DNOW FINAL February 23 2024 Final

Living Outside the Box

Hebrews 4:12 “12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

I love this verse.

We could spend the entire weekend talking about this one verse,

But right now let’s ask some questions from this one verse.

What is the Word of God? - Alive and Active…

What does this verse compare the Word of God too? - A double edge sword.

It affects the one sharing the word as well as the one receiving the word.

It’s a double edged sword.

c. J Vernon McGee in his commentary said, that the sword is double edged because it’s meant to cut those listening to the word, but it’s also meant to cut the one teaching from the word.

What does that sword divide? - Soul and Spirit… Joints and marow…

God’s Word affects the deepest parts of who we are.

And really, the deepest part of who you are is your identity.

At the core of you, you are asking the question “Who am I?”

Am I just Ben with my body walking around doing stuff every day while the sun is up and then trying to go to sleep at night when my body tells me I’m tired

Then I wake up tomorrow and do it all over again?

Is that who I am?

We all know the obvious answer… NO

We were made for more than that.

But for what?

What is my purpose? What is the goal of my life?

Let’s read one more verse tonight

1 Thessalonians 5:23 “23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Again here, we see a difference between our Spirit and our Soul. and then even our body.

This is the 3 parts of a human being.

We saw 2 (soul and spirit) in Hebrews 4 when it says that the Word divides soul and spirit.

But here in Thessalonians we see a challenge that our whole “Spirit, soul, and body” be kept blameless.

What are these 3 parts of that make you, you. that make me, me.

Your Body is - Flesh, bone, blood, etc…

Your Soul is your mind, will, and emotions.

Your Spirit is consciousness (of God)

intuition (living in the Spirit)

communion with God (union with God).

The most real part of you is this third category, the Spirit.

We can actually boil it down to two more things.

We are either alive in Jesus. We have placed our faith in God for salvation.

Or we are dead, we have placed our faith in ourselves for salvation and hope in this life.

Most of you know Josh Stevens, His great-grandpa was Thomas Neely.

He was one of the past presidents of North Greenville university and he was also a wonderful pastor.

He wrote an incredible book many years ago called “In His Image.”

In chapter two of his book he wrote this.

- Your body makes you world conscious.

Your soul makes you self-conscious.

Your Spirit makes you God-Conscious.

o Until you become God-conscious, you won’t ever take your eyes off yourself and place them on Jesus.

Where are your eyes looking today? Are we looking to Jesus or are we self-focused.

Tomorrow Allison and Johnie are going to dive much deeper into this conversation on the body, soul, and spirit, but I want us to begin thinking about it before we continue tonight because here is the truth.

At the core of who you are, you are either alive or dead in your spirit.

We are living faithful to ourselves

or we are living with our faith and rest placed on Jesus alone.

a spiritually dead person is focused on bringing as much glory to ourselves as we can in this one life we live in this world.

Before we continue, I’d like us to hear a word tonight from someone who has tasted more of the world’s glory than likely any of us in this room ever will.

SHAQ ILLUSTRATION:

In the early 2000s, one of the best basketball players to ever live played for the lakers and the magic and the celtics for a short time.

His name is Shaquille O’neal or Shaq as he is best known.

On his podcast recently he was interviewing Jason Kelce.

Jason Kelce is an NFL player nearing retirement. He is also the brother of the infamous Travis Kelce the tight end for the back to back superbowl champions the Kansas City Chiefs.

Travis also dates a semi-popular celebrity.

Actually Travis dates literally the most popular human on the planet.

But this isn’t about Travis and Taylor, this is about Shaq.

In the closing moments of the podcast, Shaq gives Jason some advice to consider as he retires.

*VIDEO* “love your family. I made a lot of dumb mistakes where I lost my family. Now I don’t have anybody, but that’s not the case for you. Enjoy your beautiful wife and your beautiful kids and never dwell on what we had…. I lost my whole family and I live in a 100,000 sq ft house by myself…”

Is this what God made us for?

To have short seasons of success and then huge moments of regret and loss in our later years of life?

I certainly don’t think so.

I also don’t think the cost of playing basketball and gaining success in the eyes of the world is worth living in a 100,000 sq. ft house by yourself.

I want you to also notice the last thing Shaq says:

““With the way I was raised I know that I *expletive* up, so now I man up and deal with it…”

This friends is not the answer.

We CAN’T deal with our problems on our own.

You can’t just man up and deal with things.

And that’s at the core of what we are discussing this weekend.

Shaq is doing what’s called compartmentalizing.

He’s dividing his life into boxes.

Here’s NBA Shaq, here’s DJ shaq (cause he does that now), here’s podcast Shaq, here’s home Shaq (alone)…

And his best advice is, Don’t make the mistakes I did, but if you do, just man up and deal with it.

The world doesn’t have the answers guys… You are not the answer. I am not the answer.

________________________

Hebrews 4:12 “12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

If God’s word is “Alive and Active”

If I’m alive spiritually, I’m God conscious and placed my faith fully on Him.

Then I’m going to look for more in life than just “manning up” and dealing with what I’ve got.

