Accept The Situation : Expect The Change

ACCEPT THE SITUATION : EXPECT THE CHANGE

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The Serenity Prayer

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God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

JAMES 4:7

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

ACCEPT THE SITUATION

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OUTLINE

1. CREATION

2. POSITION

3. DECISION

4. PERMISSION

5. CORRECTION

6. LIMITATION

7. REVELATION

EXPECT THE CHANGE

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OUTLINE

1. EXALTATION

2. LIBERATION

3. TRANSFORMATION

4. RESTORATION

5. FORMATION

6. JUBILIATION

7. CORONATION

THE MESSAGE

ACCEPT THE SITUATION : EXPECT THE CHANGE

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A) ACCEPT THE SITUATION

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1. CREATION

We must accept the way God has created us. Each one of us has been created by God. An orignal creation of a great artist has great value . Similarly we are the original creation of the greatest artist of the universe , The Almighty God Himself. Therefore we have great value and we should never despise the way God has created us. We are like clay in the hand of the potter and the Lord has created us according to His will.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

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ROMANS 9:19-20

One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?"

But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ’Why did you make me like this?’ "

JEREMIAH 18:1-6

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD :

"Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message."

So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.

But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

Then the word of the LORD came to me:

"O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

EPHESIANS 2:10

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

PSALMS 139:13-16

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

2. POSITION

We must accept the position God has given to us. God has given us different gifts and abilities and functions according to His will. We must accept the position and function that God has given to us and not aspire to copy somebody else. Like different parts of the body , the Lord has given us a specific role to play and we must be faithful to fulfill the responsibility given to us and develop and utilise the gifts that God has given to us.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

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1 CORINTHIANS 12:8-31

To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,

to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,

to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.

All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.

For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.

If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.

And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?