Taking the Next Step
Pastor Glenn Newton, November 21st, 2010
Text: 2 Corinthians 6:11- 2 Cor. 7:1
11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. 12 We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. 13 As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also.
Warning against Idolatry
14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
“I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God,
and they will be my people.” 17 Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
18 And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”
2 Corinthians 7
1 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
How many of you here this morning can say with all your heart, “We serve an Amazing God?” He is amazing in so many ways, He is the Healer….the Great Physician, as we have been witness to again this week in our own family, but He is so much more….
We could literally talk for hours this morning about the different ways that He has “acted” in our lives….how He has shown himself to each of us in some form or fashion that has helped bring us to this conclusion: God lives, God loves me and He Knows my situation and wants to be involved in my life…… pretty amazing.. Amen?
This morning, because we can agree that God is worthy of our devotion, He is worthy of our Praise, He is worthy of our Faithfulness, He is worthy of our attention this morning….because God is Who He says He is in His Word….because we know all these things to be true plus so much more, it’s time for us to take some action steps to move to the next level in our relationship with Him. Are you ready to move past where you are in your relationship with God; are you ready to experience God on a whole new level? This morning I want to share what God’s Word says about moving up in our spiritual life.
This message just flows from where I am spiritually. God has more than proved Himself to me and I want to get past any immaturity in my walk with God, I want to experience God’s power, His Grace, His Holiness in a new way, and to do so I have come to realize that there is only one thing keeping that from happening…..it’s not God, it’s me.
Has anyone else come to the conclusion that God is not the problem in my spiritual life? Unfortunately there is only one other option to place the blame, no it’s not your spouse, it’s not your kids, it’s not your job or lack of a job……it all falls on us. This personal relationship that God has called us to brings with it, personal responsibility, personal accountability, I know those are two words that we all love to hear, but it’s right on this morning. I am accountable and responsible for my relationship with God, if I’m not going where I know I need to be going, where I want to be going, it’s on me… amen?
So, what steps can I take to Take the Next Step Forward?
First Step: Always Remember that God’s Will for you is to be Free
God has called you to Freedom. For us to live in any other condition is not His will for our lives.
I know you probably don’t know this about your pastor this morning, but I have extensive experience when it comes to rescuing POW’s. Not only have I seen these missions carried out in some really cool and real to life war movies, I have literally led hundreds of special ops missions to rescue captured soldiers, and to be honest, I’ve become very good at it. You ask where, the answer is all over the world……now it may be in the playstation video game world, but hey…. It’s pretty realistic.
Can I tell you what I have learned in all my years of rescuing POW’S? As you make your way past the enemy, as you move in stealth mode and get past all those guards, once you finally get to the POW’S, I’ve never once decided to get inside the prisoners cell with him and close the door and say, “Nice to meet you, I’m going to stay here with you and help you make it through this horrible situation.” Not once did I ever decide to try that. Why not?
In every POW scenario that I have ever seen or heard about, there is one objective, there is one thing that your there to do…..You have been sent there to Get Them Home, You are there to Set Them Free!!!!!
I don’t interpret God’s plan as one that shows us Jesus Christ coming to us in our sin sick state, taking our hand and telling us how tough we have it and sitting down right there in the muck and becoming our sin manager…..God has never called us to Manage our sin, like some kind of disease that we can’t get over! My friends He is the Cure!
Jesus Christ has defeated sin on the Cross, we have no obligation to sin anymore, Through Christ and His Blood we are set Free….He has called us to be free in every area of life…..listen to His call… Rom. 6:1-7
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We 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.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
I hear a distinct call to be Free, don’t you? V. 7 says, “because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.”
Galations 5:1 1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Galations 5:13 “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”
What the apostle Paul is asking is simple. Why would you as a former POW, ever want to go and get back in that cell that had you trapped and living in such hopelessness?
Do you want to take a step up in your spiritual walk with God? You have to make a willful choice to be obedient to God in your attitudes, in your actions and in your relationships.
