Changed Lives Through Ownership

Quotes:

"I have held many things in my hand, and have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands that I still possess." -Martin Luther

“Resolution, like responsibility, is a product of ownership." - Richard Eyre

Matthew 13:45-46; I Corinthians 6:19-20

There is a difference between owning and renting/borrowing.

You treat things differently when you are invested in them.

In Exodus chapter 35 Moses told the Israelites, “This is what the LORD has commanded: From what you have, take an offering for the LORD; For the Tabernacle.” =a heave offering.

The children of God gave so much that Moses had to ask them to stop.

God wanted them to give of what they had because He wanted them to have an investment in the Tabernacle; ownership.

The miracle wasn't in the provision of the resources, but in the willingness of the people to bring it!

Ownership {H1167} – from a Hebrew point of view means: Having chief authority.

Paul said in Romans 7:14 “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.”

Sold to Sin! Who sold us out? Adam and Eve:

Genesis 5:1, 3 “1- This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; 3- And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:”

About 760 years before Jesus was born God spoke to Hosea and the very first thing He tells him is to: “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry, and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.” (Hosea 1:2)

So Gomer became the Prophet’s wife.

He married her in her sin; the LORD could see value in her that she nor anyone else seemed to be able to see.

Like a bird trapped in a cage Gomer became restless and unhappy.

Hosea preached, and the theme of his message was “Return unto the Lord!” -but Gomer seemed oblivious to it.

Gomer’s faithfulness fault’tered and she left Hosea.

So Hosea began his search for her, driven by a divine love, love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, a love that never ends.

He found her, ragged, torn, sick, dirty, disheveled, destitute, chained to an auction block in a filthy slave market, a repulsive shadow of the woman she once was.

He brought her and took her home.

The price of a slave was 30 pieces of silver.

Exodus 21:32 “If the ox shall push[gore] a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.”

Jesus was sold by Judas for 30 pieces of silver; the price of a slave.

John 10:17-18 “17- …I [Jesus] lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18- No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again….”

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” –Matthew 13:44-46 (ESV)

Jesus found a treasure buried in a field – you and I are that treasure.

He sold all that He had – He gave it life on Calvary.

That He could purchase us, a pearl of great value – with his precious blood!

John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

Your life can/will be changed through ownership.

“God spoke to Moses in the desert: Anyone who does not make himself hefker(ownerless) like the desert cannot acquire wisdom.” -Midrash-Bam. Rabba 1:7

It is said that a "hefker" object is one of such little value to its owner that he formally abandons it and makes it available to all.

You must become "hefker" (ownerless) [dying to self] so that Jesus the Christ may take ownership of you in new life.

"All are blind until God opens their eyes." (Midrash - Bereishis Rabba 53).

"The words of the wise are like prods." (Ecclesiastes 12:11)

Let the Word of God prod you, move you toward an altar of surrender.

Change ownership of your life from “self” to Him that is “selfless”.

Romans 5:12, 15 “12- Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 15- But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.”

Your life can/will be changed through ownership; ownership of Jesus Christ!