Untitled Sermon

The Ultimate Examples

Things we can learn from each ultimate example

Jesus

Introduction

Love

Compassion

Faith

Salvation

Paul

It is not death to die. ()

What we have done in the past does not define who we are ()

Contentment ()

Joy ( 13x)

Solomon

Beginning of Knowledge

Trust in the Lord

Where our Happiness is Found

Jesus

There are a lot of things that we can learn from the most high. Jesus is the biggest example that anyone has. He is what everyone should strive to be like. Throughout this section of the series we will be going into a little more depth of the things that we can learn from Jesus, which are listed below.

Who is Jesus?

He is the savior:

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me

He is our Lord who loves us:

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

He is compassionate:

And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.

So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.

And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.

He shows us what Faith is:

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus:

Jesus shows us how to be saved

Faith

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus:

What is faith? According to the book of Hebrews, faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. In other words, it is the complete trust in something. Jesus shows us that the way we are saved is by faith, or complete trust, in him and what he did on the cross to save us from our own iniquities.

shows us how we can have peace with God and not have his wrath abide on us. How do we have peace with God? It is through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are justified by faith. We are made clean through our faith in Jesus Christ, but I want you to understand that faith itself is not what gets us peace with God. It is who we put our faith in that gets us peace with God. We are declared righteous by our solely trusting in Jesus Christ.

call us children of God. This is something that we do not deserve. This is called grace, which is so wonderful. Once we have faith in Jesus Christ we not only have mercy upon us, but grace. We get to be part of the family of God. This is only because of our faith in Jesus Christ.

Faith is super important in everybody’s life, because without faith you cannot be a Christian. Without faith it is impossible to please him. He who comes to God must believe that he is the savior or he will be on his way to hell. I pray that you would put your faith in Jesus. If you already have, then I challenge you to tell others about this good news of what Jesus did and to tell them to believe in him.

Jesus is our Savior

Salvation

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me

There is so much that we can learn from Jesus the Christ. He is such a wonderful God. Today, I would like to talk to you about the first thing we can get from Jesus. It is salvation.

The Bible tells us that everyone in the entire world has done wrong. We have come short of God’s glory. We have all sinned, and the Bible says that the punishment for sin is death. This is not just an ordinary death that everyone speaks about. This is an eternal death in fire and brimstone. This is called the second death. It is not a physical one but a spiritual one. This is the reason Jesus came down to Earth.

The Bible talks about God’s love for us. It talks about how God does not want anyone to perish, but how he wants all to come to repentance. Jesus came to Earth, lived a sinless perfect life, and was crucified so that we may have eternal life. He conquered death by rising again the third day. He did this so that we may inherit eternal life. All we have to do is realize that we have done wrong, believe that Jesus did this for us, and ask him to save us and we then will have salvation from eternal damnation.

This is the first and most important thing that we can learn from our merciful savior, and I would highly encourage you to trust in Jesus and be saved from your sins. If you have already trusted in Jesus, I would highly encourage you to obey God’s word when he says to tell others about this good news.

Jesus is our Lord who loves us

Love

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Throughout the entire world, there has not been anyone who has loved someone else as much as Jesus has. This was an unconditional love. John writes about how Jesus came unto his own and they rejected him. He came to Earth, not to condemn, but to bring salvation. The reason that he brought salvation was because he loved us. As we go through these verses, we will see exactly what love is.

shows us the strength of God’s love. The Bible tells us that there is literally nothing that can separate us from the love of God. This is so encouraging to hear, because it tells us that no matter what we have done or could ever do, we are still loved by God and salvation is available. Take Paul for example. He killed Christians for a living, and he still got saved. This is God’s love. You can also see that God is love in .

shows us the extent of God’s love for us and what he was willing to do for us. God loved us so much, that he sent his son to Earth to die so that we can spend eternity with him. This is true love. Love is not a thing, it is an action. Jesus portrayed the best example of this true love.

How can we duplicate this love that Jesus portrayed? He tells us in . The greatest way to show love to someone is to lay your life down for them. This is complete sacrifice. This is giving your all. If you are not willing to give your all, then you are not duplicating the love that Jesus had. Love can go from the tiniest of things to the greatest of things. From preferring someone over yourself, to giving your life so that someone else can live, you can and should be willing to have the same love for others as Christ has for you.

Jesus is compassionate

Compassion

And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.

So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.

