THE THREE THAT WILL SET YOU FREE
1 Cor. 13:13
INTRO
A. How many of us gathered here today would agree that our life is too complicated?
1. Is it just me or does it seem like we are spending most of our time running in fast forward?
a. Running here, running there…never seeming like we have any quiet time for ourselves?
b. Listen if you will to the typical day in the life of a suburban wife.
Up at six pm…getting kids up at six-thirty.
6-7 getting kids ready…getting breakfast together (usually in the microwave)
7-8 getting kids off to school…smaller ones to day care…husband off to work!
8-12 at work
12-1 At lunch (running errands for husband…shopping at the grocery store)
1-5 At work.
5-6 picking up kids from daycare…doing the shopping she didn’t get done at lunch.
6-7 cooking supper…helping with homework…refereeing the inevitable fights.
7-8 getting supper over with…getting started on baths…
8-9 Getting kids in bed…getting supper cleaned up…
9-10 Getting clothes set out for tomorrow…laundry if necessary…
10-11 Unwind, get ready for bed.
11-12 Try to get our mind slowed down enough to sleep!
And this on an easy night when there is no soccer games, ballet lessons, little league, PTA meetings, parent teacher conferences, piano lessons and the like!
2. Does any of this sound vaguely familiar?
a. Have we let our lives become so complex that we don’t have time for the things of the Lord?
b. When is the last time we stopped and smelled the roses.
c. Even our sleep is becoming corrupt!
Job 7:4 When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.
d. Sounds kinda like a normal night doesn’t it?
3. It doesn’t have to be so!
a. Do you know who wins when our lives become so complicated and fast paced?
b. Satan does…
c. If you are a child of God, your soul is safe from the wiles of the devil..but your life is NOT!
d. He can’t have your soul…but he can have you!!! Bro. Ron what in the world are you talking about??
e. Satan loves us to be busy!
f. He knows that if we are busy chasing this American Dream like a dog chasing his tail, we will not have time to spend time with our Father every day.
g. What makes a Christian strong??? Spending time with the Father!
h. What makes a Christian weak??? Not spending time with the Father!
i. If we would just learn to back a couple of things out of our lives each week to make time for the Lord, it would drastically improve our lives.
j. I’ve seen people rearrange their entire week around a TV show!
k. Why can’t we do that to make time for the Lord?
4. What if there was a way to uncomplicated our lives?
a. How many here would be interested it this?
b. At what price?
c. If there were a secret formula to uncomplicate your life, what would you be willing to pay for it?
d. Would you be willing to put into effect the changes that would lead to a better life?
5. I’m so glad we serve a God who teaches us simply from His Word how to live the abundant life.
a. His way of salvation is simple trust and faith.
b. His way of living is simply have faith and trust!
c. When Jesus left this earth he left us with all the things we need to have a full and fulfilling life.
d. If we will learn to FOCUS on these things, we will live the abundant life so many are seeking for.
e. It is the focus that is important…how is focus important??? Sometimes focus alone will change the outcome of people’s lives.
f. With focus, a beam of light cuts through a steel I-beam like a hot knife through butter.
g. Without focus, that light will only illuminate the problem.
h. There are three things we need to FOCUS on today that will change and uncomplicated our lives.
1Co 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
BODY
A. The first thing we need is a FAITH That DARES!
1. Too many Christians are just living a life today of misery and defeat.
a. Their faith is complacent, inactive…and it fails to accomplish much…if anything… for God.
b. We are so afraid of water (the world) we don’t dare rock the boat.
c. Faith that dares is a faith that is ACTIVE.
d. Faith that is active is faith that is doing something!
e. What have you done for the Lord …lately???
2. Active faith builds strong people.
a. People who are not self-centered.
b. People who care…people who share…people who dare.
c. This kind of faith is not for the milquetoast.
d. This kind of faith is revolutionary.
e. It brings about revolutionary results.
I am a Revolutionary in the service of God Almighty. My life is not my own; I exist as a free person but have voluntarily become a slave to God. My role on earth is to live as a Revolutionary, committed to love, holiness, and advancing God’s kingdom. My life is not about me and my natural desires; it is all about knowing, loving, and serving God with all my heart, mind, strength, and soul. Therefore, I acknowledge the following: •
• I am a sinner, broken by my disobedience but restored by Jesus Christ in order to participate in good works that please God. I am not perfect; but Jesus Christ makes me righteous in God’s eyes, and the Holy Spirit leads me toward greater holiness. •
• God created me for His purposes. My desire as a Revolutionary is to fulfill those ends, and those ends alone. When I get out of bed each day, I do so for one purpose: to love, obey, and serve God and His people. •
• Every breath I take is a declaration of war against Satan and a commitment to opposing him. •
• God does not need me to fight His fight, but He invites me to allow Him to fight through me. It is my privilege to serve Him in that manner. I anticipate and will gladly endure various hardships as I serve God; for this is the price of participation in winning the spiritual war. •
• I do not need to save the world; Jesus Christ has already done that. I cannot transform the world, but I can allow God to use me to transform some part of it. •
• My commitment to the Revolution of faith is sealed by my complete surrender to God’s ways and His will. I will gratefully do what He asks of me simply because He loves me enough to ask. I gain my security, success, and significance through my surrender to Him. •
• I am not called to attend or join a church. I am called to be the Church. •
• Worship is not an event I attend or a process I observe; it is the lifestyle I lead. •
• I do not give away 10 percent of my resources. I surrender 100 percent. •
• God has given me natural abilities and supernatural abilities, all intended to advance His kingdom. I will deploy those abilities for that purpose. •
• The proof of my status as a Revolutionary is the love I show to God and people. •
• There is strength in relationships; I am bound at a heart and soul level to other Revolutionaries, and I will bless believers whenever I have the chance. •
• To achieve victory in the spiritual war in which we are immersed, there is nothing I must accomplish; I must simply follow Christ with everything I have. •
• There is no greater calling than to know and serve God. •
• The world is desperately seeking meaning and purpose. I will respond to that need with the Good News and meaningful service. •
• Absolute moral and spiritual truth exists, is knowable, and is intended for my life; it is accessible through the Bible. •
• I want nothing more than to hear God say to me, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
Thank you, Lord God, for loving me, for saving me, for refining me, for blessing me, and for including me in the work of your kingdom. My life is yours to use as you please. I love you.
