Sunday Northfield VT – 02/10/2013

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Speakers:

• Steven Atherton
• Megan Atherton

Scriptures used:

• Psalm 3
• Luke 2:40

Subject:

• Growth is a part of the Christian walk.  In other words, you do not begin at your end.  For example, Elisha was not ready to stand as he did when the King of Syria sent his army to take him (as recorded in II Kings 6:8-23) at the time Elijah called him (I Kings 19:19-21) or even when he asked and received the double portion of Elijah’s anointing (II Kings 2:1-14).  Even Jesus grew.  His Father did not ask him to die on the cross the day He was born, nor did he ask him to confront the Pharisees as he later did when he was 12 years old, nor did he send Him forth in His power until after He had passed through His temptation by the devil in the wilderness.  The point is that we are to grow in Christ and the experiences whereby that occurs are frequently highly uncomfortable, but it is in those experiences that provoke us to cry out to the Lord that we see Him move and our confidence in Him grows.
• Opposition.  If you are going to choose Christ then you are going to experience lots of opposition.  Get used to it.  Do not let it trouble you.  It will come from all sides – e.g. the self-righteous will judge you as not deserving of the grace of God and the unbeliever will consider your trust in God to be utter foolishness.
• God is a shield about us.  If it were not that God is a shield around us, how could we lie ourselves down to sleep or otherwise move forward in Him?  Therefore sleep itself, when it is not too excess, can be an act of faith.
• God is our glory.  If it is about you, then you will seek your own glory.  That is what those that are in the world do and preach.  We are to give all the glory unto God, because we know that of our own selves we can do no good thing.
• God is the lifter of our head.  If you are going to walk with the Lord you are going to experience utter despair and hopelessness.  Not seeing how God could be with you nor seeing how you can find your way out of the circumstances that encompass you and seem to show no way of escape.  But it is God who will lift your head and show you that He is with you and that He knows how to deliver you.
• Crying unto the Lord is going to happen quite frequently if you choose to serve the Lord.  It is because you are going to regularly find yourself in highly uncomfortable situations that are way too big for you.  It is just in such situations (which most people try to avoid at all costs and therefore never have the experiences David is talking about) that you are provoked to cry out to the Lord.  But when He moves in response to your cry, then you know He is real and that His Word is true in a way that you could not otherwise know.
• Victory and fearlessness.  As you grow in the Lord through the experiences described above, you come to a place of fearlessness because you know that God is with you and therefore you no longer fear what man can do.  Then the tables are turned and rather it is man that fears you because God is with you.  This is the testimony of Elisha, Gideon, Esther, Jesus, Paul and others.