Scripture: Philippians 3:12 – 14; Romans 8:1-4
Theme: What We Owe
Title: What We Owe Ourselves
INTRO:
Grace and peace this morning from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Over the last few weeks we have been looking at what We Owe
+What We Owe the World
+We owe the World the reality that we have experienced a Supernatural Encounter with the LORD – that we know what it means to be rescued and redeemed through the Blood of Jesus Christ
+We owe the World a living example of what it means to live a Spirit-filled and Spirit-led life
+We owe the World the Positive Message of Salvation and Sanctification
And then we looked at:
+What We Owe the Church – Our Fellow Believers in Christ
+We Owe the Church a Life that is Available and Accessible to the LORD 24/7/365
+We Owe the Church a Living Example of what it means to be an Agape Bond Servant of the LORD
This morning, I would like for us to look at a third area of Debt that we Owe – and that is What We Owe Ourselves as Christ Followers.
Jesus came to this earth to enable us to be able to live the best life possible. That best life possible is more than the life we are going to enjoy after our resurrection/rapture. The Apostle John gives us a glimpse of our future life in Revelation 21:1-4:
Revelation 21:1-4 ESV
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
This morning, we live in light of the hope of that life but the Good News is there is so much more for us to enjoy. Jesus plainly shares in John 10:10 that He came to bring us an Abundant Life for the here and now.
John 10:10 - The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly.
And then in Luke 24:49 and in Acts chapter 1, Jesus goes further as He tells us how we are going to enjoy that Abundant Life. We are going to enjoy that Abundant Life being Hosts of His Holy Spirit; being continually filled with His Holy Spirit.
It is true that we still live in a fallen world. But in this fallen world we are to enjoy a life that is truly amazing. The questions we have to ask ourselves every so often are: *Are we enjoying the goodness of God in its fullest in our daily lives?
*Are we enjoying our full access to God’s love, joy and peace daily?
With all of that in mind let’s look at a few things this morning that we owe ourselves as Christ-followers:
I. We Owe Ourselves the Joy of Enjoying God’s Unconditional Love
God did not have to redeem us. Jesus did not have to come to earth to live among us, die for us and be raised again. The Holy Spirit did not have to come to earth to convict us, cleanse us, live inside of us, guide us, encourage us, empower us and work with us in transforming our lives and all of creation.
But God has chosen and still chooses to do some amazing things out of His Unconditional Love. Things like:
+ God Lovingly Accepts Us
One of the greatest stories of the Old Testament is the story of Abraham. We find him living in a city full of sin. The Lord could have left him there but out of unconditional love the LORD called Abraham to leave the city of Ur and go to the Promise Land.
Abraham did not deserve that type of love or God’s acceptance. All you have to do is to read his story to know that he was quite a piece of work. He messes up. He tries to give away or sell his wife a couple of times and he is a habitual liar.
However, God does not give up on Abraham. God continually works with Abraham, shaping his life, leading him here and there. God wants the best for Abraham. The LORD wants Abraham to be blessed. He wants Abraham to live the best life here on earth and God does everything He can to help Abraham.
God wants to do the same for each one of us. When God looks at us there is nothing about us that amazes Him. He doesn’t see a being that is full of holiness like Him. He does not see a being that is perfect in any degree. God sees us for who we are; fallen, unredeemed and enslaved by sin but He still chooses to accept us despite our sins because God has made a way for us to be rescued and redeemed.
+God’s Love Forgives Us
We can do nothing to earn His forgiveness and yet, out of grace the LORD chooses to not only accept us but to forgive us.
John 3:16 - 17 reminds us of the amazing forgiveness of Jesus
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will have everlasting life.”
“God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.”
This morning we are to enjoy God’s forgiveness. This morning we are to rejoice in that forgiveness. All our sins – from the least to the greatest have been removed. We are as white as snow and have been forgiven of all our wrongs, our mistakes and our sins.
+God’s Love Transforms us
In Romans 8, the Apostle Paul makes it clear that God accepts us, forgives us and then wants to do even more. He wants to restore us so that we can live a life above sin. He wants us to help us live a life hosting His Holy Spirit – a life that brings about anointing, miracles, revelations and transformations.
God so loves us that it is His utmost desire that we live a life bearing the fruit of His Holy Spirit. God so loves us that is His utmost desire that we live a life that reflects His glory and honor. We call that life a Sanctified life. It is a life of growing, maturing and enjoying God’s goodness and grace. It is a life of becoming all that God wants us to become.
II. Secondly, We Owe Ourselves An Abundant Life
+An abundant life of blessing
We see that being revealed as far back as Deuteronomy 28:1-14 – listen to these words:
Blessings for Obedience (ESV)
28 “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
7 “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. 8 The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 9 The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. 10 And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, 14 and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
We have to grab a hold of the reality that God does not save us for us to live a life of condemnation. God does not save us to bring us into harm. God wants us to live lives of blessing and honor.