Jesus was the most compassionate man on Earth. All throughout the Gospels, the Bible speaks about how Jesus has compassion on people. I could have listed another 10 verses that spoke of Jesus having compassion, but we will just go through the three verses from above and see what type of compassion we should have in our daily lives.

tells us about how Jesus had compassion on a man. This man had leprosy as you would see if you read the context of the verse. This man comes to Jesus and begs Jesus to save him. He pleads to Jesus fully knowing that Jesus can heal him, and asks him to heal him. Jesus has compassion and then does something about it.

tells us about how Jesus has compassion on two blind men. The context of this verse is that there are two blind men sitting by the wayside. They heard that Jesus, the son of David, walked past them. They cried out unto him begging him to have mercy on them, and Jesus then asks these two blind men what they want him to do. They tell him that they want to see and ask him to heal them of their blindness. Jesus has compassion on them and then does the impossible for them. He heals them.

Jesus shows compassion all throughout the Bible, and we should all want to be like Jesus as he is the ultimate example. How do we have this compassion that Christ has? The key is in what happens after he has compassion. Every time after he has compassion, he does something about it. He had compassion on the leper, and then he healed the leper. He had compassion on the blind me, and then he healed the blind men. When we have compassion on someone, we need to do something about it. We may not be able to heal others as Jesus did, but we can do something. We can love them enough to tell them about the greatest thing on Earth… salvation.

Paul

There are a lot of things that we can learn from the chief of sinners. Paul is one of the biggest examples that any believer has. He is what everyone should strive to be like. Throughout this section of the series we will be going into a little more depth of the things that we can learn from Paul, which are listed below.

Who is Paul?

Before the Apostle Paul became a Christian, he was a terrible man. His job was actually to kill the followers of Christ. Once Saul became a Christian, God changed his name to Paul. He showed us many things. He showed us that it is not death to die. He proved to us that what we have done in the past does not define who we are because of the Gospel of Christ. He also lives his life with contentment and joy. He was probably one of my biggest heroes in the Bible because just like Paul, I am not who I was.

Paul shows us that it is not death to die. ()

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Paul shows us that what we have done in the past does not define who we are ()

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Paul has contentment in his life ()

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Paul shows us where our joy is found ()

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

Paul shows that it is not death to die

21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Paul has an exceptional view on what the big picture is. He states it in .

He shows us what it is like to live, and what it is like to die. Throughout todays reading you will see what it is like to live and die.

As a Christian, what is it like to live? Do we go about life doing what we want to do? In a sense, no. We should not go about doing what our flesh wants, but in a sense, we should do what we want to do. We should want to serve God. If we want to serve God, then we should do what we want to do. As long as what we want for our lives is what God wants for our lives.

What exactly does God want for our lives? He wants us to live for him. He wants us to tell others about Christ and this is exactly what Paul wants is saying in the verse. He says that if he ends up living, then he is going to use his life to proclaim the Gospel of Christ. He is going to live out his life for the Lord. That is what it is like to be living for Christ.

He also states that it is gain to die. In the context of , Paul is in prison and not sure if he is going to make it out alive. He tries to comfort the Philippians by telling that it is okay if he dies, because then he will be with the Lord himself. He does not want them getting discouraged if he dies and so he tries to show them that it is gain if he dies.

This is something that all of us need to get into our minds. What are we living for? Are we living for ourselves o for Christ? Do we realized that it is okay to die? All of us believers need to realize this and strive to live like it.

Paul shows us that what we have done in the past does not define who we are

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Just like Paul and everyone else in the world, I was an enemy of God. Growing up, I had nothing to do with God. I knew that he was there, but I never knew about what he did for me. I lived my life for what I wanted to do, not realizing that there was so much more to life that just living for myself and being an enemy of God.

Once Paul was saved, he wanted to live his life for Christ and he wanted people to know that he was able to live for Him. People thought that he was not able to live for Christ because of all of the things that he did in the past and so he addresses this problem in the book of 2 Corinthians.

He tells us that once we are saved, we are a new creature. This means that when we accept Jesus as our savior, we are not who we used to be. God does not see us as enemies anymore, but instead welcomes us as his children. Paul used to be a murderer, but once he was saved, he was a child of God. Once he was saved he wasn’t living for himself. He was living for Christ as he tells us in .

Just as it happened to Paul, it happens to us as well. I used to be an enemy of God. I used to be a son of a drunk. I used to be worthless, but now that I am in Christ, I am not those things. I am a child of God and therefore will not do the things an enemy would do. I would do the things that glorifies him.

