bod44
18th July 2006, 09:19 PM
This is a bare skeleton of a sermon I have been working on. Not even close to finished and I'd like to hear some comments on it. especially from older, learned people.
Here it is: Kinda long, sorry, but I'd really like to hear some opinions.
THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN
THE CHRISTIAN’S FOCUS
Spiritual things need to be a primary focus in the Christian’s life! Col 3:1,2 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
When one starts making himself pray, read, and meditate on the word on a regular basis even when he doesn’t want to, it becomes a sweet romance as God rewards our faithfulness! God makes it a joy! Lam 3:25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
Soon, if he doesn’t let up, it’ll be a habit and if he doesn’t start his day out with a season of prayer and meditation he will have a ruined day and he will not sense God’s blessing. But, it has to start with an act of his will to get up in the morning early enough to have plenty of time to pray, read, etc. without feeling rushed. Psa 63:1 <A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.> O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. David was a man after God’s own heart! Surely he knew how to get a grip on heaven!
Some say, well, I’m just not a morning person why the morning? If you’re an evening person, my question is why wait til all trials have been faced to ask God for strength and to connect with Him for strength? Start your day before you do anything else with sweet communion with the giver of life! Rev 21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He is waiting to pour out His spirit upon us!
It is possible by the grace of God, to create a morning person! It must start with an act of the will though before God will bless the faithfulness. Unfortunately it seems that sleep, showers, primping, working out, eating, etc, comes before communion with the Savior. This is ridiculous! There is nothing wrong with working out, eating, showering, etc. These are legitimate tasks. But, how can a true Christian who’s very life and breath is Jesus wake up and not praise His master for all that He has done? How can he continue without going before the throne of God for sufficient grace for his day? If he truly is leaning in the everlasting arms of God, then he absolutely must begin his day with filling his heart to overflowing with living water. Joh 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. We cannot serve God lest first we have been filled with the ‘sap’ of our Lord! We can only bear fruit and glorify God if we are abiding in the spirit of God.
The number one purpose of a real Christian is to serve, worship, and glorify God! That begins with prayer.
PRAYER
Prayer is, as mentioned before, essential for spiritual life. It is where you retrieve strength for the day, peace, joy, the grace that keeps you from anger, depression, and discontent. It is where you connect with God and pour out your heart to Him cry out to Him for all of your needs! If we pray believing, He is faithful to answer prayer!
Joh 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Finances, people, sickness, everything is in God’s control! We are the gap between God and man, we are designed to bring the power needed down to earth. Christ is our High Priest, our Intercessor, and he continually in intercession for us. Heb 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Jam 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Firstly, as I look at prayer, I notice that in order to have effectual prayer, we must be righteous! We can’t have anything between us and God! If he has given us light on an issue and we aren’t walking in that light, then we are in a state of sin! We must go to God, confess our sins, ask for forgiveness and give that area of our life completely to God, He will deliver us from that sin. When it is clear between us and God, he will honor our request. In our heart there must be a constant yes to his will! When that is the case, the Lord will bless and answer prayer. We must ask God to help us with recurring problems and things in the physical that slow us down. If we have trouble getting up in the morning, battling lust, maybe having trouble getting rid of some things. God is faithful to help an honest heart! He can deliver you from any problem big or small.
Secondly, I believe that prayer is more than just confession or asking for help. First and foremost, prayer is a way to personally praise and glorify God! To praise and thank Him for all that he has done and what He is going to do. Psa 34:1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
This is one of the most beautiful parts of prayer! When we can meet with God and tell Him how much we love Him! If we have really experienced God transform our lives we will not be able to help but praise God! Following praise we should pour out every need we have before God. God is wanting to prove Himself strong in our lives! Even in the little things!! We should ask God to help us to pray more, to understand prayer more, to understand the Bible, to determine God’s will, help us to have burdens etc. We should also spend much time in intercession for others! This is probably the most battled, most rewarding, and most powerful part of prayer. We can move the very heart of God and man in effectual prayer. When we persevere in prayer for others, souls are saved, bodies healed, minds restored, conviction grips hearts, and impossible prayers are answered! God is the God of the impossible! Why not try Him? He longs to prove Himself in our lives in a purely personal manner.
Prayer is the very life of a Christian! A prayerless Christian is a dead Christian or essentially not even a Christian.
