June 1, 2008
Sermon #734
What We Shall Be
1 John 3:1 - 3 (NKJV) 1Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Introduction: I fully believe that the greatest need in the Christian Church is that we need revelation. I do not believe that it is revelation of the Word of God – we already have that! I do not believe that it is revelation of Who God is – we already have that in Jesus! I believe that the Church needs revelation as to who we are and therefore who we can become.
Jesus has already taken care of the past in order to protect the future
2 Corinthians 5:16 - 19 (NKJV) 16Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
A. You cannot change who you are but you have to know who you are!
ILL: Working out at the gym will not make me a male – I have been one every since I was born. I cannot become a Christian I was born one when I was born again!
1 John 5:1 - 5 (KJV) 1Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 4For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
B. Spiritual regeneration is not a progressive experience. The new birth is not offered on the installment program, it is an instantaneous miracle.
You were born the first time by the will of man the second time by the will of God
The first birth formed you into the image of God but the second birth into His likeness
The first birth created you by the blood of man; the second birth created you by the blood of Jesus Christ.
The fist birth made me of “flesh” the second birth did not give me the Holy Spirit it made me “spirit!”
John 3:1 - 6 (KJV) 1There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 5Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Why the mind is so important
Proverbs 23:6 - 7 (NKJV) 6 Do not eat the bread of a miser, Nor desire his delicacies; 7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you.
ILL: I had a great aunt who sewed dresses for a living. She would make a dress on an old petal sewing machine for $5.00. She lived and died in near poverty. After she died they discovered that she had “lent” a druggist money and he had given her “papers” which she had in the bottom of a trunk filled with pieces of cloth. The “papers” were original stock in Pepsi cola Co. She had been very rich all her life but she didn’t know it! Most Christians live beneath the sonship of who they are in Christ.
ILL: Israel in the Wilderness. God brought them out of slavery but they were still slaves in their minds!
Exodus 16:1 - 3 (NKJV) 1And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. 2Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Who or what defines who you are?
2 Corinthians 10:12 (NKJV) 12For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
The expectations of others for us – will leave you insecure about your ability to measure up.
ILL: “Our self-concept is determined not only by how we view ourselves but by how we think others perceive us. Basing our self worth on what we believe others think of us cause us to become addicted to their approval.”
Robert McGee, The Search for Significance
Unforgiveness - if you cannot forgive others you do not forgive your own past mistakes and sins.
Matthew 6:14 - 15 (NKJV) 14“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Perfectionism
Romans 8:1 - 8 (NKJV) 1There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
We cannot condemn ourselves and find victory!
ILL: Placing condemnation on ourselves gives a permanent foothold on a debilitating force.
1 John 3:20 - 23 (NKJV) 20For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 23And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.
ILL: Without confidence we cannot possibly please God because confidence is the very core of faith!
ILL: When I first started in radio the manger of the station stood behind me, “now don’t make a mistake, if you say the wrong thing or pronounce the word the wrong way 100,000 people will hear it.” He had to fire me from that job because every time I opened my mouth I made a mistake! If I stood here and worried about the way I looked, or what I said, or the way I said it – I would never be able to minister in faith! A poor self image guarantees defeat!
What it is like to have the “mind of Christ”
1 Corinthians 2:13 - 16 (NKJV) 13These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
I have been created in the image of God
Genesis 1:26 - 28 (NKJV) 26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
I have confidence that God loves me and accepts me
Ephesians 1:3 - 6 (NKJV) 3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
As God’s child I am always welcome in His presence
Hebrews 10:19 - 23 (NKJV) 19Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
The identity of the Christian is settled but our maturity is to be determined.
1 John 3:1 - 3 (NKJV) 1Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Conclusion: Talk to the future!
Romans 4:16 - 18 (NKJV) 16Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all 17(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; 18who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”
Genesis 15:2 - 6 (KJV) 2And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? 3And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. 4And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. 5And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. 6And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
ILL: Tell the stars “This is what I will be like and this will be my inheritance”
