Get Comfortable
Galatians Series part 2
Baptism and Communion Sunday, August 6, 2006
Intro: It is a historical fact that when Christians study this special book of the Bible, God revives the hearts of the reader. My prayer for our church, for you and for myself is for the Holy Spirit to speak directly to us. Changing any bad theology, cleansing us from sin, teaching us how to live free!
Dr. J. Vernon McGee has written in the introduction to his commentary on Galatians,
”In a sense I believe this epistle has been the backbone and background for every great spiritual movement and revival that has taken place in the past nineteen hundred years. And, my friend, it will be the background for other revivals. I would like to see the Spirit of God move in our land today. I would like to hear the Epistle to the Galatians declared to America. I believe it would revolutionize lives.”
• Have you ever heard the expression: “living out of a suitcase?”
People who travel will use this expression meaning that they are always on their way to another place so they never really unpack their things; they never really get develop the intention to stay put. There isn’t any use in putting your things away cause your going to have to pack them all back up soon and be back on the road.
• God is looking for people who will put down roots, that will eternally commit to Him. He isn’t looking for transient believers or part time Christians. People who as long as “the Jesus thing” is working for them they will be Christian, but if something better comes along, they are jumping ship, they are moving on.
Along that theme I have entitled this message, “Get Comfortable”
God wants you to get comfortable, plan to stay fully committed to Him for eternity.
Get comfortable being around him.
Learn to hear his voice and love His attention
All week I have been asking God, “What should I preach this Sunday?” I knew I would be preaching from Galatians and I also knew that we would be taking Communion today and Baptizing people also. I read and reread Galatians this week listening for that quiet voice of the Holy Spirit to lay on my heart the direction for my sermon.
(This is why I told you to read and reread the book of Galatians, and as soon as you think you got it, read it again. God illuminates to your heart the Scriptures when you’re listening for Him. This is how you should read this book. Saying, “God show me, teach me, speak to me…” And He will. It may or may not happen on the first time through, but He will do it.)
I picked my Bible back up, opened it to Galatians went straight to 1:6 and read it.
Text: Galatians 1:6 “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel”
The phrase “deserting Him” stood out like a spot light was shining on those words.
You see so many people are committed to Church or a religion, or a way of Life.
This Book of Galatians calls us into something much deeper.
Paul is showing us in this Letter how to be in relationship with God.
• How to know God.
• To be moved by our love for God
• If you don’t love God, you won’t stay around, you won’t “get it” God will seem distant, unreachable and hard to understand.
Do you Love God?
Not the idea of God, not even the hope of Heaven (After all, Heaven is where God resides)
I mean do you love God? Do you want to be around him? Give your life to Him? Live for Him?
Do you desire to hear His voice?
Delirious / Prophet Song
I hear the words of the prophet. I love to sing with the angels
I love to hear children praying. I love to see weak made strong
But most of all I love to hear the voice of God
I hear the prayers of the pray-ers. I hear the songs in the silence
I see the joy of the dancers. And all the healing they bring
But most of all I love to hear the voice of God
We’ll call on the name of the Lord
For He is the one who can save
He is the giver of life to the world
We’ll hunger and thirst for your word
For here we will meet you Lord
The voice of the living God, Jesus Christ
Paul says that they were “deserting God” not deserting church, morals or religion.
This book is all about getting free from the law, growing up, walking in the Spirit and loving God.
Maturing, being a fully committed mature God Lover.
• We must go deeper than actions.
• Deeper than what we do; even beyond passive beliefs.
• God desires a friendship with you that always grows and is alive. One that is meaningful and fulfilling.
The spiritual significance and not just the physical actions.
Communion – building upon the relationship, partaking of His life, growing in devotion and love, turn our attention to Him so that we NEVER “desert the one who calls us” To build on and invest in our one spirit relationship with God.
Matthew 26:26-29 “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body." 27Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. 28This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom."
Full Life Study Bible note: 3 Part meaning on Communion
1) The Past significance
a. Through the Lord’s Supper we are once again confronted with the saving death of Christ and its redemptive significance for our lives.
b. It is a thanksgiving for the blessings and salvation of God
2) The present significance
a. The Lord’s Supper is a fellowship with Christ and a participation in the benefits of His sacrificial death, as well as a fellowship with the other members of the body of Christ.
b. In this supper with the risen Lord, he as the host becomes present in a special way.
c. It is a recognition and proclamation of the new covenant by which believers reaffirm the lordship of Christ and our commitment to do his will, to remain loyal, to resist sin and to identify ourselves with his mission.
3) The Future significance
a. The Lord’s Supper is a foretaste of the future Kingdom of God
b. It looks forward to Christ’s imminent return for his people and dramatizes the prayer, “Your Kingdom come”
At the Lord’s Supper all the above significances are made meaningful only if we come before the Lord in true faith, sincere prayer and with commitment to God’s Word and will.
Baptism –
The Spirit life is opposite to the physical.
• Jesus said, ‘the first shall be last and the last first.
• He said, “If you want to gain your life you must loose it.”
• We must die before we are born.
Romans 6: 3-6 “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin”
Baptism illustrates and testifies to this death and birth.
Because of Jesus we die to self and our spirits come alive.
Conclusion:
Peel away the layers of mental evaluation, turn down the noise of a busy life and listen to God. He will talk to you; he will speak your name.
