Big Idea:
What does it mean to live our lives UNVEILED, reflecting God’s glory?
Scripture:
2 Corinthians 3:7-18
Point 1:
If you are IN CHRIST, you are a NEW CREATION!
2 Corinthians 5:17 – “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
For those of you who were here last week, I’d just like to start by restating what we talked about then. The devil has lied to us and told us that we are much less than what we really are! God tells us over and over that we have a new heart – a good heart! He has so much good planned for us and we need to accept who God is, accept what He has done for us (we do pretty good with these first two) and then we need to accept who we are in Christ. (we don’t do so well with that one).
It’s like my friend Carl the Candle – this is a really LAME illustration, but work with me! Carl has a purpose in life – can anyone guess what Carl’s purpose is? To SHINE! To be a LIGHT! It’s pretty obvious to us what Carl was made to do – he is a candle after all. Well, every time the wind blows, Carl’s light goes out. It’s really quite a sad situation – there’s not much he can do about it and it really makes him quite depressed. His friend Lucy the Light Bulb tells him that if he’d just try harder, the wind wouldn’t be able to blow him out, but that’s another story for another day… Carl is defeated. He is a candle, he knows that his purpose is to shine, but he just can’t seem to do it quite good enough.
• Satan would like for us to think otherwise
• Satan will remind us of all our failures
• Satan will tell you that you will never amount to anything
• God tells us that he has removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west
• God will remind us that we are his children and that He has a plan for us
• God will tell you that you are created in His image
Point 2:
You are being TRANSFORMED to be more LIKE GOD!
2 Corinthians 3:18 – “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
• God is working on you
• When we come to the knowledge of God, the veil is taken away – the blinders are off and we are changed! We no longer see things through our human eyes, but we can see things through God’s eyes!
o Bruce Almighty – when Bruce is in heaven he says that he wants someone for Grace that sees her the way he sees her now, through God’s eyes
• 2 weeks ago, I talked about the new heart fighting with the old sin nature. As we learn to live from our new heart, it crowds out the old sin nature and takes over more and more territory inside of us. This is the work of sanctification in our lives.
Point 3:
God CALLS us to be SALT and LIGHT!
Matthew 5:13-14 – “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”
• I don’t want to overuse an old illustration, but this is a huge concept for us to understand and begin to live out.
• SALT – salt in Jesus’ day was much different than salt in our day. Salt was used mainly as a preservative. Meat would be packed in salt to help it keep – where we would put meat in a freezer, they would pack it in salt
• LIGHT – We are called to be the light of the world. This isn’t an option that you can choose if you like. Jesus says that “YOU ARE the light of the world.” What are you doing about it?
• Are you living in a dark place? Is your workplace a dark place? Do you feel as if you’re the only Christian there? God has placed you there to be a light – to shine HIS light for all to see!
Conclusion:
If we are busy with our false humility and caught up in our past offenses, we cannot be used by God in the ways that He wants to use us. How can we be light in a dark place if we are busy beating ourselves up about something that we did 5 years ago? Satan would have you stuck in the past, reliving your sinful nature every day. God would have you celebrate your rightful place in His family and shine your light for all to see!
