Phil spoke on our transformation from self-reliance to Sonship.
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Introduction
• New Series
• Pickup on some things from last year
o Presence of God
o Taking Hold of that for which God took hold of us
• Moving forward as a Church
• Sustainable Power – Some groups have or are going through this book
JOHN 15 VERSES 1-5
1. The Sin of Self Reliance
• All prone to be self-sufficient, maybe a western culture thing
• Feel we should be able to do it all of ourselves
• We don’t need others and we certainly don’t need God
• We have ways of dealing with things
• All is well, why would I need anyone or any thing
• Somehow to admit we can’t do it is failure on our part
• To recognise we are not sufficient is weakness
• Actually we are denying ourselves of Gods provision and care which he provides which is better than we could for ourselves.
• It becomes a matter of our Pride
Jesus Said these words
“Apart from me you can do nothing”
Its perhaps hard for us to accept this as being true for us, because we think we should be able to and we are encouraged to live independent lives.
We live a culture where we are expected to just get on with it.
When we come to the realisation that without God we are sunk that’s our starting place and Gods opportunity to do something extraordinary!
My story – In my weakness God made strong
2. Functional Orphans
The route of self-reliance is in having an orphan heart, a heart that sees itself alone in the world
It’s not possible to sustain the power of God whilst living as functional orphans
• The Orphan heart has not truly connected to the source of life and power
• The Orphan heart is cut off from the Fathers love which make a safe context for power
If we have not dealt with the issue that the source of Provision and life is the Father rather than us it will be very easy to lose our way and even be crushed both individually and corporately.
Our first response reveals where we are looking to meet the need, if its not going to the father then are we reliant on ourselves and our ability to resolve things?
Sustainable power P 37 George Muller
“Self-reliance and the orphan spirit are massive obstacles obstructing the river-flow of the Holy Spirit, because they push us back into our limited resources instead of God’s unlimited supply.
3. The orphan heart
How do we recognise the Orphan heart?
What are the symptoms?
The only one who example of being fully secure in the Fathers love and unlimited provision is Jesus so he’s the measure we are to line up with
• Jesus knew God as a generous father, Pharisees saw God as a hard master
• Jesus depended on his father, the Pharisees lived independently of God
• Jesus lived in the security of his Fathers favour and love, the Pharisees lived in insecurity
• Jesus did not look for approval from men, Pharisees always looked for approval from men rather than God.
• Jesus self-image was based on what his father said about him, the Pharisees compared their selves with other and would pray thank you I am not like other men
• Jesus gave self-giving love to others, the Pharisees were Jealous of others
• Jesus offered Mercy, the Pharisees offered Judgement
• Jesus was warm and affectionate in his love, the Pharisees were cold and hard
4. Sonship
The source of our orphan thinking is very often based on our experience of our relationship with our own father. Good or bad it will affect our view of God and our rightful place as a child of God.
Repentance is the only way but we can only truly repent as God reveals to us our true selves.
I’m not sure we fully grasp this principle, when we first come to putting our faith in Jesus its ok we know there is this initial turning away from the things we once did, accepting Jesus as our Lord and saviour. As we go on with God and he reveals things that are much deeper and not just about our behaviour but our attitudes and our way of thinking it seem
