L.I.F.E.
L.I.F.E. Living in Freedom Everyday - • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 18 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
LIFE
LIFE
Living in Freedom Everyday - Spiritual Order
This is week 4 in a series called LIFE it is from the Church of the Highlands small group that Brittany and I taught for several semesters.
We have been talking about living in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. This morning we are going to finish this series talking about Spiritual Order
1 Thess
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To daily live in the Tree of Life, you need to know two things: God designed you with three distinct parts, and you need to embrace the principles of spiritual order. Understanding spiritual order will help us get rid of the sin in our lives and walk in holiness and freedom. As believers, we long to live lives of fellowship with God. But while this is our desire, life in fellowship with God does not come naturally for us. Since the fall in the garden, mankind has battled a sin nature that wars against our desire to be holy. The Apostle Paul said that there is an internal struggle that goes on between the desire to do right and the natural tendency to do wrong.
the natural tendency to do wrong.
I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
God created us with three distinct parts:
A spirit that must be redeemed
A soul that must be restored
A body that must surrender
At the moment of salvation, our spirit is made alive in Christ and immediately put into right standing with God (, ). The Bible calls this event justification: “just-as-if I had never sinned.”
However, the soul and body will require time and effort to be conformed to the image of Christ (). This gradual process is called sanctification.
is called sanctification.
God desires for us to be transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory. We must learn to hear His voice and be led by His spirit.
But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.
The Spirit
My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,
Did you know that you are a spiritual being having a temporary physical experience on earth rather than a physical being having a temporary spiritual experience? God’s plan is that our spirits become the strongest part of our three-part design and be the “command center” of who we are and what we do.
colossians
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
The blood of Jesus has forever purchased our capacity for friendship with God. This was the price God paid so that we could be reconciled back to Him and have the fellowship that Adam once enjoyed
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
The moment we are saved, we are made alive in Christ, forever redeemed and made righteous before the Father. Along with the gift of eternal life, we receive the Holy Spirit and immediately have the ability to be in relationship with God. In short, the cross of Christ bridges the chasm of death and gives us a way to have fellowship, communication, and access to the Tree of Life.
The moment we are saved, we are made alive in Christ, forever redeemed and made righteous before the Father. Along with the gift of eternal life, we receive the Holy Spirit and immediately have the ability to be in relationship with God. In short, the cross of Christ bridges the chasm of death and gives us a way to have fellowship, communication, and access to the Tree of Life.
Just as a bride and groom are united in matrimony and become one, at the point of salvation, your spirit and the Spirit of Christ are united and become one.
The Soul
The soul is one of God’s most beautiful creations. It enables us to expe- rience relationships and appreciate the beauty of our surroundings. We have been made in the image of God with the capacity to think, reason, and express emotions. God could have programmed us to do and be whatever He wanted, but instead He gave us the ability to choose.
Our souls are made up of three parts:
Our souls are made up of three parts:
1. The mind, which thinks and reasons
2. The will, which makes choices
3. The emotions, which believe, feel, and remember
A few verses that address these three parts of the soul
For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will fill you with joy.
My soul keeps Your testimonies,
And I love them exceedingly.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
Ask yourself: Are my thoughts driven by emotions?
And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
The Body
In , we learn that God formed our bodies from the earth. The body acts as a temporary house or shell that contains our soul and spirit. says that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, the presence of God was housed in the inner sanctuary of the temple called the Holy of Holies. At the death of Jesus, the veil of the temple was torn and the presence of God moved out of the structure and into the hearts of all believers. Just as we would not go to church and shatter the windows and destroy the furniture, we should not do anything to intentionally harm our bodies; they are special, designed by God, and given to us in order to carry out the plans He has for us on this earth.
Our bodies have appetites, both good and bad. The Bible says to be careful of any sin that leads to our flesh getting anything it wants. Often people want to know how far they can sin and still enjoy the benefits of God’s blessing. The snare with sin is that it never satisfies. We are constantly looking to fulfill the next craving. Carnal desires cause us to need satisfaction, and though we may satisfy them in the moment, the craving soon returns and brings with it increased intensity. This cycle will repeat itself time and again until we break it by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Ask yourself: Are my actions driven by my cravings?
1 corinthians
“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.
Ordered Living
Spiritual order provides a framework for living in the Tree of Life. It allows you to live with your spirit united with God, and your soul and body submitted to your spirit. In other words, your spirit, which is now one with God, calls the shots, and the soul and body follow. So here’s the real question: If I am saved, why do I struggle with sin? The answer is found in the process of sanctification and the principle of spiritual order. When we give our lives to Jesus, we receive everything we need for life and godliness (), but we may still struggle because our spirit is not in the lead. What we give the most attention to will become the most influential. Our spirit can take the lead only if we feed it more than our soul and body.
The world around us constantly feeds our souls through things we see and hear. And our bodies, if starved, make it known that they’re hungry. If we withhold gratification from our souls and our bodies, they get loud. Our spirit, on the other hand, when not fed, gets quiet. We have to be intentional to feed our spirit
Ask yourself: What am I doing to feed my spirit?
Who is in control?
The soul and body are complex and can often be confusing, especially since we are accustomed to them taking the lead.
When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Galatians
When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will produce this kind of fruit in us:
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
In our Daily Living
Living in spiritual order brings with it incredible benefits, such as protection, spiritual growth, and power to overcome obstacles in our lives. And it is important to understand that living out of spiritual order is dangerous. When we allow our soul or body to lead, it opens a door for the enemy to operate in our lives. We will be protected from the enemy when we choose to do things God’s way and give control of our lives to Him.
Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
Psalm
We want to do things God’s way, but what happens when we fall short or give in to temptation?
We respond by distancing ourselves from God. We feel shame and condemnation, but that’s Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil thinking. Remember, God convicts; He does not condemn. Godly sorrow for sin will lead us to repentance, which means “to turn and go the other way.”
Psalm
If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened;
but God has surely listened
and has heard my prayer.
Praise be to God,
who has not rejected my prayer
or withheld his love from me!
When you realize you’re out of spiritual order, stop and repent. Then, ask for and receive His grace. It is the kindness of the Lord that leads us to repentance (). Remember: He is the God who came looking for Adam and Eve.
Staying on Order
We face decisions every single day, and the choices we make dictate the lives we lead. So how do we make good decisions? We need to change the way we think.
Knowing your identity is also a key to being led by the Holy Spirit.
Think about who you are in Him.
2 corinthians 5:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
To walk in spiritual order, we need the power of the Holy Spirit. He is our counselor, our friend, our guide, and the One who reveals truth. Start getting to know Him today. As you grow in your relationship with Him, Bible reading will become more enjoyable, worship more intimate, prayer more powerful, and living in the Tree of Life more tangible and exciting.
When you walk with Jesus, life is abundant indeed—and this is only the beginning!