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DARE TO CONFRONT

6 Sep 2009   tba

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13 Sep 2009 DARE TO CONFRONT

It is a struggle to confront or be confronted – on personal wrongdoings. It is an unpleasant experience when confronted with the truth. Sometimes, the purpose of confrontation is confession which can evoke positive forces leading to forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration.

In Genesis, God confront Adam – when he failed to keep the simple instruction—“Thou shall not eat of the tree..” Adam cannot hide.

 ⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

 ¹⁰ He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

Again in Genesis, God confront Cain – the murderer of his brother Abel.

Genesis 4

 ⁹ Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"
      "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"

 ¹⁰ The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. ¹¹ Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. ¹² When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."

God also use prophets, messengers and man of God to confront.

God confront Eli, when his life is not right with God, due to his ungodly sons, the sacrifices were distasteful and the people were not happy. When he honours his sons more than God, and refuse to repent and seek restoration, destruction follows and blessings of God stopped flowing.

1^st Samuel 2:12-17

 ¹² Eli's sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD. ¹³ Now it was the practice of the priests with the people that whenever anyone offered a sacrifice and while the meat was being boiled, the servant of the priest would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand. ¹⁴ He would plunge it into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot, and the priest would take for himself whatever the fork brought up. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. ¹⁵ But even before the fat was burned, the servant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, "Give the priest some meat to roast; he won't accept boiled meat from you, but only raw."

 ¹⁶ If the man said to him, "Let the fat be burned up first, and then take whatever you want," the servant would then answer, "No, hand it over now; if you don't, I'll take it by force."

 ¹⁷ This sin of the young men was very great in the LORD's sight, for they ^[d] were treating the LORD's offering with contempt.

When your life is right with God- your TALK becomes your WALK and it brings delight. If you TALK but never WALK your TALK- you will stumble.

As parents, and as head of the household, it is our job to confront our kids- before they go astray. How come they are not praying…We need to instruct them while they are young- and to teach and instill right values- and not to punish.

King Amizziah submitted to God and God bless him–until he brought back the pagan Gods and  threaten the prophet/messenger of God – and destruction followed.

2^nd Chronicle 25:2

² He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, but not wholeheartedly. ³ After the kingdom was firmly in his control, he executed the officials who had murdered his father the king. ⁴ Yet he did not put their sons to death, but acted in accordance with what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the LORD commanded: "Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sins."

2^nd Chronicles 25:14-16

¹⁴ When Amaziah returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down to them and burned sacrifices to them. ¹⁵ The anger of the LORD burned against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, who said, "Why do you consult this people's gods, which could not save their own people from your hand?"

 ¹⁶ While he was still speaking, the king said to him, "Have we appointed you an adviser to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?"
      So the prophet stopped but said, "I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel."

King Uzziah ‘s blessings lead to  pride and arrogance to overstep his boundary and authority- to take the place and duty of the priests to burn incense – leads to sufferings from physical leprosy until his death.

2^nd Chronicle 26:16-18

 ¹⁶ But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. ¹⁷ Azariah the priest with eighty other courageous priests of the LORD followed him in. ¹⁸ They confronted him and said, "It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful; and you will not be honored by the LORD God."

The church of Jesus Christ is  build upon  the solid rock, the  church of Jesus will prevail, it is not build upon a few  powerful or influential individuals lest we become puff up – as the saying goes- pride goes before a fall. When we lose focus, and Jesus is no longer real or when we reject and rebel- we will suffer spiritual leprosy.

As a leader, sometimes we do not get the support and  cooperation from the  congregation. Worse still, the church may not be united behind its leader. Even Peter denied, Thomas doubted and Judas betrayed. In many situations, confrontation can lead to awakening, moving the ordinary tasks into extraordinary service for the glory of God. It is only when unity and cooperation  are there, then can the church of  Jesus Christ march forward with the “ yes- we can” spirit in the face of tiredness, weariness, sickness..etc .  

We have 3 issues to confront:

1.     MORAL

2.     CHARACTER

3.     DOCTRINAL

MORAL

We are living in a permissive age. Just as John the Baptist confronted King Herod and Prophet Nathan confronted King David. In the both cases, the difference in  attitude and led to different outcomes/results. On the one hand, John the Baptist paid the ultimate price with his life and died a righteous death. King David (mighty warrior kills the lion and beat Goliath)  submitted and yielded in true repentance and God restored him with the fruit of righteousness.

Matt 14:3-6

 ³Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, ⁴for John had been saying to him: "It is not lawful for you to have her." ⁵Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered him a prophet.

 ⁶On Herod's birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for them and pleased Herod so much

Lev 20:21

 ²¹ " 'If a man marries his brother's wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonored his brother. They will be childless

Lev 18:16

¹⁶ " 'Do not have sexual relations with your brother's wife; that would dishonor your brother.

Just like the way God hates homosexuality when he destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

Rm 1:26-27

²⁶Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

CHARACTER

Our integrity is at the center of our conduct. Peter confronted Anais- on the issue of greed and lying against the holy spirit.

Acts 5:1-6

Acts 5

Ananias and Sapphira

 ¹Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. ²With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet.

 ³Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? ⁴Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."

 ⁵When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. ⁶Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.

 DOCTRINAL

Even the early church have to deal with the doctrinal issue of circumcision and keeping the Lord’s commndments. We are saved by grace of God and circumcision is of the heart and not the flesh. It is about love and grace.

1^st Cor 7:19

¹⁹Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's commands is what counts.

 Gal 6:15

¹⁵Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation

Acts 15:1-11

 ¹Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." ²This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. ³The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the brothers very glad. ⁴When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.

 ⁵Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses."

 ⁶The apostles and elders met to consider this question. ⁷After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. ⁸God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. ⁹He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. ¹⁰Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? ¹¹No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."

1^st John 3:23

²³And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

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20 Sep 2009  tba

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