Life In Christ

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God Things

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Introduction

Last week we talked about new years resolutions, and how the best resolution that we could possibly set, is making Jesus the leader of our lives. This week I want to continue that conversation a little bit. Tonight I wanted to talk about what the next steps are after making Jesus the leader of our lives, and what does a life in Jesus look like?

The journey begins

First if you gave your life to Christ last week, or dedicated to follow Jesus closer again last week, congratulations. Now the journey begins or continues. The decision to make Jesus the leader of your life is a constant and continual surrender of the things that we may want to do and giving control to God to allow Him to do the things He wants us to do, and thats not always easy.

So how do we find out what it is that God would have us to do. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

2 Timothy 3:16–17 NIV

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So we can see here in 2 Timothy that God’s Word is good for all of these things, teaching us, correcting us, and training us in righteousness.

However in order for God’s Word to be able to do these things it requires that we actually spend time reading it and learning about it. Here is the thing Doctors know how to help heal our body if we are sick, but in order for the doctor to be able to help us we have to actually go and spend some time with the doctor so he could diagnose our issue. However it doesnt stop there.

There is a quote by a man named Charles Kettering that states

“A problem defined is a problem half solved.” What that means is that if we go to the doctor and now we know what the problem is thats only half of the fix of the problem. The other half of the problem is that we have to actually do what the doctor says.

In the same way we cant just sit down read the Bible like any other fictional book, or text book that you read for school and say yup ok I did my Bible reading for the day. No instead just like going to the doctor you have to actually take the medicine that they prescribe, you also have to put into practice the things that the Bible is showing you about your life. Through the consistent Bible reading and applying what the Bible is teaching you, that is where the true life change happens.

Similarly though to going to the gym, its not going to happen over night most of the time. When you go to the gym it takes consistency and work, and effort before you start to see and feel different. Well the same can be said about reading the Bible. There will be times where it may feel like you’re not getting anything from what your reading, or that God feels distant from you. It’s in these moments where the consistency of reading God’s Words will come into play. And over time you can look back and you may be able to see some things that God was doing that you hadnt noticed before as you were right in the middle of it.

So the fist step in your journey I would say is to get into the Bible, and allow God to transform you through its teachings.

Worshipping

The next portion of the Christian life is always remembering what it is that God has done for us and in our lives. One way that we can do that is to worship Him. Now we use this term worship frequently and sometimes we say it but we dont truly understand what it means or how we should do it.

Romans 12:1–2 NIV

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

This passage tells us how we can worship God. To offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. So by willing to submit to God’s will we are in fact worshipping Him. However I have heard it said that the problem with living Sacrifices is that they frequently crawl off of the Altar. So our responsibility to worship God is to make sure that we constantly keep ourselves on the Altar to continually say to God not my will but yours be done.

Now we can do this multiple ways. One way that we can offer ourselves as a living sacrifice is by remembering what it is that God did. Realizing what our life would be like without Him, and making sure that we understand that without Christ that even our “good deeds” are but filthy rags. Ive said this before but the filthy rags mentioned here are just like dirty shop rags. They are like gross disgusting surgical sponges that they use to clean up all the blood and anything else in the operating room. And those are our good deeds, so if our good deeds are something that we dont want to touch, imagine what our sin looks like. And that is why we need to remember that God took all of the sin in our lives and gave us His perfection. And the only response to that has to be Thank You!!!!.

So we need to remember what God has done for us so that we will never forget why we are willing to be that living Sacrifice.

Serving others

Not only should we strive to be in God’s Word, and worship Him, but we should also strive to serve other people around us. Before we gave our lives to Christ whether you want to admit it or not most of us could probably be described as selfish. Deep down even the things that we may have done for others, many times they were out of selfish ambitions, like what do I get out of this. I will take out the trash because I dont want to get in trouble from my parents. However whenever we give Jesus the lead of our life our motivations are made new as well. It is no longer because I am afraid of what may happen to me, but I want to serve others, because I want them to be able to understand the love that Jesus has for them. Instead of me wanting something from them, now I want something for them. Even though thats only 1 letter difference there is a whole lot of difference in the meaning.

John 13:13–15 NIV

“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

This passage takes place right after Jesus has washed the feet of the disciples, and is telling His disciples to go out and serve just as He served them. He may not have meant to literally wash the feet of everyone else around them, but the task of washing feet was generally reserved for the lowest of the low on the list of servants. Jesus came out and told His disciples that there was no task that was too low for them to do to advance the Kingdom of God. So what can you do that may surprise other people so that you can share the love that God has for the People around you?