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COMMITMENT BY GEORGE DAVIDSON - PART 2

Posted by: jpeters <jpeters@...>

 

 

 

Introduction

What are the ingredients for Christian living? There are three things I would like to talk about today.

I Knowledge

2 Conviction
3 Trust

Each one of these elements will determine what kind of Christian life you and I are going to pursue

Knowledge

What do we mean by knowledge? For example, many in this world don’t know the true God Thousands have never heard the name of Jesus God does not figure in their daily life. They may have knowledge of gods but they do not understand that the creator God is a personal God.

Where does that information come from? That might seem obvious question to those who are familiar with the written word of God.

There is no way to learn of this Personal God except through the words that he has sent us

Look at this insight from the man who has been called the wisest man who ever lived.

(Prov 2 1 NRSV) My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you, (Prov 2.2 NRSV) making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding, (Prov 2.3 NRSV) if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding, (Prov 24 NRSV) if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures-(Prov 2.5 NRSV) then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

Knowledge comes from the word His word. Not our own idea of what is God

Like most knowledge, it comes a bit at a time. If you really want to learn about anything, you go on learning.

I read the other day that the only thing that really stays with us through our life is curiosity. What a wonderful gift when it comes to learning about the knowledge of God

The average person will be quick to tell you his knowledge about almost anything except God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conviction page 2 of 8 George Davidson

 

An expert in any field has spent a lot of time cleaning the knowledge of his chosen subject In addition; you will often find that in a lot of cases they come back to the simplicity of the topic.

The apostle Paul gives us an idea of how that knowledge comes to us.

(Rom 11 32 NRSV) For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be

merciful to all.

(Rotn Ii 33 NRSV) 0 the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God~

How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Unfathomable)

(Rom 11.34 NRSV) 11For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?"

(Rom 11~35 NRSV) ‘Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?" (Rom 11.36 NRSV) For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen

Among some of the things we learn about God in these few verse is this.

He alone brings knowledge of himself to us.

We are encouraged to continue learning from his written word about him.

But it is interesting that knowledge is only as good as the use made of it.

(2 Cor 10:3 NRSV) Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards;

(2 Cor 10:4 NRSV) for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments

(2 Cor 10:5 NRSV) and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

(2 Cor 10:6 NRSV) We are ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.

Do you grasp what Paul is saying here? Every time you are disobedience in, not just deed but also in word and thought, take care of it

(2 Cor 0 7 NRSV) Look at what is before your eyes. If you are confident that you

belong to Christ, remind yourself of this, that just as you belong to Christ, so also do

we

 

 

 

 

Here is an item from a Psychiatrist.

According to eminent psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, "Fearing pain, almost all of us to a greater or lesser degree attempt to avoid problems. We procrastinate, hoping they will go away. We ignore them and pretend they don’t exist We attempt to get out of them rather than suffer through them. This tendency to avoid problems, and the emotional pain inherent, is the primary basis of human mental illness"

Knowledge of God allows us to face our problems. The tendency in the present world to whinge and blame somebody else for our problem. You can see that in the plethora of memoirs, with a kind of no hold bars. It was my family, by boss, my wife, my poverty, my lack of education, anybody but me. Some of these things leave us with pain

God doesn’t want you to ignore your pain - he wants you to discover the cause- Pain is like a warning light in the cockpit of an aircraft: it tells you there’s something wrong that needs to be fixed.

The truth is that God uses pain for good in my life. It’s much easier to understand and handle my pain when I know it has a purpose

That all adds to the knowledge of God. The more we understand about God the better we are able to cope in a hard cruel world.

The Second thing I mentioned:

Conviction

A firmly held belief

In our case fully convinced that Jesus is all that he says he is.

(Rom 14 22 NRSV) The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before God Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve.

This applies to second generation Christians and new Christians. Christian parents can and do give a lot of knowledge about God. What they cannot pass on is conviction. We often wish we could but that is up to the individual.

(1 Th 1:5 NRSV) because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake.

 

 

 

Every Christian should ask. This question is my conviction my own? On the other hand, is it just based on a knowledge base of what I have heard or read?

Many of us can easily get to the Knowledge stage. Conviction happens down inside of us. It begins the process of change.

There is a compound word in the dictionary that says a lot about conviction.

Let me take a minute to highlight the difference between what I mean by conviction and commitment.

They are not the same:

Commitment is: An obligation, a promise. Conviction is a pledge to do something in the future. It is possible to be very committed and not convicted. Try to get this right in your mind

Let me give you an illustration. When a church makes changes some leave, almost 70 percent of some churches have left. Those 70 percent were among the most committed you would find anywhere

Most of them would never have missed a Sunday day, tithing, and were totally committed So what happened. Did they lose their commitment probably not because many of them still attend some fellowship or other? So what happened When the changes were announced they were not convicted that it was really God’s doing.

