May 29th 2005
Grace for Today 2nd Annual
Encouragement Conference
The Gospel of the
Grace of God!
Living a Christ-like Life:
Isaiah
55:1-2 says, “Isa 55:1
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money;
come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without
price. Wherefore do ye spend money for [that which
is] not bread? and your labour for [that
which] satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye
[that which is] good, and let your soul
delight itself in fatness.
In
Isaiah 54 you will find that it is a chapter of preparation for a great
invitation. It is a chapter of comfort and faith. In verse one of the chapter
the down trodden are told to break forth in song. In verses 3-4 they are told to
expect a greater blessing. In verses 11-17 they are told that the Lord will
protect them.
Then here in chapter 55 we get the
life changing invitation that Chapter 54 prepares Israel for. Preparation is
always a good idea before issuing a great invitation. It is always wise to
prepare people that they are going to be invited to a great event. As we move
into Chapter 55 of Isaiah we see the invitation that chapter 54 was preparing
Israel for. What their lives would be like when Christ, their Messiah, became
their life.
As an introduction to our
study tonight let’s look at this invitation. Christ came to satisfy their
thirst. Thirst is common to all. We all understand this craving. We become
especially thirsty in dry times.
The Hebrew word used for thirst here
is a word that has a deeper meaning. Dr. F. C. Jennings, a great Hebrew scholar,
puts it this way, “The invitation is for all who are dissatisfied and deeply
feel that they are missing a vital ingredient in their life.”
Many people make vain attempts to
satisfy that need.
1. Some with money.
2. Some with possessions.
3. Some with prestige.
4. Some with alcohol.
5. Some with drugs.
6. Some with pleasures.
7. Some with illicit sex.
8. Some with social status or pride.
Our Lord invites all to come
and drink from the living water. He told the Samaritan woman, “If you drink of
this water you will never thirst again.” The water that is spoken of here in
Isaiah is “divine grace”. And it’s still available and even more abundant
today.
II
COME AND SATISFY YOUR HUNGER
The term hunger alerts us to the need for nourishing food. Spiritual hunger can
only be satisfied with Christ who is the bread of Life. In Matthew 5:6 Jesus
said, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they
shall be filled.”
Human efforts to satisfy spiritual hunger always fail in the end. Only Jesus
can satisfy your inner hunger.
III COME AND SATISFY YOUR SOUL “Let your soul delight in fatness.” People
constantly search for satisfaction of the soul. Spending money for that which
is not bread. Laboring for that which does not satisfy. The only
satisfaction that any soul will ever find is in coming to Christ by faith then
living the Christ like life – by making Christ our life. All other routes to
satisfaction are counterfeit.
Christ truly is our life – He
provides living water to quench our thirst, the bread of life to satisfy our
hunger, and Spiritual food to satisfy our souls.
But how do we today daily rejoice and live
our life in Christ – How do we be more like Jesus? We must daily seize the
moments not only to know him better but let the world see Him in us. So the
world can ask us about the hope living in us.
(Eph. 3:19) "That
you may really come to know practically, through experience for yourselves, the
love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge that you may be filled
through all your being, unto all the fullness of God (may have the richest
measure of the divine Presence and become a body wholly filled and flooded with
God himself." (Eph. 3:19) Amplified
Proposition Statement: The greatest
way to give God glory and to please Him in all respects and bear fruit in every
good work is to be like Jesus Christ, as your spiritual worship.
CHRISTLIKENESS - When the wife of missionary Adoniram Judson told him that a
newspaper article likened him to the apostle Paul, Judson replied, "I do not
want to be like a Paul...or any mere man. I want to be like Christ...I want to
follow Him only, copy His teachings, drink in His Spirit, and place my feet in
His footprints...Oh, to be more like Christ!" Source Unknown.
