Gods Will by Joe Rodriguez by

We are so quick to judge people and judge God when things don't go how we think they should, and we are usually wrong in our assessments. When tragedy strikes, we question God's love easily because when all is good, it's easy to praise, but when our faith is tested, we see how strongly we really hold our faith. What comes out of us when we are pressed? If we have the wrong idea of God's character, we can't trust what He says, so this series is meant to rebuild our faith foundation. God judges sin because all sin eventually leads to destruction. He is giving us an opportunity to clean up our mess, but if we don't accept it, any consequences are our fault. He cannot be righteous without judgment and He loves us enough to want us to remove what is poison in our lives. God loves us so He gave us free will and He can't violate the system He put in place. People question the difference between the Old and New Testament and the culture and time they were written. We can't just excuse things because of these. We must realize we have the answer in the New Testament, so it's easier to understand the questions in the Old Testament. God is patient and gives us many opportunities to choose righteousness. If we don't choose it, a door is opened for Satan to come in because the absence of God (good) leaves room for evil. As we read the Bible, we should do so with a Christ-bias - meaning, we should look at everything through the lens of Christ, who was the embodiment of God. He is the cure to the incurable, the new medicine to bring us relief!

Amen!

Reference verses: Proverbs 24:10; 1 Peter 3:15; Romans 6:23; Deuteronomy 20:17-18; Romans 1:18-20, 24; Ezekiel 18:23; 1 Samuel 16:14; 2 Corinthians 6:14-15; James 1:13-15; John 10:10; 1 Samuel 18:10-11; 1 Samuel 19:9-10; Exodus 30:12; 2 Samuel 24:1; 1 Chronicles 21:1; Ephesians 4:27; Psalm 51:1,4; Exodus 21:22-27; Hebrews 10:1-2, 11-14; Matthew 5:38-42; John 15:5

Matthew 15:32

All of us have questioned if God is really good at some point because He hasn't given us something we have asked for, but we also tend to minimize our responsibility in our relationship with Him. We put it all on God because we've been taught He is in control of everything - so it removes our responsibility and makes it easier on us. The first thing Satan did was to plant a seed of doubt about God's goodness and he's been doing the same thing ever since, but now he uses preachers teaching wrong theology about God's character. What we do matters and what we don't do also matters! If we think God created evil and then sent Jesus to rescue us from that evil, it makes Him a fraud because He wouldn't be good if he created evil. It goes against His character. We must remember in the absence of knowledge not to make up nonsense! God sets us up for blessing, but we must follow Him and do our part if we want to receive what He has for us. He gave us the gift of free will, which allows us to choose (and misuse), and then we blame the consequences on Him. As long as choice has existed, there is always a chance that evil will come because we can choose to go against what God intends for us. To eliminate evil, God has to eliminate free will; if He eliminates free will, He eliminates love. We must understand that we can only see things linearly, so we can't begin to understand everything about God, or He wouldn't be God - we would be. Don't go beyond the Bible - focus on what we DO know! Where evil reigns strongly in our world, it is because Christians know to do good and are not doing it. We are made in God's image - having free will, authority and power given to us to create and take life - so we can affect Gods plan. This is why we must consider how important our words and actions are. God can redeem all things, but we must allow Him close in order to receive it.

Amen!

Reference verses: Romans 2:8-12; Proverbs 16:17; 2 Corinthians 6:14-16; James 1:13-14; 1 John 1:5; Romans 8:28; Romans 5:12-13; John 3:16; Romans 5:8; Genesis 1:28; John 19:11; Proverbs 3:27; James 4:17; Psalm 139:13-15; Genesis 1:12, 1:21, 1:27-28; James 1:17; Psalm 145:9; Genesis 25:21; 1 Kings 13:15-24; Matthew 6:10; Romans 2:4; Matthew 5:16

Commonly used statements like "God controls everything" or "God allows me to suffer for His glory" are from the Calvinist tradition and have infiltrated Western church culture. This tradition has led us to a place where we misunderstand God's sovereignty. Even cults and Satan started out with or quoted scripture, but they have twisted it. Most of us came to Sandbox because we didn't like what we saw at our previous churches, but we must be careful not to overcompensate because each denomination has good things to offer as well. If we believe that God causes everything, both the good and the bad, then how can we pray for and believe that He wants to heal us? If we are honest, we don't truly believe God is good and this mindset causes us to look at God with mistrust. If we read the Old Testament without reading the New Testament, we miss the beauty of God's story and Jesus, which explains the Old Testament. We keep trying to figure out the equation (Old Testament) when we already see and know the answer (New Testament). Jesus is perfect theology and all discrepancies in the Christian faith come because we don't know who God is. In the Old Testament, they didn't know God's plans, but in the New Testament, Jesus TOLD us His plans! He's not trying to undo what God did: He is the embodiment of God. A cold, detached God is not what Jesus walked on this earth. He is all we need to understand everything we need to know about the character of God.