3. That my friends is faith that dares.
a. 11 revolutionary Christians turned this whole world upside down.
b. It doesn’t take a lot of people for God to change this community.
c. But you have to be totally committed to Him…and be ready to be used?
d. If we will have this kind of faith…it will change and uncomplicated our lives.
B. Secondly, we need a HOPE that CARES.
1. In today’s society, many possess a self-centered hope.
a. It fails to care about God and others.
b. This kind of hope will not last.
2. What is hope that cares??? I’m so glad you asked!!!
a. Hope that cares is hope that travels!
b. What good is hope that is kept only to ourselves???
c. Life sometimes looks dreary…
d. Life sometimes seems to have no hope.
3. Think for just a moment…what if???
You were out of a job…
You were homeless…
You had lost your wife and children in a tragic accident…
You were hooked on drugs…or alcohol…
You were in a violent home situation…
Your family didn’t care about you…
You didn’t have any family left…
No one cared enough to check in on you…
Would you be hungry…for food…for human touch…for compassion…for someone to just show they cared…
a. Folks, there are people out there in our community that this IS their REALITY!
b. They don’t have the love that we have.
c. They don’t have anyone to hug them, to tell them everything is going to be all right.
d. They don’t have the living hope of Jesus Christ living in them.
4. It is our DUTY as Christians to spread the hope of Jesus that rests in our heart to all those we can.
a. If we will start looking for those around us who have no hope we can begin to FOCUS in on what’s really important in life and get our minds off the trivial things that we tend to FOCUS on!
b. We are the only people in the world to know what hope really is!
c. We have to let those who are hurting in on the greatest gift in the world.
d. The gift of Hope!
It’s why we can face the daily struggles that we face.
It’s how we deal with trials and temptations.
It’s how we keep our sanity when all those around us lose theirs.
It’s what keeps us going when situations appear so bleak.
When things happen that we don’t understand…it’s hope that we cling to.
It’s how we stand at the grave of a loved one and rejoice through the tears!
e. Let me ask you this morning…
f. WHAT IF YOUR HOPE WAS GONE???
Heb 6:19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
5. There are some living in our midst who have never even experienced that hope in their lives.
a. If we have a Hope that Cares, we will take it to them.
b. Do YOU CARE about them???
Jas 2:16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
6. Which brings us to the 3rd thing we need to Focus on to trans form our lives…
C. We need to have a LOVE that SHARES.
1. Faith is NEEDFUL, Hope is NECESSARY, but Love is an absolute MUST!!!
a. Listen to how the Apostle Paul explains the importance of having a love that shares.
1Co 13:1-3 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. (2) And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. (3) And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
b. Paul says in effect…
It doesn’t matter how sincerely religious we are…
It doesn’t matter how talented we are…
It doesn’t matter if we study and pray 23 ½ hours a day…
It doesn’t matter if we come to church every time the doors open…
c. If we do not have the love of the Lord in our hearts, everything else we do in the name of the Lord is in vain!
d. Having the love of the Lord in our life should make us want to share with others what we have found!
e. If we happened to find the cure to cancer, would we keep it to ourselves?
f. Of course not!!! But in fact we have found the cure to a disease even more insidious than cancer…sin!
g. Why do we keep this wonderful forgiveness and watch care to ourselves?
h. How will we be able to face our Lord when we have to give account of our witness and our testimony?
i. What excuse will we give Him as to why we did not witness to our friends, our co-workers, our relatives.
Jas 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
2. In other words, true love shares what it has found with others.
Conclusion
A. So maybe you’re wondering what faith, hope and love have to do with un-complicating your life?
1. The more involved we get in helping others, the less we will worry about ourselves.
2. The more we share our faith and our love, the more like Jesus we will become.
3. The more like Jesus we become, we begin to realize the things that are important in this life.
4. Those things are faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.
5. Jesus said in John chapter 13:
Joh 13:34-35 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. (35) By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
6. So I encourage you today…show your love…one for another.
7. And watch your life become amazingly fulfilling!
