Jesus and others did it Anyway #10
Pastor
Mike Barnett
THEME:
YOU WILL BE TEMPTED TO RELY ON THE GRACE OF GOD TO THE POINT OF SPIRITUAL
APATHY, BUT CHOOSE TO LET GOD SANCTIFY YOU AND SET YOU APART FROM THE WORLD
ANYWAY BECAUSE THAT IS DESIRE FOR YOUR
LIFE!
Philippians
2:12-16 (pg. 831) says:
12Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always
obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to
work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for
it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.14Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God
without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like
stars in the universe 16as you hold out[a] the word of life—in order that I may boast
on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. A Christian can
be tempted to misuse the grace of God to the point where their behavior
reflects that of the world, but that is not what it means to be a Christian.
THE
BIBLE SAYS in 1 John 3:6-9 (pg. 863) says:
"No one
who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen
him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does
what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because
the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God
appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9 No one
who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he
cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God". 1 John 3:6-9
WHAT
IS SANCTIFICATION?
·
The word,
“Sanctification” literally means to be “___________ ______________” (set apart)
for God.
·
Sanctification
is being free from _____________(sin) and the _______________________(restoration)
of our true selves in Christ.
·
Sanctification
is the ____________________(transition) from
self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness.
·
Sanctification
is the process of becoming the person God created us to be.
·
Sanctification
is the ____________________(process) of becoming more
like __________________(Jesus) and less like the world.
·
Sanctification
is thinking, acting and being just like Jesus.
·
Sanctification
is the work God does in us as we _____________________ _____________________(surrender control) of our life to Him.
TRUTH:
Walking the Christian life is merely taking one step after another. And with
each step of surrender, unholy desires lose more and more of their power.
Deliverance from sin does not come by continually struggling to subdue the
flesh, but by continually allowing the Holy Spirit to fill, renew, and
transform our mind.
·
THE BIBLE
SAYS THAT GOD _____________________(PROMISES) TO
SANCTIFY ___________________(EVERY) FOLLOWER OF CHRIST.
1
Thessalonians 5:23-24 (pg. 837) says:
"May God
himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.
May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do
it".
Jude
1:24-25 ((pg 866) says:
"To him
who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious
presence without fault and with great joy-- 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power
and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and
forevermore! Amen". Jude 1:24-25
Philippians
1:6 says:
"Being confident of this, that he who began a
good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ
Jesus". Philippians
1:6
HOW
COME MANY PROFESSING CHRISTIANS DO NOT LIVE A SANCTIFED LIFE AND THEREBY LOOK
LIKE JESUS?
A. Some are in ______________________(process) of becoming more like Jesus.
Philippians
3:10-16 (pg. 831) says:
I
want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of
sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from
the dead.PHP 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have
already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ
Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not
consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting
what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for
which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.PHP 3:15
All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some
point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already
attained. Philippians 3:10-16
B. Some are in ____________________(disillusionment) and really do not know Christ even though
they think they do – they are not in process at all.
Matthew
7:21-23 (Pg. 686) says:
"Not
everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but
only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we
not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out
demons and perform many miracles?' 23 Then I will
tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you
evildoers!' Matthew 7:21-23
THE
STEPS TO HOLINESS/SANCTIFCATION
1. I must ____________________________(understand)
what I am _____________________(asking) for in sanctification – I am asking God
to set me _________________(apart) from the world for His Holy
____________________(purposes).
·
I am not asking
that God will make me less than ______________________(human)
– (Our humanness is not to be equated with sin).
·
Sanctification
is not the crucifixion of our basic human self.
·
The process of sanctification is
basically asking God to enable me to ______________________
____________________________(yield completely) to Christ whatever the
consequences may be - I am asking that I might receive by simple _________________(faith),
the ___________________(fullness) of God, whether I immediately feel emotion or
not.
2. I must ______________________(believe) "entire sanctification" is a _________________(gift)
to me from God.
·
I must allow
my faith to lay hold of a new power in Christ to believe that he can and will
sanctify me!
