Conforming to Christ through The unrelenting love of God
Nothing can diminish or reduce his pursuit of love for his people.
Romans 8:29King James Version (KJV)
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
2 Corinthians 14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Psalm 139:7-12New International Version (NIV)
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
Ever feel alone?
Well you are not!
Jesus said I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Did you ever feel that you sinned greviously against God and you have ruined your relationship with Him.
You know the story of David – He tries to hide his sin of lust and adultery and his pursuit of respectability leads him to do crazy stuff. He tries to hide it and the more he tries the worse it gets it ends in deceit and manipulation and then Murder.
Surely you will think that David has dissed himself from the presence of God but God pursues him – David’s actions have consequnces yet somehow God pursues him unrelentlesy,
New International Version
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans chapter 5 verse 8
God loves us unrelentlessly Paul – a man who persecuted the Christians hated them and was a partaker in their murder. Paul who was blind and lying on the ground still loved by God Paul vulnerable and struggling totally confused by his sin – Paul who even after he had struggled with his sin said –
Romans 7:15-20New International Version (NIV)
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Paul who must have felt there is no way God can love me bursts out in glorious hope in romans chapter 8
Romans 8:31-39New Living Translation (NLT)
31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”[a]) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing can separate you from the love of God.
In one sentence at the end of the last book to the 2 Corinthians Paul says something very important it is used as a benediction but it is the key the secret to knowing God’s love
14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
In three tiny prayers Paul sums up what we were getting too last week when in romans 8 verse 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
God has
Corinthians 8:9New International Version (NIV)
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Jesus came to surrender the privilege of the capital “I” for himself. It was not about Jesus it was about the will of the Father and others. He gave up every opportunity to pray down blessing on himself at the expense of others.
You through Jesus’ poverty became rich = this is a needed grace. If you see someone taking off with great blessings and you are struggling in prayer but Oh the grace to be able to continue in what you feel is your spiritual poverty and to rejoice in the blessing of others this is the prayer Paul is encouraging us to preach.
When the Disciples came back with the news that the demons were obeying them and great miracles were happening then Jesus danced with Joy.
The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is so important and I don’t think we fully understand it but we need to.
In 1st Corinthians we don’t find much of that Grace there is a lot of pushing and shoving preferring people above other people. There was fornication and incest terrible stuff carnality of the Corinthian church it failed to demonstrate the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ as it should No wonder Paul wrote 1 corinthians chapter 12 and 13 as a demonstration of what the body of Christ should be the definition of love in 1 corinthians chapter 13.
No wonder.
God knows that the Corinthians needed to understand love better.
It was a mystery why someone would gun down Pastor Tim Remington in his church parking lot in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Kyle Odom shot him six times because in his confused mind he thought he was part of an Alien conspiracy. Three months after the shooting, he was back in the pulpit. Tim said that I had no animosity against the shooter, that caused a great healing in other people's lives for some reason. The Lord just allowed that to happen.”Tim writes to Kyle often, offering forgiveness and sharing the saving power of Jesus Christ.
That is the generous kind of Grace that God calls us to practice.
The Rhone River begins its journey in the Switzerland Alps, some 5000 feet above sea level.. At the first of its voyage, glacial clay is picked up from the Rhone Glacier in the Alps making the Rhone River very milky and murky and dirty in appearance. Just before it enters France, the Rhone River empties into Lake Geneva, and a wonderful transformation occurs, a wonder of nature, picturing to us a transformation of souls in the spiritual realm. Most of the clay sinks to the bottom of the lake, and the Rhone River emerges clear and blueOur lives are much like that river. Shortly after we begin our journey in life we find ourselves corrupted and polluted by the sins of the flesh. If the Lord hadn’t intervened in His mercy, we would’ve been destined to live out our lives unclean. But thanks be to God, when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, He washes us and cleans us and throws our "sins into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:19). The blood of the Lamb is much more effective than the Rhone River! Our sins are completely blotted out, forgiven, forgotten; and no sign of them ever emerges again! (Autoillustrator.com, THE RHONE RIVER)
Without grace we are indeed lost
Grace - applied grace transforms you into the image of Jesus.
How does that work? Jesus was without sin – grace removes the traces of sin from our lives so we begin to move towards becoming Christ like.
This prayer of Paul – is so important – May the grace of God takes you back into the family of God.
But you know when you find yourself into God’s family.
