Teaching. January 28, 2007

January 28, 2007

I am posting my notes on Pastor Tom’s teaching from Sunday, January 28th. These are MY notes. Not a transcript. Not his notes. Any misquotes, mistakes, or mystifications are my fault (or something like that). All verses are from NASB 1995.

Tom started off by saying that this was short teaching, an extension of what Mike had taught 2 weeks previously (scroll down). It was not what he had prepared for this morning. It was more in the nature of a "head dump" and I know that I missed some things, and mis-paraphrased others. However, I think I am pretty close to what he was saying.

Confidence, cont.

Isaiah 32:17. And the work [or fruit] of righteousness will be peace,
And the service [ or effect] of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.

Tom: there is a gap between what I (Tom and the rest of us) confess as true and how I (we) live my life. What do we do about that gap?

Galatians 3:6. Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

We believe, declare it to be true, and have peace. Peace is governmental, it is part of His rule and authority.

Romans 14:17. ...For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Quietness can be emptiness or contentment. We are talking about the latter. A quietness that is borne out of a relationship with God.

Confidence, here, is not bravado or bluster. It is “confide” -ence. We confide in Him. We need to know Him and who already knows us; we need to know Him by whom we are already known.

There is a gap between what I (Tom) sing during worship and how I feel at that moment. How do I respond? I chose to believe it, I proclaim it, I have faith that He will do it. And God reckons it to me as righteousness, and I have “the quietness and confidence forever.”

If I lack quietness and confience, I can back up to the righteousness, and I come back to “believe God.” I engage again, I return again to who He is.

And in that I find refreshment.

Isaiah 30:15
15 For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said,
“In repentance and rest you will be saved,
In quietness and trust is your strength.”

Tom then gave an example of having surgery, then going to physical therapy. He asked Gary if he had liked it. And Gary said, “I hated it, but I needed it.” The physical therapy is not what we would like to do (our feelings), but it is what we need to do. When we least want to worship is when we most need to. We need to believe. And He is able to bring His word to pass.

Tom: “It is does not matter what we are feeling about it, but what we are ‘faithing’ about it.” (“Yes, I just made up a word today.”)

Acts 4:13. Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.

“They... had been with Jesus.” Apostles had confidence because they had soaked and marinated in Jesus.

Your daily devotion? Do you have one (don’t raise your hand). Is it alive? (Good). Or has it become routine? (That is good also). But for all of us, Jesus wants to stir anew in our lives; to bring more life to us and bring life again to our devotion.

This week, meditate on this:

Isaiah 32:17. And the work [or fruit] of righteousness will be peace,
And the service [ or effect] of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.