What do people want in life?
Have you ever
experienced: fear depression anxiety insecurity guilt oppression persecution
pain hurts grief loss difficulties troubles struggle anger rage bitterness
enslavement addiction these are like forms of death and they can make our life
a living hell!
1."According
to His divine power hath given to us all things that pertain unto life and
godliness,
2. through the
knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
3.Whereby are
given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:
4.that by these
ye might be partakers of His divine nature,
5.having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." (2 Peter 1:3-4)
"tribulation,
distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword... in all these we
overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us" Rom 8:37
do you feel like
an overcomer? when life gets you down,
when you are undergoing tribulation, persecution, deprivation do you feel like
dancing?
"count it all as pure
joy whenever you endure trials of various kinds"
"i am overflowing with
joy in all my afflictions" 2Cor 7:4
is this the kind of life God had in mind
for you? is this His heart for you?
"all things were very
good" Gen 1:31
"came that you may have
life and have it abundantly." John 10:10
If you seek to
serve yourself in this world then you will increasingly become a slave to
things, to emotions. And they will continually have more and more of a hold on
you. They will begin to take over, more
and more. They will cause you to do
evil against yourself, your neighbor and your God, because the self is never satisfied.
"everyone who commits
sin is a slave to sin." John 8:34
'when you give yourself over
to sin you become its slave' Rom 6-8
SO
WHAT IS THE WAY OUT?
There is only one
way out: death to self:
'He who seeks his own life
will die; but He who gives it up shall live'
God is calling us
to give up our hell-filled lives -- to gain His heaven-filled Life
"finding one pearl of
great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it." Matt 13:46
"serve the Lord with all
your heart" Deut10:12,22;11:13;Josh22:5,1Sam12:20
"Love the Lord your God
with all you mind, heart and strength" Deut 13:3,30:6; Matt 22:37 etc
not only this but
this bringing to death of the self's desires is a continual thing:
paul says: I die daily
that the life of Christ may be found in me
those who through diligence
put to death the desires of the flesh shall reap eternal life
what is Paul
talking about here? Is he from the same
planet as we are? Has he become
inhuman? left his body behind and become just a spiritual being that doesn't
feel pain anymore? How could he say
these things?
He can say these
things because he has died to serving himself and now lives to serve God.
It is the only way
out of slavery to things and emotions, slavery to our very selves.
so the paradox is
that we overcome by giving up, we enter life by choosing death, we become free
from these things that produce death in us by making ourselves slaves to
something that will produce life in us, by making ourselves slaves of
Righteousness Himself.
lean not on your own
(natural) understanding but in all you ways consider God. Pro 3:5
there is a way that seems
right to man but its end is death
the truth is that
when we are living for Christ, when He is the sole motivation for why we get
out of bed in the morning and He is the sole reason we don't just end it all...
then our whole life, every little ache, every little pain, every little
sacrifice becomes an act of love towards Him... and its in love that joy is
fully manifest.
and this is a joy
that is never passing away... because the one whom we love is SO worthy of that
love. We never awake a few years later
and see all the imperfections in our lover.
THERE ARE NONE!
The gap which He
continually crosses to give us grace, the sacrifice He makes to do this,
the pain he
endures for our good, and the love that motivated him to do so never lessens...
in fact, if we are honest we see more and more each day just how great a
sacrifice He makes for us and how far away from Him we really are and the more
we see it we see just how great His love is towards us.
the fruit of right
relationship with God:
love joy peace
patience entrustment mission power strength steadfastness intimacy relationship
priorities justification cleansing holiness character goodness abundant life
freedom liberty heaven
when we are in
right relationship to Him these things result.
when we are head over heals in love with Him, when we are willing to
live for Him instead of ourselves.
He has a great
life exchange policy... our lives of hell for his life of heaven...
relationship ~ by
the indwelling ~ by invitiation ~ by faith ~ by revelation/promise/word of God
"faith comes by hearing
of the word" Rom 4:17
how do we receive and appropriate Christ's abundant life?
acts of faith
towards God! by:
-being a living
living sacrifice: -by a subverting our will/agenda to His
-humbly giving up
to him our sins
fears prides motivations lack of trust and understanding love of anything more than HIM false/selfish agendas. truthfully considering and acknowledging how
far short of the mark we come. (if
pride enters in then we will see no problem in living for self... and living
for self is hell. we need an honest
self-recon)
--
give up all false forms of comfort that rise up larger than Christ
-completely
relying on and trusting in His love
grace mercy power
supply holiness kindness
goodness forgiveness faithfulness (and not in our self strength
and effort)
-keep pressing
into Him / draw close to Him / seek His face / open your entire being to
receive Him
/throw off all the
masks with him /let down all the walls and self-protections
-giving over to
Him our lives, thoughts, feelings, motivations and subjecting them to Him in
complete obedience
-cry out to Him
continually from our poverty for more of Him
"how much more is your
heavenly Father willing to give you the Holy Spirit"
Who do you run to/ Where do you find / What
is your source / who or what gives you
security, peace,
provision, identity, meaningfulness, purpose, selfworth, love, joy, excitement,
acceptance, belonging, intimacy, power, victory, success, strength?
