OUTLINE:
Living In Christ
If we will abide in the sphere of His love, His peace can overtake us, allowing us to focus on encouraging others as the day draws near. Col 3:15, 1Th 5:11, Heb 10:25
Gratitude Protects Us
The minute we lose thankfulness in our hearts, we fall into the curse of familiarity, and we wrongly start taking people, or even God, for granted!
Pastor Collins
If you don’t live for others, you’re missing out on the greatest blessings in life.
Col 3:9-10 NIV
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Our Debt Has Been Paid
By grace, God ensures we aren’t enslaved to debt. (Ref: Ro 6:23)
Col 2:13-14 ESV
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Gal 5:1
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
The Necessity of “Seeking”
Being subject to the flesh for now, we need to feed our souls with His truth to live in the freedom He purchased. Pr 8:17, Lk 11:9-10
Knowing God
We don’t have the right to imagine anything about the Holy God of the Universe, the One who plainly states, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD” (Is 55:8). Human imagination is disastrous.
Knowing God
If we want a relationship with Him, we must dine on Holy Scripture. (i.e. – Ps 1:1-3)
2Ti 3:16
All Scripture is inspired by God [God-breathed] and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
By Faith or By Sight?!
2Co 4:18while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2Co 5:7for we walk by faith, not by sight
Jn 6:35
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.”
Synthesize
• 1Co 2:16For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM [ref: Is 40:13]?But we have the mind of Christ.
• Mark 9:23b “All things are possible to him who believes.”
• Lk 24:45a“Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures”
Ro 10:17 ESV
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.