14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Secondly Let love of God transform you into the image of Jesus.
In John 10:30 Jesus makes an extraordinary statement 30 I and the Father are one.
This incredible unity between Jesus and the Father is almost incomprehensible to those who try and study it – Jesus goes on later in John 14:9 when answering a question from Phillip 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
This unity of the Father and the son means that Jesus shows us the very essence of God’s Character – his incredible love.
God is love declares the bible – then Jesus goes a step further – John 15 verse 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. So when Paul prays at the end of 2 Corinthians May the love of God be with you all he is opening up the very real possibility that God’s love – shared among us evident in our lives will conform us to the image of Jesus.
When we love like this we become unified with Jesus we become like him.
Unreasonable love like this transforms an individual and we become aware of this overwhelming love when we are filled with the Holy spirit and at incredible moments of our life but as we bathe ourselves in his love miracles happen.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta was originally from Albania. While serving in India as a schoolteacher, one day she looked a poor person in the face who was begging her for help. She saw Christ looking back at her. The rest is history. She once wrote
A few weeks ago, I had the very extraordinary experience of this tenderness of God for the little one. A man came to our house with a prescription from a doctor. He said the child was dying, his only child was dying in the slums of Calcutta and that medicine could not be got in India anywhere. It had to be brought from England. As we were talking, a man came with a basket of medicines. He had gone round to the families and gathered half-used medicines for our poor people---we have these mobile clinics all over the slums of Calcutta and all over the place, and they go round to the families and gather half-used medicines and bring them to us, and we give them to the poor people. And there he came, and right on the top of that basket was that medicine. I just couldn't believe because if it was inside, I would not have seen it. If he had come before or after, I would not have connected. I just stood in front of that basket and kept looking at the bottle and in my mind I was saying, "Millions and millions and millions of children in the world how could God be concerned with that little child in the slums of Calcutta. To send that medicine, to send that man just at that time, to put that medicine right on the top and to send the full amount that the doctor had prescribed." See how precious that little one was to God Himself. How concerned He was for that little one.
He is Our Father
The tenderness of God's love---no one can love as God. He has made us in His image. He made us. He is our Father.
She once said: We are all pencils in the hand of God.
FATHER AND CHILD
"The Father loves me, He wants me, He needs me." That kind of attitude is our trust, our joy, our conviction. Anything may come: impatience, failures, joy, but say to yourself, "The Father loves me." God has created the whole world, but He is our Father. In prayer, create that conviction from the inside: Father and child.
God loves each of us with an extraordinary love and it as we receive and give and give and receive that love not worldly love but his unique love then and I suggest only then are we conformed into the image of Christ.
Thirdly The Holy spirit
The Holy spirit is critical to conforming to the image of Christ/
But it is the communion of the Holy Ghost it is that intimate relationship with the Holy spirit that enables us to be conformed to the image of Christ.
Note Jesus is filled with the Spirit at his baptism before launching out into his adult ministry.
Note Jesus tells his disciples to wait on the Holy spirit before they step out of Acts one into acts 2 and then these people begin to look like Jesus the lame are healed demons are gone and many are healed. People even wait for the Apostles shadow to fall on them so wonderful is the work of the Spirit in them
The Holy spirit is critical to our walk with god.
Moody was to have a campaign in England. An elderly pastor protested, “Why do we need this ‘Mr. Moody?’ He’s uneducated, inexperienced, etc. Who does he think he is anyway? Does he think he has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?”
A younger, wiser pastor rose and responded, “No, but the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on Mr. Moody.”
Dr. A. J. Gordon tells of a Welsh preacher who, having been scheduled to preach one night, asked to be allowed to withdraw for a time before the service. He remained in seclusion so long that the good man of the house sent his servant to request him to come and meet the waiting congregation. As she came near the room she heard what seemed to be an indication of conversation between two parties, and though in subdued tone of voice, she caught the words, "I will not go unless You go with me." Without interfering, she returned and reported, "He will come all right, and the Other will come, too." And sure enough, when he came, the Other One came along, and with such power that it proved a wonderful service in which many found newness of life. It is both our privilege and duty thus to allow the Holy Spirit to work along with us as we endeavor to teach others about the Lord Jesus Christ.—Christian Union
When we involve the Holy spirit in our ministry then great things happen around us and we too are conformed into the image of Jesus.
