Stop Wavering Between Two Opinions

Sermon outline

A life of faith means sowing your whole life as a seed into God's hands, letting the new nature of the Spirit replace the old, and refusing to waver between God and anything else, because what is sown in weakness is raised in power.

1. Sown in weakness, raised in power: you are the seed

   The passage first describes Christ's body, but it also describes believers who sow their lives as His body. Trials, dishonour and being taken advantage of are sown as seed. When you turn the other cheek, take the high road, or say nothing in the face of complaining, you are sowing yourself, and God will raise you up in spiritual power so that the fruit is far greater than anything you could achieve naturally. There is no fruit without a seed in the ground, so let go of what you cannot control.

   “Nothing that we experience in life will be the reason which will end us. Every situation that we go through, everything that we handle in life is sown as a seed.”

   • 1 Corinthians 15:42-44
   • Revelation 3:8
   • Romans 12:1

2. Spiritual believers and earthly believers

   As there are different kinds of flesh and of heavenly and earthly bodies, there are spiritual and earthly believers. Earthly believers go to church without a genuine relationship with God and are directed by their own opinions, whichever way the wind blows; spiritual believers are guided by the Holy Spirit and walk by faith rather than logic. God clothes every true believer with a new nature, as He did Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Job, Hannah and David, none of whom was perfect.

   Illustration: Abraham went from childless to father of nations, Jacob from deceiver to prince with God, Moses from killer to the meekest man on earth, Job from fear to trust, Hannah from barren to mother of Samuel, and David from rejected shepherd boy to king.

   “Spiritual believers are guided by the Holy Spirit, while earthly believers are directed by their own opinions.”

   • 1 Corinthians 15:39-41

3. Written off, but used by God

   Before he became known as a pioneer, people said Oral Roberts stuttered, came from a poor family, would have a healing ministry lasting two months and could never build a university. He chose to believe God's thoughts about him. Healed of tuberculosis as a young man, he went on to pioneer miracles on television and build a university on the authority of the Holy Spirit. What has the Holy Spirit spoken to your heart that you have dumbed down for fear of what people will say? Check your motives: if the motive is you, it is not God.

   Illustration: He quotes Oral Roberts: 'I decided to believe God's thoughts about me and go for something higher than what others had planned for me, and the results have been miraculous.' Only his sister stood by him in faith during the five months of tuberculosis.

   “Not every vision the visionary will get to see in his lifetime.”

   • Isaiah 55:9

4. Do not look at the fruit on the ground

   Driving fourteen kilometres through a citrus farm, he asked the Lord why good fruit was lying on the ground rotting, and the Lord asked why he was looking at it: fallen fruit enriches the soil and feeds animals. A citrus tree is stable only when part of its root stays above the ground; focusing on mistakes, difficult people and negativity sinks that root and makes us unstable. Some things happen not because you did wrong but to take you to the next phase, to equip you to help others, or to drive your roots deeper so the tree can grow higher.

   Illustration: The citrus farm he drove through that week, and what he found when he researched how citrus roots keep the tree stable.

   “Sometimes we will experience certain things because God is using that as the seed to get the roots down deeper so the tree can get higher.”

5. Stop wavering between two opinions

   The Lord would rather we were hot or cold than lukewarm. Elijah asked how long Israel would waver: if the Lord is God, follow Him; if Baal, follow Baal. God is jealous and will not contend with idols, opinions or a love divided between Him and the world. You cannot consult a sangoma or perform another religion's ritual and then ask for the blessing of the Lord, and young people cannot give ninety per cent of their time to the world and ten per cent to church. Wavering makes us people of fiction, not faith.

   “When we waver between two opinions, then we are not people of faith. We are people of fiction.”

   • Revelation 3:14-16
   • 1 Kings 18:21
   • 2 Timothy 3:5

6. Born of the Spirit: the new nature

   Natural birth begins life, but new birth begins a life of purpose. We were shaped in iniquity and need new principles, affections and aims, which the Holy Spirit brings from within. He gives power and favour as He wills, so we must be in tune with Him and in His Word. Calling every pastor and prophet to a hospital bed does not add power; Scripture says call the elders of your church, pray once in agreement and stand in faith. The 'I' of the old nature must die so that we bear the image of the heavenly man, and death is swallowed up in victory.

   Illustration: Just as people say a child eats like his father or talks like her mother, the more we give ourselves to the Holy Spirit, the more of the Father's characteristics show in us. On the Damascus road Jesus asked Paul why he was persecuting Him, identifying with every believer Paul had hurt.

   “If you want the blessing, sow yourself as the seed.”

   • John 3:8
   • Psalm 51:5
   • James 5:14
   • 1 Corinthians 15:45
   • 1 Corinthians 15:49
   • Acts 9:4
   • 1 Corinthians 15:53-54

7. Keep the fire alive

   The prodigal son is the story of all of us. Some never truly encounter the Spirit and stay blinded behind a form of godliness, never joining discipleship class, cell or the services; others encounter Him and become indifferent, which is the same blindness. We do not need to sleep with the pigs to realise how good the Father's house is, and He is faithful to forgive when we return. Wake each day with gratitude, and see yourself not as one fruit on a tree but as the one God has put in charge of the whole orchard.

   Illustration: People who brought others to church sometimes drift away, while those they brought are still there, loving God and involved.

   “God has not called you to the tree, God has called you to the vineyard.”

   • Luke 15:11-32
   • 1 John 1:9

In this message