When we have our mind set on something, there’s nothing worse than someone or something coming along and forcing a change of plan on us. After all – our plan … it was a good one. So how do you react when God Himself drops a change of plan into your life, hmm? 

So, what do you have planned for today, tomorrow, the next day, next week, next month? We all have hopes, dreams and plans. How we see the future – what we have to look forward to – plays a pretty important part in how much we enjoy our lives today.

This morning, I got up and looked at my diary – for a change, things were pretty clear, normally I have a lot of things in my diary. The reason is that I plan ahead. So – preparing radio programs – I normally have several pretty solid blocks of time during each week to do that.

Time in the studio. Meetings. Admin stuff at the office. Perhaps the odd catch up with a friend. Men’s group Friday mornings. But this morning, it was pretty clear, so after a time with the Lord, I sat down to start putting some thoughts together for another radio program.

But yesterday … yesterday – I had a list of 27 items to get through – got through about half of them, which isn’t bad. But in the middle of some really important stuff, off goes Skype on my desktop, it was one of our team from Africa calling me.

Now, I hadn’t spoken with Joseph for a couple of weeks, and I really wanted to talk to him – but part of me was … well, not annoyed but agitated, because I had all these things planned for today, and yet now I was being interrupted.

Of course, I chatted with him and it was great – but it’s that reaction of having my plans interrupted that’s the really interesting bit. I’m sure you’ve experienced it too – really good plans, and then someone comes along and interrupts them.

It happens in the small day to day things, and it happens too, in the bigger things of life. The plan to get married, to have children, to find somewhere to live, perhaps to buy a house. The plans we have in our minds for our finances and for our careers, for our children, for our families. 

Time and time and time again, those plans get turned on their head, as other things, other people demand that they be changed. How do you react when that happens, hmm?

We’ve been chatting over the past week about the idea of following Jesus with confidence. There are plenty of things that come along and shake our confidence in Him day to day, and one of those things is when our plans – good and godly though they may have been – are turned on their heads.

We kind of react with this shock: Hang on, what’s going on?! I had things all planned out and now… this!! Really?! That can’t be right. Maybe I was heading in the wrong direction in the first place. And that sense of maybe I had it wrong shakes our confidence a bit. Would it surprise you to know that you’re not the only one who’s been in that place.?

Have a listen to this … out of the book of Acts in the New Testament, Chapter 16, verse 6 – it’s about the Apostle Paul’s ministry journey.

They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

Now did you notice in there that twice – not once, but twice – we’re told that God Himself stopped Paul and his team from following their plans. I’m sure they’d sat down and thought about it and prayed about it and been convinced to go and proclaim the good news of Jesus in Asia.

And yet, they couldn’t having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. We don’t find out how that happened – perhaps Paul had a really sharp dream in the night. Perhaps one of their team with the spiritual gift of prophecy stood up and said so. Perhaps they’d been praying together and all of a sudden a few of them just got that really sharp check in the spirit, telling them not to go there.

Whatever it was – the Holy Spirit forbade them to go there, contrary to their initial plans.

And a second time. They tried to go to Bithynia … but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. Was there some physical obstacle? Was it a sense of spiritual discernment? We’re not told. But again, the Holy Spirit blocked their way.

I was reading a great blog post Finding my Keys by a guy called Luke Collings, where he writes this:

The role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian is often portrayed as overwhelmingly “positive”. That is, the Spirit enables the Christian to live in a manner of which they were incapable while they were still under sin. They can be obedient by the Spirit (Rom 8:4). They can understand the things of God (1 Cor 2:12). They can overcome the desires of the body (Gal 5:16). I could go on and on. 

The contemporary word to describe the Spirit’s effect on the Christian’s life is “empowerment”. 

Well put Luke – in our contemporary social context of individualism and self, it’s easy to get only half the view of the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Almost as though the Spirit is there to serve us, rather than the other way around. 