NOTE:
Just as I believed at first that God delivered me from the guilt of sin
because he said it, so now I must believe my faith will take hold of a new
power to _________ ___________(not sin) because He _____________(says) it is so.
A
BIBLE STORY
Mark
5:25-36 (pg. 711) says:
25 And a woman
was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many
doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew
worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him
in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she
thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her
body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power
had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who
touched my clothes?" "You see the people crowding against you,"
his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, `Who touched me?' "But
Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her,
came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has
healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." While Jesus
was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus,
the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why
bother the teacher any more?" Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the
synagogue ruler, "Don't be afraid; just believe." Mark 5:25-36
·
Just like we
must believe he will heal us when we are physically sick…We must believe by
faith that he can and will sanctify us of our ______________(sin)
nature.
A. After all,
sanctification is just ________________________(spiritual)
________________________(healing) & ________________________(wholeness).
NOTE:
It is _________ ___________________(no harder) for God
to sanctify you as it is for Him to save you, or heal you.
THAT
IS WHAT MAKES FAITH, FAITH!
Hebrews
11:1-2 says:
1Now
faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2This is what the ancients were commended for.
·
WE MUST THROW
AWAY FOREVER ALL OUR _______________________(DOUBTS)
ABOUT GOD’S WILL FOR OUR SPIRITUAL WHOLENESS AND WELL BEING - WELCOME IT WITH
ALL YOUR HEART!
NOTE: Quit looking inside
yourself to see if you have faith -Sanctification is not a matter of your _______________________(feeling), but of _______________________(believing) and
taking.
3. To start the process
of sanctification I must
surrender everything ______ __________(I am) and everything ________ _________
__________(I am not) to God!
THE
BIBLE SAYS in Ephesians 4:22-24 (pg. 828):
22 You were
taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which
is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God
in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24
·
All sin is an
attempt to get my love and validation ___________________(needs)
met on my ______________(own) strength ______________(apart) from God.
NOTE:
The very ________________________(moment) you give Him
all, you are set apart by Him and for Him – the process had begun!
·
Keep trusting
that God’s renewing, sanctifying, work is going on within you (for it is) and
you will begin to see the change in the way you think and live in time.
·
Hold on to
what the __________________(Bible) says is _________________(true)
of you as a "Christ follower"!
THE BIBLE SAYS in Romans
6:15-23 (Pg. 799) says:
15 What then?
Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to
someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether
you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to
righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that,
though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of
teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You
have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I put
this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you
used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to
ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness
leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to
sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the
things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been
set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to
holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life inn Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:15-23
Romans
8:9-17 (pg. 800) says:
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit,
if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of
Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you,
your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of
righteousness. 11 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. Therefore,
brothers, we have an obligation--but it is not to the sinful nature, to live
according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you
will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you
will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are
sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a
slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.n And by him we cry, "Abba,n
Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we
are God's children. 17 Now 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. Romans 8:9-17
4. Embrace the fact that
God uses _______________________(problems) _________________Trials)
and _______________________(sufferings) in your life to sanctify you (set you
apart from the world).
"If
we suffer persecution and affliction in a right manner, we attain a larger
measure of conformity to Christ, by a due improvement of one of these
occasions, then we should could have done merely by
imitating his mercy, in abundance of good works". John Wesley
·
John Wesley
tells us that the best way to escape our suffering is to embrace it, receive
and endure it.
·
THE READIEST
WAY TO ESCAPE FROM OUR SUFFERINGS IS TO BE WILLING THEY SHOULD (ENDURE) AS LONG
AS GOD PLEASES.
·
In other
words give your problem a hug and let it go because…
·
We attract
more suffering by running from it.
·
In life,
sometimes we attract the things we want, but we also attract the things we
don’t want by dwelling on them.
THAT'S
WHY THE BIBLE SAYS:
4 Rejoice in
the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is
near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all
understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. PHP 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is
noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is
admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
Philippians 4:4-8
·
ONE OF THE
GREATEST EVIDENCES OF GOD’S LOVE TO THOSE THAT LOVE HIM IS, TO SEND THEM
_______________________(AFFLICTIONS), WITH
_______________________(GRACE) TO BEAR THEM.
·
Even in the
greatest afflictions, we ought to testify to God, that in receiving them from
his hand, we feel pleasure in the midst of the pain, from being afflicted by
Him who loves us, and whom we love.