is it:
activities,
abilities, qualities, performance, success, pride, work, power, control, possessions, money, crowd acceptance, image,
beauty, adoration, tradition, ritual, drugs, comfort, ease, entertainment,
pleasure, sex, love, romance, marriage, spouse, children, friends, coworkers,
other people, self, conformity, psychology, witchcraft, magick, occultism,
demon worship, spiritism, nature, feminism,
formula, hedonism, pride, humanism, work, competition, war, protection,
health, well-being,...
good things, bad things,
indifferent things, anything...
do you value these more than Christ?
if so
you are entering a life of hell. it is
this that separates you from God and His provision.
'if anyone love mother,
father, sister or brother more than me... or if anyone is not willing to pick
up his cross daily and follow me he is not worthy' Matt 10:37-
"a man cannot serve two
masters... he will love one and hate the other" Luke 16:13
"all men will hate you
for my name sake... they will persecute you" Matt 10:22-3
‘its not that loving good things is wrong
in itself... it is if you love these more than God because you love Him not
enough.’ -- C.S. Lewis
what
are you striving for? where
is your treasure?
"able to discern between
the thoughts and motives of the heart." Heb 4:12
"for where your treasure
is, there also your heart" Matt 6:21
what is motivating you?
in the end are you serving God or are you
serving self?
"choose this day whom
you will serve!" Josh 24:15
God is challenging us to a life of complete
self-sacrifice.
God is calling us to a life of complete
self-sacrifice.
God is calling us to be dead in ourselves
but alive in Him.
"Present your bodies as
living sacrifices" Rom 12:1
He went first. He showed us the way. It is the only way. He will empower us now
to follow Him.
"out of their most
inner-most beings will flow streams of living water"
can we overcome
these things in our own strength? By our own will?
“looking full into His
wonderful face we are being transformed into His likeness”
HIS is the power to overcome, His is the power to of life from
death!
conneXion with God
- comes by faith
Types Of Faith
Intellectual Faith
Saving Faith = Reliant/Grace Faith
Sustaining Faith = Continuing Reliant Faith
Word/Promise Faith - believing that what God has said or promised will
come to be
Working Faith - faith that expresses itself in action
Relational Faith - open-heartedness towards God
- requires faith in God's GOODNESS
let Him hit you where you live!
POSITIONING TO
RECEIVE
step into the supernatural/the kingdom - JWWYHMD? WWJD -> WDYWDJ... Jesus, What Would You Have Me Do?
the power of right relationships –
breaking the curse
FAITHS / The POWER of
RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS / a pure heart / right believing
YahWay - i want and trust Your will/way above my own will/way
PplWay -as far i am able, i am in a state of peace with all people
having made amends for
my wrongs and forgiven everyone else's
“what you have done to the
least of these you have done unto Me”
CleanWay- i have confessed all known sin and have asked You to search
me
ReLiantWay - i totally rely on You for all my stuff
InvitingWay - invite You to live deeply within me, right where i live
GivingWay - i give myself, my entire being, to You;
- all my dreams, all my hopes, all my rights
i subject to You
GloryWay - Lord, glorify Yourself in/through me
DeclaringWay - i declare the truth today Lord, that You are Good,
that You are righteous and true, that
You are completely
trustworthy
and right, that You are worthy... & i am not
ThankingWay - i thank you for all that You have done for me
LoveWay – as I walk and live in Your love… love others through me
WorshipWay – fill my heart with thoughts with You daily,
moment by moment
PrayerWay - i ask You to help me do this better, do this
more, completely… on Your strength I rely
on this the bible
writers speak with one voice
POSITIONING TO
RECEIVE
step into the supernatural/the kingdom - JWWYHMD? WWJD -> WDYWDJ... Jesus, What Would You Have Me Do?
the power of right relationships –
breaking the curse
FAITHS / The POWER of
RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS / a pure heart / right believing
YahWay - i want and trust Your will/way above my own will/way
PplWay -as far i am able, i am in a state of peace with all people
having made amends for
my wrongs and forgiven everyone else's
“what you have done to the
least of these you have done unto Me”
CleanWay- i have confessed all known sin and have asked You to search
me
ReLiantWay - i totally rely on You for all my stuff
InvitingWay - invite You to live deeply within me, right where i live
GivingWay - i give myself, my entire being, to You;
- all my dreams, all my hopes, all my rights
i subject to You
GloryWay - Lord, glorify Yourself in/through me
DeclaringWay - i declare the truth today Lord, that You are Good,
that You are righteous and true, that
You are completely
trustworthy
and right, that You are worthy... & i am not
ThankingWay - i thank you for all that You have done for me
LoveWay – as I walk and live in Your love… love others through me
WorshipWay – fill my heart with thoughts with You daily, moment by moment
PrayerWay - i ask You to help me do this better, do this
more, completely… on Your strength I rely
on this the bible writers speak with one voice