FBC

The Teaching - Dr. James F. Hoffman, Jr., Pastor

May 9, 2010

In talking about being conformed to the image of Christ, which is the goal of God in our life, we ask the questions sometimes in our lives, you know, what’s the purpose of living. And we’ve talked in bible study on Wednesday nights what’s living on earth all about. I think one part of the context of the whole thing is this, that this is when I get when I am being conformed to the image of Christ. Beau was at my house yesterday afternoon and brought his dog Baloo. Baloo is a young pitbull and a beautiful dog and very sweet dog. And, within 15 minutes the dog had peed on my carpet and pooped in my bathroom. Well, what I want to share with you is this, the dog needs some conforming. And so, much like the dog will be trained hopefully, God is trying to conform us, because we are raw material. We come out of the womb raw material. We not only come out raw material, but we come material that is bent toward moving away from God or moving away from conforming to the image of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We have this bent for our ego to survive. When a baby is born, that baby believes that it encompasses the world. And some of us never stop that. For a baby, as it lies in the crib, see it’s mother or father, and is fed, and it believes that all these people are in this world that this baby is the king of or she is the king of . They can’t differentiate between the mom and the dad and themselves, and they believe they are the center of the universe. And for some of these children and babies, it’s difficult to lose that. But life has a way of doing that to us. It has a way of taking our ego and doing something with our ego where we are humiliated or we lose confidence and all those other things. And that’s not exactly what God wants. For God wants us to feel confident. He wants us to be encouraged. He wants us to have wisdom. And today what I want to talk about briefly is that He wants us to have a clear mind. Previous to this day we talked about having a clean mind, but we also need a clear mind. A mind that can perceive and know the will of God. A mind that can think and make right choices. A mind that is clear.

I’m practicing, so that when I get dementia, I’m going to be better. What I mean by that is every morning when I get up I talk about what I’m going to do. I tell myself, “Turn on the bathroom light.” “Floss your teeth.” “Rinse your mouth.” “Spit it out.” “Now get in the shower.” And I go through the whole routine with myself. I just talk to myself, you know, “Put your bathrobe on.” And the reason I do that is I’m planning someday to get dementia, and I’m planning to be able to live through it. Because I’m going to routine myself so much in my mind, you won’t even know. That’s right. You won’t even know because I’ll have it all memorized. I’m trying to memorize my life.

What I’m talking about is a clear mind. Turn in your bibles, if you have one, to James, the book of James. I tried to wait until Dick left town to use James because, as those in our bible study class know. Dick and James have sort of a problem. But anyway, I apologize Dick, but on your last Sunday here, before you take off to Dallas, Texas, I’m using James. I think it’s kind of ironic, actually. James, the first chapter, verse five. But if any of you lacks wisdom let him or her ask God who gives to all men and women generously, and without reproach. And it will be given to him or her. But let them ask in faith without any doubting. For the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man or woman expect that he or she will receive anything from the Lord. Being a double minded man or woman unstable in their ways. Three points. No poem.

No. 1 ask. You can’t find out unless you ask. I know that sounds incredibly simplistic. But I have tried to tell my children, other children, other young people, if you don’t understand something, ask the teacher. If you don’t understand something, I’m saying to you. Ask me. I will try to explain it. And God says to us, if you don’t know about your life, if you’re wondering about your life, if you can’t quite figure out your life, if you don’t understand the circumstances you’re in, and you’re going to be in different circumstances, (Ecclesaitics says there is a time for every season under heaven) you’re going to mourn and you’re going to dance. You’re going to weep and you’re going to laugh. You are going to hate and you are going to love. How do I steer myself through all those seasons? I steer myself through all those seasons by asking God. When I’m hating, I need to ask God, “Why am I hating?” “Why am I feeing this way?” “I need to know.” Because God says to ask him. He says to ask. And so I want to encourage you to ask God about everything. Everything. Nothing’s too small. Nothing is too small. God wants a relationship with you. When you go to the store with your child; or you go to the store with a parent or a grandparent, another person let’s say, and they’re going to eat with you, I’m assuming you don’t walk through the store and buy everything without asking them anything. You get input. And it’s so trivial. But, you know, I’m going to buy cereal. Why should I ask you David what kind of cereal you want, if I’m going to feed you? Why, because I care. I want to get him some cereal he likes. Right? I want to tell you again that God has no trivial matters between you and Him. And if you need to know something, ask Him. Don’t think it’s trivial. This saying about him that He’s so busy, that whatever I ask him, he doesn’t have time for, how ridiculous is that? It is totally ridiculous. This God, who made the universe, made the universe, also made an ant that knows to go get the food and store it away because the winter’s coming and it needs the food. Now how miniscule is that ant? How miniscule? And here you are the crown of creation. The crown of creation. You are a human being. You’re the top. You’re the Mona Lisa. You’re the top. You’re the leaning tower of Piza, as the song goes. You’re it! You’re it! You’re the one that Christ died for. So you go ask, “God, what should I do for this circumstance?” “How would you have me think?” “What would you have me do?” Don’t you enjoy it when people come and ask for your opinion. You know what that says to you? It makes me feel like I’m honored by that. It’s an honor to have somebody come and ask me a question. Because it means that somebody respects you. So how can we not go to God and ask?

