In the end, God will make it! (Philippians1:6, Hebrew 3:8-13)

In the end, God will make it! (Philippians1:6, Hebrew 3:8-13)

“ And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Do you know that what is very important for you? it is your heart.

Nevertheless, we neglect our heart, mind.

Our life, future life is determined by the mind of each of us. However, we can’t keep well our mind.

And even we do not know well about our state of heart. Because it it is invisible.

Our hands and feet are visible, so, if they are dirty, we can wash it. But for our hearts, mind, it’s very difficult to know it. 

Hebrews 3:12 (ESV) says of an evil heart is unbelieving heart. And verse 13 says, “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

According to this verse, by the deceitfulness of sin, our hearts are hardened. If the sinful thoughts come into our hearts, and if we keep it into our heart, our hearts may be hardened.

If your mind is hardened, the voice of the Lord will no longer be heard, and you cannot feel the Lord any more.

            When the demon put the thoughts that to sell Jesus into Iscariot Judas’s mind. He took the thoughts and he beard it into his mind. We are also doing like him. Demon put one sinful and bad thoughts and we incubate it into our heart. We keep thinking it again and again. in the end, demon can control your mind. So that, even though the Lord speak to us, the voice of the Lord is not able to be heard to us. And getting our heart hardened and become evil heart. It is so terrified.  

At the time of Exodus, the Israelites became such a state

According to Hebrews 3:8-10, to the person who has a deceived mind, the heart of the Lord is not seen. The Lord always shows us exactly the way. But because our minds are deceived by sinful thoughts, the way of God is not seen to us.

So, we thought that this way would be good to live, but the way that we choose would flow in the wrong direction.

Verse 11, as I swore in my wrath, ‘they shall not enter my rest”.

Finally, if we continue to stiff and hardened our heart, we would become like the one who is forsaken from God.

You can diagnose yourself whether your own mind became stubborn or not.

Now, if you can believe that the Lord is with you, and the word of the Lord is heard to you, then you have tender heart which is good heart that the Holy Spirit could work new in it.

But, if you can’t believe that the Lord be with you, and the word of the Lord is not heard to you, and even though you pray to the Lord, your prayer has any relationship with God’s will, your mind has to be changed.

Many of us have this situation, even my heart also many times and many moments is hardened. I’m really stubborn person.

But whenever, I realize it, I try to be changed, I try to turn back to the Lord otherwise I will die in the darkness. It is very hard, but my God is very merciful God. He always forgives me and gives me His grace to overcome, to be new.  And he allows me to live in His presence. I can live in Him.

Stay in the Lord.

Let the Lord dwell in you. So that your mind can be soften again.

So that you can be led by God and you can bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

To stay in the Lord is that leave to the Lord all of your worry. It means that you believe in the Lord completely.  

It is an amazing grace. Because, when you fully trust God in the midst of your troubles, your mind can get the rest. Why? Because God took all your problems and He will solve it, He will provide it. So that your mind can take rest and can be soften.

In Philippians 1:6, “and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring you it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

We have to realize this. Jesus came into your life, and you. He is in you now. And it is the beginning of His good work in you. This amazing! How could God come into our mind?

But this marvelous thing truly has begun in us through the gospel of the cross of the Lord.

So, what we have to do? We truly have to believe in Him.

To become your mind, soften is not by your endeavor but the faith in the Lord. That’s when the Lord works for you. We have the work of Jesus and the work of flesh in us. And the work of Jesus in us seems small and the work of flesh seems great. So, sometimes the work of flesh gets up to us, and we get frustrated when we are dragged into the work of the flesh.

But, you think. Is there no work of the Lord in you, in your life?

Just sitting in a church like this is the work of the Lord.

Do you want to pray to the Lord even though you don’t know how to pray well?

Unless the Holy Spirit, it is impossible that you want to pray to the Lord.

Even the grief of the Holy Spirit,… do you feel something that God is revoking you?

In the book of Revelation, the Lord revokes the church in Asia.

If you feel something that God is revoking you, it means that God have not thrown you away, and He still loves you.

The work of flesh in you will continue. But obviously there is the work of the Lord in you.

So you must see it bigger.

We must to continue to admire about the Lord’s work in us, to be more grateful, and to admit it with our mouths.

“Lord, have done this for me. Lord, it is your work for my maturity. O, Lord, you are correcting my wrong thinking and action. Lord, thank you and please forgive me and renew me Lord”

if you do this, finally, your eyes will be more and more open to the Lord’s work for you.

My sisters and brothers in the Lord, our Lord is able to raise up you. He came to you already, and He is leading you until now and here. If you focus on the work of the Lord in you, the Holy Spirit is able to raise you up.

In Matthew 5, Jesus ask us that if anyone slaps on your right cheek, turn to him other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

It is not a word. How can we live like this?

Then, why did the Lord say this?

We cannot, I know that, but the Lord will make us live like that.

What should we do when the Lord make us to live like that?

We must say thank you, Hallelujah, right?

Then, how does Jesus let us live like that?

“I am the vine, and you are the branches. Whoever abide in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

It is the answer of the Lord.

If we truly believe in Jesus, He will let me do it that I cannot do by my strength. If you surely trust in God, you will live according to God’s word.

Do not be discouraged, if you fail.

Did Peter deny Jesus three times and even curse Him? Right?

Nevertheless, Jesus built Peter up as a great apostle. Our Lord is able to do so.

Even though, I am a loser and I think I cannot be saved, the Lord Jesus is able to raise me up.

The Lord does it.

We must to believe this fact. 

What is our work?, it is to encourage each other day by day that our mind not to be stubborn before God.

Are you not glad to serve the Lord and church, and people like before? When you have worship service, your mind is not the same as before? And do you want to just leave to somewhere? Stay in the Lord Jesus Christ. Only he can heal you.

Now, some of us, realize that your heart became hardened while you listen to this sermon?

It is a good advantage. Because you can return from here. If you feel that you want to go back now, it means that the Lord has begun something new that you can turn your heart to the Lord.

And you will feel that quiet change that the Holy Spirit leads you and refresh you. Do not expect dramatic change. If you expect it, you will miss it, and you will be discouraged again.

I can say that God does not work that dramatic way all the times. And God does not work in your time schedule.

If you rejoice and appreciate and thank God for a very small matter in every single day, at some point you will enter into such a fullness of the Lord.

Let’s fix our eyes on the Lord for 24 hours a day.

Has your heart been prepared to see the Lord when He comes again?

Would not the Lord feel like a stranger for you?

It is really terrible.

What should we prepare and live in this world?

It is Living in the Lord. It is most precious as your life.

If we live not to our heart become hardened, when Jesus comes again, there is no problem at all.

Let’s pray that “ Lord, please touch my heart. Lord, please soften my heart. I can’t make it by my will. Lord, I will entrust my life to you, be in my heart and change my mind.”a