Disrupting the Ebb and Flow of Life

Our Creator is the everlasting, all-powerful, merciful, and loving God. In Scripture, the omnipotence of God's power and authority is illustrated by different metaphors. But one in particular I want to trace with you, just as I begin today, the omnipotence of God's power and his authority is illustrated by his ability to disrupt and quell the tumultuous power of the sea which he himself created. So if you turn with me first, or I'm going to see... are we going to have a slide? He's working on it. Is it there? Presto Chango. There it is. You can jot this down.

It might save you a little time turning there. We read these Scriptures one after the other, kind of builds its power and draws the line I'm trying to get to. We see this idea of God's power and his ability to disrupt and quell tumultuous power of the sea. Job 38, verse 8 through 11, here we find God reminding Job of his omnipotence. And he asked Job, who is going to get a very good lesson, and a lesson that God has shared with each of us, he asked Job, who shut in the sea with doors, metaphorically speaking?

Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst forth and issued from the womb? When I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band? When I fixed my limit for it, for the seas, and set bars and doors? When I said, this far you may come, but no farther. And here your proud waves must stop. Think about that. God has a lot of power if you can bound in the ocean. That's also another verse we will read, Psalm 89, verse 7 through 9. Psalm 89, 7 through 9, here, the psalmist urges the saints, you and me among them.

The psalmist urges the saints to revere only God who can quell the raging sea. Psalmist writes, verse 7, Psalm 89, verse 7, God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints. Do we fear Him? And He is to be held in reverence by all those around Him. O Lord, God of hosts, who is mighty like You, O Lord?

Your faithfulness also surrounds You. You rule the raging of the sea. When its waves rise, You still them. It's quite the power. And then third, Mark 4, verse 39, we'll begin there. Mark 4, verse 39, tells how Jesus Christ amazed His frightened disciples, and at the same time what He did signified His identity.

Mark 4, 39, then Jesus arose and rebuked the wind, and He said to the sea, Peace be still. The storm was about ready to swamp the boat, if you recall. Peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a calm. But He said to them, His disciples, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and they said to one another, Who can this be? Who can this man be? That even the wind and the sea obey Him?

Well, I think we know, don't we? We've looked at the previous two verses. He is God. He's the one who the Father created the earth and all things of the universe through Jesus Christ. So what we've reviewed here rather quickly is a principle that God easily disrupts the storm He sees. God quells the ebb and flow of the raging waves. And today I want to draw your attention that God does something similar for you and me. God does something similar for you and me. God helps us disrupt the storms in our life. God helps us disrupt the ebb and flow of our natural, carnal ways so we might have a more abundant life. And yet, at the same time, God is doing His part.

We're going to review today that we have our part. We have our part in disrupting our natural, carnal ways in order to live a more abundant life. Scripture tells us how. Scripture tells us how. The title of today's message is, Disrupting the Ebb and Flow of Life. Disrupting the Ebb and Flow of Life. Now, I don't know about you, but I grew up in a land-locked part of the country. We didn't have many oceans, but we did have TV. I'm not totally backwoods. But it took me a while.

I had to learn what ebb and flow meant. The grasses don't ebb and flow a whole lot in the prairie, although there may be some sort of movement like that. So what does ebb and flow mean? We're going to narrow it down a little bit more to talk about the ebb and flow of life. According to usdictionary.com, the phrase ebb and flow—and by the way, it's spelled ebb and flow.

The phrase ebb and flow can be traced back to Old English. And it originally referred to the recurring movement of the tides. The receding—ebb—and the flow—the moving forward. The advancing. And so the ebb and flow came to signify, metaphorically, the cyclical pattern of changes and fluctuations in series of recurrent events. If you've ever even sat around Lake Hawkins, you can see that there's a little wave that comes in and out, and that is the ebb and flow. But now when we speak about the ebb and flow of life, what are we talking about? The ebb and flow of life refers to the common recurring and repetitious features that make up our human existence, our physical, natural, carnal human existence.

The Bible described the ebb and flow of life, by the way. The Bible described the ebb and flow of life long before this English phrase, ebb and flow, ever existed. The same concept appears in Ecclesiastes. Let's turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Ecclesiastes chapter 3.

Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 1 through 8. And I'd like to read through these familiar verses with you, and as we do, I'd like for you to notice how these verses present to us a series of contrasting parallelisms. Contrasting parallelisms that emphasize the recurring features of our human existence. This is what life is about, according to Solomon. This is life under the sun. Life under the sun.

And so, let's read here, beginning verse 1. He writes, to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. Are you ready for the ebb and flow part? Here we go. There's a time to be born, and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to break down, and a time to build up. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to gain, a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to throw away. A time to tear, and a time to sow. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate. A time of war, and a time of peace.

Now, perhaps you notice, as I read those verses, did you notice that repetitious back-and-forth movement of meaning? In Hebrew poetry, they love to rhyme meaning. And there's a lot of contrastive meaning going on here. And yes, I did emphasize the movement by the way I read. And that's thanks to our English editors who wrote this, writers several centuries ago now. The time of our lives is what I'm hoping to help you understand.

The time of our lives is like the sea. Our lives are a series of recurring moments of calm and peace. Sometimes we'll talk about smooth sailing, yes? And other times it's quickly followed by tumult, stormy days, and troubles. Now, these various contrasting times in life are what make up what we call the good times and the bad times. They make up the fun times and the sad times, the highs and lows, which comprise the ebb and flow of our lives.

Now, some people have noticed fine life's ebb and flow comfortable. They like life the way it is. You see, it's always predictable. It's sort of like a rocky chair. It goes back and forth. Repetition, history, have you heard, repeats itself to a degree. Life, our lives, if you live long enough, you begin to appreciate how some things keep happening. Even if you're old enough to have a job now and you're grown. I'm thinking of our young people. I remember the first time I had my job. I was excited. I worked. I made money. And very quickly, I realized I was getting battered by the ebb and flow of life.

You work hard for the weekend. The weekend arrives. You've got to go back to work on Monday. You work for the week. The weekend arrives. Go back to work on Monday. Have any of you noticed that? Of course, there are some good aspects about it now. The weekends with the Sabbath. The weekends with the Sabbath. A huge blessing, of course. So, some people do like the ebb and flow of life. It's like a rocking chair. There's a lot of movement. You've heard it, but you don't really get anywhere. And even with these times of weeping and mourning, times of hate and war that we just read about and ecclesiastes, people will accept life as it is because they have come to believe that that's all life offers us.

That's all to expect from our lives. That's all it is. For many, human existence, this ebb and flow of life, human existence seems trapped between birth and death amidst this recurring event of life's ebb and flow, which in all that means, this repetition, it just means that, what do we have to live for?

It's just one day after the other, getting up and putting on clothes, working, taking off clothes, going to bed day after day, life is monotonous, life is boring, and very soon, many people can be beset by an attitude of despair and hopelessness. And so human existence, I believe, would always seem to be that way, except for one very important thing. Most people don't know this yet, either.

God the Father sent Jesus Christ. God the Father sent Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the disruptor. Jesus Christ is the disruptor to the typical ebb and flow of our human existence. Jesus Christ came as a disruptor. Now, a disruptor is not always a bad thing.

We hear a lot of people disrupting things in recent months and years. But let's understand the definition. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a disruptor is a person or thing that prevents something, especially a system or process or event from continuing as usual or as expected. So think about Jesus Christ as a disruptor. I'm going to read that definition again. A disruptor is a person or thing that prevents something, especially a system, process, or event from continuing as usual or as expected.

That seems to fit Jesus Christ pretty well in broad scope. You see, Jesus Christ came, sent by the Father, and He willingly came. And we can read about what He did in John 1, verse 4 through 5. I'll just read the verse to you.

Jesus Christ came and He disrupted the darkness. He came as life and light and disrupted the darkness and hopelessness of the world. John 1, 4 tells us that Jesus was the life and light of mankind. In verse 5, quoting there, And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

And some scholars think it means it's actually, and the darkness could not overcome it. And I think that works well, too. The darkness cannot and will never overcome the light which is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ brought the gospel of hope. What is that gospel? You want to place in your Bible to Mark?

You can mark the gospel of Mark, chapter 1, verse 14 through 15. Mark 1, 14 through 15. And there we read, now after John the Baptist, after John the Baptist was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, Time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent. Turn around. Do something different with your ebb and flow of life, and believe in the gospel.

