1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not the author of confusion
but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.”
Last week, Pastor Kyle
continued in our Sunday Sermon Series through the book of Acts. Confusion is
reality for every human being on planet Earth … sometimes on a daily basis. We
need do learn to turn confusion into an opportunity for the gospel because confusion
is rapidly intensified by our personal fears and presuppositions towards
unhealthy tendencies. We need to (1) identify how our fears are affecting us
emotionally. (2) We need to sort out fact from fiction. Fear can force you to
two extremes, neither which are true. (3) Fear causes an emotional reaction
within us to magnify the negatives in our lives and ignore the positives. (4)
Fear causes us to over-generalizing single pieces of evidence towards the false
thinking of catastrophic imaginations. (5) Fear causes us to perceive ourselves
as the victim. (6) Fear causes us to believe that we are being unfairly
treated. (7) Fear blames other people for our problems (8) Fear always wants to
be right, falsely saying that every good action we take with one day “pay off
with dividends” in the end. (9) Fear wrongly mislabel other people and (10)
Fear causes us to automatically believe that all of our feelings are true
despite evidence to the contrary and make unwise choices.
Proverbs 6:16-19 “These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an
abomination to Him: A proud
look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift
in running to evil, a false
witness who speaks lies,
and one who sows discord among brethren.”
When confusion isn’t cleaned
up, it can quickly lead to chaos and all kinds of nonconstructive and
destructive behaviors. At the core of confusion is gossip, which is fuel on the
fire to manipulate. Gossip stems from our desires to protect ourself or make
ourselves feel better at someone else’s expense rooted in our fears. And when
we project our fears upon others, we fan the flames of confusion. Everyone gets
confused, but confusion that does not get heated is godliness. Keeping your
cool within confusion is maturity and godly. God doesn’t give us a spirit of
fear. Confusion is the devil’s roar to keep us from the things of God.
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 “For I
delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He
was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”
Five things to turn
confusion around into a gospel opportunity are (1) Deal with the source of the
feeling and/or fear first. In order to deal with the source of the fear, you
have to find it first to claim it down. Most of the time, the source is not
real. We need to get to the place were fear will not make a decision for me. (2)
We need to go to the gospel (not just the presenting problem). A “presenting
problem is what someone comes in to talk to you about, but is only the tip of
the iceberg for the problem. There is an underlying issue, but what truly
matters? Go to the gospel. When we believe that going to the gospel is only for
those who do not know or have not heard of the Lord and not for the people of
God also, then we miss the entire point of Christianity in our daily need. We
have to preach the gospel to ourselves every single day. It is the power that transforms our lives. (3)
Embrace a posture of compassion and serving. The path to peace is called “Servanthood Road Mission
Onward,
Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with
the cross of Jesus going on before. Christ,
the royal Master, leads against the foe; forward
into battle see his banners go! At
the sign of triumph Satan's host doth flee; on
then, Christian soldiers, on to victory! Hell's
foundations quiver at the shout of praise; brothers,
lift your voices, loud your anthems raise. Like
a mighty army moves the church
of God
but thechurch of Jesus
but the
In Christ, Brian
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