Of course God is our helper – but He’s also our King. Of course Jesus is our Saviour, but He’s also our Lord. And it’s that second part of the equation that we miss at our peril. Luke Collings goes on to say:

What we see instead is that the Holy Spirit is more than just Ministry Rocket Fuel. The Spirit is the one who opens and closes doors for the Gospel to spread. The Spirit doesn’t just Empower, but Directs and Enables mission. Those engaged in the preaching of Jesus learn from Acts 16 that they are not the Captain and Navigator of their own course. Those jobs are firmly in God’s hands.

So … the next time God slams the door shut in your face, this wouldn’t be a bad thing to remember. At the end of the day it’s not my plans or yours that are the important things. It’s God’s plans – because He sees the whole picture. 

Notice with Paul, both times He slammed the door shut, God led them in a different direction. The direction that He would have them go; to speak the Gospel to the people He would have them speak to. As well as the “no’s” – there was a strong, positive “yes”.

During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

God leads us in all sorts of different ways – sometimes by closing this door, and then a little while later flinging open some other door that you or I would never have dreamed of even knocking on. That change of plans … sure, our natural reaction is to wonder why. Our natural reaction is to have our confidence shaken.

But the whole point of what we’re talking about today on the program is learning to follow Jesus with confidence. The next time a door slams unexpectedly shut in your face, may the Holy Spirit dust this little chat of ours off and bring it into your recollection. A change of plans doesn’t mean that something’s gone wrong. God is still on His throne. And He really does know what He’s doing. 

So you’re chugging along through life, doing your best to follow Jesus and then all of a sudden, the enemy throws a spanner in the works. You had a good and godly plan to do this or that for the Lord, but now, evil’s somehow disrupted those plans. Perhaps it’s strife and conflict. Whatever. It shakes your confidence. 

Now you may have heard me talk recently about the fact that sometimes God changes our plans on us. We’re chugging along, we have plans for today and the rest of the week and in fact … for the rest of our lives if the truth be known and sometimes God comes along and completely changes things.

Now, you’d think wouldn’t you that if it’s God – hey. We’d be all for it. Go for it God. Hmmm. Sure. Sometimes we come to that conclusion eventually, and yet other times, it’s like God has to drag us kicking and screaming in the direction that He has planned for us.

Have a listen to this from the missionary journey of the Apostle Paul in case you missed it last time. It’s out of the book of Acts in the New Testament, Chapter 16:

They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

So there you have it – twice Paul was prevented from going where he’d planned – once to Asia, the second time to Bithynia and yet God had a positive, alternate plan for him.

That initial shock and horror that we experience when someone changes our plans – in this case, when God changes our plans, which clearly He does sometimes – shouldn’t rock our confidence. Think about it – sometimes, a two–year–old might have a really good plan to cross that busy freeway, but dad, fortunately has an alternate plan. It’s the same with God. 

But what about when it’s not God who changes our plans, but Satan himself? Then what?! Well, for most of us, that really rocks us to the core. There have been times when I have had some good and godly plans – I mean really good stuff to bless other people – and something terrible happens.

An argument breaks out in the ministry team. Someone undermines you. Perhaps someone makes false accusations against you. And this good and godly plan that you had just goes up in a puff of smoke.

If you’ve ever had that happen to you, you’ll know that it’s just really the most painful thing. It knocks the stuffing our of us, because … well, doesn’t the Bible tell us to put our confidence in God? Doesn’t it speak of God’s power and compassion and victory over the devil?

How is it that evil can win the day when the Bible says:

When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, “Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.” (Deuteronomy 20:1–4)

And that’s not an isolated quote. The Bible talks over and over again about God giving us victory over our enemies and over Satan. 

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

So what happens when the devil doesn’t flee? What happens when he seems to have the upper hand? What happens when the wicked people around us seem to win, against the good and godly plans and intentions that we had? Then what?

Well, if that’s ever happened to you, then you’re not alone. Have a listen to this, again from the experience of the Apostle Paul in ministry:

As for us, brothers and sisters, when, for a short time, we were made orphans by being separated from you—in person, not in heart—we longed with great eagerness to see you face to face. For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, wanted to again and again—but Satan blocked our way. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? Yes, you are our glory and joy (1 Thessalonians 2:17–20)

Who prevented Paul from going to see his friends in Thessalonica? Satan did. He blocked Paul’s way. And does Paul seem to be at all phased by that? Not at all! He goes right on and talks about the glory of God! It’s almost as though he sees it as a normal part of doing business, in the Kingdom of God.