So Jesus called upon everyone, and He still does to this day, and He always will. Until everyone is changed, or is no more, He is calling upon everyone to repent of sin. And sin is lawlessness. 1 John 3, 4. He calls upon every human being, and in time every human being will hear. He calls upon every human being to stop disobeying God's eternal law, God's eternal law, which is codified in God's Ten Commandments.

God's law has always been for all humanity to keep. It is not the law of the Jews. It is not just for the Jews. And Jesus Christ came to disrupt how we human beings perceive our human existence. Let's turn to John 10. Jesus Christ came and disrupted how mankind perceived its existence.

He came to let them know you cannot just live life your way or any way that you choose. John 10, verse 10. And I'm going to read from the second sentence of John 10, verse 10. And there Jesus said, speaking of himself, He says, I have come that they may have life, that people, humanity, mankind, may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. There's more to life than just existing. There's more to life than just getting up, working, going to bed. We all know that. But Christ came to tell us more about it. And so there's more to life than stormy seas and the monotonous recurring events of our mortal existence. And that is very good news, I think. And I think you do, too. Jesus declared, you see, he declared and lived a message of hope and truth, not only about our present time, but about the future yet to come. And in John 11, verse 25 and 26, John 11, verse 25 and 26, we find out Jesus declared God's promise and our hope of life beyond this mortal existence. He came to disrupt a lot of wrong and terrible ideas about life. The world seems to be slowly being taken over by a nihilistic creed right now. They don't believe in anything. We just make our own truth. Postmodernism, nihilism, its roots go back to ancient Buddhism, frankly.

John 11, 25, Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die. That's the first death. He shall live. He shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? He asked. He asked Martha. Do we believe this? We can ask ourselves. Again, this is a really exciting and disruptive way of thinking from what people usually think. There's more to life than this natural mortal existence. Jesus Christ taught the truth of God's word to his people. He came with the message of the gospel sent by the Father, a message of love. But the leaders of his day, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and many others, they rejected him. Why? Because of necessity. He was disrupting their authority. He was shaking things up. He was disrupting their authority, their ways, their teachings, their understanding about God and about life. And for that, Acts 5.20 tells us, for that, they murdered him by hanging him on a tree. Now, after Christ ascended back into the heavens, Christ's church and his apostles would spread his gospel to the nations of the world. God wants every human being to be able to believe, and one time they will have that opportunity. He's calling everybody right now, which Scripture tells us. But in due time, everyone will have a chance to believe and understand the good news of the coming kingdom of God, this opportunity to have eternal life and salvation. 1 Timothy 2, 3-4, Paul was very clear with his message, a message given to him by Christ. 1 Timothy 2, 3-4, Paul declares, For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved, and to come into the knowledge of the truth. All men! The Jews thought it was only for Jews and those who became Jews. But Jesus Christ, through apostles and his church, disrupt that message. That is not what Scripture teaches us. Any time all people understand that. In Acts 17, verse 6, we see that as Paul and others spread the gospel message, Acts 17, verse 6, they themselves would be accused of being disruptors.

Those who believe in the ways of Christ would be accused of being disruptors. Here's how the Jews in Thessalonica described Paul. Acts 17, verse 6, But when they did not find them, looking for Paul and others with him, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Turn the world upside down. That's disrupting the way things are. They're disrupting things. And of course, they'd be accused, and probably rightly so, of turning people away from the worship of Diana and many other of the pagan gods. They were disruptors. Jesus Christ and his gospel disrupt the ebb and flow of the world. His message and way of life disrupts the way we're to live, the way of carnal life. Christ reveals God's plan of salvation. Christ gives our lives purpose and meaning along with tremendous hope, which is salvation, eternal life, and God's kingdom. And he teaches us how to live life according to God's righteousness. That will cause disruption in our normal way of living when we repent and change and begin to live life God's way. So if we believe in God and tremble at his word, as we're told to do in Isaiah 66 verse 2, if we believe in God and tremble at his word, Isaiah 66 verse 2, then we must not allow ourselves to be lulled back into that rocking chair attitude, that ebb and flow attitude about life under the sway of Satan, under the sway of self, and under the sway of society. Just as God divided the Red Sea and led Israel out of Egypt, so will God help us to reject temptation and sin and come out of a life of sin. God will help to disrupt sin's hold on us. He will calm the waves of our doubts and fears, and sometimes isn't that how doubt and fear and anxious care, human reason apart from God, remembering Dr. Ward's list, he's taught us, very important from Scripture, those doubts and fears all those enemies have faced, don't they kind of try to swamp us like waves at times? They come upon us as waves and attitudes. But we are grateful that God will help us disrupt sin's hold on us. But as I said in the beginning, we also have our part to play. We have our part to play. Basically, we must believe God and do our part to disrupt sin's hold in our lives. We have our personal part in this. We must continue in our calling. If we've been called by God the Father, and we've accepted that calling, and we are endeavoring to endure to the end in faith, in the faith of Jesus Christ, in submission to God in Christ, then we must keep choosing to trust God completely and do what he says. Only then can we disrupt sin's hold in our lives. Nobody else can do it for us. We have to do it not alone. We have to do it ourselves, but with the help of our great God and the strength of His Spirit. Only then can we get out of those spiritual rocking chairs and keep taking those leaps of faith. So let's consider now. What must we be doing? What must we be doing and keep doing to disrupt sin's hold in the ways of the world in our lives?

