Victory after dinner

Professional sports teams often have a pre-game meal.  The team nutritionists are tasked to choose just the right amount of carbs, protein etc… All of this to ensure the players will have the strength to endure and win that days game.  

God loves a good pre-game meal and it seems that whenever God is getting ready to defeat evil He plans a feast.

In the Old Testament, Exodus 12, the children of Israel have been in bondage for more than 400 years.  God wants to defeat the Egyptians and set HIs people free. Just before the last plague when God will deliver His people He invites all of His children to a meal, the first Passover Meal.  This meal preceded the defeat of the Pharaoh and his armies, and became the annual remembrance of God’s relationship with His people from that day forward. 

David in the Old Testament knew this to be true and writes these words in Psalm 23,

5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;

Then we read in Revelation 19 just before Jesus is getting ready to return and put a final end to all evil for all time it seems that once again God is saying, “Hey just before the final victory, “let’s eat”. 

19:9 Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” 

On this Thursday of Holy Week we remember the meal that Jesus and his disciples had together just before Jesus great victory on the cross.  To celebrate that victory, Jesus invited His disciples to, you guessed it, a meal.

Mark 14:22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” 23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. 24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” (ESV)

On Maundy Thursday, when Jesus is about to go to the cross to “destroy the works of the devil”   He invites his disciples to set down with Him for dinner.  Actually they are celebrating that same passover meal of their forefathers.  Only now Jesus is updating its significance to reflect His own sacrificial work on the cross where He will destroy an even greater enemy than Pharaoh,  Sin! 

What is Jesus doing while the High Priest are plotting His arrest?  He is doing what David said the Lord always does, “He prepared a table in the presence of His enemies” and was having supper with His disciples.  

A good meal always preceded a great victory!

Today we are invited to join Jesus at the table of grace. He invites us to take into our whole being His power, His Spirit, His Word, His forgiveness, His grace and His character.   As we feed on Him, trust in Him and allow Him to dwell in our innermost being we are then prepared to experience victory over sin and find the strength we need for every battle ahead.  

Feed on Jesus today!  Victory always comes after a good dinner!  

BE ENCOURAGED, WE’RE CHRISTIANS!

Troy

Danger of Discontentment

Do you ever find yourself dealing with discontentment?  

As a Christian we have the incredible privilege of being in relationship with the God of the universe. Through Christ we have been given supernatural provision for both this life and our spiritual life.  According to scripture and experience Jesus never fails!  We also have this promise that “all things work together”, that “nothing separates us from His love” and that we are both now and eternally “more than conquerors through Christ.” (Roman 8) It only makes sense that discontentment should be rare in the believers life. Yet somehow we all experience it, undoubtedly more often than we want to admit.  

Someone described discontentment very simply as being dissatisfied with our circumstances because our expectations are unmet.  

Discontentment displays itself in a myriad of ways in our life.  When we are discontent we are prone to, complaining, worrying, being preoccupied with what we don’t have rather than what we possess, greed, jealousy, never being satisfied, being hard to please, critical, sad and perpetually disappointed.  

Discontentment is a sin, and left unbridled it becomes the parent of much worse off-spring.  It destroys marriages, creates addiction, divides churches, spends money and wastes decades in the lives of men and women who are always chasing ever-elusive satisfaction.  

Discontentment is not new.  

The disciples who lived with Jesus, watched Him perform miracles and participated in His earthly ministry were not immune from wanting more.

I think about what James and John said to Jesus in Mark 10. They actually spoke their discontentment to Jesus face.  

35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 

What an interesting approach to prayer.  Honest and embarrassing at the same time and it is a reflection of the discontentment that was in their heart.  They were with Jesus but were not satisfied to be disciples only, they were trying to negotiate for a better position in Christ Kingdom.

37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

Someone said, Discontentment is sin because it is evidence that we treasure something—or someone—more than we treasure Christ.  This was certainly the disciples issue.  They longed for a position in Christ Kingdom more than the relationship with Jesus Himself.  

Discontentment has everything to do with our focus. Looking in the wrong direction will always produce yearning for something more.  

To focus primarily on ourselves will create discontentment in us.  To be so centered around our needs, our wants, our desires, our deficiency will inevitably cause us to become unhappy with, you guessed it, OUR circumstances.  

Stephen Arterburn speaks to the futility focusing only on our desires.  “When we settle for unhealthy and unfulfilling imitations of what we really desire, our appetites can begin to rage out of control and start controlling us. We will turn to sources of satisfaction that will eventually turn on us and force us either to give up altogether or to overindulge to the bitter end.”

Looking at other things or people moves us to dissatisfaction.   Discontentment is unmet expectations because we have expected satisfaction from the wrong place. It is putting the pressure on something or someone else to meet our needs and asking them or that to do what they or that have no capability of doing. 

Contentment then is found by turning our focus on the Lord.  Looking to the only one that can actually meet our needs.  Something supernatural happens in each of us when we trust the Lord with what we have and what we  do not have.  When we thank the Lord for His provision and rejoice in who He is we experience incredible contentment, regardless of our circumstances.  Philippians 4

Paul was right when he wrote to young Timothy,  “godliness with contentment is great gain” (I Tim. 6:6)  By the Spirit’s help we learn that the key to finding contentment is knowing and being known by Christ.  The pursuit of all earthly “gain” only leaves us grasping for more.  Only Jesus can satisfy our soul.  

Clara Williams, who was raised in wealth, reminds us of this truth this morning.  

1. All my life I had a panted

For a drink from some clear spring,

That I hoped would quench the burning

Of the thirst I felt within.

2. Poor I was, and sought for riches,

Something that would satisfy,

But the dust I gathered round me

Only mocked my soul’s sad cry.

chorus

Hallelujah! I have found Him

Whom my soul so long has craved!

Jesus satisfies my longings,

Through His blood I now am saved.

Seek Him today and find true contentment.  

BE ENCOURAGED, WE’RE CHRISTIANS!

PT