It Begins With You

Every day it seems the world is becoming a scarier and crazier place. There is violence and mayhem everywhere you look. The news is filled with headlines and stories of anarchy. We all want it to change. We all want it to be fixed. Many are looking to governments to fix the world’s problems. Today we are going to talk about who’s responsibility it is, and it’s not the government’s.

Downloads and Links

Watch the video of this teaching at https://www.celllifechurch.tv/it-begins-with-you/

Introduction

There are all sorts of problems in the world. International relations are strained between nations. The battle over resources and money is causing many conflicts in the world. Violence in our cities caused by rioting mobs is taking people’s lives. Health crises around the world are causing anxiety. Most people are sitting back waiting for someone to save them and protect them.

God already provided our Savior, Jesus Christ, to pay for our sins and to lead us. He sent the Holy Spirit to equip and empower us to be His ambassadors here on earth, even in the darkest days. Jesus still speaks to us and tells us each exactly what we must do each day. However, the enemy of our souls and human nature keep us from hearing Jesus and keep us from seeing the needs around us sometimes.

Human Nature Makes Us Want To Control Things

Human nature is an interesting thing and it goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. We read in Genesis how Adam and Eve allowed the devil to persuade them into thinking they were just like God. Let’s read Genesis 3:2-5.

Genesis 3:2-5

(2)  The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,  (3)  but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'”  (4)  “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.  (5)  “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

He persuaded them to disobey God. Satan twisted the truth just enough to get Adam and Eve to turn from God, just a little. In their subsequent disobedience, they allowed sin to enter humanity and all of creation has suffered for it ever since.

Sin entering humanity is what is often now referred to as human nature. It is really the sinful nature, which we are all born into as part of the curse brought on by Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God. The original lie of Satan that we are just like God permeates us. It is what makes us want to control things.

Just Because It Is Legal Does Not Mean It Is Right

Since this time we have created leadership roles and given authority over to others or allowed others to take authority from us. Over the thousands of years of human existence, kingdoms have risen and fallen, civilizations have come and gone, and governments have been created and overthrown.

There is one thing that each of these holds in common; the desire to control others. That is a key tool in the devil’s schemes to try and keep the world from turning to Jesus and asking Him to be their Lord and Savior. God’s own people, being human ourselves, are not immune to this. We give in to our own selfish desires over the needs of others all the time. Our biblical heroes did too. This doesn’t make it right, it just shows their humanity. Unfortunately, we often put leaders up on pedestals. We expect them to make no mistakes. They make determinations and decrees that are outside their scope and outside their purview, oftentimes for personal gain or favor with others.

These governments we create to bring order to our lives and the world are the creation of man. They make rules and laws that allow some things and disallow others. The reasons for the rules vary but often can be rooted in power, control, or money. Laws are made that go against our conscience as followers of Jesus Christ, but we try to be good citizens so we go along with them. It is okay to protest and not comply with laws that go against your conscience. Just because government officials have decided something is legal does not automatically mean it is right.

King Nebuchadnezzar did this one time in particular. His advisors, wanting to maintain dominance and control over the people, urged him to decree the mandated worship of a statue of him daily and made it illegal to worship any other and it was punishable by death. We read the story in the book of Daniel, chapter 3. When the time to bow down and worship the king’s statue came, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not bow down and worship. They were true to God and would only worship Him.

These three Hebrews were charged and sentenced to death and thrown into a fiery furnace. But, God saved them. In fact, when they were called out of the furnace, the Bible tells us that not a hair on them was singed and their clothes did not smell of the fire at all. This was a powerful witness of the power of God and caused Nebudchanezzar to yield to God himself.

We Are One Body For One Purpose

We cannot trust government to fix our problems or the problems of the world. There is only one true way to solve all the world’s problems, and that is to love others as we love ourselves and do exactly what God has created each one of us to do.

Jesus teaches us in Matthew 7:12-14.

Matthew 7:12-14

(12)  So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.  (13)  “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  (14)  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

We must treat others the way we want to be treated. This means we must show grace, mercy, and compassion for others, just as we read how Jesus did. We must do what God has created us, called us, and equipped us to do. We should not do more than he asks, as that would be vanity. We should not do less than he asks, as that would be lazy and disobedient.

We are one body of many parts with one purpose, to seek and save the lost. However, each part has a specific function within the body. It takes each of us doing exactly what God has told us to do when He tells us to do it. Let’s read what Paul teaches us about this in 1 Corinthians 12:12-18.

1 Corinthians 12:12-18

(12)  Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.  (13)  For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.  (14)  Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.  (15)  Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  (16)  And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  (17)  If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?  (18)  But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.

Conclusion

We are one body with one purpose. We are to be witnesses of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We are to do that within the power and timing of God through the Holy Spirit. We cannot rely on governments to solve our problems. We must be the ones to solve the world’s problems by doing exactly what God has equipped us to do. No government can force us to obey rules or laws that go against our conscience. We must do what is right in the eyes of God, regardless of man’s consequences.

Solving the problems of the world begins with you.

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