Well, to begin, we must keep repenting. I'm going to phrase these as if we already know that we should be repenting, and emphasize that we must keep repenting. We must keep repenting because our human nature will drag us down and want to get us flipped back in. That old way, rocking chair way of living our lives. The ebb and flow ways of the world tell us what?

The ebb and flow ways of the world tell us, don't worry about sin. Just believe God. That part's right. But we do need to be aware of sin. We cannot let sin to reign in our lives. The world tells us it's okay to believe. Just don't worry about sin. Don't worry about obeying God, keeping the commandments, keeping the Sabbath, all these things that God has revealed to us, and to our understanding. They're very important to do, we must do, and in the world in time, they will understand as well.

God tells us, because we all want to listen to what God has to say, God tells us that repentance leads to forgiveness and ultimately to salvation. Look at 2 Corinthians 7 verse 10. 2 Corinthians 7 verse 10. Why do we repent? Repentance is not a one-off thing. It's not just a one-time thing. It's a way of life. Repentance is a way of life. Here's what Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 7 verse 10.

He's talking about the types of sorrow, the types of feeling bad for what you've done. 2 Corinthians 7 verse 10, Paul says, for godly sorrow, and that's the kind we want, for godly sorrow produces repentance. It means you're going to change your ways. You're going to be working at it. It produces repentance leading to salvation. It's not to be regretted. If you're doing it, you're not going to regret it.

It's going to pay off in a good way in time. But he says, he adds in contrast, the sorrow of the world produces death. The sorrow of the world is akin to like, oh, I'm sorry I got caught. I'm sorry I got caught breaking the law. I'm sorry I got caught doing that terrible thing.

But you don't feel so terrible that you're willing to make a life change and beseech God for his help. Let's return to James 4 verse 4. Remember, because I know you know these things, but we don't want to forget them, remember, repentance also means that we cannot be friends with the world.

And I know that can be a tough lesson when we're growing up. It can be a tough lesson when we're old and gray-haired, too. We cannot be friends with the world. Let's read James 4 verse 4. And James is saying, he began saying, adulterers and adulteresses.

Yes, he could be talking about a certain type of sexual sin that can also be talking about a spiritual adultery where we're not being faithful to God. Adulters and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? It puts you on the wrong side with God. Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

We cannot be a friend of the world. Yes, we must live in the world. God does not want us to be hermits and isolate ourselves away. But we cannot be a friend of the world and walk hand in hand in the world and have this concept, well, you're okay and I'm okay, so we're just going to coexist. Yes, we must get along with people. But not to the degree that we compromise on God's way of life.

Not to the degree that we start living according to the ebb and flow of the natural world. That's not what it is. And so we will find, because we cannot be friends with the world in that sense, in that very deep, almost say, that psychological, spiritual sense, we will likely find ourselves needing to disrupt some of our friendships. We're going to have a need, we're going to have to disrupt and break off some of our relationships. We can't just accept and immerse ourselves in all sorts of thinking and doing that are the opposite of what God wants us to do. Repentance requires that we stop resisting God. We must humble ourselves and willingly submit to what he tells us to do, even when we don't fully understand why.