And what about Jesus? When we was nailed there on the cross, didn’t it look as though the enemy had won? Didn’t Jesus look like the vanquished and Satan like the victor? And yet the Bible says this of that brutal love transaction on the cross:

And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it. (Colossians 2:13–15)

In other words, what appeared to be a great loss, was in fact a victory so great, that Jesus disarmed the rules and authorities – Satan and his armies – made a public spectacle of them and triumphed over them. 

Do you recall the thorn that Paul had in his flesh – the one that he asked God to remove three times but God wouldn’t? Do you remember what he called that thorn?

Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7–10)

Over and over again in Scripture, we see situations and circumstances where the devil seems to get the upper hand – he thinks he has the upper hand and yet God is always in control. God’s grace is always sufficient for the situation. And if it was true back then, it is true now.

Just because Satan appears to have the upper hand in a particular situation or skirmish, doesn’t mean that God has lost the plot. It doesn’t mean that Satan is winning. It doesn’t mean that God’s grace isn’t sufficient for you in that place. Look at Paul’s reaction to the fact that he is going to have to live with this messenger of Satan in his flesh:

So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

Hallelujah. Satan is purely a tool in God’s hands – nothing more and nothing less. He is as subject to the Sovereign power of God as you or I or any other creature in creation. And as the wise old King Solomon writes, in Proverbs 24:19–20:

Do not fret because of evildoers. Do not envy the wicked; for the evil have no future; the lamp of the wicked will go out.

Your God is in control. Your king reigns. Your future is bright. And nothing, no deception that Satan can conjure up – will ever change that. Nothing. That’s why it’s called the Good News

What you and I would really like is for the future to be plain and clear. But life’s not always like that. Sometimes it feels a bit as though we’re walking through life in a thick fog. Things aren’t as clear as we would like to be. Now all of a sudden, when you need your faith the most, it seems to elude you.

If you’ve ever had that nagging suspicion that things aren’t quite right in your life, then you’re not alone. It’s something that we all experience from time to time. We don’t think about it, but in a very real sense, for most of us, life follows a pretty familiar, well–worn trail.

We’re born, we go to school, we become adults, we marry, we have children, they go to school, they grow up … and eventually we die. I know that’s an over–simplification. And I know that a good many people don’t follow every step of that path … and I know there are many twists and turns and variations on that theme, but for most of us, that pretty much describes it.

And along the way we go through times of great joy, times of great sadness and long periods of the mundane same old, same old. Our emotions go up and down. Our fortunes go up and down. But we’re born, we bring children into the world, we die. That’s the basic template on which the human race relies.

So you’re following along that path and at some stage, perhaps, you encounter Jesus and you decide to walk the rest of the journey with Him – where He leads, according to His plans and purposes for your life.

Some people find that notion pretty depressing. I used to, to tell you the truth. But these days it is singularly the most liberating thing about my life. To be able to live out the plans and purposes for my life, that God Himself dreamed up before time began – I have to tell you, it’s just unreal.

But I, like the next person, sometimes get into those patches in life when I wonder – Am I in the right place? Am I doing what I was made to do? And is all the stuff going on around me making sense.

I wonder … where are you at right now? In an up … in a down … in one of those long periods of the boring mundaneness of life? Same day after day. Are you in a place of contentment, knowing you’re on the right path … or are you kind of wondering where it’s all headed?

In the army – I spent 10 years as a military officer – when we were training for war, they taught us about the concept, the idea of what’s called “the fog of war”. It’s this idea that when you’re fighting the battle, you’re enveloped in a kind of fog. Part of that fog is that you don’t have all the information you need about your enemy – how strong he is, how many troops and tanks he has, how well trained, what his morale is like, what his plans are, what his tactics are.

Part of it is that your enemy deliberately tries to feed you misinformation to deceive you. Part of it is that you’re tired, exhausted often, afraid, your morale is down. Your troops – their morale is up and down. And then when the bullets start flying and the artillery shells start exploding around you – it’s like you’re in a fog, a stupor and making really good, well informed, rational decisions is extremely difficult.