No. 2. God will give you what you need and more. This is the great wonderful thing about God. The great thing about Him. How many times have you gone to your parents, when you were growing up, and say, “Mom, can I have a new pair of tennis shoes?” And you’d go through the whole thing, “Oh gosh, you’re out of those tennis shoes already? You run through things like crazy. I don’t know if we’ve got money to get these tennis shoes.” On and on and on, and it’s a big deal and they say, “Well, you know, when I was a child, I didn’t even have bottoms on my tennis shoes, there was just kind of canvas around my foot and I glued cardboard to my feet.” You used to have to go through all that kind of thing. And then they’d buy them for you. How many times did your parents say, “You want some tennis shoes? Let’s go get them. What kind do you want?” You tell them, and they buy them. And then they say, “Wait a minute, let’s don’t stop with these. Is there something else you want? Would you like another pair? Would you like two pair of them?” You see, if you ask God, He’s not only going to give you what you need, He’s going to give you more. Because it says he gives generously. I enjoyed the movie “Slum Dog Millionaire”. Many of you have probably seen that movie, and maybe many of you have heard about it. It’s based in India, and it’s about these slum children. It’s about this one slum child who gets on “Do You Want To Be A Millionaire?” in India, their program. And the context of it is that all through his life he has this information given to him for he sees maybe some broken bottle and reads the manufacturer. Or he hears somebody singing a song and realizes the composer of the song. And on and on it goes through all these incredibly tragic and sometimes victorious things in his life. And so through out the program, every time they ask him a question, it fades back to when he saw that. For example, he had a hundred dollar bill that someone gave him. He gave that $100 bill to a blind begging friend of his. And the friend asked whose on the face of the $100 bill. So in “Do You Want To Be A Millionaire?” he was asked the question whose face is on the $100 bill. The final question comes, and he doesn’t know it. He doesn’t know the answer. And he laughs. And the man looks at him and says (and he’s out of life lines), “Do you know?”, and he shakes his head and says, “I don’t know.” He says but the answer is C. The answer is C. And sure enough the answer C. Confetti and balloons come down and he becomes the slum dog millionaire. You see, this is how God works. He will equip you with everything you need to know that you expect his coming. He will take you through your life and your life will be this composite of things that happen to you whereby when it comes times for you to receive every blessing that can be given you, you will have an answer for it and your life will be conformed in such a way, that the abundance will come. But here’s the wonderful thing about God. That one answer you don’t know. That one thing that you can’t do. That one experience that you did not have, the Holy Spirit will take you and lift you up and give you that extra. That’s God’s promise. If you ask, He’ll give generously.

Lastly, don’t doubt! Don’t doubt. Don’t doubt that God will give it to you. Because the problem is that when you begin to doubt, it says that you’re like the ocean. And if you’ve ever been out there, you get the picture. And you’ve just been tossed every which way. And you don’t know which way to go. When you get the sense that God is leading you, stop, don’t go any further. Don’t start asking yourself , “Well, is that God? Or is that what I want to do?” “Is that my imagination?” “Or is that God?” If you receive something in the light, don’t doubt it in the darkness. God will give you something in the light. When you are with him. He’ll give you direction. He’ll give you a clear mind. Then circumstances will take place and all of a sudden you’re in darkness, you’re depressed or you’re confused. No, No, No. This is not the time to say, “Well, what happened over there wasn’t real.” Yes it was! Just get back over there and take a look at it. It’s like having a picture. I’ve got a picture of someone, and I’m looking at it, and I know them. I get in the dark, I cannot see the picture. “Oh, it must not be that person.” Yes it is. It’s just dark and you can’t see it.

Don’t doubt. There’s so many good examples. I love Peter who sees Jesus walking on the water and he says, “Man, that’s what I want to do!” He gets excited like you do. He sees God work and he says, “That’s what I want.” “I want to be participating in that because I want the joy of that experience. I want the overcoming of all the natural stuff. I want to be able to do things that take me above the circumstances and situations where I sooooooaaaaarrrrrrr like and eagle.” Peter looks at Jesus and he climbs out of the boat. I can see him now. I’m not even sure Peter can swim. I can see him now, because he’s got his eyes pictured on Jesus. And if you’ve ever been in the water, all of a sudden, that water moves. It shifts. He’s looking at Jesus and he’s walking and all of a sudden it shifts a little bit on him and he takes his focus off of Jesus and he begins to doubt the experience that he could get if he keeps on walking. You see, I believe if he hadn’t of doubted he could have kept on walking. I’m not condemning you for doubting, I’m just encouraging you not to doubt. If God said it, it’s going to happen. If God has entrusted you with direction, it’s going to be taking place. If God has given you a clear mind where you see where to go, you’re going to go. I don’t care what anybody says, I don’t care what anybody does to you. I don’t care what circumstance comes to you. God has good plans for you. You cannot look at today and make your decision on whether God is working in your life or not. Some of us can. Some of you can. But a lot of us can’t because we’re not where we want to be yet. But clear your mind up. Ask God for direction. Receive the direction. And he will give you more than you need and then proceed. And then when you get in the dark, don’t believe the darkness. Go back to the light and believe what you found in the light.

When I was eight years old I received Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. I have talked with other people who have received Christ. But at a point in their lives sometime they wonder if they received Him or not. If God is actually alive and active in their life or not. And they don’t ask that question when things are going well. They ask that question when things are not going well. I want to assure you of something today. That if you’ve received Christ, He is alive in you. If you have received Christ, you have all of the Holy Spirit you need. If you have received Christ, He has a plan for your life. If you have received Christ, the work he began in you He will complete. If you have received Christ, there’s nothing that can happen to you that he will not turn out for good. Don’t doubt it.

That doesn’t mean we don’t talk things over with one another. That doesn’t mean we don’t share burdens with one another. But when it comes down to my thinking, when it comes down to my vision, when it comes down to my clarity of thought, I am believing God and not doubting him.

Dr. H. (This is where the CD cuts off, but I’m not sure if you were done or not.)