CONDITIONS OF DISCIPLESHIP
Luk 14:33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
To be a disciple of Christ, we must forsake all for Jesus!! Forsake all means money, jobs, friends, family, cars, houses, trucks, kids, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, absolutely everything! Everything is laid aside to follow Jesus! If you read Luke 14:26-33 and you will see a description of the kind of dedication Christ is looking for! He will give back to us those things that are necessary. A true Christian burns with a passion to serve Christ because he is not his own. He is "dead"! It is Christ living through him! Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Therefore his only purpose is to serve God! So, as a result of Christ living through him, a Christian does not engage in: Being rude or disrespectful, getting angry or being proud, using unkind or foul language, fighting with others, being envious or jealous of someone else or covetous of their things, being greedy, being dishonest or deceitful, cheating or taking advantage of others, stealing, acting or dressing in order to draw attention to yourself or your body, overeating, being lazy, partying, getting drunk, enjoying any form of non-Christian music, viewing any form of pornography, masturbating, engaging in sexual activity with anything or anyone other than your husband or wife, homosexuality, lesbianism, abortion(murder), and any other forms of selfishness and sin. All of these things are sin before God!! If we have committed or are committing any of these things, we are sinning! Therefore we must confess our sins and ask for deliverance from them!! We need to let go and let God have His way and live through us! If we are abiding in the spirit as Christ has called us, then we will walk in holiness, if we walk in the flesh, we will walk in filthiness, there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it! Gal 5:17-25 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
It is an act of our will to step out of the spirit and sin. God has provided that if we are letting Christ have control of our life that because the spirit is living through us, sin is highly improbable! Its when the devil comes and tempts us and we don’t take the way of escape, then we have chosen to sin. 1Co 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. What a beautiful promise! Are we taking that way of escape or are we ignoring the grace of God?
THE CHURCH, CONDITIONS OF CHURCH MEMBERSHIP
So you say that if you go to church on Sunday, or you pray every now and then, and you ‘try’ not to sin so therefore you’re a Christian? First of all, we were not commanded to ‘try’ not to sin! 1Peter 1:15-16 But according to him that hath called you, who is holy, be you also in all manner of conversation holy: Because it is written: You shall be holy, for I am holy. That doesn’t say try and since you’re human you probably won’t make it. It says be ye holy. God help us! Going to church does nothing for our soul!! The church is not a building! It is not the people that go to church on Sunday necessarily either!! The church is made up of those who are living in Christ! The Church is rather a mystical extension of the nature of Christ. The church is the ‘body of Christ.’
1Co 12:12-28 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
The church is not an organization! It is an organized organism. The Church or Body of Christ is Christ working on earth. If we are letting Christ live through us then we are living what Christ no longer can physically do on earth! We must fulfill the work of Christ on earth ‘for him.’ Christ didn’t sin and sin was never an aspect of His life! Therefore, if we sin, we are not part of the Body of Christ! Hence, we aren’t a member of the real ‘church’ and since we are separated from God, we are on our way to a sinner’s hell.
All this is to determine what a normal, average, standard Christian’s life is based on the word of God.
Here it is: Kinda long, sorry, but I'd really like to hear some opinions.
THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN
THE CHRISTIAN’S FOCUS
Spiritual things need to be a primary focus in the Christian’s life! Col 3:1,2 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
When one starts making himself pray, read, and meditate on the word on a regular basis even when he doesn’t want to, it becomes a sweet romance as God rewards our faithfulness! God makes it a joy! Lam 3:25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
Soon, if he doesn’t let up, it’ll be a habit and if he doesn’t start his day out with a season of prayer and meditation he will have a ruined day and he will not sense God’s blessing. But, it has to start with an act of his will to get up in the morning early enough to have plenty of time to pray, read, etc. without feeling rushed. Psa 63:1 <A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.> O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. David was a man after God’s own heart! Surely he knew how to get a grip on heaven!
Some say, well, I’m just not a morning person why the morning? If you’re an evening person, my question is why wait til all trials have been faced to ask God for strength and to connect with Him for strength? Start your day before you do anything else with sweet communion with the giver of life! Rev 21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He is waiting to pour out His spirit upon us!
It is possible by the grace of God, to create a morning person! It must start with an act of the will though before God will bless the faithfulness. Unfortunately it seems that sleep, showers, primping, working out, eating, etc, comes before communion with the Savior. This is ridiculous! There is nothing wrong with working out, eating, showering, etc. These are legitimate tasks. But, how can a true Christian who’s very life and breath is Jesus wake up and not praise His master for all that He has done? How can he continue without going before the throne of God for sufficient grace for his day? If he truly is leaning in the everlasting arms of God, then he absolutely must begin his day with filling his heart to overflowing with living water. Joh 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. We cannot serve God lest first we have been filled with the ‘sap’ of our Lord! We can only bear fruit and glorify God if we are abiding in the spirit of God.
The number one purpose of a real Christian is to serve, worship, and glorify God! That begins with prayer.
PRAYER
Prayer is, as mentioned before, essential for spiritual life. It is where you retrieve strength for the day, peace, joy, the grace that keeps you from anger, depression, and discontent. It is where you connect with God and pour out your heart to Him cry out to Him for all of your needs! If we pray believing, He is faithful to answer prayer!
