LIMITATIONS – OF SELF AND GOD

Heb. 12:1-2

Therefore, we also since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

What we ponder in our hearts either lightens or weighs down our lives.

1. A weight is an encumbrance that impedes the motion or action of our lifestyles.

a. It can retard our perspective, motivation, how we think/feel about ourselves, as well as affecting how we relate to Father God and people.

b. We may be obstructed by feeling embarrassed or ashamed – we make statement to ourselves like: “if people really knew ….. about me….”

c. We need to determine whether this is true of how Jesus thinks of us. If not, nip it in the bud, “lay it aside” by

i. Speaking TRUTH to your heart, soul, and mind.

Limiting ourselves results in Limiting the Lord.

1. Ps. 78:41-42 – Yes, again and again they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember His power: the day when He redeemed them from the enemy.

a. Here we see how what we speak to ourselves not only limits ourselves but limits God.

b. What does this look like in reality?

i. Ps. 78:56-58 – Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God, and did not keep His testimonies but turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their carved images.

c. Limited (tavah) means to scrap to pieces or to limit by confusion.

i. Scrapping to pieces is a vivid picture of ignoring what God has done for us and counting it as nothing; or speaking the opposite of what He has called us to.

ii. Confusion never comes from God but from our own souls, influenced by the devil.

d. Remembered not is that act of not recognizing or considering as well as forgetting what God has done for you. Israel forgot the hand of God in their deliverance from slavery.

e. Did not keep His testimonies – when we fail to recount and pay attention to how God has involved himself in our lives, then our testimonies of His goodness to us falls aside.

i. Remembering the difficulty without the testimony of rescue becomes a weight that hinders our growth in faith, success in pleasing God, and results in demotivating our willingness to serve God and man.

f. High places are those thoughts or memories that exalt themselves above God’s goodness as a battleground against His truth.

i. II Cor. 6:12 – You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.

1. The Battlefield is in the mind, how you think, what you speak to yourself and before God.

2. Restriction cramps and compresses into a mold which brings discomfort or false security.

3. It can become an idol which we turn to as an excuse for disobedience.

g. Deceitfulness is to be remiss, i.e., not energetic or exact in responsibility/duty; not careful or prompt in fulfilling one’s engagements but rather using crafty excuses in order to be slack or lazy.

i. It can also include being intentional about misleading yourself or others to believe a lie.

2. Biblical Examples of limiting self and God:

a. King Saul – (I Sam. 9:21) I am a Benjamite, smallest tribe, my family is least of all… - belittlement!

i. Through a prophetic word (I Sam. 10:6-9) he was given another heart and was able to prophesy along with the prophets.

ii. V. 22-23 – He hides (out of fear or shame or both) until he was forced to come forward to be anointed as King of Israel.

iii. I Sam. 15:17-24– “when you were little in your own sight, were you not head of the tribes of Israel?...I have sinned, transgressed God’s commandments and your words because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.”

b. Peter – impulsive, rash, hot-headed know-it-all – Mt. 16:22-23 – rebukes Jesus when He told of His upcoming death.

i. Mt. 18:21 – wants to build three tabernacles (would result in idolatry) on mountain with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah (transfiguration).

ii. Mt. 26:33, 35, 37, 40 – struggles to forgive others; rash in his belief in his own purity of heart (“I will never be offended; I won’t deny You even if I die; more flesh than spirit lead when it was time to pray and he falls asleep.”)

Overcoming Limitations

2. What are you building your life on – truth or limitations/restrictions?

I Cor. 3:11-12 – For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone build on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each ones’ work will become clear; for the Day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

a. Abide in Christ Jesus and He in you - Jn. 15:5 – and bear fruit of LOVE/Spirit

b. Use the right tools/weapons (RIGHTEOUS ACTS)

II Cor. 10:4-6 – For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

c. Isa. 61:1-4, 7 (READ) – become healed and flourishing in soul and mind (thoughts & emotions) – become who God says you are.

d. Let God’s Word run swiftly in your life to accomplish all He has sent it out to do. Is. 55:11