Sold Out Or Still For Sale?

Sold out or still for sale?

John chapter 3:1-21

As most of you know we just returned from camp WOW and our summer AFCC church camp

Once again thank you for your support and your prayers

Summer camp is a great opportunity to teach and show the love of Jesus to our children

And for the sponsors that went

Ya’ll know

It is a chance to grow spiritually

The theme of this year’s camp was ----Sold out---

My plan was to continue with our series on 1 Samuel

In our series Real People with Real problems

And more specifically with our series within a series titles “ Knowing God”

But Listen

No one walks away from church camp unchanged

And I wanted this morning to share those changes

8 Kids this week went from lost to found

8 kids sold out to Jesus

We will be baptizing them in the weeks to come

2 more dedicated their lives to ministry this week

Some overcame fears and struggles

And the Adults experienced spiritual renewal and even some spiritual firsts

Praying, giving testimonies

Giving themselves to The Lord and our kids

So is my honor to once again

Change lanes and go another way

So today we are going to look at the subject of being ---Sold out to Christ

The camp Verse

This year

Philippians 1:21

The New King James bible says it this way

“21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

And this is the way the kids learned it

Just ask them – they know it

But I teach from the New Living Translation

I do this for 2 reasons

It is often easier to read and understand

And also the learning the ropes bible we give away are NLT’s and it would be both confusing and irresponsible of me to give you a bible and your bible not say what I preach

So from the NLT

Philippians 1:21

21 For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.”

Living means living for Christ- Being sold out – all in

And

Dying to my self

Dying to my sins

Dying to the world

Spiritually

Is even better

Or is gain

As the NKJ says it

And even physical death is gain when life is Christ

Because we have the assurance of heaven

To be in the presence of the living God who created us

And who loved us so much

That he refused to lose us to sin

Loved us so much

That he refused to let us go into the darkness

So he gave what he loved most – His one and Only Son

Jesus Christ

To buy us back

Redeem us

Save us

For me – Like Paul--to live is to live for Christ

And dying is even better

Someone told me at one of the clinics at camp something that stuck with me

We are either -----Sold out

Or we are ---------Still for sale

So toady I want to see what both look like

Sold out and still for sale

Let me introduce you or reintroduce you to a well known figure in the bible

I like to call him Nick

But his real name is Nicodemus

We read about Nick in the bible in John chapter 3

Chapter 7

And Chapter 19

And through the bible we see Nick change

We will see him go from for sale to sold out

Let me tell you a bit about him

He is a Pharisee

This means that he has the right credentials

To be a Jewish leader

He has the right family heritage

Only Jews with verifiable 100% Jewish lineage could be considered for such a prestigious and important position

But lineage and ancestry was not enough

In addition to the right family

He had to have the right education

This means that he had spent years in the study of God’s word

He knew scripture

He knew the law

He had been taught and instructed

Mentored by powerful men in the Jewish religious system

And Nick passed all the tests with flying colors

You see in addition to being a Pharisee

His wisdom-knowledge

His understanding of scripture

His ability to read and interpret the law

Caused him to be elevated in the Jewish system

Promoted, if you want to think of it in that way

Because he had all the right requirements he became a member of the highest

Jewish ruling authority

The Sanhedrin

The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel,

It was made up of 71 men

70 Pharisees and Sadducees

And the high priest.

The Sanhedrin were the only ones who could try a king

In common terms they were the big Ku-hu-na when it came to Jewish law

Being a member of the Sanhedrin was a big deal