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GOD'S PURPOSE FOR MY LIFE
PART 3--ALLOWING CHRIST TO BE LORD
PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11
Introduction
Those of us who believe the Bible understand and know that we are God's special Creation.
Psalms 139:14–“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”
Science continues to study man and we have learned a great deal about the human body and how some things work. However, what is known is minuscule in comparison with what medical science does not know about us.
Science can observe what the various parts of our body do, without necessarily understanding how it does it.
The most basic question that Science cannot answer is "What is life? What makes us alive." If a person dies say from an accident and some organ is damaged, the organ can be surgically repaired or transplanted, but life does not return. Man cannot put life into a body once it has left.
The reason is simple. God is the source of life and He created us. Our life comes from Him. Life did not come by chance as the evolutionists tell us.
Inert matter does not produce life! Man is alive because God gave him life!
God put us here for a reason and has given us life for a purpose. If we follow that purpose we will live a satisfying and abundant life and when we die we will go to heaven where God is and exist there with Him for all eternity.
We know this because he has revealed to us who He is, what His plan is. He also tells us who we are and what we are to do in order to be made whole again and live a purposeful life.
Adam, the first man, sinned against God. He did not fulfill the purpose for which he was made.
Romans 5:12–“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”
God made man in His image, giving man emotion, intelligence and will. Adam used his will and chose to disobey God and thus brought sin into the world and we, as his decedents, are all born sinners.
A sinner can only produce what he is! Thus, Adam's sons and daughters were born sinners like their father and mother. Adam and Eve produced sinners!
However, God in His mercy and grace, offered man redemption and forgiveness from sin. Man was a sinner unable to save himself and therefore only God Himself could make atonement for sin, so God came to the earth, in the form of human flesh, and on Calvary's Cross died for the sins of all the world.
For a man to receive forgiveness of sin, he must accept God's pardon for sin. He does that by simply believing what God has said, and in faith places his trust in God’s finished work of Redemption in Christ Jesus.
From that time on he can begin to live as God would have him to live. He can begin to fulfill his purpose for being on the earth.
At the moment a person is saved the Bible says he is "born again". He receives the indwelling of the Spirit of God, whose purpose is to give the believer the ability to live for Christ, to live a righteous and pure life.
After one is saved, if he is truly saved, it is normal that he begins to grow spiritually. He learns how to live the life God has purposed for him, and as he learns, he begins to walk in God’s purpose.
The process begins when a person recognizes that our ultimate purpose is to glorify Christ our Lord. That gives us the purpose, the reason to do what God has said.
When we believe and put our trust in the Lord, we fulfill our purpose for being created. It is like a person who makes something. When the thing is finished and it does what it was created to do, that reflects on its creator. It is satisfying to know that what you made accomplishes what you intended it to do.
God is pleased then when a person accepts that he is God's creation and seeks to fulfill his purpose on earth. Because when that happens, He is glorified in us!
Because when we seek to fulfill God’s purpose, we WILL do as God instructs us, because we have come to know that He knows what is best for us.
Part of this process of growing is making Christ the Lord of our life.
I. IN ORDER TO BE SAVED, A PERSON MUST ACCEPT JESUS CHRIST AS BOTH LORD AND SAVIOUR.
A. It Is A Fatal Mistake For A Man To Reject Christ And Waste His Life And Spend An Eternity In Hell.
Mark 8:36– “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
B. The Greatest Sin Is To Reject Christ And To Refuse To Trust Him And Receive Him As Saviour And Lord.
In John 16:9, Jesus said He sent the Holy Spirit into the world to convict men of "sin because the did not believe on me".
But, if a person believes in Jesus Christ and who He truly is, both God and Lord, then they will also believe that He should be worshiped and followed.
John 5:23–" That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.”
Lots of folks say they believe in God, but they reject Christ.
God says you cannot give glory and obey Him and reject His Son.
Many today accept false substitutes for what is real and true.
There is a lot of false teaching about what the Bible says and about what God's wonderful plan is and many people are being deceived.
They think they are getting the real thing, but in time will find out it is a lie.
In the same light, many folks for many reasons profess to know God yet they do not worship His Son. Others claim to know the Son and yet they continually live in a pattern of ungodliness.
The proof of what one truly is, is what is inside! And what is inside will affect one's life!
C. Jesus Christ Must Be Confessed As Both Saviour And Lord For Salvation.
There are those who say, “I will take Christ as my Savior” but they refuse to acknowledge Him as Lord.
Romans 10:9–"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
To be saved the verse says we must at least confess that Christ is our sovereign Lord.
IN ORDER TO BE SAVED, A PERSON MUST ACCEPT JESUS CHRIST AS BOTH LORD AND SAVIOUR.
II. AFTER SALVATION, IN ORDER TO GROW SPIRITUALLY, A BELIEVER MUST MAKE CHRIST THE LORD OF HIS LIFE.
A. Christ Jesus Is In Fact The Lord Of Every Child Of God.
The Lord rules whether we obey Him or not.
One's disobedience does not affect God, but it affects us.
Not to submit to the rule of Christ is sin!
The very first of the Ten Commandments says we are to worship no other God. You can’t worship God and not recognize His as our sovereign Lord.
Recognizing Christ as both Lord and Saviour, is the beginning of salvation.
A person's Christian life is then built on that foundation. And with that in place, everything else falls into place. Without it, it not does even begin.
