Sermon Central
-
Ownership Vs. Possession Series
Contributed by David Shipman on Nov 20, 2001 (message contributor)
Summary: Ownership & Possession are not the same thing? It is said that possession is 9/10ths of the law. You may have a legal right, but if you don’t possess it you aren’t enjoying it! Do you possess what you have a legal right to in the Word?
Ownership & Possession
24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive (to take) them, and ye shall have them. (KJV)
Just because God gives you something is no sign that you will enjoy it!
This morning: Ownership & Possession
How many knows that Ownership & Possession
are not the same thing?
>Possession is 9/10ths of the law
You may have a legal right, but it is going to cost you to get it back.
>You can own something, but if I possess it - guess who is enjoying it?
(Problem with Christianity -
we have legal right w/o possession)
God gave the 1st generation Israelites the land of Canaan, but they never enjoyed it.
They couldn’t sit in their tent and cry until God feels sorry for you!
Women with the issue of didn’t sit in her house and wait for her healing.
She went out and possessed what she needed.
She didn’t ask if Jesus was ministering healing that day.
There wasn’t a healing line that she stood in - she determined that she would go in and possess.
>Jesus had established His purpose of ministry and part of that purpose was healing all those oppressed and she had a right to possess it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Be real: We know we have legal title, but we have not possessed much of what God has provided.
>There are sick among us
>There are financial pressures among us
>There’s oppression/depression among us
>We are not walking in the fullness of what God has
Until we decide that we won’t stop until we possess
Until we get real with ourselves and see that God has provided things for us
Until we get dissatisfied with where we are
We will live and die in this world with legal title, but never possessing what God has for us!
BUT HOW DO WE DO IT?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ps 1:1-2
1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. (total separation)
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. (KJV)
(delight) chephets (khay’-fets); “pleasure; hence (abstractly) desire; concretely, a valuable thing;
Ps 37:4
4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. (KJV)
-Delight ourselves in the Lord (expect all our happiness) from the Lord (make ourselves soft and pliable) in the Lord
AND HE WILL GIVE US THE DESIRES OF OUR HEART
Why won’t we?
Ps 119:16
16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word. (KJV)
Ps 119:35
35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. (KJV)
>Why do we not delight ourselves in the things of God like this scripture says?
We don’t believe He’ll do it! (NO BENEFIT)
>All would believe Phil 4:19 - needs unfulfilled
>All would believe Eph 3:20 - suffer lack
1. Several of you won’t be here tonight because you will delight yourself in something other than the things of God.
2. Even more of you won’t be here on Wednesday because you will delight yourself in rest or comfort or some other reason.
3. Even fewer of you will spend one hour in prayer this whole week because you delight yourself in
things other than God.
4. And even fewer will spend time enough in the Word studying to show yourself approved because
your delight is something else.
Why?
>Because we don’t believe God will perform His
Word
--------------------------------------------------------------
When the Israelites went over the Jordan with Joshua and they came to Jericho - God had given them the promised land and this city was just one small area of what all God had given them.
God told them not to take any spoils from Jericho - it was set aside for God ....
But Achan when he saw the spoils could not believe that God was going to deliver to them greater things and he had to take what was in front of him.
What is tangibly in front of us is more real than what is in God’s Word
Do you ever wonder why it is so easy for you to believe
that when you die you will go to heaven
But it is difficult to believe that God will give you your ideal car without having to go in debt on it?
Because you have no control over getting into heaven. When you die it is totally in God’s hands.
There is nothing that you can physically do to walk
through those gates
No body has any say about how entrance is administered
