Wednesday, February 27, 2019

February 24, 2019 - Corrie Waters



Clean Living
 “Clean Living For Life”
February 23/24

Welcome- We are so glad you are here with us today.

In the spring of 2015 I did not know my life was about to change drastically when my mom passed away suddenly from a brain aneurysm that went undetected.  My mom had also suffered over the years from numerous of generational health issues...high blood pressure, arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation, hip issues that lead to hip replacements, and serve arthritis.  And guys, this is just on my moms side of the family...

A couple of months had passed and I thought I was doing ok, then one day I realized this sense of DEEP depression starting to set in.  I actually noticed it when my response to some other circumstances in our life came to a head, and with that the depression started to get worse.  I tried to ignore it, push it down, but it began to get to a place where my habits reflected someone who I was not meant to be...from the outside I looked normal, and I might have even acted normal, but on the inside I was in a constant state of well...let me share with you:
  • I was eating whatever I wanted, and I could care less about my health or my body...DQ runs, and late night sweet fixes where my friend
  • I had no energy and wanted to sleep ALL THE TIME, which means I had no energy for my husband or my kids.
  • I didn’t care about my relationships with others - I shut people out, and clung to the fact that I was an introvert.  It was my safety net!
  • I was constantly on edge emotionally, and became agitated easily.  Which means I snapped at sometimes the simplest of questions, conversations or situations
  • I was really struggling in my relationship with Jesus - Daily connection with him was pretty non-existent...I felt like there was a conversational block between Him and I.  
  • The list could go on….

The Jennings/Webster family (as a whole)  has a history of depression, mental health issues, as well as heart and other medical issues so I just chalked it up to the same struggles that generations of my family had dealt with most of their life.  You might say I became apathetic. I had convinced myself that life would never be the same, that I would face the same things my mom did, and that our family history of health and mental illness was my future… my circumstances and my conscience was telling me something that was not true.

Our conscience is a really important part of our lives.  And it’s an important tool that the Holy Spirit uses to partner with each of us, so that we know how to live our lives.  So what does your conscience say about you? Are your actions keeping you in a place of fear, worry, or have you become apathetic to the things happening around you and in your life?

1 Tim 1:19 Says this (NLT)
19 Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.

OR are you developing good spiritual rhythms, where you are partnering with the Father to overcome the things that have held you in a place of condemnation and fear. Are you clinging to your faith? Have you shipwrecked your faith? Or are you listening to the voice of your heart, and letting it take over?

We’ve been in our series, Clean Living: Sustainable Spirituality where we’ve been learning how God has given us the gift of our conscience so that we can live a clean life, a spiritually sustainable life!  Di kicked us off by sharing that we’ve been given a clean heart and a clean conscience when we say yes to Jesus. Two weeks ago Putty challenged us to live in the reality of our new heart by living out our new righteous identity. We learned that our conscience is the voice of our heart.  Last week Julie walked us through what it looked like to love and relate to one another in the family of God when we all have differing consciences.  And we can do this by putting love above law and people over preference. This week I am taking a look at how we operate with a clean conscience by developing healthy habits to start living.
Pray

Dilema

How many of you have been in a place where you decided this is my inheritance??...my lot in life, something I have to live with, this is who I am, this is just something I have to live with, and my history has proven this to me.  How many of us have spoken the words “I am” depressed, “I am” anxious, “I am” poor, I have this health issue or that health issue, and then all the sudden you are living with that identity instead of the identity of who God says you are.

When you begin to speak things over yourself or about yourself, you actually start to believe and agree with those things instead agreeing with what God says about you.  Are you letting the wrong “I am” statement determine your heart response?

I want you to understand this... I am not trying to be insensitive, and I am not saying that health issues, mental issues and economical issues are not real. They are!  I know that they affect people greatly...physically, emotionally and spiritually, and these issues not only affect the individual but the families as well.  I have, personally, seen the effects in my own family, and in my own life.  

What I am trying to get at is that when we said yes to Jesus we were given a clean heart and a clean mind...we now have the mind of Christ which means our life circumstances should no longer be telling us “who” we are, but “whose” we are.  Satan wants nothing more than for us to hear the wrong “I am” statements, because it allows us to be held back from living out our true identity.

When we get to a place where our circumstances and our history are dictating how we see ourselves and life around us, it can bring us to a place of apathy. This is where I was.  Apathy is defined as this in the dictionary, “Apathy is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation, or passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, or physical life and the world.”

Our Heart - our feelings, our conscience dictate to great extent how we live. If we are living with the effects of our circumstances instead of in the identity of our changed heart,  it is going to dictate how we respond to what is going on around us.

Wherever your treasure is - the desires of your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21). Let’s put it this way...what’s happening within can change how you view (this is our perspective) what’s happening externally (this is our world view - orphan mindset to a sonship mindset).  

Remember, our conscience is not outside of us, it’s within us and sometimes we need it to be renewed because we want our beliefs and actions to match what our Father believes about us.



