FOR THESE THINGS I LIVE
Our Principle of ‘Life’
Colossians 3:1-4
This morning I want to commence a series of messages that are, I believe, vital, fundamental, indispensable not only for His People Community Church, but for the Christian Church as a whole. I would commend them to you as of first importance during the times we are in. You can find the subjects for these messages on our Web Page, in our Constitution, Section 4. They are our Core Purposes. I started to call this series, "For These Things I Would Die", and then I was reminded that there is a strange anomaly in the Christian Church:- there are many things we would gladly give our lives to defend, that we would be willing to die for, but that we are not willing to live for. So I renamed the series, "For These Things I Live".
What are these Core Purposes that will form the basis for our study over the next few months? Christ Centered, Spirit Filled, Word Based, New Testament Community, Non-Denominational, Contemporary, Missions Minded and Family Church.
These truths are not new truths. There is no such thing as new truths. If it new it’s not true, and if its true, its not new. There is such a thing as freshly discovered truth, or freshly applied truth, or freshly revealed truth, but there is no such thing as new truth. That is why we receive truth by revelation - revelation implies by its very nature seeing something that is already there.
Our first Core Principle is CHRIST CENTERED.
This morning’s message is about life. If you are looking for a title, and I trust you are, and you are ready to take notes, and again, I trust you are, the title of the message this morning is, "The Principle of Life".
If somebody stopped you on the street and told you that after considerable investigation and many significant case studies over an extended period of time and backed by almost all of the world’s top authorities in the field, they had come up with irrefutable evidence that the realty of vitality, success, victory, richness, fulfillment, peace, joy and happiness can all distilled into one secret, and that their secret was not very complex - as a matter of fact, it consisted of only one principle that they would guarantee was successful, they were thinking of writing a book on it - "The One Habit of Highly Effective People", and that they were willing to let you have it for nothing, would you like it, if you are anywhere half as hungry as I am, you would grab it with both hands.
We this morning that is what I want to give you - that one principle, the only principle you need for LIFE. It should excite you to know there is only one principle you need for all you want in life, and it will give you life in all its richness, life in all its fulness, life in all its meaning, life in all its significance. I would be so bold as to say that there is actually only one principle of life. All other true principles of life are simply derivatives of this principle, or different ways of restating this principle. What is that one key, that one secret, that one truth, that one principle that you and I need for life?
PRAY - READ
Please open your Bibles to the book of Colossians and chapter 3 - and while you are turning there allow me to tell of something I realized this week.
Somewhere in this world a women gives life through birth to a child every 4 seconds. She must be found and stopped immediately.
Colossians 3:1-4 "Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory."
That is not simply an New Testament principle. Listen to what Moses so clearly declares in
Deut. 3:20 " Choose to love the Lord your God and to obey Him and commit yourself to Him, for He is your life." [NLT]
There are three things I want to leave you with this morning as we look at what it means to be CHRIST CENTERED collectively as a congregation and what it means to be CHRIST CENTERED in the way we live individually. That is important because being CHRIST CENTERED is the antithesis of the path the world is on, it is diametrically opposed to the way the world lives. Here is the word that describes the world - SELF CENTERED. SELF CENTERED is the essential bias of the unregenerate heart and it is the potential weakness of the regenerate heart. For the unsaved, life is lived rather selfishly. No matter what garments of humanistic philanthropy or benevolence they may cloak it in, it is, never the less, SELF CENTERED. SELF CENTERED living is self damaging in the short term, and ultimately self destroying in the long term. Salvation is God’s way of turning you from a SELF CENTERED, self damaging and self destroying life to a CHRIST CENTERED way of life. Living a Christ centered life is neither form nor method, it is source.
Church that is Christ centered will be different to church as it often is. When you are part of a church that is Christ centered, you will find ministry that is biblically based, not demographically defined; Spirit led, not market driven; Christ centered, not man directed; and God focused, not consumer oriented. It is all about the life of Christ.
So the three things you need to know.
CHRIST IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE FOR YOU
This is true both physically and spiritually. In the beginning God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living nephesh - a living being. Now watch this or you will miss something.
Who put the life in man’s nostrils? God did. Who decides when to remove that life from man’s nostrils? God does. So whose life is it? It is God’s life. Where people get it wrong is where they priorities the life they received from God instead of the God Who gave them the life in the first place. They worship the life of God instead of the God of life.
