Being Established
Rom 16:25-27, Rom 1:11-12, 2 Cor 3:3
December 18, 1998
I. I have been preaching about loose ends in our lives for the last nine weeks.
A. I hope by now you see that a lot of our loose ends in life, our problems, our stress creators are a result of our trying to be in control of our own lives, instead of letting Jesus be in control.
B. When I started all this I talked about the nine most spoken words in the nineties, " I’ve got to get my life under control".
C. I started by saying " when we try to get our lives under control we usually mean we want to be in control, and when we are in control instead of Jesus being in control that’s when life is the most out of control.
D. When we try to take control we are eagles stalled in flight, unable to soar and headed for a crash.
1. We are people deadlocked in life because we won’t make a commitment to Jesus that will open the flood gates of His power that will raise us to a new level of life.
2. We’re people who hug center stage when only Jesus can be the star.
3. We stumble over our previous failures instead of realizing that we are free.
4. We can’t sympathize with other because we struggle ourselves.
5. BUT, IS SYMPATHY ALL WE HAVE TO OFFER?
E. Until we let the one who is able, be the Lord of our lives, it may be all we can offer.
1. But, when we come to the place where we are willing to admit our addiction to false human power and our tendency to play power games with other people and God.
2. When we can overcome the temptation to stand at center stage and try to be the focal point of our own lives.
3. When we know that we are free, because we have been, are being, and will be delivered from our failures by His Grace.
4. Then we can really begin to soar in the Lord’s power.
5. And then we are ready to be recruited into God’s special forces, and offer the people around us a message of peace that only God can bring to their lives.
F. I know that there are a lot of you that just thought I’ll never be able to do those things.
1. Right! And the fact that you just thought that, may be proof that you are aimed in the right direction and that you might see those things become a reality in your life soon.
2. You see the first thing that we have to realize, is that we can’t do it, because only Jesus can make us what we need to be.
3. ONLY JESUS IS ABLE!
II. That’s the really good news!
A. Its good news that we have been given and it’s good news that we have to give.
B. Paul said it well in Rom 16:25-27.
(Rom 16:25-27 NIV) Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him-- to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
C. I have been preaching for weeks about all the ways that God through Jesus is able, and this promise, that He is able summarizes all the others.
1. In Romans chapters 1-11 Paul talks about our being called to be disciples, followers of Jesus.
2. In Romans Chapter 12 - 16 Paul talks about the wonderful Grace of God that frees us.
3. Then in Romans 16:24-27 God had Paul write a summary of what he had been saying for sixteen chapters, and a reminder of His power to ESTABLISH us.
4. The word translated "establish" here comes from the Greek word that means to fix, make stead fast, or stabilize.
D. Jesus is able (has all power to) create stability in our lives and make us secure.
1. I think that is what God was trying to get across in the book of Romans and I think that is one of the main things that God wants to get across to us period.
2. In Romans 1:11 - 12 Paul says, (Rom 1:11-12 NIV) I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong--that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.
3. The word translated strong in that verse is the same Greek word as established in Romans 16:25, "to make secure or to stabilize".
4. Everything From Rom 1:11 to 16:25 is written so we can be secure and stabilized in our faith in Jesus.
5. God wants to make us stable believers in an unstable world.
III. You might think it was going a little far for Paul to say Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel.
A. It seems to be a real stretch to say OUR gospel, but we preach our gospel everyday to the people around us in the way we live and act.
B. When you’re at work the values you live by preach your gospel to people around you.
C. When you’re at home you preach your gospel to your family.
D. The way you treat your children teaches them your gospel of parenting.
E. The way you treat you husband or wife preaches your gospel of marriage.
F. We preach our gospel everyday.
1. In the Greek language the word for Gospel meant an announcement of good news and it was also used to describe the person who brought the message.
2. We all have a gospel of power. It’s the bible’s good news, according to us.
3. Our gospel of power is preached in what we do and say.
4. Our gospel is written by our attitudes, values, actions and relationships.
5. The people around us read our gospel everyday not just in what we say about what we believe, but in what we believe about what we say.
6. And the most important way that we communicate our gospel is the way we allow Jesus’ power to control our lives and deal with our feelings of being at loose ends.
7. As Christians we should live the gift of Christmas!
G. At Christmas we talk about God’s gift to us, we sing about it, we decorate our houses, but if we had to write about what Christmas was about and we had to limit what we wrote to only what we had experienced personally what would our story look like.
1. What would our family, our friends, the people at work or at school or in our neighborhood say was our gospel?
2. What gospel are we living and what Gospel do we experience in our lives?
IV. In 2 Cor 3:3 Paul says it real plain.
(2 Cor 3:3 NIV) You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
A. We are a letter, that we co-write with Jesus to the world around us.
B. The letter that he wants to write is, "Here is a powerful person, a person who is filled with my power, my love, my compassion. Here is a person who has good news to share, a person that is secure, BECAUSE I LIVE IN THEM. Here is a person who has received the full benefits of the real gift of Christmas.
C. Here is a person with REAL good news to share.
1. Real supernatural, power giving, life changing, good news.
2. Not general news, not the news that you already know about life, but news that can forever change your life.
D. We can have a correct understanding of what the bible says about the power of God.
1. We can have a correct position about what the bible says about the power of His resurrection.
2. We can have the correct understanding of what the bible says about the power of His Spirit.
3. We can know the story of Jesus’ birth backward and forward.
4. But , we can still be a letter that fails to communicate who God really is if we depend on our own strength, and manipulative abilities to survive in day to day life.
5. As Emerson says, "how we use Christ’s power speaks so loudly that people can’t hear what we say we believe about Christ’s power.
E. The bottom line is that we have to let our trust in Jesus as our Lord make us secure people.
1. Can we really trust that He is able to do what He says?
2. What do our actions say to the people around us about what we believe?
F. Everyone of us is a walking example of what a Christmas really means, we may be a good example and we may be a bad example, but to somebody somewhere we’re the example that they have of what the result of accepting the gift of Christmas is.
1. We’ll always have some loose ends in our lives as long as we’re here on Earth, but those loose ends that we have don’t have to control us and keep us from preaching a gospel of peace and contentment everyday, that changes lives.
2. We don’t ever have to say again the nine most used words of the nineties, I’VE JUST GOT TO GET MY LIFE UNDER CONTROL.
3. The last thing that we really want is to be in control!
4. Everyday we should start our day saying "Jesus, I trust you to be in control of my life"!
G. There are a lot of people who will in the next few days get gifts that they will put in a box or a drawer, and never get any use from.
1. Don’t let the real gift of Christmas not be used in your life.
2. Turn control of your life over to Jesus.
3. Let Him be the Lord of your life, and let him be the Lord of your problems and loose ends.
4. Because Jesus can’t be the Lord of one without being the Lord of the other.