Joh 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Finances, people, sickness, everything is in God’s control! We are the gap between God and man, we are designed to bring the power needed down to earth. Christ is our High Priest, our Intercessor, and he continually in intercession for us. Heb 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Jam 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Firstly, as I look at prayer, I notice that in order to have effectual prayer, we must be righteous! We can’t have anything between us and God! If he has given us light on an issue and we aren’t walking in that light, then we are in a state of sin! We must go to God, confess our sins, ask for forgiveness and give that area of our life completely to God, He will deliver us from that sin. When it is clear between us and God, he will honor our request. In our heart there must be a constant yes to his will! When that is the case, the Lord will bless and answer prayer. We must ask God to help us with recurring problems and things in the physical that slow us down. If we have trouble getting up in the morning, battling lust, maybe having trouble getting rid of some things. God is faithful to help an honest heart! He can deliver you from any problem big or small.
Secondly, I believe that prayer is more than just confession or asking for help. First and foremost, prayer is a way to personally praise and glorify God! To praise and thank Him for all that he has done and what He is going to do. Psa 34:1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
This is one of the most beautiful parts of prayer! When we can meet with God and tell Him how much we love Him! If we have really experienced God transform our lives we will not be able to help but praise God! Following praise we should pour out every need we have before God. God is wanting to prove Himself strong in our lives! Even in the little things!! We should ask God to help us to pray more, to understand prayer more, to understand the Bible, to determine God’s will, help us to have burdens etc. We should also spend much time in intercession for others! This is probably the most battled, most rewarding, and most powerful part of prayer. We can move the very heart of God and man in effectual prayer. When we persevere in prayer for others, souls are saved, bodies healed, minds restored, conviction grips hearts, and impossible prayers are answered! God is the God of the impossible! Why not try Him? He longs to prove Himself in our lives in a purely personal manner.
Prayer is the very life of a Christian! A prayerless Christian is a dead Christian or essentially not even a Christian.
CONDITIONS OF DISCIPLESHIP
Luk 14:33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
To be a disciple of Christ, we must forsake all for Jesus!! Forsake all means money, jobs, friends, family, cars, houses, trucks, kids, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, absolutely everything! Everything is laid aside to follow Jesus! If you read Luke 14:26-33 and you will see a description of the kind of dedication Christ is looking for! He will give back to us those things that are necessary. A true Christian burns with a passion to serve Christ because he is not his own. He is "dead"! It is Christ living through him! Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Therefore his only purpose is to serve God! So, as a result of Christ living through him, a Christian does not engage in: Being rude or disrespectful, getting angry or being proud, using unkind or foul language, fighting with others, being envious or jealous of someone else or covetous of their things, being greedy, being dishonest or deceitful, cheating or taking advantage of others, stealing, acting or dressing in order to draw attention to yourself or your body, overeating, being lazy, partying, getting drunk, enjoying any form of non-Christian music, viewing any form of pornography, masturbating, engaging in sexual activity with anything or anyone other than your husband or wife, homosexuality, lesbianism, abortion(murder), and any other forms of selfishness and sin. All of these things are sin before God!! If we have committed or are committing any of these things, we are sinning! Therefore we must confess our sins and ask for deliverance from them!! We need to let go and let God have His way and live through us! If we are abiding in the spirit as Christ has called us, then we will walk in holiness, if we walk in the flesh, we will walk in filthiness, there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it! Gal 5:17-25 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
It is an act of our will to step out of the spirit and sin. God has provided that if we are letting Christ have control of our life that because the spirit is living through us, sin is highly improbable! Its when the devil comes and tempts us and we don’t take the way of escape, then we have chosen to sin. 1Co 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. What a beautiful promise! Are we taking that way of escape or are we ignoring the grace of God?
THE CHURCH, CONDITIONS OF CHURCH MEMBERSHIP
So you say that if you go to church on Sunday, or you pray every now and then, and you ‘try’ not to sin so therefore you’re a Christian? First of all, we were not commanded to ‘try’ not to sin! 1Peter 1:15-16 But according to him that hath called you, who is holy, be you also in all manner of conversation holy: Because it is written: You shall be holy, for I am holy. That doesn’t say try and since you’re human you probably won’t make it. It says be ye holy. God help us! Going to church does nothing for our soul!! The church is not a building! It is not the people that go to church on Sunday necessarily either!! The church is made up of those who are living in Christ! The Church is rather a mystical extension of the nature of Christ. The church is the ‘body of Christ.’
1Co 12:12-28 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
The church is not an organization! It is an organized organism. The Church or Body of Christ is Christ working on earth. If we are letting Christ live through us then we are living what Christ no longer can physically do on earth! We must fulfill the work of Christ on earth ‘for him.’ Christ didn’t sin and sin was never an aspect of His life! Therefore, if we sin, we are not part of the Body of Christ! Hence, we aren’t a member of the real ‘church’ and since we are separated from God, we are on our way to a sinner’s hell.
All this is to determine what a normal, average, standard Christian’s life is based on the word of God.