OPERATION OF GOD!
(Col 2:12 KJV) Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
In this sermon outline we share a little on the wonderful Operation of God in our lives. It begins even before we are saved with the Holy Spirit convicting us of our sin. It continues all through our Christian lives if we will permit Him. We permit earthly doctors to operate on us, so we should let the Lord operate on us, putting in what is good and taking out that which is bad.
(Jer 17:5 KJV) Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. Jer 17:6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Jer 17:7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. Jer 17:8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jer 17:10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. 17:11 As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. Jer 17:12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
I. The Operation of God.
A. Old Testament word for faith is trust.
1. In this world we trust doctors.
a. We must learn to trust the Lord to work in us.
2. Would you help the doctor operate on you?
a. Should we not trust God?
II. God’s operation is first needs to do a spiritual heart transplant.
Ezek 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. Ezek 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. Ezek 36:28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
A. This happens when we are born again.
B. We are more than a container.
1. What is important is what is in the container.
2. We are the temples of the Holy Spirit.
(2 Cor 4:16 KJV) For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
a. We are the water bottle. He is the Living Water!
III. Be the vessel that lets the light shine through.
(Prov 20:27 KJV) The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly. (1 Cor 6:17 KJV) But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
A. Christ in you.
(1 John 4:4 KJV) Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
IV. Our problems are not with the new man but the outer man.
A. The devil can touch the outer man but not the inner man.
(Col 3:3 KJV) For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
V. Not outward adorning but the hidden man.
(1 Pet 3:3 KJV) Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; 1 Pet 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
A. We are saved by His life.
(Rom 8:10 KJV) And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
(Rom 5:10 KJV) For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
SAVED BY HIS LIFE
"CHRIST LIVETH IN ME"
For more help and info, go to: www.tonyabram.com.
