I Will Not Judge the Outcome. I Will Judge God by His Nature

Sermon outline

Believers are not exempt from crisis: God's first protection is of the soul, and our protection in this fallen world comes through obeying His word, so faith does not demand a guaranteed outcome but trusts God's revealed nature whatever happens.

1. God's protection is first for the soul

   The dictionary defines protection as preservation from injury or harm, but God's protection from harm and danger applies first to our souls; that is why He gave Jesus. It is better to enter the kingdom with one eye than to keep both and be lost, and we are to fear the One who can destroy soul and body. The soul that sins shall die, so the very first healing was the healing of the broken relationship between God and us.

   “The very first healing that took place was the healing of the soul.”

   • Mark 9:47
   • Matthew 10:28
   • Ezekiel 18:4

2. Protection for the body comes through obedience to His word

   In this fallen world God reduces the impact of what we face through our obedience to His word. He sent His word and healed us. Children have only the instructions their parents give them; if they disobey, they step out from under the covering. So it is with believers: disregard what God says and we walk out from under His covering, because there is no such thing as a causeless curse.

   Illustration: At a McDonald's car park his daughter jumped out of the car before he did, and he saw a man approaching her. He opened the window and shouted, the man walked away, and he reminded her: you watch, you listen to the instruction, and then you get out. Wherever she goes now, she has those words.

   “The only protection we as believers have is the Word of God.”

   • Psalm 107:20

3. Jesus lived the life we live

   Jesus was a carpenter's boy who got tired, wanted at times to get away from people, was tempted, betrayed, plotted against and called names, and wept at Lazarus's tomb. Facing the cross He asked for the cup to pass, then said, not My will but Yours. Before Pilate, who claimed power to take His life, He answered that no one takes it; He lays it down. In John 17 He does not pray that we be taken out of the world, but that we be kept from the evil one.

   “Jesus didn't live a different life to what we're living.”

   • John 17:14-15
   • Luke 22:42
   • John 11:35
   • John 19:10-11
   • John 10:18

4. The Word is our satnav

   The fallen condition came from Adam and Eve's choices, but the Word gives us God's nature, plans, principles, patterns and precepts. Even an unbeliever who tithes will be blessed on earth, because God honours His principle, though he will still be lost without Christ. David said he would have fainted had he not seen the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, comparing what he saw around him with what he was going through, and had never seen the righteous forsaken. Like a child who says, "Daddy told me, and I did it", the believer says, "My Father told me, by His stripes I am healed."

   “The principle is the principle. The pattern is the pattern. And the precept is the precept.”

   • Psalm 27:13
   • Psalm 37:25

5. Diagnosis, the call, agreement and belief

   Members living in the United Kingdom received a rare and serious diagnosis. The first thing they did was phone their pastor, thousands of miles away, to stand with them; they went through everything others go through, believed, and she was completely healed. They told no relatives, because unbelievers praying to something dead would contradict their faith. Do not skip church for a child's party and then come back to the same house when you need God. Christ did not come for cars and houses; prosperity and health follow obedience, and the walk is selfless, not selfish.

   “You're not looking for a guaranteed outcome. You believe God irrespective of whatever the outcome is.”

6. I will not judge the outcome

   Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego told Nebuchadnezzar that God would deliver them, and even if He did not, they would never serve his gods. That is faith: not a guaranteed result, but trust in God however things turn out, judging Him by the nature He revealed on the day you were born again and filled with the Holy Spirit.

   “I will not judge this outcome, but I will judge God by the nature that was revealed to me on the day that I was born again.”

   • Daniel 3:16-18

In this message