God.

Numbers 13:1-2, 26-33,NKJV- Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.

26, Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.
27, Then they told him, and said: We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
28, Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.
29, The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.
30, Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.
31, But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.
32, And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.
33, There we saw the giants ( the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.

Every time we give place to the bad report it effects our faith, not only limiting the power of God that flows through us, but hindering us from accessing things God has already declared to be ours. Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel;

I believe God is patiently waiting for believers that will not only acknowledge the promised life He has for us, but be willing to take the necessary steps of faith to possess it.

Romans 8:29,NKJV- For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Psalm 78, How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, And grieved Him in the desert! Yes, again and again they tempted God, And limited the Holy One of Israel. Did their familiarity breed contempt? Think about all they saw.

So let’s not let the enemy deceive us into thinking that simply being born again is all there is to the Christian life. None of that generation got to go in and experience God’s promised land.

Philippians 3:12-14,NKJV- Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

In a talk like this it’s very important that we emphasize and focus on the reality that we are under the new covenant.
Which hangs under the banner of God’s love. Unlike under the old covenant, He’s not mad at us.

That being said, its still up to us to step into what He’s promised.

Remember our example with Jesus and the people’s familiarity with Him? they allowed for contempt instead of faith, they couldn’t see Jesus for who He was, because they had already concluded who He was and it limited what He could do in their lives.
I can’t help but wonder how many of us are guilty of this very thing when it comes to Jesus?