 

Here is the difference.

Commitment can be learned and as parents we tauzht our children the value of commitment.

On the other hand, Conviction comes from God. How to you get conviction.

It is not handed down commitment.

Has your knowledge of God brought you to the deep held conviction that he is who he says he is and will do what he says he will do? Paul again!

(Rom 14:22 NRSV) The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before God. Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve.

 

Conviction: A firmly held belief. It means to be totally convicted of something

As contrasted with Half-hearted.

Half-hearted. It means without too much enthusiasm or determination many of us have a halfhearted conviction. The knowledge that does not really upset our life style and allows us to do what we want to do, we can cope with.

We lose determination and enthusiasm if the conviction means a change in our life.

 

(Heb 11:1 NRSV) Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Often our conviction is centered on the things we can feel and touch or do.

But much of conviction and the results of it cannot be seen.

 

The last word is- Trust

We have Knowledge

We have Conviction

We now need Trust

 

Trust

Here we have to make a move from just factual head knowledge to something different. Trust.

You may want to write these couple of things down.

The knowledge we have learned now must be transformed to Trust That means we do the following.

Believe that God in the person of Jesus Christ is who he says he is. He is God; if we don’t believe that he is God we cannot believe that he could save us.

Trust comes into play. This is probably the hardest of these three things. Because trust is to believe in spite of how you are feeling, what you see around you, what is happening in your life. It also is related to how God instruct us and whom he used to instruct us. Why were you called into the Church of God7 Do you Trust it was and is God

Can you trust Christ to do what he says he will do?

When you do you, enter into a relationship to become his friend and he yours.

Look at this scripture in John’s letter.

(1 John 5.13 NRSV) I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

(1 John 5:14 NRSV) And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

(I John 5:15 NRSV) And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him

This is moving from the Knowledge and Convictions to Trust.

All three of these elements are required for a rounded Christian life.

You will find that people with only knowledge, like to display what they know about there knowledge, those with conviction like to feel there conviction is a badge of righteousness, trust on the other hand is a complete reliance on what God will do

Let me illustrated like this. God has made a lot of changes in the church and many of us are happy about it. We have knowledge of God and how he might work. We are convicted that he will do what he said he would. Trust, Oh! Yes! Let me give you a scenario, Suppose your minister , had a vision next week and in it God revealed that the changes he was planning to make. Could you trust him, would you trust him?

Right the scenario, is far fetched, could you trust him, even if it was? Trust.

What does it mean to really believe in Christ?

(John 3 16 NRSV) "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Many think that believe is just the knowledge that he is the son of God, but so far as it having any affect on my life style. Well! No

Look at a couple of scriptures that highlight what is meant by trust.

(Acts 2:31 NTRSV) Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, ‘He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.’ (Acts 2.32 NRSV) This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.

Trust means that you are totally convicted that the knowledge you have learned about the Son of God is true. He came back from the dead and he will deliver you from the grave

That trust will solve a lot of petty problems in your life and mine. Trust is the big picture.

Knowledge can lead to bickering; conviction can lead to differences.

Trust will bring peace.

All three of these steps are important.

(John 12:44 NRSV) Then Jesus cried aloud: "Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me.

(John 12.45 NRSV) And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.

(John 12:46 NRSV) I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness.

(John 12 47 NRSV) I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

(John 12 48 NRSV) The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge, on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge,

(John 12 49 NRSV) for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak.

That is a sobering peace of scripture. Notice the trust that Christ had in the word, it was not just head knowledge to him, he also trusted it.

The Christian moves from the head knowledge to the conviction that it is true (God gives him that conviction) It gets down inside him. It changes his life. He then begins to put his trust in the author of the material.

(I Pet 1:21 NRSV) Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.

There is a very important fact about trust. Trust in not about knowledge it is not about conviction, although these things are important.

Trust is about a relationship with the one you have come to know about and have become convicted about.

He is what the bible says he is

He will do what he says he will do

You trust him.

Here is the point, you trust a person. Not knowledge not conviction, a person.

All learning must come to that Trust. All conviction must come to that Trust.

Ultimately we must trust Him.

The person Jesus Christ.

 

We need to begin to see our life as a matter of trust in the person of Jesus Christ.

To paraphrase Corinthians 13.

 

(1 Cor 13:13 NRSV) And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

 

There is knowledge, conviction and trust, these three abide but the greatest of these is Trust.

______________________________________________

 
Pastor Jack Peters
Ezra 7:10
AOL INSTANT MESSENGING SCREEN NAME - JackPeters47
MSN MESSENGER SCREEN NAME - johnwpeters@hotmail.com
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