Paul wrote, "For my
determined purpose is that I may know Him (that I may progressively become more
deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and
understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly. that I
may in that same way come to know the power out flowing from the resurrection
(which is exerts over believers) and that I may so share His sufferings as to be
continually transformed in spirit into His likeness even to His death in the
hope. That if possible I may attain to the (spiritual and moral) resurrection
(that lifts me) out from among the dead (even while in the body). Not that I
have now attained this ideal or have already been made perfect, but I press on
to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold
of me and made me His own. Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to
what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the supreme heavenly prize to
which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward." (Phil. 3:10-14) Amplified
If Christ is our life; we like Paul
must have as our determined purpose to know Christ better. Paul made Christ
his life and we must also make Christ our life. He knew Christ as more than the
suffering servant, the silent lamb, and the humble teacher from Galilee. As
Paul made Jesus Christ the center of his life, we must strive to do the same in
all our relationships, activities, and personal concerns to enjoy the
satisfaction of our souls. Paul said we are to imitate (follow, copy, example)
his life.
To
understand Paul’s example we must closely look at the example Paul followed.
Too often we fail to look at Christ as more than the humble teacher and
suffering servant. His character is far more complex than that, he was an
example of unwavering faith and commitment. Paul understood this and made it
his life goal to be more like the savior. Tonight let’s look at the lifestyle
that that can flood our souls with peace and satisfy our thirst for personal
fulfillment on this earth.
1.
CONSISTENT - Jesus practiced what He preached. He said, Love your enemies and do
good to those who despitefully use you. Jesus forgave His persecutors because He
knew that his example would overcome all problems.
2. COURAGEOUS - Jesus showed courage without being arrogant. In the
midst of terrible threats he said, "I could have called 10,000 angels to set me
free, but nevertheless not as I will, but let My Father’s will be done."
3.
PRIORITY DRIVEN - Jesus set His sights on the most important goals of His
heavenly Father. He said, "It is not those who are healthy that need a physician
but the sick. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save those which are lost."
At the end of Jesus life He was able to say, "I have accomplished what God sent
Me to do." (John 17:4)
4. MOTIVATED BY LOVE - Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you
that you love one another as I have loved you. By this will all men know that
you are my disciples because you have love for one another."
5.
VISION INSPIRED - Jesus said, "Who do people say the son of man is? Simon Peter
answered, "You are the Christ, the son of the living god." Jesus said "Blessed
are you Simon for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in
heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock (the confession of
your faith) I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it. (Matt 16:18) His vision and mission in life was – “That they can
have life and have it more abundantly.”
6. GOAL ORIENTED - Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful but the
workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send forth workers into His
fields." Jesus would never allow His men to be content with just doing
maintenance work.
7.
INVOLVED KEY DISCIPLES - Jesus said, "Follow Me and I will make you fishers of
men. Jesus knew that by discipling a small band of faithful, available, and
obedient followers who would multiply His life and purposes, God’s purposes
would be accomplished.
8.
EMPOWERED BY THE SPIRIT - Jesus said to the disciples, "But you shall receive
power when the Holy sprit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)
9.
YIELDED TO GOD’S WILL - Jesus bore the pain, suffering and shame of the cross
because he said, "Lord, let this bitter cup pass from Me. Yet, nevertheless not
as I will, but let your will be done."
10.
RESISTED TEMPTATIONS - Jesus overcame all the temptations for power, pride and
lust by relying on God’s promises.
11. NOT
DISTRACTED BY MERELY GOOD PROJECTS - Jesus could have spent all of His time
healing people and doing miracles. Instead, he chose to focus on His primary
mission as expressed in His great commission. "Go and make disciples of all
nations. (Matt. 28:19,20)
12.
HOLISTIC IN HIS TEACHING - Jesus said, "A student is not above His teacher, but
everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. Jesus helped people
mature in all aspects of life.
13.
AUTHORITATIVE - Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to
me."
14.
ENRICHED BY WORSHIP - Early in the morning Jesus got up and went out to a lonely
place and there He prayed. (Mark 1:35) He gained strength, perspective and power
in worship.
