A Balanced Life
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Eccl 7:16-19 16Do not be overly righteous, Nor be overly wise: Why should you destroy yourself? 17Do not be overly wicked, Nor be foolish: Why should you die before your time? 18It is good that you grasp this, And also not remove your hand from the other; For he who fears God will escape them all. 19Wisdom strengthens the wise More than ten rulers of the city.
Pro 24:13-14 13My son, eat honey because it is good, And the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste; 14So shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul; If you have found it, there is a prospect, And your hope will not be cut off.
Pro 25:16 Have you found honey? Eat only as much as you need, Lest you be filled with it and vomit.
Pro 25:27 not good to eat much honey, so to seek one's own glory is not glory!
Jesus taught: Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. (Mt 10:16)
PROV 22:3 A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, But the simple pass on and are punished.
What is balance (in life)?
Result of an unbalanced life!
- Destruction: Burn-Out
- Extremism
- Luke Warm - left the first love? → ran out of enthusiasm
- A life without balance will end up here!
Why/ How do we go off-balance?
In order to maintain a healthy life and ministry that doesn’t just come and go but is continually sustained by God and His grace, we need to have a balanced foundation in our thinking and our service. Satan is the master deceiver. The more authentic and holy we want to be in our pursuit of God. He will seek to sidetrack us with religious thinking that is unbalanced, by even coming as an angel of light. Peer-pressure is another common reason these days.
We are in danger of getting out of balance and going to extremes the more intense and radical our lives are in following the Lord, if we trust in ourself! This is exactly what Paul's life was before his encounter with the Lord!
If we do not approach/read Bible in the view of God desires to bring the balance, one passage may appears to contradict another. But when we actually study through these types of Scriptures with His guidance, we find the balance that Jesus always taught!
Salvation: Some of the reformation idea were extreme!
Calvinistic vs the Armenian points of view in salvation:
predestination by divine election / election based on free-will to choose salvation, both are wrong since their teaching is not balanced!
Righteous shall live by faith and its impossible to please God without faith & faith without work is dead!
(Rom 1:17, Heb 11:6, Jas 2:17) → its not by our strength
24O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25I thank God; through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Rom 7:24-25)
Which areas in life need balance?
- Faith: Relationship with God
- Family: Relationship with others
- Work: Time spend on job and rest
- Evangelism: Leisure time / full time
- Faith vs Foolishness
There are stories about parents in certain churches letting their children die from diseases, keeping them from medical treatment and claiming “faith”. But if we have not received a word from the Lord, to not take medicine, we should not just blindly follow something! Remember that Jesus healed with and without a 'medium'. (+ Jas 5: 14-15)
Prayer vs action
Today’s society has unprecedented access to information, but does very little with it! Its all given not just for our entertainment, but for action!
While doing good deeds for others!
3"But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly." (Mt 6:3-4) → boasting (Pro 25:14)
11Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. (1 Pet 2:11-12)
Work vs Leisure
Pro 13:4 The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.
Pro 23:4-5 4Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease! 5Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
Seeking the KoG & Our Daily Bread:
Seek first the KoG and all these things will be added to you! (Mt 6:33)
Pro 30:7-9 7Two things I request of You (Deprive me not before I die): 8Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food allotted to me; 9Lest I be full and deny You, And say, "Who is the LORD?" Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God.
The key is to be content with what we've!
Evangelism/ Working for God
Where is our focus? Is it Jesus and His love for the lost world? Or is it self-centred ego?!
1 Cor 2:2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Most people are moved by crowds and go for where there is large gathering. There is nothing wrong in it as Jesus was also moved by crowds!
Mt 9:35-38 35Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. 37Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38"Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."
But we must also keep in mind that Our God call people by name! Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Paul...... Jesus parable on the lost sheep & the silver-coin: 1 out of 100 and 1 out of 10 emphasis this.
Lk 15: 7, 10 7"I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
10"Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
Mt 25:40 "And the King will answer and say to them, Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'
Freedom in Christ
Gal 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
1 Pet 2:15-16 15For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men; 16as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.
24Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 25And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. (1 Cor 9:24-27)
Zeal vs Wisdom!
Jesus, Paul & Peter were all full of zeal – enthusiasm and excitement, in following the will of God. —but not at the expense of wisdom. We should be heavenly minded, but remember that our feet still stand on earth as long as we live!
We end up losing precious friends and causes disunity in the body of Christ or in our families by handling the truth without wisdom. Speaking the truth in love! (Eph 4:15)
Wisdom is knowing how to properly handle the information and knowledge we have, especially when it comes to relationships. And the Word of God tells us we receive wisdom by having the fear of the Lord. That simply means a close relationship with the Lord, seeking His face and living in obedience. This brings wisdom to our hearts.
Handling doctrine:
2 Tim 1:13-14 13Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 14That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
1 Cor 13:1-2 1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
Remember that the Pharisees, who knew all the answers and had “sound doctrine,” are the ones who crucified Christ our Lord & Saviour!!
Jn 13:35 "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
Legalism vs following Christ
Jesus taught about taking up ones cross and following Him, yet in 1 Cor 13:3, if there is no love involved, it profits nothing before God!
1 Cor 13:3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
We should have a heart of love toward others even in maintaining balance – every one is free to believe & follow the Lord as per their calling.
The question is can we do all these without love?!
Legalistic people: One of the marks of people who serve God with great sacrifice, but without the inner reality of grace and love, is that they criticize and condemn others, putting them down and finding fault. (like the older brother in Lk 15!)
Rom 14:15-17 15Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. 16Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; 17for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Why is there so many 'churches'? The spirit of division!
Mk 3:24-27 24"If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. 27No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house."
Correction/Judgement of situations:
1"Judge not, that you be not judged. (Mt 7:1) But Jesus Himself is asking us to judge righteously! 24“Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgement” ( Jn 7:24). Judge situations/ do not condemn people!
Pro 20:3 It is honorable for a man to stop striving, Since any fool can start a quarrel.
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes. (Pro 26:4-5)
Submission to authorities:
It will be an extreme teaching on submission to leaders in authority, wives to husbands, children to parents, and political or religious leaders to others that can be dangerous, unless we balance it with the fact that each individual must know that he is also responsible to God, His law and His Word.
Holiness vs Evangelism
Are we friends with sinners like Jesus was? Are we personally spending time with non-believers to help them follow Jesus. choose to have meals with people with very different faith or morals from me.
Or are we sinners hating sinners like a Pharisee? → Being friends with sinners is not sinning. Its not what we do that makes us holy, but what we do can makes us unholy!
God of Israel – God of Jacob!
Jacob is a deceiver & a lair! And Israel is the 'Price of God'!
It took 20 years for God to make Jacob into Israel but He did not gave-up on him!
Eventhough Godly sorrow is good, we cannot make ourself spiritual punishing ourself by lamenting or fasting, but by looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith! (Heb 12:1-5).
Meditation:
- How much balance do I have in my life?
- Which areas requires the most counter balances?
- What are the hindrances for proper balance in these areas?
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