Hope must come first. Without hope, we will never see the promises of God manifest in our lives. Many Christians are ‘hoping’ their prayers are answered but are not employing the principles of faith which are requisite for the manifestation of God’s promises. Hope is tied to our imagination and we must steward our imagination for God’s glory. Walking in God’s love and our treatment of others, should be the focal point of any believer who struggles to manifest God’s promises. By mistreating others, we may become spiritually impotent and lose our witness for Christ. Join Carl now for part three…
Here is a complete transcript of the broadcast (below)…
Friend, we are talking about faith, hope and love, in part 3 of my live session, as we continue to study this topic, which is very important. In this session I’m talking about God’s unconditional ‘agape’ love. How can a pastor possibly describe this? it’s near impossible. So in doing so, I gave the illustration of a ‘Bridgemaster,’ this is a story that’s quite famous and it really shows, how God gave his only begotten son for those who were even hostile towards him, those who were at enmity towards God. We needed reconciliation. And though, yet whilst we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And this illustration really shows that, friend.
And I’m also looking at a series of slides when I’m preaching, so obviously radio listeners cannot see that. But on one slide, I’m showing a comparison of sin consciousness versus righteousness consciousness. As you know, it is my desire to equip believers in the knowledge of their righteousness and empower them to do the works of Jesus Christ via the Holy Spirit. And once we solve an identity crisis and people put aside their sin consciousness and embrace righteousness consciousness, then we are in a better position to do the very works that Jesus spoke of. Friend, let’s join me now in session for this third part of faith, hope, and love. Hope is the sweet by-and-by.
Oh, I’m really hoping this is going to happen. But we cannot mock hope because it all starts with hope. Right? But some people have really hoped that they’re going to get healed, and some people have already hoped they’re going to get out of debt, and they find that they’re not actually doing it. That’s because they’re hoping. Okay? Now, you’ve got to be in faith. There’s a difference.
But you’ve got to start with hope. Like I said at the bottom, hope never healed anyone, but hope is required to have faith. Hope sees, but faith acts. Without hope, we can limit God in our lives. Where’s that in the Bible? It’s right here, Psalm 78:41. It undoes the teaching of God’s absolute sovereignty no matter what. He said, “you have turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel.” Whoa. Limited? God can do anything. No, He can’t do anything. There’s about 30 things He can’t do. We could even bring them in handouts next week. But we’ve got to understand the parameters that go into our covenant, our new covenant. We’ve got to understand it. Right? And this homework I’m going to give you tonight, when I give it to you, you’re going to see the boundaries and limitations of your covenant.
Once we have that, we have confidence because we know what our rights and privileges are. Right? If you’re not sure, and you have a little bit of doubt, and you’re still in the sin consciousness mode, then you’re not going to be able to be victorious in life as a Christian. And again, success as a Christian is being conformed to the image of God. Okay? That’s what it is. God’s love is corrective and nurturing at the same time. Everybody wants to focus on this one, right? Joy. I smile when I think of you. That came from the Holy Spirit. It didn’t come from me.
I’m proud of you. No matter what you do, I’ll never stop loving you. Pretend like you like pastor’s jokes. Who wrote that? No. I accept you unconditionally. Follow peace. My grace is sufficient. Right? Oh God, that’s so wonderful. You love me. And wait a minute though. I don’t accept your behavior. Stop hurting yourself. Turn back now. Repent. You ought not to say that. Your words are hurting you and your family. Sin is killing you. People today in our culture want to focus on the nurturing aspect of God, but they’ve abandoned the corrective side.
How many had parents in the room? My mom and dad corrected me. Okay? I have British parents. You need to pray for me. I’m kidding. They were great. Listen to an illustration of God’s love. Okay? I want you to listen to the story of the bridge master. If you’ve never heard this, it’s powerful. So get your cocoa and sit back with your slippers and relax while I read you the story of the bridge master. It’s okay, Brittany. It’s going to be all right. Are you ready? Once upon a time, there was a bridge master and his son. He loved his only son very much.
But boy, did that little child love trains as well. He was daddy’s little shadow. They would go to the train station. They would sit there and watch the people board the train. Happy people, lonely people, hurt people, angry people, busy and lost people. And that little boy loved sitting there with his dad watching the trains go by every day. One day when the little boy was playing down by the riverbank, he saw to his horror that the bridge was still raised and a fully laden train was bearing down quickly upon it. The little boy tried to yell to his dad to get him to lower the bridge in time, but to no avail.
Unfortunately, his dad couldn’t hear him as he was distracted in conversation. So the little boy went running toward the bridge to pull the red lever or lever. Which one do you want me to say? He pulled the red lever. He tried to pull the red lever, But as he ran, he lost his footing tumbling down into a crevice, which was the very joint mechanism that allowed the bridge to raise and lower. His father, the bridge master, just happened to look up and see his son fall into the joint. At that very moment, he saw the train coming rapidly, bearing down on the bridge, which was up at the time.
The bridge master had to make a choice, friend. Would he pull the lever and cause the bridge to close and crush his little boy? Or would he leave it open and allow the train carrying hundreds of men, women, and children to plunge into the icy river? That was the choice presented to him that day, friend. The bridge master chose to pull the red lever that day.
