We Can and Will

[0:00] A pastor's reflections. We can and will. Exodus 20. 12. Honor thy father and thy mother,! That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God gives thee.

[0:14] ! Ecclesiastes 9.10. Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with thy might. Ephesians 4.1. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called.

[0:32] It is not always easy to accept the opportunities that have been given to us by God. Not because they aren't good things, or even because they aren't things we wouldn't want to do, but because we recognize that they are things that we are not adequate for.

[0:49] When Israel was receiving the Ten Commandments from God, it was one thing to realize all that God required of his people. It was an entirely different thing to realize that those things were required personally for each individual. How would a people who had spent their entire lives as slaves now live out these remarkably good, but remarkably impossible, commands of God?

[1:16] God never requires of anyone that which cannot be accomplished by that person in the Lord. The commands given to Israel that seemed so impossible were never meant to be kept or accomplished apart from the God who gave them.

[1:34] The question for God's people is not, can I follow God's commands, but will I follow God's commands?

[1:54] Our capability to obey is directly tied to our capability to believe that God is fully able to accomplish in us all that he has asked of us.

[2:07] What is it that God has asked of you? What is it that he has asked you to honor? What calling has he placed upon your life? Do you see those things as blessings or as burdens?

[2:20] God's commands are given to all to be personally applied by all. It is only when we are ready to own what has been given to us that we are then able to receive the ability that goes along with that calling.

[2:37] As we walk by faith in the commands of God, we discover that the ability to obey those commands are given to us not by law, but by grace.

[2:48] In Christ, we have freely received the life of God, the love of God, and the spirit of God. The same God who would freely give us all of that will also give us all that is needed to partake in the opportunities he places before us.

[3:08] Romans 8.32 He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

[3:21] Father, thank you that we who have lived our whole lives as slaves to sin can now have the freedom and the capacity to live out the commands of God.

[3:32] Help us not to run from what we know is impossible in ourselves, but instead run to the one who so willingly works in possibilities through ourselves.

[3:44] We choose today to look to Jesus, the one who makes all things possible in spite of all our impossibilities. Amen. Amen.

[4:36] Amen. Amen.

[5:06] Thank you.