That’s what this idea – the fog of war – is all about.

In a very real sense, we sometimes operate in a bit of a fog too. Our emotions are playing havoc. People are having a go and we don’t understand their motives and intentions. We don’t know if we can trust them.

And God – what about Him? What exactly are His plans? Am I in the right place? Am I doing the things I was meant to be doing? Have I perhaps taken a wrong turn?

And it’s in this fog that we can start questioning His faithfulness. It’s in this fog that we start second guessing God and ourselves. We’d like to think we have it all together. We’d like to think we know where life’s headed, but all too often, we either haven’t got a clue, or we though we did, but … we’re really not that sure any more.

I was having coffee with a man who works for a large corporation – who thought he knew what his life was about, but his health was failing him and deep down he had a sneaking suspicion that God had a different plan – he just didn’t know what that plan was.

Do you relate to some of that? There seems to be a gap between your present circumstances and what you think the future might be about. 

We’re in the middle of a series called Following Jesus with Confidence – and the reason we’re talking about this stuff today, is that when we’re enveloped in this fog – it’s hard to be confident. The thing about this fog is that it limits your field of vision – so it’s easy, really easy – to take a wrong step.

But I believe that God wants us to have confidence in Him, even when we’re in the middle of this fog of war as I’ve called it. In fact, especially then. When you think about it, it’s when things are unclear that we really need God, because His field of vision is never, ever limited by anything.

 The first thing we need to know when we’re wandering through life in a bit of a fog, is that God is faithful. He’s not angry, He’s not disappointed with us – He’s like a loving father, keen to see His child learn, and keen to help His child through the fog. His love, in that fog, His faithfulness in that fog, is rock solid. King David had more enemies than most of us. He went through many trials in his life, and so many of the Psalms he wrote, he’s pouring his heart out to God in the midst of the fog of war. Psalm 86:1–7

Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God; be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all day long. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my cry of supplication. In the day of my trouble I call on you, for you will answer me

And towards the end of that Psalm, based on his past experiences, David concludes this – Psalm 86:14–17:

O God, the insolent rise up against me; a band of ruffians seeks my life, and they do not set you before them. But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant; show me a sign of your favour, so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame, because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

I know there are people today going through one of those times in your life when it’s hard to follow Jesus with any confidence. And I know there are people today for whom such a time is just around the corner.

Your God is merciful and gracious, He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. That’s just who He is – so if you know that you’ve turned your back on Him, turn back now, tell Him you’re sorry, ask Him to forgive you in Jesus’ name – and it’s a done deal. You’re forgiven. You stand before Him as clean and as pure as Jesus Himself.

Because that’s why Jesus died for you. That’s why Jesus did what He did – to give you a fresh start with the slate wiped clean. And now as you draw close to Him, you can take each step with Him being completely sure that when you need to turn to the left or to the right, He’ll let you know. When you need to stop and wait a while, or move a bit more quickly – He’ll let you know. That’s the deal. That’s His promise.

I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father (John 15:15)

My friend wherever you find yourself along your journey right now, the answer … the answer is Jesus.

If someone told you that you were a slave, how would you react? Probably like 99.9% of us – you’d exclaim – I’m not a slave, I’m free!! And yet it turns out that many, many people are wandering around with a very real slave mentality. And that … that’s something that Jesus wants to do something about.

The greatest tragedy I see in people’s lives is that they’ve become slaves to their circumstances, their passions, the ways of this world – slaves to a whole bunch of things that promised so much, and yet have left their lives empty and hollow – bereft of meaning and purpose.

You and I go through many trials in life. Things tear at our flesh and our emotions. But when you stop and think about it, we were made to be at peace. We were made to experience perfect peace and satisfaction and contentment.

How do I know that? Because when I look back to see how God created us from the beginning, that’s exactly what I see. Adam and Eve were in that beautiful garden, living the perfect life – until they turned their backs on God. Genesis Chapter 2 gives us the most beautiful picture of the perfect life that God has planned for us.

But of course humanity – you and me included – turned our backs on God, and so sickness and trial and temptation and the consequences of rebelling against God all entered this world.

