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Are You Trusting Jesus...or Yourself? · In the Stillness Podcast

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  Hey you guys, this is friendly. Welcome back to In the
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  Stillness. Happy Wednesday.
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  We have made it to midweek. I pray that y'all are doing well
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  and just wherever life finds you that you can experience more of
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  the heart of God each day. Today we are going to be
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  continuing through Second John. This quiet time really
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  challenged me because it exposed how easy it is to slowly drift
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  away from fully depending on Jesus.
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  And it can be without even realizing it.
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  We're going to talk all things striving, self-reliance, how to
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  remain rooted in the truth, and why it is so important to
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  consistently remind ourselves of the gospel message on the daily.
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  So let's go ahead and read second John verse 8.
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  It says be on your guard so that you do not lose all that you
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  have diligently worked for, but receive a full reward.
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  OK, when I first read this verse, I immediately was brought
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  back to something that Paul says in first Corinthians 15 about
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  believing in vain. And this message that he is
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  preaching is not because salvation is earned by works,
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  but because it is possible to slowly drift away from the
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  simplicity of the true gospel. I think that this happens a lot
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  more often and more subtly than we realize.
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  Because you can begin fully dependent on Jesus.
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  You know that you are saved by grace.
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  You know that you could never earn salvation.
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  But over time, the focus can slowly shift.
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  You may start feeling like God loves you more when you perform
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  better, or everything depends on your effort.
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  You have to sustain yourself spiritually.
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  And then Christianity starts to become exhausting.
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  That's not because Jesus is heavy, but because you started
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  carrying things that you were never asked to carry on your
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  own. Galatians 3 verse 3 says your
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  new life began by the Spirit. Why then, would you so foolishly
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  turn from living in the Spirit by trying to finish by your own
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  works? So that ties into John's warning
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  here. And second, John, it is not just
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  about abandoning Christianity entirely, it's about guarding
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  yourself from drifting away from the true gospel, the message of
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  Jesus Christ. Drift is not always happen
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  through rebellion. Sometimes it is through
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  self-reliance. And I think this world
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  consistently pushes that message that it is all about you.
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  It is on your own strength, it's about your work, your success.
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  But the Gospel points us away from ourselves and turns us to
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  Jesus, to his finished work on the cross.
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  False teaching at the time that John was riding.
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  Second, John was focused on self instead of Christ because these
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  false teachers were trying to choose what they wanted to
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  believe and what they wanted to teach about Jesus.
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  But it is the same for today. A lot of people create a version
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  of Christianity that focuses more on pride and control rather
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  than dependence on God. But y'all self was never meant
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  to be our savior. Proverbs 16 verse 18 says pride
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  goes before destruction. And sometimes pride does not
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  look loud or arrogant in the moment.
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  Sometimes it looks like believing in yourself more than
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  believing in God or thinking that everything depends on you.
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  And I think that's why so many people can burn out spiritually,
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  because they're trying to produce through striving what
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  only comes through abiding in Jesus, as we see in John 15.
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  That's humbling to think that we are nothing without Jesus, but
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  it is also so free. The gospel was never Jesus got
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  you started, so now you get to keep yourself saved.
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  No Jesus saves you, he sustains you and he finishes what he
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  started. Philippians one verse 6 says,
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  being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you
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  will carry it on into completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
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  So God is not done with you. He is constantly working on your
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  heart, drawing you closer to Him, and He will finish what He
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  started in you. So I think this is such a great
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  reminder that we must keep preaching the gospel to
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  ourselves every single day. It is not just when we first get
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  saved, but daily because our hearts drift so easily into
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  striving and into performance. Ephesians 2 verse 8 to 9 I think
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  is a verse that we hear a lot, but I did want to read it in a
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  different translation because it really just helped purify my
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  mind and was such a great reminder for me.
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  It says for it was only through this wonderful grace that we
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  believed in Him. Nothing we did could ever earn
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  this salvation. Salvation is never a reward for
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  good works or human striving. You did not earn God's grace in
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  the beginning, therefore you will not sustain yourself by
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  human effort now. The Christian life begins and
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  ends with Jesus. It continues through dependence
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  on Him. So I think an important question
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  to ask ourselves right now is, have I slowly made my
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  relationship with God more about my performance than on His
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  grace? When you fail because you will,
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  do you run toward God or is it away from Him?
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  Striving hides from God, But grace, when you have that full
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  revelation of His grace, it propels you into His arms.
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  You run back to Him. Maybe some of you today are just
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  spiritually drained because you've been trying to carry
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  something that Jesus can only carry that he was meant to
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  carry. Maybe it's trying harder, fixing
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  yourself, performing for approval.
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  But meanwhile Jesus is whispering, abide in me, remain
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  in me, continue in me. Another thing that I loved while
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  studying this verse is that everything has always been about
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  Jesus, not us. Romans 11 verse 36 says for out
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  of Him, the source and sustainer of everything, everything finds
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  fulfillment in Him. Your life literally exists to
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  point back to Christ, and when John talks here about receiving
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  a full reward, I don't believe that he's talking about earning
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  salvation because salvation is by grace alone.
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  But scripture does speak about eternal rewards that are
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  connected to faithfulness and perseverance in this life.
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  Galatians 6 verse 9 tells us to not grow weary and doing good
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  because in the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not
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  give up. So some of you may need that
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  reminder today. Do not grow weary.
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  Faithfulness usually does not look flashy.
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  It is a daily surrender, a daily obedience, daily returning to
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  the gospel again and again. So today, if some of you are
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  feeling spiritually exhausted, trapped in striving, I just want
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  to say I get it. It's so easy to fall back into
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  that habit, into a mindset of striving.
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  But maybe the invite for you is just to enter into God's grace
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  fully and to allow it to cascade over you, and to remember that
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  you were not made to do this on your own.
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  Return to abiding. Return to utter dependence on
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  Jesus. You did not save yourself, so
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  you do not have to sustain yourself either.
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  Jesus Christ is the author, the pioneer, the perfector of your
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  faith. So let's go ahead and pray
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  together. Dear Jesus, thank you for your
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  grace that is free flowing. That is nothing that we could
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  earn, nothing that we could deserve.
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  Thank you for your finished work on the cross, for your
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  endurance, for every single detail that you went to great
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  lengths to accomplish so that we could live in freedom right now.
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  Thank you that your salvation was never based on our
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  performance or our work. I pray that we would remain
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  rooted in truth. Would you guard us from drifting
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  into striving or relying on our self?
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  May we flee from selfish ambition.
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  God empower us to do so. It is so easy to go back to what
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  is familiar, to what we can try to control, but I pray that we
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  would abide in You daily, that we would continually remind
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  ourselves of the gospel. May we never be ashamed of the
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  full gospel of Jesus Christ. Would you help us to stay
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  faithful and to depend on Your Spirit more and more?
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  Increase our faith, God. May we walk by faith, not by
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  sight, led by your spirit. In step with your spirit, we
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  pray these things in your precious name, Jesus, Amen.
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  OK y'all, that is today's podcast episode.
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  Hope you'll have a great rest of your Wednesday or whenever
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  you're listening to this, that this blesses you.
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  And I am just so excited to continue studying the word of
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  God together. And I will see y'all on the next
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  podcast episode.