Paul has contentment in his life

Contentment

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Paul went through a lot of hardship in his life. He went through so many people saying things about him. He went through so many hardships. He was beaten, thrown in prison, and he gave up his entire life for Christ. This is an unreasonable amount of struggle and discomfort. Why am I telling you this? The reason being that Paul is the one telling us to be content no matter what situation we are in. This is so powerful, because he has gone through so much that it makes it seem as if I have not gone through hardly anything. My guess is that it makes what you have gone through look like vacation too.

He shows us that it does not matter if you want it, but that you learn to do it. You learn. You may not want to be where you are, and you may not be doing what you want to do, but you need to learn to be content with it. Be content with any situation that comes your way. When I was travelling with my father, I missed out on a lot of events at my home church. I hated it with a passion. I quickly became bitter towards him and did not want to talk to him for the rest of the year. I regret it. I was not content with where the Lord put me. I could have had fun whilst travelling if only I was content. I found out the hard way to be content. I challenge you to obey God’s word and be content no matter the situation.

Paul shows us where our joy is found

Joy

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

Paul has one of the hardest lives in the Bible. As you have already heard from the previous devotions that I expect you have already read, Paul has been in terrible circumstances. Paul writes to the Philippians and tells them to rejoice. This sounds a little bit ironic doesn’t it. That is because it is. Paul is writing from Prison and tells the people to rejoice.

This is so great because he had his mind on the things above, and not on the things of this world. He realized that the Gospel was being furthered and that was all that he needed. This brought him joy. If he could find Joy in the terrible times that he was in, then how much more should we be able to find joy? I challenge you as I have challenged myself to rejoice in the Lord always, not matter what circumstances you have, or where you are at in your life.

Solomon

I chose Solomon as one of the biggest examples in the Bible, because he was the smartest man in the Bible. As we go through this week, we will see that there is some rich things in what Solomon says. We will see it now.

Who is Solomon?

Solomon is the son of David, the giant slayer. He asked God for wisdom and God blessed him with it. He was the smartest man in the world. He knows what he is talking about and we get to hear some of his insight from the Bible. Let’s see what he has said.

Solomon shows us where knowledge begins

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Solomon shows us where our trust should lie

   Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;

And lean not unto thine own understanding

Solomon shows us where happiness comes from

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,

And the man that getteth understanding.

Solomon shows us where knowledge begins

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Solomon, being the smartest man in the Bible, showed us what true wisdom and knowledge is. It starts with fearing the Lord. He is not saying to be scared of God because he is such a terrible God, but because we need to respect Him for who He is. He is the omniscient creator God. This is where true knowledge begins. It does not begin with your own opinion. It does not begin with what your parents think. It begins with the fear of the Lord.

I encourage you to fear the Lord, and do not be a fool who despises wisdom and instruction.

Solomon shows us where our trust should lie

   Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;

And lean not unto thine own understanding

There are a lot of things in life that need our trust. We should put our faith in everything that Jesus did on the cross first, but the Bible says to trust in God with all of your heart. This means to put complete trust in him. How many times do we lean towards our own understanding? How many times do we try to take the wheel and steer it the way we feel it should go. We need to trust God to be our leader. We need to do what he says, because obedience is one of the best ways to show your trust. I encourage you to trust in God with everything that you do or face. You won’t regret it.

Solomon shows us where happiness comes from

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, And the man that getteth understanding.

There is a lot of things in this world that we think may bring us happiness. We think that money will bring us happiness. We think that fame will bring us happiness. We even sometimes think that that last slice of pizza is what will bring us happiness, but Solomon says that happiness comes from finding wisdom. Solomon saw the importance of wisdom.

There is a lot of wisdom in this world. It is constantly looked for, but not found by many. I would council you to find wisdom, and apply it in your life. Apply all the wisdom that you can find and it will change your life for the better.

As you can see there is a lot of great examples in the Bible that we can learn from. Jesus, being the best example of them all, showed us that we can be saved by faith. He also showed us how to have compassion and love, which is two of the biggest attribute to have. Paul showed us that it is not death to die, what we have done in the past does not define who we are, contentment, and where joy is found. This was probably one of my favorite studies that I have done so far, as I have really been convicted in what I have been shown from Paul. The last man that we went through was Solomon, and we learned where knowledge begins, where our trust should lie, and where happiness comes from.

This has been an excellent adventure going through just a few ultimate examples from the Bible. I hope this has encouraged you as much as it has encouraged me. This has been truly amazing being able to learn from these men of God. I challenge you to take what you have read and to put it into practice .