I think that's where a lot of us begin our walk with God in keeping His word. You know, we've talked about this in the past, not eating unleavened bread during the days of unleavened bread. You know, at first that may have seemed strange. For me it was the day of atonement. I don't have to—I can't eat anything or drink anything? You know? Some of my family that were not being called in God's church were concerned that I'd get sick. If you don't eat and drink in one day, you're going to be sick.

I'm not going to tell them—well, anyway, I'm not going to go. But I was able to show them that, no, that's not the way it is at all. But there can be things when we're starting out with God. We don't understand why we do it, but in doing it, what do we learn? We learn why. We learn why. Doing comes before understanding sometimes.

And we do this because we do what God says because we want to have that everlasting relationship with God. That's what He wants. In Luke 13, verse 3, Jesus said something very clearly here. And I don't know how people that don't think sin is a big deal, I guess because they don't believe in good or bad or right or wrong or evil or— but I don't know. Well, they probably don't read the book. I don't know how they could ever get around this. Luke 13, verse 3. Jesus couldn't be clearer in stating our absolute need to repent. He says, Luke 13, verse 3, He goes, I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Repentance is necessary. And no one can earn salvation because that's what we're accused of. And we want to follow God's way. We want to keep His commandments. And people sometimes not fully understanding God's commands, they'll maybe look down their noses and think, you don't need to keep those commandments. Jesus kept them for us. I don't read that in Scripture. So they think sometimes we keep God's commandments, and we submit to certain instructions of the Bible, because we're trying to earn salvation. We can never earn salvation. It's impossible. It's a gift. It's a gift made possible by Jesus Christ's sacrifice, a sacrifice He made in payment for humanity's penalty, which is death because of sin. He paid my penalty. He paid yours. And that's a great feeling. That really disrupted a lot of fear and doubt and dark thoughts in my life when I began to understand that. It was a light in my mind and my heart. What a relief. Let's remember the words of Ephesians 2. Let's go to Ephesians 2, verse 4 and 5. Ephesians 2, verse 4 and 5. It says, But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, he has made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. Looking down a little more, verse 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of worksless that anyone should boast. We don't always say, well, I did this, I saved myself. Not possible. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. We have to be doing something. We do good works of righteousness and faith to show our love of God, our appreciation of God, our desire to be like God, to let God live in us and through us by his Spirit. We should find ourselves at a point at times that we cannot help but do what's right. That's where we want to be. The bottom line here is with regards to keep repenting. We must keep disrupting and resisting the ebb and flow of sin. We must not return to the ways of this world. That's our part. And God is faithful to help us in being faithful. The second thing, we must keep confessing. Keep confessing. We must not ignore our sins or think to hide them from God. We cannot disrupt and calm the storms in our lives without confessing our sins to God and others. Now, the ebb and flow of the world would say, confess nothing. Deny everything. Don't admit to being wrong. You hear that sometimes.

I don't know if that's the only reason for the huge profession we have, the professional cast of lawyers out there, but it really gets hard for people just to admit something obvious that's caught on film and confessions that, yes, I did it. We're not allowed to do that, it seems. Scripture says we must confess our sins. Let's look at Proverbs 28, 13. And so I trust we are doing this, but we want to keep doing this. You understand? Proverbs 28, verse 13. We must confess our sins to God and repent. And we are told here in this Proverb that it's really the principal basis of repentance and confession and forgiveness, that God will forgive us. You'll have mercy. Proverbs 28, verse 13. He who covers his sins, who hides his sins, will not prosper. You're not going to get ahead, especially spiritually speaking. But whoever confesses and forsakes them, confess and leave your sins behind, forsakes them. They will have mercy. The understood source of that mercy is God. And confessing to God works. Well, how do we know? Let's look at Psalm 32. Of course, you may know it from your own personal experience, but let's look at what Scripture says. Psalm 32, verse 5. Confessing our sins to God works. Look what King David wrote. Here in Psalm 32.

I get going in the right direction in my Bible. Psalm 32, verse 5. Here's the process. David explains it to us. How do you confess to God? Right here. I acknowledge my sin to you. You is God. To you, God. In my iniquity, I have not hidden. He fessed up everything. He didn't hide his thing. He didn't deny it. He didn't blame anybody else. He fessed up. My iniquity, I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. And what was the result of his confession? Keep reading. And you, God, you, Lord, forgave the iniquity of my sin.

