A God Idea: Whose Time Has Come

Wednesday, November 3rd

LifeChanging At Another Level Bible Study

Bishop Dudley

Sermon Text:  Numbers 16:28b - ²⁸Then Moses said, "This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea:

Sermon Title:  A God Idea: Whose Time Has Come

From time to time something unthinkable gets started and nothing can seem to stop it.  Every now and then the force of a plan, a vision, a movement takes hold in the hearts of men and women; and it becomes alive.  Someone said, “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”  Someone else said you cannot kill an idea.  You cannot put it in prison; you cannot destroy it, strip it naked and make it ashamed to appear in public.  And when that idea is from God, Jesus said the gates of hell won’t even prevail.

Point 1: U R A God Idea

            Like Israel in the text is a God idea whose time has come so are you and I. A God idea takes time, temperature, totality.

(a)          Time: It took Israel generations to evolve

1)    Abraham Isaac, Jacob (generational)

2)    400 years oppression (temperature)

3)    40 years in wilderness (totality)

(b)          A God idea emanates and radiates God’s glory. Beautiful mountains, crash of the seashore, a computer solving problems, a skyscraper touching the sky, a parent parenting well, a home full of joy, prosperity, more than enough, external life and all God ideas that literally glow in the dark.

His people are his idea. The Promised Land is his idea and with every God idea comes opposition and a plan to overcome opposition.

Point 2: Opposed

            Israel was opposed from within; you too will be opposed from within.

Romans 7:7-21 - ⁷But I can hear you say, "If the law code was as bad as all that, it's no better than sin itself." That's certainly not true. The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, "You shall not covet," I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.  ^8-12Don't you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of "forbidden fruit" out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it. The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong. So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead. But the law code itself is God's good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel.  ¹³I can already hear your next question: "Does that mean I can't even trust what is good [that is, the law]? Is good just as dangerous as evil?" No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God's good commandment, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own.

 ^14-16I can anticipate the response that is coming: "I know that all God's commands are spiritual, but I'm not. Isn't this also your experience?" Yes. I'm full of myself—after all, I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary.  ^17-20But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.  ^21-23It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

 ²⁴I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?  ²⁵The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

Point 3: Plan to Overcome

            Moses’ plan to overcome was to remind his enemies he/what he was doing was a God idea.

            When you remind the enemy you are a God idea you also remind yourself. When you remind yourself you rekindle the word to start the passion not to be denied. You restore your faith in God. You rehearse his word in your heart. You represent his word in the earth. You renovate the old thoughts of failure and turn them into new thoughts of success. You refurbish what was turned down. You replenished for the long haul. You are recommitted to the fact you are a God idea.