B. After Confessing Christ As Lord, We Can Choose And Exercise Our Will To Let Him Direct Us Or Not.
In 1868, J.W. Powell, took a group of men down the Colorado River to explore the Grand Canyon. About 3/4 of the way through the canyon, the trip began to get hard. They had lost food and supplies and one of their boats. Three of the men began to question Powell's leadership and left the party supposing to walk across land to St. George. They were never seen again!
Powell was the one with the knowledge and vision. He knew much more than did they, yet they chose to follow their reasoning and rejected Powell's sound advice. Powell was in a sense the "lord" of the exposition, which means the "one who has the power, the master, or ruler." They died because they thought themselves more capable than he was and it was a fatal mistake.
God has given us the Bible, His written Word to instruct us, yet many reject both God and His Word in their lives. There are many who know what they should be doing, but for many different reasons ignore it or reject it.
When we choose to ignore God’s Lordship and His will, we do so to our own peril.
IN ORDER TO BE SAVED, A PERSON MUST ACCEPT JESUS CHRIST AS BOTH LORD AND SAVIOUR.
IN ORDER TO GROW SPIRITUALLY A BELIEVER MUST MAKE CHRIST THE LORD OF HIS LIFE.
III. THE AIM OF OUR LIFE SHOULD BE TO BRING GLORY TO GOD!
A. First, By Receiving Him As Our Lord And Saviour, We Allow Him To Cloth Us With His Righteousness.
1. When we accept and acknowledge who He is and receive Him as our Lord And Savior, God is glorified.
2. At that moment, we receive the indwelling Holy Spirit and receive a new nature that enables us to live for God. God indwells us and He is glorified.
3. When we then make Him Lord, He is glorified in that we live a productive life. That is, we live life as God created us to live. His being made the Lord of our life means that we know He wants the best for us and we accept that.
4. When we obey the Lord Jesus Christ, God is glorified.
When our lives are shaped by doing right, He is glorified.
B. 1 Corinthians 10:31–"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
No part of our lives is excluded from bringing glory to the Lord.
Even eating and drinking–i.e. what we put in our bodies.
Whatsoever ye do–i.e. that means everything else.
This thing of Christ ruling in our lives is at the very center of our Christian lives and should not be viewed as something optional.
C. To Bring Glory To God In Our Lives Means We Must Submit To Christ In Every Area.
What then are some principles regarding submitting to Christ?
1. We will find that making Christ Lord will involve sacrifices on our part.
Serving Christ means serving Him at all costs.
Paul says we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice unto God in Romans 12:1.
What we sacrifice is our own faulty plans and desires, which we put aside in order to do what is better and right.
2. Take Peter as an example.
Peter gave a great deal of verbal assent to living for Christ but failed over and over again.
Peter, walked on the water, but about half way out failed.
Peter, made the confession, that Jesus was the Christ the son of the Living God.
Peter said he would never deny Christ, yet he did, three times as Christ said he would on the day the Lord was taken prisoner.
After the crucifixion, Peter failed again and went back to fishing.
He failed over and over again. But, because he was a child of God, Christ continued to seek Peter, that Peter might follow God's plan for his life.
I think Peter may have said something like this:
"I've failed every test Christ has given be....I'm not cut out for this and thus I will go back to what I know...I go fishing."
Others, saw him, looked up to him and followed.
They fished all night and caught nothing.
Then Jesus appeared to him, telling him three times.....go feed my sheep.
That was God will's for Peter. Peter would never be happy or fulfilled until he did just that.
Peter then returned to obeying Christ, and was greatly used of the Lord.
But, it took sacrifice on Peter's part.
D. Down through history many have sacrificed their whole lives to the Lord, following His will, and great things have been done.
Missionaries have gone around the world giving themselves even unto death to follow the Lord. As a result many people have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and received Him as Savior.
Christians by the millions have died at the hands of pagans in many countries, at the hand of both Protestants and Catholics alike...all for the sake of Christ.
Some have given their all, even their lives to serve Christ.
Many times their families and wives and Children were placed in peril and some died.
Hebrews 11:38 says "of whom the world was not worthy".
There was not a price too high for them.
But here in America, few of us are called to make such drastic sacrifices. Yet, we are called to make sacrifices and to separate ourselves from the sinful world.
A Christian is to give of his time, his money and his prayers to his Church and help it to reach out to others for Christ.
On Sunday, He is to comes faithfully to worship the Lord and honor Him and show the world He believes in God.
A worker who is a Christian may bear the scorn of others as he does an honest day’s work knowing that this honors his Saviour.
In the work place a Christian is often treated unfairly because he refuses to do dishonest or wrong things in business.
All these things are sacrifices for the Lord.
E. But, On The Other Hand, If We Put Limits On What We Will Do, Then Christ Is Not The Lord Of Our Life.
We must be willing to pay the price, sometimes of being embarrassed, defamed, or dishonored by the world, or settling for less of the world's material things.
And until we get to the point where we are willing to obey the Lord at all costs, then we will never be truly content nor will we fully grow as we should spiritually.
The peace that comes from abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ will allude us.
But, more than that, one day, at the judgment seat of Christ we must all give an account of how we followed the Lord.
Conclusion
Many think by following Christ they will loose too much. They think that serving Christ means not enjoying life as they want too and that they will miss out on the good things, give up possessions, yet nothing is further from the truth.
"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he can not lose"
"Only one life twill soon be past, only what done for Christ will last".
Have you acknowledged Jesus Christ for who He is? Is He your Lord and Saviour?
Home Page Contact Us Service Times Sermons Are You Going To Heaven?
NOTICE: THESE SERMONS ARE FREE TO BE USED BUT ARE NOT TO BE SOLD!