It’s interesting in our text this morning, the Apostle Paul is writing to the Corinthians, and he is having this discussion with them about their hearts not being open….look at verse 11-13
11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. 12 We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. 13 As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also.
If you are in the process of raising children you will understand this concept very well, if you don’t have kids, then you will recognize this in yourself, because we have all done this very same thing in our own lives.
Have you ever noticed how your children will push away from you when they are doing some things they know they shouldn’t be doing? I remember very distinctly times in my teenage years when I was doing my own thing, not obeying what I knew to be God’s truth for my life, and the last people I wanted to see, the last people that I wanted to have a conversation with was my parents…. Do you remember those days? Some of you teens may be living that out right now..
There was a reason why I didn’t want to allow my parents to get to close to me, first of all I loved them, and I was afraid of hurting them with what I was doing, but I was also very selfish and didn’t want to stop living the way I wanted too.
The reason we pull back from God, because we know that He will expose the truth about our attitude, our actions, our relationships. If you want to take your relationship with God to the next level, if you want to truly be Free….Humble yourself before God and repent of your sin, and allow God to rescue you and move you away from what you are caught up in.
Just as Paul was calling the young Christians of Corinth to separate from the pagan ways of their society, God is calling His Church, New Hope, He is calling us to move away, to separate ourselves for His service, to a life of Holiness, to a life of Freedom.
The first step is to realize that God has called you to freedom, that is His number one objective, our response to his call is up to us.
Galations 5:13 “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”
I wanted to touch on this passage because it is so relevant in our religious circles today, so many people who are calling themselves Christians are living in a lifestyle of sin, indulging the flesh, yet they believe they are still under grace.
The truth is simple in the Christian life, you can only serve one master. When God sets us free when we are forgiven, we pledge our life, we put our Faith in Him. The essence of the Christian life is that we have died to ourselves and we now live through Christ. How could I willingly live in sin and expect to have a relationship with God at the same time? Jesus made it clear that we could determine if we belonged to Him if we were obeying His commands.
Friends, don’t be deceived, God won’t be mocked by those who try to pervert His Truth. Can a Christian sin, yes. When it happens, we ask forgiveness and we move on and grow in our relationship and get stronger, amen? But Christians do not live in a lifestyle of sin, willingly, and knowingly disobeying God’s Word.
Second Step: Know that God is with you every step of the way…. You are His Child!
As God has said: I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 17 Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 18 And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
The Lord Almighty is calling you out, He is offering you His Promise, he will walk with you, He will live with you, He will sustain you, He will give you everything you need to live a victorious Christian life! Will you believe these promises?
Some people have been hurt so many times that it is hard for them to believe that anyone will really stay with them, it’s hard for them to believe that anyone will always be there for them, because they have been let down so many times. Maybe your like that, maybe that’s how you feel.
That pain of being disappointed and let down is real, and I know it makes it really hard for a person to risk trusting again. But I want to encourage you, God is Faithful, it is who He is. Will you say it with me… God is Faithful.
It may be hard to find Faithful people in this sin sick world, but God has been Faithful from Day one and has never failed, ever. If you want to move your relationship with God to a whole new level, you need to understand that God is with you every step of the way, you are His child and He has a personal interest in you being a success.
My response to what God has put on my heart today. When God speaks to us we need to respond, we need to say yes to Him. God is calling me to move out in my faith, to get rid of some things that have no place in my life anymore, to be totally obedient to Him in every area of my life.
I’ve made a list of three things that I know God wants me to do….. Three areas that I know God wants me to be Free. I’m done staying in the cell of captivity when I have a Savior ready to set me free…..I’m done settling for second best when God has promised me Top Shelf Living….most of all…. I’m done with me…. Glenn Newton no longer gets a vote… I don’t have to defend myself, I don’t have to come up with all the answers…..(that’s a huge relief)… God will provide our answers….He is the driver, I’m not a co-pilot….I’m just a passenger.
What is your response to Him this morning, are you ready to move to a new level? Does total freedom appeal to your soul?