That’s why we have to suffer, as Shakespeare called it, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes. That’s why things happen to us that we would never choose for ourselves. That’s why we end up doing things to other people, that really, we wish we hadn’t. And that’s why we’re so powerless to save ourselves from continuing in a life that falls so far short of that beautiful, perfect ideal that God has planned for us.

So people – you and me included – carry all this baggage around through life, baggage that gets heavier and heavier as the years pass, and whether we realise it or not, we become slaves to that sin. We may not call it that, but all that weight on our shoulders becomes the norm. It drains the life out of us. 

And so we live as though it is the norm. We live as though slavery to sin and all its consequences is a normal state – well I’m here to tell you today to wake up – because it’s not normal. It’s anything but normal. It may be common, but it’s not normal. Yet all too many are slaves without even realising it. Have a listen to this discussion that Jesus had with some Jews – God’s chosen people as they were – John 8:31–36:

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”

 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Do you see – they didn’t realise they were slaves. They saw themselves as God’s chosen people – not as slaves. Slaves were those people they had at home – gentiles for the most part – who served them. They were free.

But Jesus – as He has a habit of doing – goes straight to the heart of the reality. Whoever commits sin, is a slave to sin.

And here’s the thing – if we’re living in some sin that we’re holding out on in our relationship with God – that slavery has terrible consequences. You can never have a deep, wonderful, intimate relationship with God. You can’t live your life in confidence in Jesus – because every moment of every day the guilt that your conscience is so sensitive to, robs you of that ability.

Think about it – a man is cheating on his wife. Can he truly have a deep, wonderful, intimate, perfect relationship with his wife – while he’s cheating on her behind her back? He can pretend. He can deceive his wife – although eventually she’ll realise – but deep in his heart, he cannot know the bliss of an intimate exclusive relationship with his wife, because his conscience condemns him. God gave us a conscience for good reason. He gave us a sense of touch so that when we touch something hot, it’ll hurt and we’ll pull away before we really injure ourselves badly. Your conscience and mine serve exactly the same purpose. 

When we stubbornly refuse to yield one particular are of our lives to Him – our conscience robs us of the peace and the joy we’re meant to be living in. And the purpose of that is to get us to turn away from that thing, before it seriously hurts us.

I have met people who’ve been seeking the sort of relationship with Jesus that we’ve been talking about in this series. The sort where no matter what comes their way, gives them that quiet confidence in Him, confidence in Jesus.

And yet they continue on as slaves to sin – living with a slave mentality that will always, in 100% of cases, rob them of the very thing they are looking for. Let me ask you kindly but plainly today – are you one of those people?

Because if you are, if you’re yearning for that confidence and peace and joy in Christ Jesus, but your sin has been robbing you of it, then I have the answer for you today. It comes directly from God’s Word – Romans 6:1–14 and this Word from Him is the power to set you free; to utterly transform your life. 

What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

My friend, Jesus came to set you free. If you’ve put your trust in Him, then two things have happened. Firstly you have died to your sin – it no longer has power over you because Jesus quashed it on that Cross. That’s a historical, judicial fact.

And secondly, because He rose again from the dead, He has brought you the power to be free from sin. Do you believe in Jesus? Then you have the power to overcome your sin – a power that none of us has in and of ourselves – it’s a gift from God this power. It’s His power. It’s the only power that there is, that will set you free.

You are free. And so now … now you can choose not to let sin have dominion over your body. It’ll be a battle by battle struggle, but it’s a war that you’ve already won.

And my friend as you yield yourself completely to Jesus you will – I guarantee this –you will be filled with peace, with joy and with confidence in Him. How do I know? Because that’s just how it works. If you don’t believe me, give it a spin. Really.

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been chatting on the program about following Jesus with confidence. And as we wind up that series, there’s one more thing that I’d like to share with you. In fact, it’s the most important thing of all. 

There’s many a time in the last twenty or so years since I gave my life to Jesus, that I’ve come up short on my end of the bargain. Many a time. I wish that weren’t the case. But it is. And at those times, our conscience condemns us – because that’s what’s meant to happen.

