Standing in Awe
This morning, I listened to a sermon from last week (our church puts it on their website and iTunes). It was SOOO good! the sermon was mostly toward believers, since we're doing a study through 1st John.
1 John 3:1-3
1See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
here are Rob's main points:
Have I lost the wonder that I am loved by the Lord?
How can we stay in the wonderment of God?
1-God's love did not stop at the cross.
i feel that a majority of the body of Christ has lost it's wonder of being loved. Not only did Christ leave his absolutely perfect home in heaven; not only did He let Himself be born in a lowly way-in a stable, through a poor teenager; not only did he choose to walk this earth healing His broken world; not only did He choose to sacrifice Himself the way criminals were killed; NOT ONLY did He let the wrath of God be forced upon him for us; NOT ONLY was the veil torn so that everyday people, not just the high priest, could have conversation and intamacy with God; NOT ONLY did He defeat death and sin by raising up on the third day. He did all of this, but he also did this:
He made us his children.
For all of us that are believers, God looked at us-stranded, hopeless, worthless, infected with the world, and prone for destruction. He looked at us with the utmost compassion and chose to rescue us. Not because we were worth saving-God could do without us if he wanted!-but because of his ultimate love for us. He chose to save us because of his ultimate power. Because of his ultimate compassion.
Romans 8:14-17
14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
2 Corinthians 6:18
18"I will be a Father to you,
and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."
Do you see the catch there? We are sons of God! but see, for all you girls out there, usually the Bible will refer to sons especially in this case b/c sons recieve inheritence and blessings from the father-usually girls are married off to other men and have their inheritence. we are sons of God by believing in Him, and the only way we will share in his glory and such will be if we are persecuted for righteousness. Jesus garunteed that we will have hardships and trials and may even be put to death b/c of him. in all of this, we receive glory in heaven!
2-God's love for me has broken my attachment to the world.
When you are a child of God, you are set free from the slavery of sin. Done. Forever. After that, sinning is just not normal for you anymore. it doesn't feel right. you KNOW it's not right. it's not your default setting anymore.
God's love has separated us from this world and it's sin. therefore, we are redeemed. The world did not accept Christ, nor did it really know Him. We will, in many ways, face the same basic things. The world will not accept us, b/c we represent Christ.
3-God's love for me gives me a preview of future glory.
As humans, we have earthly bodies. When Christ comes, we will see Him as he really is! We will receive our new bodies also, and we'll dwell in him.
Psalm 17:15
15 And I—in righteousness I will see your face;
when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.
4-God's love for be compells me to be ready by being holy, or pure
In my opinion, one of the best qualities in a Christian is purity. It doesn't come easy, but being pure is so important. As teenagers especially, we need to take a stand and go against the flow by being pure. That means staying sexually pure by saving yourself for your spouse; your thought life is really important, too. When you start having those bad thoughts or images going through your mind, you need to stop, catch them, question them whether or not they're godly, and give them up to God. It's really hard for me b/c i am always finding faults in people. I don't know why, but that's my bad habit. My goal is to bring God glory through it by taking my thoughts captive and letting God handle them.
I have to go, but there's just a little more to this. i'll come back when i can! i have to join my brother going to VBS practice. we start this week!
In Christ,
Sunshine
Hebrews 11:1