Solomon puts it this way in Proverbs 4:20-23 (TPT):
Listen carefully, my dear child, to everything that I teach you, and pay attention to all that I have to say. 21 Fill your thoughts with my words until they penetrate deep into your spirit.[a] 22 Then, as you unwrap my words,[b] they will impart true life and radiant health into the very core of your being. 23 So above all, guard the affections of your heart,[c] for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.
Proverbs 4 was written by Solomon, but it is written from the perspective of a Father to his child, who was imparting wisdom and instruction. Don’t you just love when a parent provides wisdom? If you are teenager in the room, you are probably rolling your eyes at this moment. It’s ok!  I was there at your age too.  But now...I crave wisdom from a parent or someone older than me, and do you know why? It is because at one time in their life they learned a valuable lesson that we haven’t yet, and they want to pass down what they were taught through those experiences.
So in this scripture we see a Father instructing his child to guard their heart above all else, along with concentrating on the things that will keep them on the right path, because their affections will determine where we end up.  If our conscience is the voice of our heart, then protecting it should be important to us.  
A person who lives with this wisdom and guards their heart will have a long and prosperous life, they will have favor with God and people, they will have a reputation for good judgement, they are successful, they are healthy and vibrant, they have riches, honor, pleasure, peace and protection.
Bible
So the questions that we’re asking today are how do we keep a clean conscience and develop healthy habits to start living? Are there things in our lives, in our history that are holding us back from experiencing freedom in our heart and conscience.  Why is it so important for us to learn to live this way?

I want to look today at the teachings of John. But, before we dive in I want to give some context to the book of 1 John, which is were we will be today.

This is John’s second book, and it was most likely written before John was banished to the island of Patmos, where he was to live in exile.  John was not writing this book to a particular church (like we see in other New Testament books), however it was sent as a pastoral letter to several of the Gentile congregations who were struggling with the idea of Jesus’ true nature. And because of John’s interactions with Jesus it gave him the authority to talk to people about the true nature of Jesus and what it meant to have relationship with a REAL God.  

For us today, you might say it was written so that we may know the REALITY of God in our own lives through faith in Christ.

So with this little bit of context let’s see what John had to say on matters of the conscience.  We are going to be in 1 John 3:19-22, so you can turn there with me, or you can follow along on the screen.

TPT
19 We know that the truth lives within us[a] because we demonstrate love in action, which will reassure[b] our hearts in his presence.[c]
  1. Isn’t so amazing to know that because Jesus lives within us we have reassurance that everything is going to be ok? Let’s keep reading….
20 Whenever our hearts make us feel guilty and remind us of our failures, we know that God is much greater and more merciful than our conscience, and he knows everything there is to know about us.[d]
  1. He knows it all, so why do we think he is surprised by the circumstances we are facing in our lives? He knows when our consciences are reminding us of our failures or difficulties.
21 My delightfully loved friends, when our hearts don’t condemn us, we have a bold freedom to speak face-to-face with God. 22 And whatever we ask of him we receive,[e] because we keep his commands. And by our beautiful intentions[f] we continue to do what brings pleasure to him.
  1. Sometimes we need to be renewed to what our Father believes about us. We have freedom to speak face to face with our Father, so he can remind us who we are. This brings pleasure to HIM and to us… our NEW HEART doesn’t condemn?

23 So these are his commands: that we continually place our trust in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and that we keep loving one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 For all who obey his commands find their lives joined in union with him, and he lives and flourishes in them. We know and have proof that he constantly lives and flourishes in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.
Guys...when our  consciences become branded with our circumstances, then we have a hard time letting go of whatever it is that keeps us from listening to the voice of our heart. Do you remember Putty’s analogy from a couple of weeks ago? It was that sometimes our mind sits in the driver's seat, and we need get it out of there so our NEW heart take it over. This is exactly what this passage is talking about.  Remember, Satan wants nothing more than for us to hear the wrong “I am” statements because it allows us to get stuck in our own head.

So how do we escape the sometimes gnawing accusations of our consciences? We don’t ignore them OR rationalize our behavior, but set our heart on God’s love.  When we start to feel those “I am” statements rise up in our lives we need to take the opportunity to partner with the Holy Spirit, because his voice of assurance is stronger than the accusing voice of our conscience. Remember the Holy Spirit partners with our conscience to help us grow in maturity, and we want our beliefs and actions to match that of what our Father would believe

Remember, if we are in Christ, he DOES NOT condemn us (Romans 8:1, Hebrews 9:14-15). The very worst things that are in us are known by God and he still showers mercy, love, and acceptance upon us. This is the greatness of God’s grace. He sees beyond the sin of a moment and sees the love of those who are in pursuit of him. So if we are living in partnership with the him, and you are feeling unqualified….that is not the voice or the heart of the Father, rather its the voice of the accuser.  Let me share the story of Samantha Hill with you. Sam’s story here..with picture

The day you said yes to Jesus, is the day you were given a new heart, and a new conscience, which means you now have a new family history. When your conscience is clear, you can come to the Father without fear and condemnation, confident that he hears you.