And God is faithful to forgive us all. 1 John, chapter 1. 1 John 1, 8 through 9. 1 John 1, 8 through 9. We have to keep confessing our sins. And if we say we have no sin, well, then you've got to back up and do something more and evaluate yourself, because all have sinned. 1 John 1, 8 through 9. Here we read it, then. This is assurance that God does forgive us when we confess our sins to Him. And, of course, it's coupled with repentance. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So by confessing our sins to God, we must be putting on our remorseful and contrite hearts true sorrow, godly sorrow. We must be confessing our sins to God, and we do that, and that requires humility and faith in Christ. Faith in Christ that His life, His life, that life He gave up and death for us and our place for sin, that guarantee that God does forgive us. He wants to forgive us if we do our part of repentance and this confession. We must not doubt it. We must believe it in faith. But then there's more confessing we must do. You'll probably recall how 1 John 4.20, I'll just kind of summarize, paraphrase that for you. 1 John 4.20 tells us, as brethren in the church, that we do not truly love God if we do not love our brother. And so it is that we must be willing to be reconciled with one another. We don't love God if we're not loving our brother, if we're not working to patch up divisions and disputes and make peace and continue in love for our brethren. Let's notice the instruction of James 5.16. A little something here to consider. James 5.16.

Notice the instruction of James 5.16.

We often couple this with verse 14 about being anointed for healings. Verse 16 says, Confess, meaning confess your sins, confess your trespasses, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. And the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Well, the Scripture suggests that there is a need for the confession of sins and prayer for healing. And the sort of healing we might expand this to is not just the physical healing we often think of, but the sort of healing that needs to be made among brethren in our relationships. Perhaps in our relationship with God, our relationship with one another. It seems to be suggesting not just the more restrictive meaning of physical healing, but it seems to suggest the healing of disputes and disagreements. Charles Townsend's book, a quote from his book, you can't fix what you don't confess. It works in just about every aspect of our lives. You can't fix what you don't acknowledge. Admitting we're wrong, I don't know about you, admitting we're wrong is not easy. Not always easy. It's my experience. Sometimes we'd rather continue in sin.

The heaven-flow ways of the world say, don't confess. We said that. Just ignore what you did. They'll forget about it. Don't bring it up. You'll just stir things up again. That's not the way to make confession and bring about reconciliation. Sometimes we'd rather just keep gathering stones. What do I mean by that? Perhaps it means gathering stones to keep throwing them, or maybe to wall ourselves up. We'd rather keep refraining from embracing, drawing these words from Ecclesiastes 3, verses 1-8. There are times when we'd rather keep hating. We'd rather keep making war. That's not the way of God. God wants to disrupt that way of thinking. And so we need to understand it takes determination and courage, and yes, even a leap of faith, to humbly admit, I was wrong. But God will help us do that if we let Him. And again, you may find, and I think some would vouch for me in my experience, the more readily you are willing to say, I was wrong, it was my mistake, I accept responsibility for that, it becomes easier. I don't know if you've noticed that. It becomes easier to admit when you're wrong. And of course, it makes it easier for us to admit that to our great God. Our confessions in many ways, brethren, our confessions of our mistakes and our sins can calm the stormy seas between brethren and lead to reconciliation and forgiveness. To disrupt the ebb and flow of pride and sin in our hearts, we must humble ourselves, confess our sins to God and others as need be. It doesn't mean you go tout your sins and advertise like you're proud of yourself. No, you take it to your brother, you take it to the one you've offended. And when we seek God's help, we'll find the courage and faith to say, I was wrong. And not just say it to get the words out, but to mean it from the very bottom of your heart.

Third thing to do, keep doing, keep forgiving. You want to disrupt the world's hold on you? You want to disrupt that natural man in us, that carnal man in us? We have to keep forgiving. Third item there. God's forgiveness is an absolutely wonderful gift. We've already talked about it a little bit. And we should believe that when God says He forgives us, we should seek His forgiveness, and we should cherish it. And remember, you can jot down Isaiah 43-25. Isaiah 43-25, this probably gets read many, many times of the year, and well it should. When God forgives our sins, brethren, we are told that He actually forgets them. If it were so easy for us. Isaiah 43-25 says, I, even I, God speak, I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. This comes whether nations or peoples or individuals, they repent and seek God's forgiveness, and God says He'll blot it out. To blot out means to rub out, to erase. Speaking for a more technologically advanced audience today, and we're going to go beyond white out.