I’m going to face my problems head on, yes… but then I’m going to take all my problems to the feet of Jesus.

You see we all have a choice.

We can trust that God is alive and active in our lives.

Or we can trust in our self.

Neely breaks this down into 3 categories I want us to discuss now for a few moments.

At the end of Exodus, Joseph’s family leaves Canaan (the promised land) because of a severe famine and he brings them to Egypt.

Many years later, we see Egypt in slavery because the Egyptians feared that there were too many Israelites.

Egypt then, what was a place of salvation, became a place of fear and slavery.

That’s a picture of sin in our lives. (fear and slavery)

Exegesis

A. Egypt

Why did God bring Israel out of Egypt?

Was it just to rescue them from Egypt and then that was it? Once they were out, they were on their own?

Of course not.

Deuteronomy 6:23 “23 But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors.”

Think about what Egypt represents…

Slavery, bondage, taskmasters (people that own you), no freedom, only doing what your told to do every day…

This is a good representation of sin in our lives.

Sin keeps us in slavery.

Sin always promises what it can never deliver and takes us further than we want to go.

That is Egypt to the believer and that was certainly Egypt to the Israelite.

But here’s another question, did God rescue Israel from Egypt so they could wander in the wilderness for 40 years?

NO!

But this is the second thing we need to talk about tonight.

If Egypt represents sin and a lost person.

B. Wilderness Christian - One who desires what the world has, really doesn’t live differently.

A Wilderness Christian is a believer, but they never really changed their lives.

Who they were before Christ, they are still pretty much that same person after they became a believer.

What did God do for Israel in the wilderness?

He led them.

He protected them.

He fed them…

When Israel complained and asked for bread, God gave them manna.

When Israel complained and asked for meat, God gave them quail.

Then they looked back at Egypt and compared their new life to the life they had in Egypt.

They said “We want spices and garlic like we had in Egypt!”

Here’s the point: Wilderness Christians are constantly unhappy…

Thomas Neely says, “they are miserable because they are too saved to enjoy sin and too sinful to enjoy Christ.”

The wilderness Christians know that Jesus died for them… but you know what they haven’t realized yet…

They don’t realize that they died with Jesus too…

That their old man died and was crucified with Jesus on the cross.

Galatians 2:20 “20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

That’s the wilderness Christian. Always ungrateful.

Always complaining.

Always comparing their life to someone else.

Always looking back.

They wilderness Christian hasn’t learned yet that God has given them new life.

That it’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me!

The wilderness still lives for self when all he has to do is see what God has done for Him.

Finally we see the Canaan Christian.

C. Canaan Christian - One who is resting in Christ, living the abundant life.

Deuteronomy 11:12–14 “12 It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end. 13 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul—14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil.”

Canaan was a place of rest.. of abundance.

It represented a life of purity and sweetness.

A life that you can’t earn but was purely given to you by a loving, gracious God.

A life where you are filled with Jesus every moment.

According to Deut. 11, it’s the land your God cares for.

The place where we enjoy all of the labor that our Good Father has done for us.

Canaan is the place where our Spirit is full and resting in Jesus.

God brought them out of Egypt, how? Because He is living and active… From Genesis 1:1 to our story today, until the end of time. God is active.

He is after our Spirits to change us and make us alive in Him.

He brought them out to take them somewhere.

In John 17:26, right before Jesus goes to the cross, he prays for believers and says this.

John 17:26 “26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.””

If your spirit is a live in Jesus, you can live in Canaan.

You can find rest from all of that this world offers us.

We can rest because Jesus is not only with us, He is in believers.

And He lives in our Spirit.

We are God-conscious and from our Spirit, everything else flows out.

APPLICATION:

Where are you living?

Are you living in Egypt, the wilderness, or Canaan.

There are 3 parts to the human, body, soul, and spirit.

We are either alive or dead in Christ, that’s what happens in our Spirit.

But friends our soul (mind, will, and emotions) isn’t always seeking Jesus.

Sometimes we are that wilderness Christian, we look back at our sin and we desire it.

Maybe you have realized tonight for the first time you’ve always been a wilderness Christian.

You are looking back at your old life, or you are simply looking out at what the world offers and you want that.

God didn’t design us to live in a cultural box…

You were made to live outside the box.

But we can be quick to live compartment-ally.

We have our school box.

We have our sports box.

Our fine arts box

We have our family box

Our church box

Our friends box.

And we try to live in all these places.

Now maybe you’re not like me, but I Know there have been times in my life where I was a different person in all these places.

I was trying to be somebody.

I wanted to have an identity in all of these places.

But man it got exhausting!

You can’t be everything to everybody.

Jesus doesn’t want to be another box in your life.

In Christ, you are somebody.

You have an identity.

You have a hope and a purpose that we joyfully can share with others.

Jesus

He is the box!

He is our identity.

He is our hope.

He is our rest.

Maybe the reason we are trying to find our identity in so many different boxes is because we’ve either been living in Egypt or the wilderness our whole lives.

Jesus wants us to rest in Him in Canaan and he wants us to dive head first into His box.