Will there be a new norm of Christian living?

The early Christians were also in a lockdown, faced with threats of imprisonment, hard labour and cruelty and brutality to the point of death.

"Look… how the Christians love one another… how they are ready to die for each other." - Tertullian of Carthage

"Eighty and six years have I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?" - Polycarp of Smyrna

"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." - Tertullian

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I. ALL TO JESUS

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? (Matt 22:36)

Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ ALL the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Matt 22:37-40)

The normal Christian life is not easy!

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Rom 7:24)

Therefore DO NOT LET sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And DO NOT PRESENT your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For SIN SHALL NOT HAVE DOMINION OVER YOU, for you are not under law but under grace. (Rom 6:12-14)

A. ALL

• ALL means total, entire, complete, whole, full, maximum, everything.

B. TO

• Position with a person
• Movement toward a place, an action to a person, or a standard to achieve
• Limit of extent of commitment to a person or directive

C. JESUS

Joseph… do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins (Matt 1:20-21)

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11and that every tongue should confess that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, to the glory of God the Father. (Phi 2:9-10)

ALL TO JESUS in terms of

i. Our Relationship to Jesus

The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. (Luke 4:18-19)

TODAY this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. (Luke 4:21)

YOU ARE THE CHRIST the Son of the Living God. (Matt 16:16)

ii. Our Direction to Jesus

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15)

And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God’s friend. (James 2:23)

Not only is He our best Friend, but also remember that He is Lord, King, Master, Creator, the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and Finisher of our faith, the highly exalted One who sits at the Right Hand of God.

iii. Our Commitment to Jesus

Obey Him to the fullest extent.

If you love Me, you will obey what I command. (John 14:15)

Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? (Luke 6:46)

Practicum for ALL TO JESUS

• Love Jesus with ALL your heart.
• Love Jesus with ALL your soul.
• Love Jesus with ALL your mind.

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II. I SURRENDER

A. I

• a personalized call for us individually.

B. Surrender

• Jesus is the Conquerer, and we are conquerors through Jesus. (Rom 8:37)
• Jesus is the rightful Owner of all things.

He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all - how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? (Rom 8:32)

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him! (Matt 7:11)

• Jesus is the Master.

It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of His love. The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God; so He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him. (John 13:1-5)

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. (John 13:15-17)

Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done (Luke 22:42)

CONCLUSION & CHALLENGE

But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you (Phi 2:17)

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Tim 4:6-7)

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. - Jim Elliot

Wherever you are, be all there! Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God. - Jim Elliot