+An Abundant Life of Progression
Each generation should be enjoying more of God’s blessing than the generation before it. That is God’s plan. We see that plan being fleshed out as we see the lives of Abraham to Isaac and then Isaac to Jacob and then to Joseph and beyond. We see that plan being fleshed out in the lives of Ruth to Obed to Jesse to David and then to King Solomon.
Now, immediately someone may say but the reverse is true as well. For Solomon did not spirituality up a notch nor did his son Rehoboam nor did his son Abijah. And in the natural the Boomers have not been as great a generation as was the Silent Generation or the Great Generation in American History. Time will tell if Generation X or the Millennials will turn the tide or go further down the road of destruction. After King Abijah the Bible tells us that King Asa stopped the slide and was instrumental in bringing back a time of spiritual, emotional and economic prosperity.
It is God’s plan for each succeeding generation to be greater than the past generation. That was His plan in the beginning and was to be the outcome of Jesus’ Great Commission. The more we evangelize the world the better the world is to become. The more we are transformed by the Holy Spirit the more of the Holy Spirit there will be in the lives of people here on earth.
As a result we should be experiencing a better life each generation. If we are not then we have to repent, to turn from our wicked ways and come back to the LORD. That is the only way for each generation to enjoy the fullness of God’s grace, mercy and love.
+An Abundant Life of Communion
I think it is amazing when you read Acts 2 – for the people that received the Holy Spirit that day came from all over the globe – there were white people, brown people and black people. There were people who were rich and poor. There were people who lived different and spoke different languages. There were people who were highly educated and there were those who had very little education. There were single people, married people and people who had lost their spouses.
What was amazing was that everyone was in one accord through Holy Spirit. It was the Tower of Babel in reverse. People were not coming together to go against the LORD but coming together to receive the LORD and through His Holy Spirit they were experiencing a supernatural oneness of heart, mind and soul.
The more Christian our world is the more we will see an end to things like racism, gender bias, greed, human trafficking and the like. The more Christian we all become the more we understand passages like
Galatians 3:27-28
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 4:1-6
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
One of the best ways we can display to the world that we have been rescued and redeemed is to experience Jesus’ oneness with one another on this earth. This was a part of Jesus’ greatest prayer – John 17:20-23 (ESV)
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
This morning, we owe ourselves an Abundant Life
+An abundant life of blessing/progression and communion (oneness)
III. Finally, We Owe Ourselves the Fullness of God’s Spirit
+God has work to do With Us/In Us/Through Us
Recently, we looked at the life of Gideon. His life is a perfect example of what it means to live in the Fullness of the Holy Spirit.
In Judges 6:34 we read these words
“Then the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon with power.”
An older translation of that passage goes something like this – GOD PUT ON GIDEON AND EMPOWERED HIM.
In other words God’s Holy Spirit did not just rest on Gideon but Gideon was like a piece of cloth – like a glove that God had put on His hand.
Now, that is a great thought – to think that God wants to wear our lives as a glove. As a glove that is moving and doing what God’s fingers and hand want to do.
Mother Teresa shared a message one time that she always wanted to be a pencil in the hand of God.
“I am a little pencil in God's hands. He does the thinking. He does the writing. He does everything and sometimes it is really hard because it is a broken pencil and He has to sharpen it a little more.”
? Mother Teresa, The Joy in Loving: A Guide to Daily Living
But perhaps even better for some than the imagery of being a pencil in the hand of God is that of being a glove that God can put on and work through.
The thought is what the hand is to the glove, the Holy Spirit is to us as Christ followers. We invite God to get His fingers into our lives and respond to His strength, His direction and His will.
This thought goes perfectly with the words of the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20
“I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
This morning, you can see that we owe ourselves quite a bit
+We Owe Ourselves the Joy of Living in God’s Unconditional Love
-Enjoying His Acceptance/Forgiveness and Transformation
+We Owe Ourselves the Joy of Living An Abundant Life
-A Life of Blessing/Progression/Communion(Oneness)
+We Owe Ourselves the Joy of Living in God’s Fullness
-A Life of Being God’s Glove
This morning, as we close we need to ask ourselves some questions –
Are we living up to all that the LORD wants to bless us?
Are we enjoying His Acceptance, His Forgiveness and His Transforming Power?
Are we enjoying a Life of Blessing/Progression(Growth) and Communion (Oneness)?
Are we enjoying being a Glove for the LORD?
Let’s close this morning in prayer – allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to us and work through us.
Prayer/Open Altar/Blessing