Amen!

Reference verses: Matthew 13:58; Colossians 2:16-17; Matthew 13:17; Colossians 1:15, 2:9; John 14:8-19; 1 John 3:8; Matthew 4:23; Matthew 9:35; Acts 10:38; John 10:10; Isaiah 55:8-9; John 15:5; Job 11:7-8; Exodus 4:11; 1 Corinthians 2:11-13; Luke 4:18-19; John 5:39-42; Hebrews 12:2; Philippians 3:4-10

Many times, we find ourselves needing rescue and wondering if anyone cares or if God hears our prayers. There is a full-scale operation underway that God put into motion before we were born! He doesn't have favorites: he loves all of us, all nations, all races, all people equally. Before we can be rescued, we have to realize that we have a need for it. Do we fight God when He tries to rescue us because we don't like the package the rescue comes in? We must remember that truth is truth no matter how we feel about it. Truth is under attack in this world. The truth is that if there is no Creator, there can be no purpose to our lives: we would all be an accident because there would be no foundation on which to build a life of purpose. What are we doing with the life that God gave us? If we have been rescued, there is a responsibility on our lives to help rescue others. Jesus says "Come with me if you want to live". He won't force us - we have to accept His offer! God withholds no good thing from us, but we must receive it.

Amen!

Reference verses: Romans 1:20-23; Colossians 1:13; John 3:16-17; Romans 6:23; Romans 10:9-11

People often stay away from church or argue against Christianity because others have misused or abused scripture for selfish gain, but the same thing happens in many other areas of life. Car accidents happen, but we don't stop driving. We must take the good and the "bad" stuff in the Gospel - the stuff that holds us accountable - and remember that anything good in this world originates with God. There is such a move against the prosperity gospel, but there is much prosperity IN the Gospel! God said He was going to bless Abraham so that he could bless others. The idea that we are somehow more holy when we are in lack is just not true! We can't give what we don't have - whether that is love, money, time, etc. We need to stop living in a poverty mindset and realize that we know THE almighty God, so there will be blessings that come! Every blessing from God has the potential to lead us to selfishness if we don't keep our focus on following Him and passing on those blessings to others. We WERE sinners saved by grace, but now we ARE new creations designed to be used to impact the lives of those around us. Remember that Jesus will separate us by how we took care of others and we can't help others be free if we are captives ourselves. Healing and blessing are provided, but they are not guaranteed! Let us ask God in faith for these things so we can pour them out on others!

Amen!

Reference verses: Proverbs 22:6-7; 2 Kings 4:1-7; Proverbs 10:22, 16:20; Psalm 84:11; Luke 4:18-19; James 2:16; Matthew 25:35; John 10:10; Galatians 3:13-14; Genesis 24:1; Genesis 14:11, 14-16; Deuteronomy 28:1-14; Hebrews 11:6; James 1:5-8; Philippians 4:10-19; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Mark 10:29-30; 3 John 1:2

It used to be that we had to watch out for the world, but today, we have to watch out for the church. There is a lot of false theology being preached - stuff that may be mostly right, but is just a little bit wrong and pollutes our spirit - just like Satan did to Eve in the Garden. Does your faith matter? While we can't question each other's faith, we are called to hold each other accountable for our faith and we do need to call out a lack of faith. What we believe about scripture will have a massive effect on our lives, so we must be watchful and vigilant about what we allow in. The Old Testament pointed to Jesus, and He fulfilled all of the prophecies there, but the leaders of the church didn't believe it. It upset the status quo. Are we the same? Do we see Him and yet keep questioning what He really means? Faith in Jesus is an all or nothing proposition - either believe in Him or not, there isn't an in-between. It takes no faith to believe God CAN do something, but takes faith to believe God WILL do something. Our faith is going to be in direct proportion to who we believe God is, so what happens when the goodness of God is questioned in our lives? If we believe God is good, we will expect good things from Him. It is blasphemy to attribute the work of God to Satan, so is it also blasphemy to attribute the work of Satan to God? What is the consequence of believing that God brings illness - why would you then pray to Him to heal it? We must get into the Word and study for ourselves to see His will and have faith in what He says.

Amen!