You might say that God pushes delete. I wonder if that's fair to say. God deletes our sins when He forgives us. He doesn't go back and keep pushing it in our faces. We tend to do that to part to ourselves, but we shouldn't. When we confess our sins, humbly repent, and seek God's forgiveness, God, we shouldn't worry about it. God says He will forgive us, and remember them no more. God forgives, and God forgets. To become more like God, therefore, we also must be learning to forgive those who sin against us, those who have asked for forgiveness, who are working in reconciliation. We need to be practicing God's way, and forgive, and let it go. Try not to remember that offense anymore. Don't keep bringing it up, and God can help us do that. You might find in time somebody will come up. It's happened to me. People say, I can't help but meet myself up for what I said to you. I said, when did you say this? It may have been back when I was still teaching in college years ago. I'm going, you said that? I said, yeah. I said, what did I say? He said this. I said, don't worry about it. I said, I don't even remember. I'm glad of that. Aren't you glad when you can't remember certain things? And so when we choose to forgive our neighbor, when we choose to forgive our neighbor or a brother or sister, we are disrupting the way we would naturally want to treat others. We're disrupting that normal ebb and flow of our hearts, of our ways of living. We are then choosing not to hold a grudge or to be bitter. It feels so good not to have a grudge or bitterness. It's a good feeling. And though we may not quickly forget hurts and wrongs like God does, God seems to expect that we choose to treat the person as if we have forgotten their offenses, their sins against us. And that's a choice we make. Forgiving can be hard to do. I know it. Forgiving can be hard to do when the hurt goes deep.

We've had that in our lives, and some of us do. But we must disrupt our hearts and minds. We must get rid of the hurt and anger. And so at times that's going to mean we're going to have to give up our desire to hit back. Is that the natural reaction? You hit me, I'm going to hit you. Only harder! I think I heard about that in the news lately.

We want to hit back. We want to even the score.

But that's not the way we're to be thinking anymore. We're to disrupt that. We're to practice God's way of reconciliation and forgiveness. And just so we catch ourselves, catch yourself, see if you still have in your head, even now in your heart right now, if you still have this worldly ebb and flow of thinking in your heart, see if in your heart you secretly sometimes tell yourselves, well, I don't really need to forgive them. Because it's always important we review this. Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 6, verse 14 through 15. Now, this is not for us to beat around other people's ears about. Don't we dare do that. This is for you and me, personally and yes, at times, collectively. Matthew 6, 14 through 15.

Jesus said, if you forgive men, they're trespasses. In trespasses, that means unintentional errors or willful transgressions. So that means forgiving people for their mistakes, their unintentional acts they did on you, or those that did something on purpose. Jesus says, if you forgive men, they're trespasses. Your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Verse 15. Don't forget this part. But if you do not forgive men, they're trespasses. Neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Do you see any wiggle room in there? No, there's not. Except we just keep going to God and ask Him to help us perfect this, help us get better at forgiving people. God is very patient and He helps us. And there's always more to learn, so don't beat ourselves up if we're not too good at that yet. But we're supposed to be doing it. We want to be forgiven. We want to be forgiven. And so our need for God's forgiveness, I think, should compel us out of any indifference we might have towards bitterness and grudges in our lives. We can hold on to something from our childhood, possibly, that we still need to deal with. Well, we should try to deal with it and ask God to help you. And I'm confident, because of Scripture's instruction, that God will help you and He will help us all. And again, it requires that we must take a leap of faith. We've got to take that leap of faith and do it God's way.

And so we've got to take the leap of faith, forgive others. And when we do, we'll disrupt bitterness in our lives and we'll experience greater calm and peace within ourselves. Of course, there's many places we can turn to Scripture, for example, to faithful men and women that did this. If you want to have fun in studying this, go back and read about Peter. Go back and read about the Apostle Peter before he was converted.

Let's look at Matthew 14. In fact, let's just go to one place here, at least. Matthew 14. Peter was not perfect by any means. Peter had a lot of issues. He was human. When he first met Jesus, he said, Lord, go away. I'm a sinful man. He knew what he was, but he had more to learn about himself. Jesus is inspiring to us because he did have these moments where he had these leaps of faith. Matthew 14, verse 28 through 31.

