Let’s review a bit from last week:
- We can live like Jesus Did if we know the Father like Jesus Did
- Knowing Who’s You are Determines What You Do
- We have received tremendous spiritual blessings in Christ(and that is where we must live)
Tonight, we’ll begin to address the reality of living our lives in Christ
Experiencing Life in Our New Natures:
When we are in Christ, we can determine to live in accordance with either nature. Believers have a spiritual nature that has been reborn. Non believers are spiritually dead.
We are made alive with the Spirit in Christ
“But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” (Romans 8:10-11)
“There is so much more we would like to say about this. But you don’t seem to listen, so it’s hard to make you understand. You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. And a person who is living on milk isn’t very far along in the Christian life and doesn’t know much about doing what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who have trained themselves to recognize the difference between right and wrong and then do what is right.” (Hebrews 5:11-14, NLT)
Living in Christ is a choice
This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to Him. (Deuteronomy 30:19-20a)
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”(John 3:19-21)
Living like Jesus did means receiving His gifts
“I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be.” (Philippians 3:12, NLT)
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments. Loving God means keeping his commandments and really, that isn’t difficult. For every child of God defeats this evil world by trusting Christ to give the victory.” (1 John 5:1-4, NLT)
“And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world’s spirit) so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. When we tell you this, we do not use words of human wisdom. We speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren’t Christians can’t understand these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them because only those who have the Spirit can understand what the Spirit means.” (I Corinthians 2: 12-14,NLT)
Freedom from our old natures comes through submission to our new nature!
John 8:31-32….”Jesus told the people who had faith in Him, “If you keep on obeying what I have said, you truly are my disciples. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free!”(CEV)
In the same way that a stunting of physical growth would sadden us, so it is painful to see a Christian who has not moved beyond spiritual infancy. God has designed us to “grow up” into Christlikeness.
Jesus gave two “touchstone” commands to His followers. When asked the greatest commandment, His clear answer was “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is the first and most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like this one. And it is, “Love others as much as you love yourself”(Matthew 22:37-39, CEV)
“The Church, properly understood, is being fashioned by God for one overriding purpose-to demonstrate and proclaim to all men for all time what God is like. That is, to proclaim and demonstrate God’s glory.” (Marv Rosenthal)
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.(Hebrews 4:12-13)
How are you walking?
