A Greater Life

Intro

Remember the Odyssey by Homer? The call of the sirens destroyed many a man. Likewise, the call of human nature is destroying people left and right.

Our sense of purpose has become perverted from what God made us for. Our lives in Adam are naturally about being immersed in what this world can give us before we kick the bucket.

We are called however not to be of this world, but to be in Christ.

This is tricky for us though, because quite often the loudest voice in our ears, in our hearts, and in our heads isn't the Holy Spirit. God speaks most often in a whisper to our souls. He is quiet while the world is boisterous. It's easy to hear our own voice and the voice of the culture because that comes most naturally to us in Adam. Yet as Paul writes...

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 15

For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

So the key for us is to realize we have been born in Adam, but we must be born again in Christ and if we are born again into Christ, we must learn to live in Christ rather than in Adam.

Because in Jesus is life and in Adam can only ever be death. And our confidence and security as believer comes from this, that we are in Christ and if we are in Christ the death of Adam cannot touch us no matter how close it may appear around us.

Truth

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 8

But be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak.

Our faith is not primarily about what we know, but about who knows us. (8:1-3)

Are we known by Christ?

Are we dedicated to knowing him as he knows us?

When our true faith is in what we know rather than in who knows us, we become arrogant.

It is so very natural for humans to be motivated by pride rather than by love.

Love comes naturally to God, but not to us.

One way we can tell that we are growing up in Christ is that our motivation shifts from pride to love in increasing measure.

We don’t have to be right because we are secure in Christ and there is no reason we have to prove ourselves to others.

We know that everything revolves around Christ and his glory, but not everyone understands this. (8:4-7)

We know and should be confident that the world’s fears, ideologies, and idols will ultimately amount to nothing but most of the world does not see what we see.

It is good to put our peace and confidence through Christ on display for all to see, but it is not good to use it as a weapon against those who are afraid and hurting.

We must always remember that if we lack the anxiety our world has, it is not because we are strong but because we are building on a strong foundation that is Christ.

When we are confident in who we are in Christ, we no longer live to prove ourselves but to put Christ on display to a broken world. (8:8-13)

Our works still can’t justify us, but Christ does.

It is so easy to appeal to our perceived righteousness rather than to our place in Christ for justification.

Just as some in Paul’s day boasted about eating, drinking, not eating, or not drinking… many in our day also boast about what they have or haven’t done.

Family, let’s not be known for whether we mask up, vaxx up, or not. I want to make an appeal that we the people of New Covenant Fellowship make every effort not to be known primarily for what we do, but for who we belong to.

We want to be known as people who are in Christ, who have been radically transformed by the power of the gospel. Let’s not play the game the world is trying to get us to play.

I don’t know about you, but I refuse to draw lines in the body of Christ by whether or not we choose to be vaccinated or wear a mask. Rather, I choose charity on the issue.

What matters most to us, our sense of personal liberty or the souls of the ones Christ died to save?

Jesus is calling us to live with eternal perspective.

In five years we probably won’t be talking much about this pandemic but in five years there will be many who are alive now who will be dead and the one thing that will matter to them then is whether or now they are known by Christ.

This kind of eternal perspective that frees us to love the way Paul is calling us to love here only comes through being actively in the presence of Christ.

Philippians 2:1-11

Launch

We are still in a pandemic but we won’t always be. This is good practice though, because if we can be kind and calm because we are centered on Christ in this pressure cooker environment, then we will be all the more prepared to honor Christ when things return to normal.

And even if we face suffering and persecution, think of how much glory Christ will receive from us if we actively pursue being in the presence of Christ and living out of the overflow of his presence in us rather than in reaction to what is going on around us.

We start our discipleship journey by being in Jesus. We become like Jesus as we spend more time with him and his community. We do the works of Jesus in increasing measure as we rest in him and he forms us into his image.