We must never forget that Christ is the source of our physical life. But He is also, and more importantly, the source of our spiritual life.
John 6::47-48 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life."
Life begets life - and all life comes from God. That is why when God got a hold of you, you got life. That is why when your children hang in the wrong company, they do not get life, they get death. They do not get freedom, the get bondage. They do not get blessing, they come under judgement. Why? Because like begets like.
If you want life, you get it from Jesus Christ. If you want more life, get closer to Jesus Christ, spend more time with Him. And that brings me to the next point.
CHRIST IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE FOR YOU
CHRIST IS THE PRINCIPLE OF LIFE IN YOU
In other words, the life you experience is in direct proportion to your relation to the source.
Christ is not only the giver of life, He is the life. He is not only the source of life, He is the substance if life.
1 John 5:11-12 "And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life."
Paul says it this way . . .
Gal 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."
No don’t let that thought leave you too quickly. Jesus Christ is not simply the source of life, He is the substance of life. You did not just get something like Him, you got Him.
Strong says it this way "Christ and the believer have the same life. They are not separate persons linked together by some temporary bond of friendship,-they are united by a tie as close and indissoluble as if the same blood ran in their veins."
John 5:39-40 "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life."
I see many, many people turn to many, many things for life - and they leave empty. I know of only one place to find life - and that is in Jesus Christ. What we need is the principle of the life of Christ to be evident in our lives. What is the principle of life that Jesus taught?
John 12:24-25 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal."
It is what Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:36 "That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies."
If we want more life, we need more death. If we want deeper life, we need deeper death. If we want greater life, we need greater death. If we want more powerful life, we need more powerful death.
Now, if Jesus Christ be in you, if the source of life and the substance of life be in you, then there are a number of profound truths that you can get excited about.
The presence of Christ should enlighten you.
The power of Christ should embolden you
The purposes of Christ should employ you
CHRIST IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE FOR YOU
CHRIST IS THE PRINCIPLE OF LIFE IN YOU
CHRIST IS THE MANIFESTATION OF LIFE THROUGH YOU
2 Cor 4:10-11 ". . . always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh."
All of life should be an expression of our union with Christ.
All of life should be geared to accomplish the purposes of Christ.
All of life should be a demonstration of the life of Christ.
All of life should be aimed at expressing the glory of Christ.
A. The Word of God should excite you.
When You receive a revelation or discover a name of God in the Word, or when He speaks a logos or a ‘rhema’ word, you must . . .
Receive it in the Discipline of Faith - We Must Believe the Truth
You can never receive more than the limit of your faith
Jesus said, "Be it unto you according to your faith"
We live in fear of what is going to happen, or in faith for what is going to happen.
What is fear - believing something is real that you cannot see.
What is faith - believing something is real that you cannot see.
Speak it in the Declaration of Boldness
- We Must Speak the Truth
Prophetic word - in season/out of season
Overcame satan by blood of Lamb and word of testimony
David and Goliath
Walk in it with the Dedication of Conviction
- We Must Live the Truth
David spent many years walking as a king before he got to take the throne.
B. The Will of God should empower you
You can move in supernatural power if the life of Christ is manifest in you. You should be moving in some gifts, and flowing in some power. Somebody says, "But where do I find the gifts and where do I find the power of God?" You find them in His will.
C. The Work of God should employ you
You should ever be about your Fathers business - at home, at school, at work.
If the life of Christ be in you, then you can be at peace in the love of the Father. You can rest in His arms, be secure in His love, trusting in His warm embrace. It is when you know the life of Christ in an even greater way, that you will experience the love of the Father in an even deeper way. If you want to know more of the Father’s love, you must surrender to more of the Son’s life.
A little child was the last to leave one of our Sunday School classes last Sunday, and Michele turned to him and asked who he was at church with. ‘I’m with my daddy" he said confidently. Wanting to link him up with his Father, Michele said, "What is your Daddy’s name?". The little boy got a very puzzled look on his face, thought for a while and then said, "I don’t know. I just call Him Daddy."
CHRIST IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE FOR YOU
CHRIST IS THE PRINCIPLE OF LIFE IN YOU
CHRIST IS THE MANIFESTATION OF LIFE THROUGH YOU
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