5 "C"s of Fruitful Living

5 "C"s

Confidence

Heb 10:35, "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward." (KJV)

Heb 10:35, 36, "So don't throw it all away now. You were sure of yourselves then. It's still a sure thing! But you need to stick it out, staying with God's plan so you'll be there for the promised completion." (MSG)

Confidence – parrhesia - frank, outspoken, bold, assured. Our confidence is in God & His promises, not ourselves.

Proverbs 29:25, "The fear of human opinion disables; trusting in GOD protects you from that." (MSG)

When we know who we are and what we are about, this kind of confidence allows you to act decisively.

“Confidence is not knowing how it will work out but knowing that we can work it out”.

Peter – stepped out of the boat & walked on water. Learned some things.
Experiences like this laid the foundation for  the amazing things he did later. Don’t take too much notice of the scornful, the knockers & detractors – you will end up a winner. How do you gain confidence? …… Have a go!

Courage

“The means by which the weak & fearful overcome difficulty & danger”.

Courage is not so much the way of super heroes but the way of ordinary people in extraordinary situations.

E.g. heroic actions of ordinary people in the recent QLD floods.

How David reacted to a catastrophe at Ziglag.

1 Sa 30:6, "And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God." (KJV)

“Encouraged” – chazaq - seize, grasp, take hold. David anointed to be king. No circumstance would change that. What if he had quit then? Would have lost it all. He encouraged himself in God, sought God’s guidance, acted decisively and recovered all they had lost & then some, destroying  the enemy in the process.

Pro 28:1, "The wicked flee when no man pursues; but the righteous are bold as a lion."

Our righteousness is the gift of God. Courage comes with it.

Community

Gen 2:18, "It's not good for a Man to be alone."

We are created to live in community.

The Kingdom of God is first of all relational (triune God).

Unless in right relationship with God & each other we are dysfunctional. What would happen if the Father, Son & Holy Spirit acted in disunity? Cosmic chaos! What happens when we act in disunity?

1 Co 12:12, "For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ."

1Co 12:20, 21, "But now indeed many are the members, yet only one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you."

We prosper & our gift functions in community. We need the body & the body needs us. Even if we seem insignificant, we are essential. Those who seem insignificant to us are also vital.

1 Cor 12:22-24.

How do we do it? Having the mind of Christ, serving each other in humility & love. Phil 2:1-15.

Phil 2:3, 4, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves. Do not let each man look upon his own things, but each man also on the things of others."

Contentment

“Is not getting what you want, but wanting what you get.”

The true riches.
1Ti 6:6-10, "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows". (KJV)

Contentment can be learned.
Phil  4:11-13, "Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am." (MSG)

 

It does not depend on how little or how much we have but how much we trust God.

Discontentment a distraction. We miss out on God’s promise.

Confuse wants with needs.  “Your heavenly Father knows what you need.” “Give us this day our daily bread”.

Manna – perfect nutrition but they preferred quail & the leeks & onions & garlic of Egypt.

Their discontent cost that generation their inheritance.

Discontent destroys relationships. James 4:1-3.

“The grass is not greener on the other side of the fence. It is greener where you water it”.

Frugality – choosing to live with little can give you much  (time to reflect, meditate, pray, fellowship & work effectively) It can make you richer!

Love God & people, use things. Not the other way round.

Consecration

1 Co 6:19, 20, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have of God? And you are not your own, for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."

Rom 12:1, "I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service."

“I delight to do Your will”

Col 3:23, 24, "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men; knowing that from the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance. For you serve the Lord Christ."

2 Ti 2:3, 4, "Therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one who wars tangles with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who chose him to be a soldier."

Is our aim to please ourselves or others or to please God? What we do in secret, to please Him, He rewards openly. Matt 6:1-4.

Service Times

Sunday Morning
10:00am - 11:30am

Sunday Evening
5:30pm - 7:00pm

Location

105 Dyson Road,
Christies Beach,
South Australia, Australia.

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Jesus Goes With Us

Mark 16:14-15, 19-20
14 Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.

15 He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation."

19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.

20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.