He chose to sacrifice his son for the people, people he’d never met, who didn’t even realize their near disastrous fate. As the train passed over the bridge, the searing cries of his son were drowned out by the train running along the tracks at high speed. Within the train, people were laughing, drinking, and carrying on about their business, oblivious to what had happened, not realizing the monumental sacrifice that had just taken place by the bridge master’s son. Friend, the bridge master is a type of the heavenly father right here. He sent his only begotten son, Jesus. Amen? He sent him for you and for me.
It’s hard to describe agape, unconditional love. The best way to describe it is tell a story. The bridge is a type of the cross, friend. The heavenly father pulled the lever and appropriated a bridge between man and God, paid for by his son. The cross provided a bridge between a lost and hurting world, who needed salvation without their knowledge, and a loving God who desired reconciliation. The cross provided a means for man to traverse that vast chasm between God’s righteousness and our sin condition.
Therefore, we can now embrace our heavenly father without feeling judgment. Amen? When God sees you, he sees you as Jesus because you’re a part of his body. Amen? We are the body of Christ. He’s the head, so we’re all a part of the same body. Right? Faith, hope, and love. This is a summary slide. Another engineer’s attempt to communicate. Okay. Attempt. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith acts. My question to you is, what substance are you giving hope tonight in your life? What things has God put on your heart that he wants you to do? And in your mind, you’re going, you know, I’m really hoping God’s going to do that one day.
God is saying to you, what actions are you putting behind what you believe? Are your words pleasing to me? Are your words in line with my word over the situation? If you want to go through college, what plans are you making? If you want to have a family, what plans are you making? How are you applying faith in that area? Hope is required for faith to work. It all starts with hope. We don’t mock hope.
We need hope. Hope comes from the scripture. Hope is also tied to the imagination. If we can close our eyes, we can see ourselves either victorious or we can see ourselves as oppressed. The question is, how do you see yourself? How you see yourself in your mind’s eye determines the outcome. Do you see yourself as assisted in your job when you’re working every day? Do you feel the presence of God? Do you believe that he can help you on the job? Friend, God has helped me on the job so many times.
And one of the reasons why I think he did is because in the morning, and I didn’t do it every day, of course, but I would say, Lord, I dedicate this day to you. I thank you that I’m an engineer. I may think I’m kind of smart, but you’re a whole lot smarter. Amen? So I really need your help in those presentations and those spreadsheets. And when we do this, and when we do that, and when we drill those oil wells, and when we do water flooding technology, and when we seal up one well and then produce the other one, I really need your help. And when I would invite him in, these ideas would come to me, drill over there. I’d have a map out in front of me of all my oil wells. And he’d say, drill here, in this area. I’d be like, there’s no, what do we want to do that for? No one’s ever drilled there before. That’s in the wrong part of the reservoir. It doesn’t look like the right place in the natural. And he’d say, drill there. Now, the hard part for me was trying to convince everybody why we should drill there. Because in the natural, there was no logical reason why. This happened to me when I started in my career in 1999.
I worked for a company called Vastar in Houston. They no longer exist, but I was thrown into the deep end. As far as I was concerned, we were given an oil field of 800 barrels a day, and there was about five team members in my team. And there was one well we had to drill by, I think it was the next two months. We had to come up with a plan, submit it. Each well costs $5 million, friend. $5 million is quite a lot of money. Brother Carl, you didn’t drill that well so good. You got to explain yourself for the next six days in a forum of engineers going, why did you just lose $5 million? That’s not exactly what I want to do. So I would say, Lord, you’re going to have to help us on this one. One thing led to another. In a period of, I would say, about 10 months, we drilled six wells.
We were only scheduled to drill one. We drilled six wells. We went from 800 barrels a day to over 9,000 barrels a day. Okay, that’s a lot of gravy, dude. That’s a lot of gravy. So we paid out that well. In other words, we drilled the well, we turned it on, and within a month and a half, we’d already paid for it. A month and a half. Are you kidding me? That means the next 20 years is all profit. I said all of that to say, God can do it for you, right? But invite him in to your job, right? Some of you think, this job is mundane. It’s easy. I can do it. I don’t need God’s help.
Listen, God wants to promote you on the job, okay? Why shut the door, right? Don’t limit him in your life, amen? Amen. Don’t limit him. Don’t think, I’ve got all this figured out. I got all this training. I know what I’m doing, okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fair enough. But there’s going to be that one time when that person’s on the sickbed, and you need to have some information that only the Holy Spirit knows, right? Who can help out the doctor or whatever else you’re working on. Faith, hope, and love are all intertwined.
They abide forever. It says in the NLT, faith, hope, and love live forever. So we’re going to be moving in faith and love in heaven. Far out. There’s going to be love in heaven. Are you kidding me? Of course there is. Faith works by love. Without love, we are a clanging cymbal. Ew, what is that? Don’t demonstrate it. In other words, we can know everything, and we can move in the gifts, but if we’re all about me, and what about me, and let’s talk about me, have we talked about me lately? That attitude. Forget about Bob, what about me? But we need to cultivate an attitude of unconditional love, and unconditional love loves your enemies. Ouch.
So the center of it all is your spirit man. Which is connected to the Holy Spirit. All these things work from the inside out. When you were born again, your spirit man went from death into life, and then from the connection of your spirit man to the Holy Spirit, all of these aspects of God flow out of you, right? Friend, that is the end of part three. We have one more part to go. It is so important that you develop righteousness consciousness by meditating upon the Word of God, and as you do, faith will rise in how God sees you, friend. You shouldn’t identify yourself based on what has happened to you, but what God’s Word says about you.
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