15.
UNDAUNTED BY LEGALISTIC OPPOSITION - The Pharisees said to Jesus, "Why are you
doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for
man, not man for the Sabbath. The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Jesus
did not allow His critics to discouraged, frustrate or cause Him to become
bitter or resentful.
16. NOT
TIED DOWN BY RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES - One day the Pharisees noticed Jesus eating
with the sinners and tax collectors. The Pharisees asked, "Why does He eat with
tax collectors and sinners? Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a
doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance."
17.
COMMITTED ALL OF HIS RESOURCES TO GOD - A rich young ruler once asked Jesus,
"What must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said, "Sell all that you have,
give it to the poor and come follow Me."
18.
STOOD THE CHALLENGE OF THE RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES - One day when Jesus entered
the temple, the chief priests asked Jesus, "By what authority are you doing
these things, and who gave you this authority? Jesus said, I will ask you a
question: and if you tell me the answer, then I will tell you by what authority
I do these things. The baptism of John, where did it come from - heaven or from
men? They said, "We do not know!" Jesus said, neither will I tell you by what
authority I do these things.
We have
been equipped and gifted, we have been given the spirit of Christ, and we have
been given the Word of God and live in the abundance of God’s grace. If you
feel dissatisfied and deeply feel that you are missing a vital ingredient in
your life. If you thirst and hunger for fulfillment in life if your soul aches
for that peace that passes all understanding then here are a few suggestions.
Be
Consistent
Be
Courageous
Be
Priority Driven
Always
be motivated by love
Be goal
oriented
Get
Involved
Follow
the leadership of the spirit
Be
empowered by the spirit
Yield
daily to the spirit
Resist
temptations
Do not
become distracted
Renew
daily through worship
Do not
be discouraged by legalist and religious norms and activity
Stand
the challenge of religious authority
Hold
fast to the Doctrine of the Gospel of the grace of God.
I
believe this was the Apostle Paul’s philosophy on life and here in Phil.3 he
puts it easily within our grasp. Here he describes his own philosophy of life.
If we would only learn to follow his example here in this scripture, we can
learn to make the most of every opportunity and live life to the fullest, no
matter how hectic your life may seem.
Paul shows us three simple ways in these verses to live a more fulfilling life.
1) Find Your Purpose. If I were to ask everyone in this room today “What is
your purpose in life?” I would probably get several different answers. “Be a
good wife or husband, be a good mother or father, do my job better, be a good
teacher, nurse, mechanic, salesperson, and so on.”
Those answers would be good, but they are all secondary purposes. The question
is what is your primary purpose in life? In other words, what is your reason for
living? Everything in creation has a primary purpose, or a reason for existing.
For anyone or anything to be successful, it must fulfill that purpose.
Here’s an easy question. What is the primary purpose of an ink pen? The answer,
of course, is to write. Here is a polished walnut pen that is out of ink. It may
be pretty to look at, but it is a failure as a pen; it is not fulfilling its
purpose. It is useless.
So what will you do when the time comes to sign your paycheck that you
desperately need come payday, and this pen doesn’t work? You’ll bypass the nice
looking gold pen, and use a $.29 Bic that works.
That may seem like a simple illustration, but just as a pen has a primary
purpose, every individual that God has created has a primary purpose. Our lives
will be without meaning - we’ll be failures - unless we find out what is our
purpose ... our reason for living.
Paul is saying “I want to know Christ so that I may be like Him.” Simply put,
Paul’s reason for living was to be like Jesus. This is also to be our reason for
living.
Orison Swett Marden said, “There’s no greater sight in the world than that of a
person fired with a great purpose, dominated by one unwavering aim.” If this
statement describes anyone of us here today, then we would certainly be learning
to “seize each and every moment.”
There’s a second step Paul shows us in Phil.3. In developing the ability to
“seize the moment.” Every day of our lives, he says we must:
2) Forget The Past (READ v.13). There are two elements of the past that we must
forget.
