7, July 2002
Dakota Community Church
Give Up & Go!
Introduction:
What you are willing to walk away from often determines what God will be able to lead you to.
Question: Are you holding onto weights?
- Un-believing boy/girl friend.
- Church tradition. (We don’t lift our hands in our tradition)
- Old hurts. (Soccer ball of cancer)
THREE THINGS YOU MUST GIVE UP TO GO UP IN GOD:
1. Give up your history.
- You can’t go forward with your focus on the rear view mirror.
- If you want to lead the orchestra, you’ll have to turn your back on the crowd.
2 Corinthians 5:16-19
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation
- If you are holding on to it people are not drawn to reconcile.
- You are new, Mort is not easily offended.(Mort is french for dead)
Philippians 3:12-14
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Numbers 11:1-6
1 Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. 2 When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the Lord and the fire died down. 3 So that place was called Taberah, [1] because fire from the Lord had burned among them. 4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost-also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. 6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!"
- Have you turned your sin days into glory days?
- GIVE IT UP!
2. Give up your security.
Going up means change and change means leaving the comfort zone.
- Leaving things you trust in incase God alone is not enough.
GOOD DEEDS
Jeremiah 48:7
Since you trust in your deeds and riches, you too will be taken captive,
and Chemosh will go into exile, together with his priests and officials.
BEAUTY (Fleshly ability = camel)
Ezekiel 16:15
’But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his
FALSE GODS
– sports, power
Jeremiah 13:25
25 This is your lot, the portion I have decreed for you," declares the Lord,
"because you have forgotten me and trusted in false gods.
WICKEDNESS
– Pet sins? Comfort habits? Secret chambers of the heart?
Isaiah 47:10
10 You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, ’No one sees me.’
Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, ’I am, and there is none besides me.’
GOVERNMENTS
Isaiah 20:5
Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be afraid and put to shame.
And of course the big one:
MONEY
Psalm 52:1-7
1 Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man? Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
2 Your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor, you who practice deceit.
3 You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth.
4 You love every harmful word, O you deceitful tongue!
5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin: He will snatch you up and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living.
6 The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at him, saying,
7 "Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!"
Matthew 6:24
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Question: Why did Jesus say it’s hard for the rich to enter heaven? He doesn’t want us to get rich?
- No he doesn’t want us to trust in our riches!
Proverbs 18:11
11 The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it an unscalable wall.
- To go up you must give up your history, your security, and:
3. Give up your rights.
- There is no such thing as an effective selfish leader in God’s Kingdom
- Imitate the Son of God
Matthew 20:25-28
25Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27and whoever wants to be first must be your slave-- 28just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Galatians 5:14
13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
- When you go up you must become “OTHERS” centered.
- Prayer – about getting or giving?
- Worship – arrive ready or lead me there?
- Attitude – Pre-set or reaction driven?
- Church – A place to be ministered to or a place to minister?
