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SERMON
BE HAPPY – DON’T WORRY
Rather a tall order perhaps but it does not come from me. It is something that is a continuous
theme of the Bible – from Old to New Testament.
In the Old Testament God’s
people are instructed by Moses to be ‘strong and courageous’. Firstly Moses addresses the congregated
Israelites and secondly his words were specifically directed to Joshua. Joshua was to lead the Israelites
into the Promised Land, being their anointed leader.
This exhortation was related
to the Israelites by Moses as a revelation given by God. Further, the people were to be firm and to fear
not. Why? Because none other than the Lord their God would go before them. The battle had already been
won for the battle belonged to the Lord.
With such an assurance there was no
need to hesitate but rather go forward and possess the Land, as promised by God. The rest is history as the Israelites, directed
by God and led by Joshua, with Caleb as his right hand man, won many battles and laid claim to the promise.
When you are given such a testimony do you not feel liberated? When you listen
to God’s Word does it not make you feel that in and through God you are able to do all things? That
you as a member of God’s family, His Church, you are empowered to receive God’s promises, to possess the land
fearlessly and live a victorious life! To build His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Does
that sound like the life you are living?
Through and in Christ Jesus we have been given great freedom.
We are no longer under the curse of poverty, illness, despair and death. As the people of God, and
through Christ’s victory on the cross, we are blessed with prosperity, health, joy and life eternal. Is
that not what we believe – is that not what God’s Word reveals? What is stopping you from appropriating
the fullness of your inheritance and blessings?
In Mark, Jesus shares the parable
of the Sower. This parable is crucially the foundational parable to understanding the Kingdom of God principles
and supersedes all the other parables.
Jesus says:
‘Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age, and the pleasure and delight
and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things creeps in and chokes
and suffocates the Word, and it becomes fruitless’.
In this
revelation of God’s Word, Jesus reveals the cause of our losses. We lose when we do not give priority
to what our Lord is sharing with us. Too often we are taken up with the concerns and
worries of our daily lives, our wants and needs. We chase after shadows and wake up to find that most of our earthly lives
have passed us by.
We are like rudderless ships, tossed to and fro in a sea
of worldly troubles, disappointments and lost opportunities and dreams. When we lead such lives we are
saying we do not trust God as Lord of our lives, we doubt His love for us.
To put it bluntly, in holding on to our fears and doubts we are living according to our own dictates and we crown ourselves
as god of our own lives! We deny God access and quite often only allow Him in when we are desperate having
exhausted all other avenues and when the world system fails us. Our hearts become hardened and our vision
grows dim. We are influenced by self and governed by worldly principles.
Is it any
wonder that we lose faith and lead lives that lack victory and do not demonstrate to the world a life of blessed prosperity?
When the world turns to us for answers will we be equipped and ready?
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