A0054_Dying For a New Beginning
Date: 2nd January 2002 Ref: A0054
Place: Kambah P.S.
Title: Dying For a New Beginning
Text: & Galatians 2:20
Illust: MSNBC Article: Dec. 28 — Ah, a new year — one that will be better than last year, won’t it? Because every year gets better than the one before, particularly when you’re the kind of person who can make resolutions and stick to them. That’s me: resolved to make a resolution and stick with it. ~ WHAT’S MY secret? I’ve learned to make resolutions that make sense. I’ve learned to make resolutions that are devoted to increasing my pleasure and joy in life.
Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Well, when you think about it, most resolutions are kind of draconian — I’ll drink less, eat less, indulge fewer vices, pinch more pennies. Resolutions are typically about having less fun, doing fewer of the things that you enjoy so much that they’ve become habits. Like eating
On-line Survey: Lose Weight, Quit smoking, Drink less, Exercise more, Resolve not to resolve, None of the above.
The problem with New Year’s Resolutions is they tend to “go in one year and out the next.” Well, tonight I’d like us to consider adopting a Bible verse as a resolution. Some people choose a Bible verse at the beginning of January to set the theme for the coming year. If you could have one verse scripted and framed to hang in your living room for the next 12 months, which would you choose? I’d like to suggest Galatians 2:20. ~ This verse presents three configurations to the Christian life
I. The Relinquished Life
A. Crucified With Christ
i. Our text tells us the Christian life is a relinquished life: “I have been crucified with Christ.” In receiving Christ, we come to the old rugged cross and gaze upon the dying form of one who suffered there for us. We see his hands nailed fast to the wood. We see the spike in his ankles. We see the blood flowing in streaks down his body,
ii. Deeply moved, we turn aside from the kind of life we once lived and take our stand beneath the Cross of Jesus. ~ It would help us in our Christian walk, our Christian witness if we keep ever before us the Cross. ~ Old Hymns are all about the Cross, so many to choose from – {Old Rugged Cross}
iii. This is not just one of the worlds religions, in fact religion is irrelevant, what we are about, is the Cross 1 Cor 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. It is all about the Cross & what each person is going to do about it & what YOU are going to do about it.
B. Die to self
i. To follow Christ is a call to die to ourselves and to our sin. We die to the world, the flesh, and the devil, and we identify with the cross of Christ. When James Calvert went as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the captain of the ship sought to turn him back. “You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages,” he cried. Calvert only replied, “We died before we came here.”
ii. Common theme of the Christian greats, who lived victorious lives, is that they all died to self.
II. The Exchanged Life
A. Only through Christ
i. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Missionary Hudson Taylor called this the “Exchanged Life.” None of us can live the Christian life in our own strength or resist temptation solely by our own will power. ~ We will surely fail if we try, yet so often we struggle thinking that “I can’t beat this or that habit or character trait.”, “what is wrong with me” No you are right YOU can’t live the Christian life.
ii. Only Christ can successfully live the genuine victorious Christian life—it is, after all, His life—and when we come to Him in full surrender, He begins living His life through us.
B. Living & Service
i. This involves two levels:
ii. Christian Living: Christ lives His life through us, producing the Fruit of the Spirit & Gal. 5:22-25, which represents the character qualities of Christ Himself.
iii. Christian Service: Christ does His work through us. Paul says In Romans 15:18: “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me” (nrsv). In 2 Corinthians 5:20: “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us.” & In 2 Timothy 4:17, the apostle said: “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me.”
iv. We need to be completely surrendered to Him. ~ It is His life, His work
III. The Trusting Life
A. By Faith
i. “...and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” 1 John 5:4 “This is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” Paul tells us in Romans 1:17 that the Christian life is one of faith from first to last, for the just shall live by faith.
ii. Faith is the result of teaching & Rom. 10:14–17. Knowledge is an essential element in all faith, and is sometimes spoken of as an equivalent to faith. ~ {Importance of reading our Bibles, listening to sermons, being in services.} Yet the two are distinguished in this respect; faith includes in it assent, which is an act of the will in addition to the act of the understanding. Assent to the truth is of the essence of faith, and the ultimate ground on which our assent to any revealed truth rests is the trueness & reality of God.
B. Trust Him
i. Faith is in general the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true. Its primary idea is trust. A thing is true, and therefore worthy of trust. It has many different levels up to a full assurance of faith; this should be our goal.
ii. Asking a lot really in this day & age where we can so easily satisfy our every whim; to “die to self” so completely. It is only possible if you trust Him. ~ Isaiah 26:3–4 “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.” & Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.”
iii. Perhaps Galatians 2:20 is that word from God for you today, if you’re dying for a new beginning and willing to be “crucified with Christ.”