"THE
READIEST WAY WHICH GOD TAKES TO DRAW A MAN TO HIMSELF IS, TO AFFLICT IN THAT HE
LOVES MOST, AND WITH GOOD REASON; AND TO CAUSE THIS AFFLICTION TO ARISE FROM
SOME GOOD ACTION DONE WITH A SINGLE EYE; BECAUSE NOTHING CAN MORE CLEARLY SHOW
HIM THE EMPTINESS OF WHAT IS MOST LOVELY AND DESIREABLE IN THE WORLD."
John Wesley
·
A “Christ
follower” is one who _____________________(embraces)
all events, ___________________(good) and _________________(bad), as God’s
will.
Job
2:9-10 says:
9 His wife
said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and
die!" He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we
accept good from God, and not trouble?" In all
this, Job did not sin in what he said. Job 2:9-10
Ecclesiastes
7:13-14 (pg 475) says:
13
Consider what God has done:
Who can straighten
what he has made crooked?
14
Then
times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider:
God has made the one
as well as the other.
Therefore, a man cannot discover
anything about his future.
·
WE OUGHT TO
QUIETLY SUFFER WHATEVER BEFALLS US, TO BEAR THE DEFECTS OF OTHERS AND OUR OWN,
TO CONFESS THEM TO GOD IN SECRET PRAYER, OR WITH GROANS WHICH CANNOT BE
UTTERED; BUT NEVER TO SPEAK A SHARP OR PEEVISH WORD, NOR TO MURMER OR REPINE;
BUT THOUROUGHLY WILLING THAT GOD SHOULD TREAT YOU IN THE MANNER THAT PLEASES
HIM.
·
There is no
love of God without patience, and no patience without lowliness and sweetness
of spirit.
·
Humility and
patience are the surest proofs of the increase of love.
·
Of the sins
which God has pardoned let nothing remain but a deeper humility in the heart,
and a stricter regulation in our words, in our actions, and in our sufferings.
·
The bearing men, and suffering evils in meekness and silence, is the sum
of a Christian life.
·
Too many of
us are not theologically prepared too suffer.
·
When we
suffer, instead of trusting God, we complain.
·
We demand
that our circumstances change quickly instead of our heart, attitude – the
thing that God is wanting to change through our
suffering.
·
GOD USES
SUFFERING TO __________________________(MATURE) THE
CHRIST FOLLOWER!
Hebrews 12:7-12 (pg. 852)
says:
7 Endure
hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not
disciplined by his father? 8 If you are
not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate
children and not true sons. 9 Moreover, we
have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How
much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as
they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in
his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.
Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those
who have been trained by it.HEB
·
When we
suffer there will sometimes be mystery. Will there also be faith? Yes. If our
attention is focussed more on the cross and on the
God of the cross than on the suffering itself.
5.
God uses the spiritual disciplines of ______________ _________________(Bible study) and _________________(prayer) to continue the
sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit within us.
·
We Speak to
God through prayer.
Luke
11:9-12 (pg. 735) says:
9"So
I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock
and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who
asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be
opened. 11"Which of you fathers, if your son asks
for[f] a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
·
God Speaks to
us through His Word.
John
15:1-8 (pg. 764) says:
1"I
am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while
every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to
you. 4Remain in me, and I will
remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.
Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5"I
am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do
nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a
branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown
into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my
words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit,
showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Hebrews
4:12-13 says:
12For
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.
INTODUCTION
TO THE TEACHINGS OF JOHN WESLEY
Throughout
church history, John Wesley and countless Bible teachers believed that a Christian
could reach a state of spiritual perfection called entire sanctification. Being
fully sanctified does not mean the person is perfect in every way, but that
they are perfected in love.
What
is love?
1
Corinthians 13:4-8 says:
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does