6 Sep 2009
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13 Sep 2009
DARE TO CONFRONT
It is a struggle to confront or be confronted – on
personal wrongdoings. It is an unpleasant experience when confronted with
the truth. Sometimes, the purpose of confrontation is confession which can
evoke positive forces leading to forgiveness, reconciliation and
restoration.
In Genesis, God confront Adam – when he failed to keep
the simple instruction—“Thou shall not eat of the tree..” Adam cannot hide.
8 Then the man and his wife heard
the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the
day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9
But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
10 He answered, "I heard you in the
garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
Again in Genesis, God confront Cain – the murderer of
his brother Abel.
Genesis 4
9 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where
is your brother Abel?"
"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"
10 The LORD said, "What have you
done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.
11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which
opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 12
When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You
will be a restless wanderer on the earth."
God also use prophets, messengers and man of God to
confront.
God confront Eli, when his life is not right with God,
due to his ungodly sons, the sacrifices were distasteful and the people were
not happy. When he honours his sons more than God, and refuse to repent and
seek restoration, destruction follows and blessings of God stopped flowing.
1st Samuel 2:12-17
12 Eli's sons were wicked men; they
had no regard for the LORD. 13 Now it was the practice of
the priests with the people that whenever anyone offered a sacrifice and
while the meat was being boiled, the servant of the priest would come with a
three-pronged fork in his hand. 14 He would plunge it into
the pan or kettle or caldron or pot, and the priest would take for himself
whatever the fork brought up. This is how they treated all the Israelites
who came to Shiloh. 15 But even before the fat was burned,
the servant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing,
"Give the priest some meat to roast; he won't accept boiled meat from you,
but only raw."
16 If the man said to him, "Let the
fat be burned up first, and then take whatever you want," the servant would
then answer, "No, hand it over now; if you don't, I'll take it by force."
17 This sin of the young men was
very great in the LORD's sight, for they [d]
were treating the LORD's offering with contempt.
When your life is right with God- your TALK becomes
your WALK and it brings delight. If you TALK but never WALK your TALK- you
will stumble.
As parents, and as head of the household, it is our job
to confront our kids- before they go astray. How come they are not
praying…We need to instruct them while they are young- and to teach and
instill right values- and not to punish.
King Amizziah submitted to God and God bless him–until
he brought back the pagan Gods and threaten the prophet/messenger of God –
and destruction followed.
2nd Chronicle 25:2
2 He did what was right in the eyes
of the LORD, but not wholeheartedly. 3 After the kingdom
was firmly in his control, he executed the officials who had murdered his
father the king. 4 Yet he did not put their sons to death,
but acted in accordance with what is written in the Law, in the Book of
Moses, where the LORD commanded: "Fathers shall not be put to death for
their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die
for his own sins."
2nd Chronicles 25:14-16
14 When Amaziah returned from
slaughtering the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir.
He set them up as his own gods, bowed down to them and burned sacrifices to
them. 15 The anger of the LORD burned against Amaziah, and
he sent a prophet to him, who said, "Why do you consult this people's gods,
which could not save their own people from your hand?"
16 While he was still speaking, the
king said to him, "Have we appointed you an adviser to the king? Stop! Why
be struck down?"
So the prophet stopped but said, "I know that God has determined to
destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my
counsel."
King Uzziah ‘s blessings lead to pride and arrogance
to overstep his boundary and authority- to take the place and duty of the
priests to burn incense – leads to sufferings from physical leprosy until
his death.
2nd Chronicle 26:16-18
16
But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was
unfaithful to the LORD his God, and entered the temple of the LORD to burn
incense on the altar of incense.
17
Azariah the priest with eighty other courageous priests of the LORD followed
him in.
18
They confronted him and said, "It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn
incense to the LORD. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who
have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have
been unfaithful; and you will not be honored by the LORD God."
The church of Jesus Christ is build upon the solid
rock, the church of Jesus will prevail, it is not build upon a few
powerful or influential individuals lest we become puff up – as the saying
goes- pride goes before a fall. When we lose focus, and Jesus is no longer
real or when we reject and rebel- we will suffer spiritual leprosy.
As a leader, sometimes we do not get the support and
cooperation from the congregation. Worse still, the church may not be
united behind its leader. Even Peter denied, Thomas doubted and Judas
betrayed. In many situations, confrontation can lead to awakening, moving
the ordinary tasks into extraordinary service for the glory of God. It is
only when unity and cooperation are there, then can the church of Jesus
Christ march forward with the “ yes- we can” spirit in the face of
tiredness, weariness, sickness..etc .
We have 3 issues to
confront:
1. MORAL
2. CHARACTER
3. DOCTRINAL
MORAL
We are living in a permissive age. Just as John the
Baptist confronted King Herod and Prophet Nathan confronted King David. In
the both cases, the difference in attitude and led to different
outcomes/results. On the one hand, John the Baptist paid the ultimate price
with his life and died a righteous death. King David (mighty warrior kills
the lion and beat Goliath) submitted and yielded in true repentance and God
restored him with the fruit of righteousness.
Matt 14:3-6
3Now Herod had arrested John and
bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's
wife, 4for John had been saying to him: "It is not lawful
for you to have her." 5Herod wanted to kill John, but he
was afraid of the people, because they considered him a prophet.
6On Herod's birthday the daughter of
Herodias danced for them and pleased Herod so much
Lev 20:21
21 " 'If a man marries his brother's
wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonored his brother. They will be
childless
Lev 18:16
16 " 'Do not have sexual relations
with your brother's wife; that would dishonor your brother.
Just like the way God hates homosexuality when he
destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
Rm 1:26-27
26Because of this, God gave them over
to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for
unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned
natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.
Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the
due penalty for their perversion.
CHARACTER
Our integrity is at the center of our conduct. Peter
confronted Anais- on the issue of greed and lying against the holy spirit.
Acts 5:1-6
Acts 5
Ananias and Sapphira
1Now a man named Ananias, together
with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2With
his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but
brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet.
3Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is
it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit
and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?
4Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was
sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a
thing? You have not lied to men but to God."
5When Ananias heard this, he fell
down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.
6Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and
carried him out and buried him.
DOCTRINAL
Even the early church have to deal with the doctrinal
issue of circumcision and keeping the Lord’s commndments. We are saved by
grace of God and circumcision is of the heart and not the flesh. It is about
love and grace.
1st Cor 7:19
19Circumcision is nothing and
uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's commands is what counts.
Gal 6:15
15Neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation
Acts 15:1-11
1Some men came down from Judea to
Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised,
according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." 2This
brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul
and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to
Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3The
church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and
Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all
the brothers very glad. 4When they came to Jerusalem, they
were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they
reported everything God had done through them.
5Then some of the believers who
belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The Gentiles must
be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses."
6The apostles and elders met to
consider this question. 7After much discussion, Peter got
up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a
choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of
the gospel and believe. 8God, who knows the heart, showed
that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to
us. 9He made no distinction between us and them, for he
purified their hearts by faith. 10Now then, why do you try
to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we
nor our fathers have been able to bear? 11No! We believe
it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they
are."
1st John 3:23
23And this is his command: to believe
in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he
commanded us.
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20 Sep 2009
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