First: “Forget the Bad.” Paul, just like all of us had a past to forget. He had
tortured and murdered many innocent people. He had caused a lot of pain and had
done much damage to the cause of Christ. But, now he was faced with a choice.
He could either dwell on his mistakes and let them ruin his life and his chance
for effective ministry, or he could forget all about them and move on with his
life.
Just like Paul had to make a choice, so do we. Maybe you’ve had a bad experience
just lately or maybe you did something long ago that you regret. Maybe the
memories keep coming back to haunt you from living a full life today.
Well guess what? Many people have, but we must forget the past!!! Get real. It’s
over. It’s done. It’s gone. It can’t hurt you anymore. There’s nothing you can
do to change it. The only thing that you can do is, “Forget it and move on.”
Regardless of the past, we still have the rest of our life to live. God does not
look back neither should we.
In
Isaiah 43:25 He says, “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions
for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.”
In Jeremiah 31:34 He says, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I
will remember no more.”
Now in forgetting the past. We must not only forget the bad, but we must also:
Second: “Forget the Good.”
Many people zero in on one good period of time in their life - and spend the
rest of their lives trying to relive the past. Maybe it was high school,
college, when you first got married, when the kids were young, and etc.
Surprising enough, this is the same temptation that Christians and the Church
give into. So many times I’ve heard people say, “Remember the Good old days”
when so and so was still here. O’ how they could pray, and O’ how so and so
could sing, and remember when the Pastor was so on fire, and so on!
One thing we can know for certain is this, “God never consults your past to
determine your future.”
Now the third thing found in these scriptures to help us have a more fulfilling
life is:
3) Face the Present (Read v.13).
It is easy to live in the past. And it is easy to dream away the future. It’s a
real challenge to face the present, because it means we can no longer allow
ourselves the luxury of saying, “One of these days I’ll do something about my
temper ... my commitment to God ... my health ... my responsibility to my family
... and so on.
We have no problem believing that Christ performed many miracles in the past,
and the greatest one of them all dying on the cross, and raising from the dead
on the third day. We also have no problem believing, that in the future He is
coming back again to take us home with Him. But, Why is it we have such a
problem believing Him at His Word in the Present Day???
We need to say Yes Lord We Believe and Put Our Faith Into Action.
Yes Lord, I believe your still my Lilly in the valley,
Yes Lord, I believe your still that still small voice on the Mountain top.
Yes Lord, I Believe you walk us across our Rivers on dry land
Yes Lord, I Believe you still calm the stormy waters.
Yes Lord, I Believe you can satisfy my thirst, my hunger and my soul.
Yes
Lord, I want to know you better; I want to be more like you.
Facing
the present means that we put our faith in Jesus Christ, and trust Him to be
involved in every part of our lives.
Facing the present means that we choose to live life as it comes to us day by
day. Not in the past, not in the future, but right here and right now.
God does not want us to waste our lives away. He wants us to “seize the moment”
and live every day of our lives with a purpose. He’s given us a reason for
living; to be like Jesus.
It’s not going to happen yesterday, so we must forget the past. We can’t put it
off till tomorrow, because tomorrow never comes. It has to happen right now, and
it will - if we will Seize The Moment and make it our own, and just say “YES
LORD, AND BELIEVE.” IF HE DID IT BEFORE, HE’LL DO IT AGAIN!!!
Beloved – Christ is our life - "Our determined purpose is that we may know
Him (that we progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with
Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more
strongly and more clearly. that we may in that same way come to know the power
out flowing from the resurrection (which is exerts over believers) and that we
may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed in spirit into His
likeness even to His death in the hope. That if possible we may attain to the
(spiritual and moral) resurrection (that lifts us) out from among the dead (even
while in the body). Not that we have now attained this ideal or have already
been made perfect, but we press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make our own that
for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of us and made us His own. Forgetting what
lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. We press on toward the
goal to win the supreme heavenly prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling
us upward."