Reference verses: Hebrews 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38; Matthew 17:14-20; Genesis 3:1-5; Hebrews 11:6; John 9; Mark 6:5-6; 1 Samuel 17:37; 1 Chronicles 4:9-10; Matthew 9:20-22; John 10:10; Matthew 12:22-25, 31-32

As we celebrate this Easter Sunday, we remember that Jesus chose to be on the cross, to be betrayed by His friends, and to be beaten and mocked. We have a choice to make today - will we leave the same as we came? His resurrection was the greatest gift we will ever receive, but if we don't really open the gift and just keep playing with the wrapping, we will never get to the depth of the love God gives us in order to be able to share it. Is Jesus just our savior, or is He also our Lord? Have we gotten comfortable to the point where we live like we don't owe God everything? We may be in bondage and not even realize it. Jesus' sacrifice gives us the opportunity to live resurrected lives! We need to identify ourselves by our identity in Christ and walk assured of the power we have in Him to walk out His plan for us. We don't need to try to convince people that we have changed, but we do have to present ourselves in truth. This will require re-introducing ourselves to people who knew us before we came to Christ and we shouldn't tire of this! People need to see Jesus in us as we continue to walk in Him. Jesus told Thomas those who believed without seeing would be blessed - that's us! We must establish ourselves and walk in the giftings that God has given us. Although Jesus was a carpenter by trade, He was also a gifted teacher (they called him Rabbi). He knew His gift and used it to lead the disciples into greater blessings that would increase after He left. Let's renew our minds and continue to remind ourselves who Jesus is!

Amen!

Reference verses: 1 Corinthians 15:12-19; John 20:11-18, 19-23, 24-31; John 21:1-14, 25

What do we do when we pray and we don't see Heaven come down? The modern church seems split between those who focus on suffering and those who focus on prosperity when it's really a bit of both. Jesus told us to ask, seek, and knock. The key is persistence. Do we ask and give up when we don't see immediate results? Do we really believe He will give us what we ask? God often works the supernatural through the natural, so we have to ask, seek and believe that He will give it to us - continuing to act in faith. We can't lose heart and we must remain hopeful! Jesus is coming back and He will be looking for those who haven't given up. We can look to Abraham as our example of continuing to believe and walk in faith that God will deliver on His promises. Once we receive deliverance, we also have to put ourselves in a position to keep it by living by God's Word, putting on a garment of praise, coming under discipleship, cultivating right fellowship, being filled with the Holy Spirit, being baptized, and putting on the whole armor of God. This is how we fill the void of spiritual oppression so that it does not come back! We also must remember to chase after God and not the sensations and spiritual highs that come with deliverance. Seek His glory first. As we grow at Sandbox, we are training up leaders. To truly walk out the Acts 2 church looks weird to the world because it's messy and requires investment of our time and resources into each others' lives that isn't seen often. Let us be transformed and never go back!

Amen!

Reference verses: Luke 11:1-13; Luke 18:1-8; Ephesians 1:4; Luke 11:9; 2 Corinthians 1:8-11; Romans 4:18-22; Matthew 4:4; Isaiah 61:3; Matthew 28:19; 1 John 1:7; Ephesians 5:18; Mark 16:15-16; Ephesians 6:13-18; John 6:50-69

Jesus intended for healing to be carried out in the local body, so we have to be open and vulnerable to each other. It takes character development over time to walk into spiritual maturity and walk in our gifts - it's not an overnight process that requires discipline and walking through the daily battles, not just feeding off spiritual highs. There are different kinds of sickness and they each require healing that is best done in community. Spiritual sickness is a result of our own sin; emotional sickness is a result of hurts in the past from someone else; and physical sickness is from disease or accidents. A complete healing ministry will address spiritual sickness through repentance, inner healing for emotional, physical healing, and deliverance from demonic oppression. Demons are a taboo subject in our culture. Satan has succeeded in deceiving people into believing there isn't really a war going on and there is a fascination with demons. There is a difference between demonic possession and oppression. Christians can't be possessed because we belong to God, but we can be oppressed, often by our own doing in feeding our fleshly desires or giving them power over time by our lack of self-control. Demons don't usually announce themselves, but rather enter our lives through often through a painful situation, where they can attack us in the areas of spirituality, emotions and attitudes, our minds, our tongues, sexuality, physical appetites, and our physical bodies. We must remember that we either work with God or we work with Satan - either directly or indirectly - by what we allow in our lives. If we are trying to help someone battle demonic oppression, it is best that we make sure we are not also struggling. There are steps to take, but we must let God lead and always be renewing our minds, be active in our local church, and put on the armor of God to fight this battle!

Amen!

Reference verses: James 5:13-16; Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; James 4:7; Galatians 5:19-23; Romans 8:11; John 16:33; Colossians 3:5-10; Mark 1:21-34; Matthew 12:22-32; Acts 19:13-16; Matthew 12:43-45