Developing Godly Character: Faithfulness (pt.3)

(Part 3)

“If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”

                                                                                                            2 Timothy 2:13

Faithfulness is more than how God acts in regard to His promises or commitments. It is who He is! God cannot be anything but faithful, because to do anything else would cause Him to have to disown Himself! Faithfulness is God’s nature:

“When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged.”

                                                                                                Hebrews 6:13-18

God’s faithfulness is an immutable, unchangeable truth. Understanding this is important for two reasons. First, knowing this about God can infuse a believer with a tremendous amount of peace. Secondly, because it is an unchanging truth about God, it should not be such a changing attribute in each of our lives:

“Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

                                                                                                            2 Peter 1:4

Faithfulness, therefore, should be a priority for us; because when we walk in faithfulness we demonstrate God’s very nature.

Most of us, if asked, would likely characterize ourselves as being faithful. However, if we are honest, we will find it is a characterization based on comparison. We either gauge our faithfulness in comparison to how we used to live or we compare ourselves to others we deem to be less faithful.

Yet, when we were to compare ourselves to God, who does not change and is faithful by nature, we quickly see the depth of our character flaw.

 

 Pastor Scott Burr                                                                    

http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/

 

Developing Godly Character (pt. 2)

“Not that I have already obtained all this,  or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”

                                                                                    Philippians 3:12

None of us can claim perfection, but we should be making it our aim! A simple definition of the word aim is: to direct ourselves at a target. Aiming for perfection, then means that we do all the adjusting.

Before the days of radar, ships coming into a harbor would depend on a lighthouse for two primary things: to guide them into harbor and to warn them of dangerous reefs, rocks or jetting shorelines. The interesting thing about these lighthouses is that they never move. If a ship’s captain would veer off course, away from the lighthouse or away from its beam, it was always up to him to adjust. The lighthouse held its position.

Similarly, when I was in the military, on the firing range qualifying with my weapon, the targets never moved! If I missed the mark, it was up to me to adjust my sights, redirect my aim, or better control my breathing if I was going to hit the mark.

That phrase “missing the mark” is also one way in which sin is defined in scripture. There is nothing that will throw your pursuit of godly character off course faster than sin. Sin is at the root of every character flaw.

Character is the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. It is moldable based on its influences. Our character can be bad or it can be noble depending upon what we are allowing to mold our character:

“Don’t be misled, “Bad company corrupts good character.”

                                                                                                1 Corinthians 15:33

Sin is a darkness that invades and corrupts our character. Jesus admonished us to evaluate those things we allow ourselves to take in through the lamp of the eye in Luke 11:34-36:

“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you.”

No part dark! That is Jesus’ desire for each of us. It is the aim of godly character.

 

Pastor Scott Burr                                                                    

http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/

 

Developing Godly Character (pt.1)

(Part 1)

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him is no darkness at all.”

                                                                                    1 John 1:5

To me this passage represents the essence of God’s character. God is light; in Him is no darkness at all. God has no character flaws! That is an idea that is both awesome and intimidating at the same time.

Awesome because we know that according to James 1:17, that the “Father of heavenly lights, does not change like the shifting shadows.” We can trust in the consistency of God’s character. It is perfect, true, and unchanging.

However, God‘s character can be intimidating because of passages like 1 John 2:6:

“Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”

God desires for us to be like Him! So, on one hand, we are comforted by the fact that God has no character flaws; however, on the other hand we are made uncomfortable by the fact that we, unlike God, have so many!

How many of you would be honest enough to say that you have character flaws? It is from that place of genuine awareness that we can begin to pursue authentic godly character.

The pursuit of godly character begins with spiritual poverty. It begins with a realistic look at God’s perfection and our imperfection; then aiming our lives towards that which God is calling us; Himself!

None of us can claim to be perfect, but we should be making it our aim. Too often we hide behind idioms like “Nobody is perfect!” as an excuse for not trying.

In 2 Corinthians 13:9, the Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth:

“We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is for your perfection.”

The books of First and Second Corinthians deal with all kinds of character flaws manifesting themselves within the church, and yet Paul prays for their perfection.

It was a principle Paul applied to his own life as well:

“Not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”

                                                                                                            Philippians 3:12

Someone once said that if you “aim at nothing” you will hit it every time. If we want to develop godly character in our lives, then we must aim for perfection!

 

Pastor Scott Burr                                                                    

http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/

 

"Repairing the Breaches"

(Part  6)

“Moreover in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah.”

                                                                                    Nehemiah 13:23-24

The final gaping spiritual hole Nehemiah was forced to address was the intermarrying of God’s people with nations they specifically been told not to unite themselves with. Nehemiah declared:

“Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women. Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?”

                                                                                    Nehemiah 13:26-27

This unequal yoking of God’s people with heathen nations led to Israel’s downfall; as the men of Israel began to be led into idolatry by their foreign wives. In fact, they drifted so far from the things of God that half of their children grew up speaking the language of these nations rather than the language of Judah.

Like Israel, we have allowed ourselves to become married to the things of this world. Our children are growing up speaking the language of the world and are completely ignorant of the language of Holy Scripture. They can tell you all you want to know about Miley Cyrus, the Kardashians, and LeBron James, however they can tell you very little about stalwarts of the faith like Abraham, Daniel, David, and Paul. They know very little about who Jesus is, what He said, and how He lived.

The Apostle Paul warned us in 2 Corinthians 6:14-15:

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?”

Paul admonished the Corinthian believers, who had begun to adopt the practices of their culture, to “Come out from them and be separate.”

Nehemiah was so distraught by what he was seeing, scripture tells us, that he called down curses on those who had intermarried; he beat some of the men and pulled out their hair, and made them swear oaths to God never again to yoke themselves with foreign nations. Sound intense? Nehemiah knew, from past experience, what had caused Israel’s downfall and refused to allow them to travel that road again.

Like Nehemiah we have a responsibility to carry a genuine concern for the spiritual condition of the Body of Christ; but we cannot be simply concerned, we must take care of the breeches nearest to us. Nehemiah entrusted the repairing of the walls to those who lived closest to the breeches. You and I have a responsibility to examine and address those breeches nearest to us; beginning with ourselves, our family, our church, and our community.

 

Pastor Scott Burr                                                                    

http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/