Yesterday I made the point that your conscience is a lot like our sense of touch. God gave us a conscience for good reason. He gave us a sense of touch so that when we touch something hot, it’ll hurt and we’ll pull away before we really injure ourselves badly. Your conscience and mine serve exactly the same purpose. 

When we stubbornly refuse to yield one particular area of our lives to Him – our conscience robs us of the peace and the joy we’re meant to be living in. And the purpose of that is to get us to turn away from that thing before it seriously hurts us.

I have met people who’ve been seeking the sort of relationship with Jesus that we’ve been talking about in this series. The sort where no matter what comes their way, gives them that quiet confidence in Him, confidence in Jesus.

Now there are two attitudes that we can have towards our sin. On the one hand, we can stubbornly refuse to let go of it. We can convince ourselves that this little sin of ours, well, you know … it’s really not that bad. I met a pastor of a church once who refused to smile and say hello to members of his congregation. Only a little thing you might think … and yet it was tearing the congregation apart. 

People spoke to him about it, but he stubbornly refused to do anything about it – Oh, it’s just how I am – was his answer. Stubbornly holding out on God, by continuing in sin, has serious and devastating consequences – both in the here and now – and for eternity. Jesus said this:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21–23)

Faith translates into works – the works don’t save us, but they are evidence of genuine faith, they’re the fulfilment of our faith. And without them, our faith is dead (James 2:20)

People who stubbornly continue in sin, are going to get a rude shock when it comes to their day of judgement:

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19–21)

So – that’s the first thing. If you want to follow Jesus with confidence, don’t expect to be able to do that, if you stubbornly refuse to turn away from your sin and back to God. The bottom line, the executive summary of the outcomes is this – Hebrews 10:26–27:

For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

So what’s the alternative. We all know that we fall short of the glory of God on a daily basis. We all know that our anger flares up, that we carry around some insecurities. We all have some natural weaknesses and limitations that we’re working our way through. I just admitted to you that I’m in that boat.

The alternative is keeping short accounts with God. So, instead of stubbornly refusing to hand it over to God and ask for His forgiveness, we hang on to it and that robs us –100% of the time – of our peace and confidence in Christ. But the alternative is to go to God quickly and ask for His forgiveness. The alternative is to admit our sin to Him openly and honestly – why do we hide? Why do we imagine that He can’t see? He’s God after all.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us (1 John 1:8–10)

The alternative, you see is being honest and admitting our sin to ourselves and to God and when we do … He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

What’s justice got to do with it? Quite simply this. If you believe in Jesus, He has already paid for your sins, when He died on that cross for you and for me 2000 something years ago. Justice has been served –and so this faithful and just God forgives us in grace and in mercy – even though we ourselves don’t deserve it, because Jesus … Jesus paid the price for us.

That, if you don’t mind me saying so – is sensational news!!!

What I’ve noticed is this. The longer I take to go to God and ask Him for His forgiveness, the worse my life is. The less confidence I have in Him, the less peace I have, the less joy I have. The quicker I am to go to Him and be honest and admit my mistake or my rebellion or whatever the case may be, the more confidence I have in Him, the more peace I have, the more joy I have.

We learn by our mistakes – and hanging onto my sin, I’ve learned, is never, ever, ever worth it in the end. Because the longer I hang on to it, the more stubborn I become over it and then I put my life in peril.

Jesus paints a sharp contrast between the humble sinner and the proud sinner. Sin is a fact, it’s a reality in my life and in your life from time to time. And here’s that picture of the two different ways we can handle it. Luke 18:9–14:

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income. ’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner! ’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.

Why does God want you and me to be honest with ourselves and with him about our Sin? Because our sin – our rebellion against God – robs us of life itself. It robs us of peace and confidence in order that we will come to our senses.

Let me come back to what I said yesterday. You and I were made to live in perfect peace, joy and contentment. Even though we go through many trials, that’s how we were made to live. 

That’s why God takes your sin and mine so seriously because it robs us of that perfect peace and joy and contentment that God has for us.

Do you truly want to follow Jesus with Confidence? Then keep short accounts with God.  Ask for His forgiveness and turn away from your sins – it’s a game changer.