Your inheritance is no longer; “I am depressed”, “I am anxious”, “I am poor”, “I am this health issue” or that “health issue”, my family has a history of this or that. You get a NEW generational background, a new family history.  It is now a family history of freedom, favor with God and people, success, health, riches, honor, pleasure, peace and protection...all those things that Solomon spoke of. This is your inheritance. This is how you begin to experience freedom, this is how you begin to live with a clean conscience, and develop healthy habits to start living. You get to see yourself how the Father created you, not with the identity that your circumstances have made you to be.  We get to partner with the Holy Spirit to change our “I am” statements.

Our statements now sound like these instead...
“I am loved”,  “I am accepted”, “I am a daughter”, “I am a son”, “I am righteous”, “I am redeemed”, “I am forgiven”, “I belong”

Action Steps

One of the enemies greatest tactics is to keep our consciences stuck in whatever circumstances we are in or facing. If he can keep your heart and conscience from being renewed to what our Father believes about you, he will.  He loves to hit us while we are down... it can be sickness, financial trouble, depression, worry, fear, or anxiety.  Where ever he can get you stuck, he will...this is where I was at. The things that were happening within me changed how I viewed what was happening externally...my worldview had moved from living as a daughter to someone who was operating as an orphan. Yes...it can happen to a pastor too :)

Two years ago this past February I finally had enough and decided to listen to the voice of my Father instead of the voice of my circumstances! I began to take action steps with the Holy Spirit to renew my conscience, so I could get to a place where I could experience the right “I am” statements again. I had to develop healthy habits so I could start living again.

You know the ones that would allow me to live freely, the ones that made me healthy and vibrant, the ones that provided pleasure, peace and protection.  It wasn’t easy and there was a lot of surrendering, and the laying of things down that had to happen.

So what action steps did I take, that might encourage you?

First, I had to renew my thinking to this...my real inheritance was not my family’s generational history, and but the new inheritance I have in the Kingdom. I had to renew my conscience so that apathy was no longer a place where I lived.  I had to decide to start paying attention to all the things that the Holy Spirit  had been whispering to my heart, which I had chosen to ignore, and then I had to renew my conscience to the truths that had been spoken over me when I said yes to Jesus.  

Second, I invited the Father into all aspects of my life, not just spiritually, but practically too. So there were some practical steps I felt the Holy Spirit calling me to, as well as the spiritual steps. I believe they both had to go hand in hand so that I could begin to develop healthy habits.

  1. I needed to change my daily lifestyle.  One of my biggest complaints was that I was always tired and had no energy for my husband or my kids.  So the Holy Spirit in partnership with my renewed conscience reminded me that he made me an athlete, and my body craved movement and proper nutrition. I made changes to my diet (which meant we all made changes). A  friend also asked me to join her for a free Crossfit class, so I did. And yes...I was hooked! I know not everyone will do something as drastic as Crossfit, but maybe you can start with something small, and that might me you just need to change some of your daily habits, ask the Father he will tell you!  He’s pretty amazing that way!

2.             I needed to change my sleep pattern.  The Father reminded me that I needed more sleep than I was allowing myself.  Sounds simple right, but in all honestly when you are a mom, wife, and friend you want to make sure that you are leaving enough time for relationships. We never feel like we have enough time, right?!  However, I had to start listening to my body and go to bed when I was tired. It was amazing what it did for my mood and my mental capacity.

3.             I needed to set a consistent time for my quiet time. Whether it was reading my bible, listening to worship music, or just sitting in quiet.  I was really bad at making time to sit at my Father’s feet, so he could remind who I was to him.

4.             I made myself accountable to people. Yes, I have my husband, but the Father was asking me to go beyond my close relationship with him, so I could build relationships with others. This one was crucial for me! I am a do it yourself, get it done kind of person, who does not like to ask for help.  This makes me have to rely on others, and I don’t like that. So when the Father asked me to do this, it was hard! So I have a small group of women that I trust, talk with and pray 




I want to re-read the passage from 1 Timothy again

1 Tim 1:19 Says this (NLT)
19 Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.

There is a change that happens in your heart when you start to see yourself as the Father sees you.  We want to cling to our faith in order to keep our consciences clear...
Remember, sometimes our consciences need to be renewed because they can become branded with the wrong thinking if we keep ignoring them. Some of us think that there is something wrong with us is if we have to renew our minds on a daily basis.  HEAR THIS...There is nothing wrong with you if you are renewing your conscience on a daily basis, because as sons and daughters we want our beliefs and actions to match that of what our Father would believe about us.

Do I still struggle? Yes,on occasion. And there is nothing wrong with me admitting this...however the difference now is when I feel it starting to come I have something to combat it with because I have chosen to not accept it as my inheritance. I renew my mind to who He says I am, and not what my circumstances say about me.  So where do you need to start? What “I am” statements do you need to lay down, so you can start to experience your new inheritance.

Index card… have people write the the wrong “I am” statements they are saying over themselves on the front - then on the  back have them right I am statements they hear the Father speaking over them

Goal to be at ministry time by 10:25 first and 12:10 second service? or sooner?
Ministry Time:
Generational issues - family health and financial
Depression/ Suicidal thoughts
Fear, Worry, Anxiety
A Spirit of Distraction plaguing your thought process



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