Jesus is the disciple that walked on water, remember? I've never walked on water. Have you? Well, I don't want to look. Maybe some of you have. Matthew 14, verse 28. Peter answered Jesus and said, Lord, if they're out in the ocean, and they see Jesus coming at him, they think it's a coast. No, it's Jesus. Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it is you, command me, Peter said, to come to you on the water. Jesus said, come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, there's stormy seas, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him, Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? I don't necessarily know if he said it as a real put-down. I can't imagine that. But maybe out of disappointed, you're almost there.

But let's not give Peter too much of a hard time. Because he walked on water. I haven't. Maybe neither of you. You see, Peter defied his fears, he defied his doubts and worries. He rejected his logic, he rejected his human reasoning. And he took a risk, he climbed out of a safe boat, and as a fisherman, he knew how important it was to stay in the boat, and he walked on water. Why? Because he wanted to go to Christ. That's a whole metaphor, a whole analogy going on there. And yes, his faith wavered, and yes, doubt seeped in, but Jesus saved him. And it wasn't perfect, he wasn't as faithful as he could have been, but he exercised faith, he made a great leap of faith. And we need to be doing the same things. We need to stop letting the world around us and our experiences in the world keep us from exercising leaps of faith. We need to keep repenting when it's hard. We need to keep confessing when we're absolutely ashamed and feel lower than dirt. We need to keep forgiving when maybe we don't really feel like forgiving, and we may need to work on that and ask God to help us do that.

We're going to make mistakes, but we keep moving forward. We keep moving forward. Peter made all sorts of mistakes in his life. Remember when he rebuked Jesus, when Jesus said he was going to go Jerusalem, they were going to kill him? And he said, not you, Lord, don't let this happen. Jesus told him, get behind me, Satan. Get out of here. That's not the attitude I need right now. You need to get rid of it. It's also Peter who claimed that he'd never denied Jesus. And he did it three times rather quickly, didn't he?

And during the early years of the church, even after he was converted, Peter still had some things to learn. He was never told to learn. He had withdrawn from eating with Gentile brethren. When some Jews that came from James had come up to visit the area, and so when the Jews from James came in, he stepped away from the table. He was no longer going to eat with the Gentile brethren because his Jewish brethren were there. You can read about that in Galatians 2, 11-14. And it was Paul, the Apostle Paul, who rebuked Peter. He rebuked him to his face. Now, we don't see it because I don't think it happened. Did Peter get all up in his face? Well, how dare you?

No, we never read that because we can know what Peter did. He accepted the criticism. He recognized the flaw in his character. He recognized that he had slipped back into an old ebb and flow way of thinking that Jews and Gentiles cannot share or yield together. And we can do the same thing, can't we? We can slip back to some old ways of thinking, old habits.

Now, did Peter ever walk on water again? We don't know. But he did keep taking leaps of faith of that, I'm sure of. He kept striving to live by faith, not by sight. He grew in the grace and knowledge of God, and so must we. We must keep disrupting the natural way of our lives. We must do those things that we humanly like least to do. Most times, the things I really don't like to do, I find I really need to do.

We must keep doing our part to disrupt any rocking chair complacency we may have towards sin. We have to keep the faith. We have to keep confessing, keep repenting, keep forgiving.

You see, brethren, life is short, and we know it. We do not have time to be rocking back and forth in our sin, in our pride, in our bitterness.

The Father has called us out from the stormy seas of this worldly life, from the world's ebb and flow. We have been called to follow Jesus Christ. Think of that. We have been called to live life differently. Not everybody gets that calling right now. We're to live according to the flow. Listen to what I say here. We've been called to live according to the flow, without ebb, of God's way of life and love. Do you understand my meaning? God's way of love is ever outgoing. There is no ebb. Well, even if he has to punish, even if some people must perish, it's only because God loves. With God's way of life, there's only the flow of outgoing love. And so must we be striving to do.

So, brethren, as I close now, I just want to ask us, will you? Will we? Will you? It's easier to say you, but I mean we. Will you take those necessary leaps of faith to keep disrupting sin's sway in your life? And will you be ready? Will you be ready to receive eternal life?