When you hear the word “God” spoken, what is the first thing that comes to mind? For many, it is terms like “all powerful”, “ruler”, “judge”, “creator” and it is certainly true that God is indeed all of these things. Yet He is so much more. One of the more popular cliché statements used in our current culture is that Christianity is not about religion, but about relationship… and while that is absolutely true, for many of us, the truth of that statement is lost in our daily lives.
For many people the relationship with God does not progress beyond the basic “Christian behaviors” and rituals that most people perform because it is what they think a good Christian is supposed to do. I’ve spoken with people time and time again who are not actually living out of a true relationship with Jesus, but out of rituals and traditions that are empty and unfulfilling. And they flounder around – many of them their entire life, searching for something that they don’t even know exactly what, because they can sense something is missing but they have not made the connection, that what is missing is the foundation of a real relationship with Jesus Christ. This is what we will be studying today.
Have you ever started a project and then left it unfinished? I have. In today’s hectic modern lifestyle where everything is competing for our attention, I sometimes find myself starting one thing, getting distracted – sometimes for hours – and then remembering that I left the task I began still unfinished at the end of the day. Even if you’ve never done that yourself, you have probably had someone else do that to you at one time or another; and it can be disheartening, frustrating and disruptive.
Sometimes, leaving a project or task unfinished is unavoidable for us. However it is not so with God. Many of us unconsciously project this same trait onto our Heavenly Father. We assume based on our own experience with others and ourselves that God will also leave some of His tasks unfinished – this can subconsciously create fear, worry and anxiety, because we may start to wonder “Will God actually do this? Will He really bring about what He promised?” However, by seeing the truth of Christ, we can be set free from this anxiety, knowing that He who promised is faithful, and this is what we will be studying today.
Last week we studied how Jesus Christ has ushered us into a new covenant with better promises. However even though this is absolutely true and a wonderful reality for us in Christ, there are still many believers who have an inward unrest within themselves – a doubt and a seed of confusion regarding whether they should still keep the Law of Moses. They know the scriptures, they know what we studied last week about not mixing the two covenants, but they still have some questions.
In the past when I have taught on the covenants, I always had questions arise about the Law, and indeed the same questions still come up today. So we will be addressing these same questions today in this study. Questions such as: Jesus said He didn’t abolish the Law, so does it still apply to believers? And also: Even in the New Covenant God says that He will put His laws in our minds and write them on our hearts, is this the Ten Commandments?
These questions have stumbled many believers over the years and kept alive this uncertainty and fear regarding the Old Covenant, and therefore they have not been able to fully embrace grace. So if this describes you, then the truth of Jesus in this study will set you free today.
I'm going to begin today by making a very controversial statement: Jesus is all that you need. Among believers, this statement is surprisingly controversial. Some people will say: “well, we need oxygen and food and water – so Jesus is really not all that we need.” This seems logical and even reasonable at first, when viewed through the lens of the world, but is this really what the Bible teaches?
In this study today, we will be examining the sufficiency of God, and specifically His sufficiency for us, in all things. Because if we do not understand that God is our total sufficiency, then we must begin looking to other things to fill-in the gaps. So as we see these truths today, we will broaden our view of the nature and character of God, and will be able to receive more from Him.
You have probably heard it said before, that God is a God of second-chances. But what exactly does this statement mean? What is the implication of such a truth? If God is a God of second-chances, then does that mean that there are no second-chances without Him? And how precisely do we avail ourselves of the second-chances that we are offered?
In this study today, we are going to be answering these questions from scripture. Taking a look at where this popular phrase comes from and how it applies to our daily life. By seeing this truth, you can have security in the completed work of Jesus Christ, and doubt, confusion and fear will no longer steal the peace you have in Christ.
There are so many things in life vying for our attention. Every new product every new item carries with it a promise of making our lives better, easier and more fulfilling. However the excitement of that new thing is always short-lived – usurped when the next new thing comes along... electronics that were new last month are already obsolete this month. Nothing of this world ever lasts.
However there is one – one person – who can give us true fulfillment, not just a temporary satisfaction, but a permanent fulfillment that totally completes us in every way. Today we will be studying how this is so, and how to receive this provision of Jesus Christ into our lives, so that we will not be searching or be entangled by the things of this world any longer.